Page 40 of Victoria's Discovery

Tapping Thegan on the shoulder, she asked him to set her down then drew in a deep breath and gazed up at all three guys. “So, what do we want to do? Are y’all hungry? Tired?” Biting her lip, she eyed the group of grieving people gathering around Aria. “Should we attend the funerals?”

She was curious by nature and wanted to see what kind of burial rituals those people had, but that also seemed like an awful reason to attend and made her feel like a terrible person so, instead, she left the decision up to the guys.

Vi’kail hummed and shook his head. “We need food, preferably somethin’ more palatable than space rations, and rest. You, above all,” he finished, giving her a pointed look.

“Because I’m small?” she asked wryly.

He’s got another thing coming if he thinks snacks are going to make me taller. If that worked, I’d be twelve feet tall.

He chuckled, his pale purple eyes sparkling with mirth. “No, though you are that. Because you were injured. You need to resupply your body's nourishment.”

“Oh. Okay, yeah, that makes sense.”

Chapter 22

After finding Tirox and getting a pouch of food and water for each of them, they all headed toward one of the odd-looking couches. They were a silent group as they mechanically ate, all of them lost in their own thoughts.

Staring off into space, Victoria raised the food pouch to her mouth, only to blink in confusion at finding it empty. She frowned, trying to remember when she’d finished it or what it tasted like, but drew a complete blank.

Huh. Maybe I’m more tired than I thought.

A small burp from the vicinity of her lap clued her in that maybe she hadn’t unknowingly eaten all her food while zoned out but had help from a certain invisible squirrel-dragon.

Snorting softly, she shook her head at the little thief, but she wasn’t upset. She hadn’t been all that hungry anyways, and this way nothing was going to waste.

Glancing at the guys, she found they’d finished, as well, and were eyeing the remaining people in the lobby as though they were all eager to be away from the crowd of strangers.

“Are y’all ready to head upstairs? I think I could sleep for a year after today.”

All three whipped around to give her alarmed looks, startling the hell out of her. Thegan immediately reached for his pouch, while Thorn lunged for her, and Vi’kail scanned the room urgently.

Realizing they thought she was serious, she waved her hands and quickly clarified, “No, no! It’s just a saying. I’m fine. I just meant I’m tired, and it’s been a crazy day.”

Thorn eyed her skeptically for a moment but slowly withdrew his reaching hands and blew out a breath, giving her a cross look.

Phew, these guys are strung tighter than a bow.

Thegan shook his head but chuckled, his worry quickly shifting to wry amusement. “Your people have strange sayings. First, animal dung and, now, you alarm us with talk of hibernation.”

She winced a little even as she huffed a laugh. “Yeah, sorry. I’ll try to keep the idioms to a minimum.”

His gaze fell to her lips for a second before meeting hers again. He smiled mischievously and leaned a little closer, murmuring, “Mm, do not. I should like to learn them.”

Victoria could almost hear a record screech to a stop in her head.

W-was he flirting with her?

That possibility combined with the way he was staring down at her unblinkingly seemed to short-circuit her mind.

Feeling like a deer in the headlights, and having never been adept at dealing with flirting, she panicked a little. Okay, she panicked a lot.

Trying to come up with something flirty to say in return, her brain glitched and supplied her with ‘no problem’ and ‘you got it’ at the same time, but ‘you’re pretty’ snuck in there so what really came out was, “Yrr prebbly em!”

To make matters infinitely worse, she said it in an overly enthusiastic, breathy voice and followed it up by baring her teeth in some horrible parody of a smile because the short circuit obviously also froze her facial muscles.

Thegan blinked.

Victoria had a heart attack.

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