Page 98 of Victoria's Discovery

Apologizing to the person behind her in the buffet line where she’d been trying to grab a quick dinner, she left her tray where it was and spun on her heel, only to jerk to a stop when she felt Snitch fly off her shoulder. Glancing back, she found him shoving as much food as possible into the kangaroo pouch he occasionally grew to hold—hide—various items.

“Snitch, really? You’ll just be hungry again when you wake up in your clone. There’s no point—”

He cut her off with a glare and a sharp, “Mrrp!”

Her frown relaxed when she realized she wasn’t the only one nervous. How much he understood about what was happening, she couldn’t say, but it was enough that he was clearly on edge.

Walking back to him, she scooped him up and brought him to her chest then hurried out of the cantina.

Voice soft, she stroked her fingers over his tightly folded wings and murmured, “There’s nothing to be worried about, little buddy. Aria and all the other gladiators have gone through this many times, and they’re completely fine. We will be, too.”

Reassuring him helped reassure her at the same time. By the time they’d ridden the elevator down to the lab level with some of the rest of her group, she was feeling more settled.

Winding her way through the halls, she started scanning the faces present for her guys as soon as she got to the tail end of the line. Thorn was easy to spot, despite her shortness, since he stood head and shoulders taller than the majority of the beings gathered. Her heart leapt, and a lot of her remaining nerves settled at seeing him and Vi’kail. They saw her at the same time, having obviously been watching for her, and waved her over to where they stood.

“Hey,” she breathed, nervous again, though it had nothing to do with clones that time. How was she supposed to greet them? Kisses? Hugs? They were dating, right? So, she should do… something.

Vi’kail took matters into his own hands before she could decide, reaching out to pull her closer and placing a sweet, deliciously steamy kiss on her lips, beating Thorn by a hair.

She barely had time to pry her eyes open when he pulled back before Thorn snatched her out of Vi’kail’s arms and planted his own kiss.

By the time she was set back on her feet, she was feeling decidedly warm, right up until the expected third set of arms never came.

Frowning, she scanned the crowded hallway. “Where’s Thegan?”

Thorn looked away from her for the first time to scan the hallway for his friend. “I have not seen him since this morn.”

“Vi’kail?” At her question, he shook his head. “Huh. He should be here. Maybe he’s already in the lab? Snitch, could you fly up there and check?”

He launched off her shoulder, flying a little low over everyone’s heads, weighed down by the snacks he was hiding.

“Treats?” Vi’kail asked knowingly, having noticed the pouch making the critter look heavily pregnant.

Victoria nodded and shrugged. “He was nervous.”

“Ah.”

Snitch reappeared a moment later, his scales flashing a golden green as he flew out of the room. “What does that mean?”

Vi’kail was frowning when he answered, “Means he didn’t find him.Orscent him. Odd. Thegan should be down here.”

Brushing off the momentary tightness in her stomach, she pulled her comm out as Snitch landed on her shoulder. “I’ll ping him. He’s probably still upstairs and just lost track of time.”

But when she tried to call him, there was no answer. Still nothing on the second try, not even an ‘occupied’ reply, something you could do with a simple tap if you couldn’t take the call right then. Thorn pulled out his own comm, but he couldn’t reach him, either.

The tightness in her stomach was harder to dismiss that time, but she shook it off again, sure it was nothing. She hesitated, not wanting to alarm him in case he was just really busy and couldn’t answer, but it was nearly their turn in line. Biting her lip, she finally caved and sent an urgent ping.

No answer.

“Uh, maybe he lost his comm? Or set it down somewhere and forgot it?” That was plausible. Thegan wasn’t the forgetful type, but it’d been a crazy day.

Eyeing the door to the lab, getting closer and closer as the line moved, she was torn. Should they stay and get their clonesthengo find Thegan, or go now? She wanted to go now, but she also knew the importance of getting cloned, and she still had a ton to do that day, as did Thorn and Vi’kail. It was already late evening. If they didn’t do it then, it’d probably be the middle of the night before they could, after Aria and her team left. Them leaving now would probably throw off the whole system.

The reasons to stay outweighed the reason to leave.

And, yet…

She had a bad feeling.

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