Page 92 of Aria's Ascension

“Anytime, babe,” she quipped with a smirk. “Er, so long as it’s justified, of course.”

He nodded solemnly, but his eyes were sparkling when he echoed, “Of course.”

She gave him a look, but caught the elevator doors opening from the corner of her eye and turned in time to see Thrasin stagger out, blood dripping down his side.

Leaping up, she ran to him, shouting, “What the hell happened? Are you okay?”

He braced a hand against the wall, leaving behind a bloody print, and peered up at her. “Did not find your friend,á roínseah,” he growled hoarsely. “I am sorry.”

Aria jerked to a stop. She felt like he’d just punched her in the stomach, but when he staggered toward her, she blinked and darted forward to catch him.

“What happened to your side? How did you get injured?”

“Fools shot me. So I ate them.”

Whipping her head back she gave him wide eyes. “Youatethem?”

He smirked down at her where she was tucked under his arm, trying to hold him up and bared his teeth in a grin. “Yes. Crunchy.”

“Jesus Christ, Sin!”

Aria was torn between the odd and wholly inappropriate urge to laugh and the need to throw up. Instead, she closed her eyes for a moment and decided they obviously needed a rule about not eating people.

Chapter 50

They got Sin healed and settled in a room on the third floor, Rellik offering to stay and keep an eye on him. Aria, Kix, and Tirox had just stepped off the elevator on the ground level when the Gaelli leader approached her.

Shoulders slumping slightly, sure they were going to tell her about some new emergency or problem, Aria sighed but took their offered hand.

She waited for the feeling of vertigo to pass then asked resignedly, “What’s wrong?”

They cocked their head.“There are no wrongs. We have prepared rooms for you and your mates. Would you follow u— me?”

Aria eyed them a little skeptically then leaned to the side to scan the nearly empty room behind them. “Everyone’s settled? No more crises to deal with?”

A sense of amusement tickled her mind.“All are content for this moment, and we have begun the reformer to accommodate the aquatics on the ship. Should problems arise, we will try to resolve them while you take rest. We do not require but a few turns of sleep.”

“Thank fuck,” she sighed, the tension melting out of her shoulders.

Tirox and Kix both chuckled, but she could tell they were just as ready to call it a night as she was.

When they released her hand and started off down a hallway to the right, instead of back to the elevator, Aria frowned but followed, curious to see where they were going.

* * *

Aria turned in a slow circle,gazing at the suite the Gaelli had set up for them. It was… extravagant. And big.

There was a huge bedroom through the door to the left, sporting a bed that would easily fit ten people comfortably. The door on the back wall led to a bathroom the size of her apartment back on Earth, and through the door to the right was an unreasonably massive office with a wall of windows that showed a spectacular view of the alien planet beyond the arena.

“Whose rooms were these?” she asked suspiciously, once she’d stopped gawking.

The Gaelli leader tilted their head in such a way that told her the answer without needing to say a word.

“Zhrovni,” Aria answered aloud.

Closing the distance between them, they took her hand and clarified,“We sterilized every surface, changed the platform coverings, and removed the cages. We also stocked it to suit your, and your mates’, needs. Do you find these room displeasing?”

“Cages?” she repeated then shook her head, deciding maybe she didn’t need the nightmares. “I’m grateful for all the effort you went through and the rooms themselves are great, I just… ”

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