Page 66 of Victoria's Discovery

Taking the hand they offered, she tried to clear her mind of any reluctance. The Gaelli were exceedingly polite and didn’t dig around in peoples’ heads without their permission, but better safe than sorry. She didn’t ever want someone to feel like they couldn’t talk to her.

“Are you well?”

And just like that, the lump was back and her nose was tingling.

No! Five seconds after admitting I’ve fallen for them, I realized the guys I like are probably kissing other people.

She tried to smother the thought, so they didn’t pick up on it, and smiled like everything was fine, but her chin was wobbling.

“I do not believe you. Why do you grieve?”

“I’m not… grieving. I haven’t lost—” she stopped short, because damned if it didn’t feel exactly like she’d just lost something.

She tried to tell herself she was just being dramatic, that there was no reason for her chest to ache quite so intensely. She’d only met them, what, three weeks ago at most? You can’t fall in love that quickly. And definitely not with three different men.

“Come. We will sit, and you will tell me why you hurt so.”

* * *

Two hours later,Victoria walked out of the lab feeling, well, not better, exactly, but calmer at least and she was no longer fighting back tears. Of course, that was because she’d cried herself out on the poor Gaelli’s shoulder.

Cloud, who communicated her name and the gender with which she identified with a feeling rather than words, had been unbelievably kind, rubbing gentle circles on her back, patiently waiting until Victoria got it all out of her system.

Then, when her pitiful sobs died down, Cloud bent until their eyes were inches apart.

“I ask to Delve.”

Victoria had nodded wordlessly, surprised but charmed by Cloud’s forwardness, uncharacteristic for a Gaelli from what she’d experienced. Besides, what was a little brain digging after she’d poured out her heart and leaked all over her shoulder? A long minute of staring later, Cloud straightening with a decisive dip of her very pointy chin.

“I like you. We are friends now.”

And just like that, Victoria had a friend.

She was still smiling when she rounded a corner and spotted Catty, the sketchy horned female, talking to someone. Jerking back before they saw her, she peered at them from behind the cover of the wall.

Normally, two people talking alone in a little used hallway wouldn’t immediately make Victoria suspicious. But she recognized that male. He’d been put on the watch list just that morning as someone to keep an eye on because Kix had sensed something off during his intake interview. Catty had given her bad vibes from the get-go. Seeing them together, now, set off alarm bells.

The way they kept glancing around, how close they were standing, the expressions on their faces, all of it felt sketchy as hell.

Victoria’s first instinct was to leave before they caught her and decided to off her or something equally as bad for her health. She should go find Aria and tell her… what? That Catty had somehow magically changed her face, gotten rid of her horns, and was mildly rude after Victoria nearly crashed into her?

Aria had been extremely supportive and kind, but Victoria also knew she was the kind of woman who would want actual evidence of wrongdoing or suspicious behavior. At minimum, Victoria needed to give her something more than just ‘I got a weird vibe.’

So, what would Aria do?

The answer was obvious. She’d confront them and diplomatically ask them to come in for questioning or, if Catty flashed fang like she had at Victoria, drag her in hissing and snarling by her invisible horns.

Yeeaahh, I’m not gonna do that. But I could follow them.

Maybe her earlier victory lent her a new sense of self-reliance and capability that led her to that decision. Maybe she reallywasbrave. Or, maybe she was still hurting from that moment of realization with the giants, and she needed to feel like she wasn’t a sad, pitiful reject.

Yeah. It was probably the latter, but she liked the first two options better, so she went with those.

Chapter 34

Victoria hesitated when Catty and the male finished their plotting and headed off in different directions but went with her gut and followed the female.

Relying entirely on what she’d seen in movies or read in books, Victoria crept along behind her, ducking behind walls and running from corner to corner as the theme song toMission Impossibleplayed in her head.

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