Page 63 of Crossing Quinn

Papa shook his head grimly. “He is not.”

“You have eaten Askole?”

“Before my rebirth, yes,” Adan stated matter-of-factly.

He was freaking me out. “And Detja didn’t have a problem with that?”

“She did, but there was nothing she could do to stop me.”

Quinn asked, “You still want to stick your hand in his mouth?”

“Not really.”

Adan groused, “We had a deal. Are you an oath breaker?”

“No, I’m not. Open your mouth, and I’ll retrieve the rest of the metal bits,” I replied.

“Yes, my lady.” Adan’s maw grew larger and large.

I glanced up at Quinn. “Got a flashlight?”

“I do.” He pulled a small light from a hip pocket and turned it on. The beam highlighted Adan’s back teeth perfectly.

I pointed at the protruding metal fangs. “See them?”

“The Tai-Kok have piss-poor dentists. The metal shouldn’t have crumbled like that,” Quinn commented.

Clio climbed up on my shoulder. “Me get. Me get.” She extended several tentacles and quickly plucked fragments of the metal dentures from Adan’s gums.

“Good girl, Clio.” Quinn took the broken teeth from her.

I watched Adan flex his jaw. “Better?”

“Yes, the pain is gone.”

“A level ten explosion detected on the surface of Qeeturah. The stone city has been destroyed,”the ship’s computerized voice announced.

“What?” I quickly checked the scanners. It felt like I had been punched in the stomach. The greatest find of the century had been reduced to rubble. “Those bastards blew up the stone city.”

Quinn pulled into his arms. “You have my promise we will make them pay.”

I snuggled into his warmth. I couldn’t see a future without Quinn in it. He was mine for all eternity. Slime and all.

“Do not tell Eleni about the city. It will destroy her,” Papa warned.

Clio imitated my father’s voice, “Do not tell Eleni. Do not tell Eleni. Do not tell Eleni.”

I frowned. My mother would have a meltdown of epic proportions. “The joke is on the Tai-Kok. My bracelet doesn’t have Mami’s translation program. Which they will need to decipher the glyphs. Without the glyphs, they will never find the Nabatean’s new world.”

“Do not tell Eleni. Do not tell Eleni. Do not tell Eleni.”

“How skilled is Nilus with the Nabatean glyphs?” Wulf’s thoughtful gaze was on my mother.

“No tell. No tell. No tell.”

“Quiet, youngling.” Papa picked up Mami and held her against his chest. “Nilus’s skills rival Eleni’s.”

Wulf stroked his goatee. “How long would it take him to translate them?”

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