Page 35 of Ghosted in Arkadia
Killian stares at me for a moment before deciding to drop the topic and gets up to head for lunch.
“Find anything interesting in the hive files?” Killian asks at the exact moment I take a giant bite out of my turkey sandwich.
I roll my eyes and try to make quick work of chewing. “There was a handwritten note. I’m pretty sure an insane person wrote it.”
“Ahh, yeah. That’s Roman’s little mad scientist. I’d be surprised if you found a single coherent thought in those ramblings.” Killian gives me a lopsided smile before taking a bite of his burger.
“He was talking about Prometheus and defeating a god or some shit.”
“Sounds about right,” Killian says as he chews. “The hive collected a lot of information from all over Arkadia. This morning I read a five pager on optimal transportation routes for vegetable deliveries.”
“Oh, that sounds riveting.” I laugh.
Killian takes a sip of his soda and then clears his throat. “You haven’t deleted anything yet. I’m thinking you and James made that part up to get me to be your tech bitch.”
“It will happen one day, when you least expect it. If Cathy was here, she would tell you.”
“You really miss her, don’t you?”
“What kind of question is that?” I bite back. “Of course I miss her. She was the closest thing I had to family.”
“What was she like?”
“Cathy?” I sit back, slowly finishing my bite and taking a minute to figure out how to describe Cathy. I see her bright smiling face in my mind and my heart clenches in my chest. “She lit up the room.” I smile, keeping my lips together, unlike the beaming smile Cathy would have given.
Killian wears a lopsided smile while he patiently waits for me to give up more details.
“She was flirty and fun. The absolute queen of spontaneity. There were a lot of times when I would not have gotten out of bed if it weren’t for Cathy dragging my pathetic ass out. She was my partner and my best friend.”
Killian sits in silence for a moment, seemingly in thought. “Have you ever wondered what’s the point of it all?”
“The whole meaning of life?” I raise my eyebrows, skeptical that he really means to have an existential conversation.
“Life,” Killian says, giving a forlorn look at his lunch. “Everything in this society revolves around mated couples. Have you ever wondered why?”
“Because that’s the natural order of life. Find your soulmate. Live happily ever after.” I can’t help the bitterness in my tone. Or at least that seemed like the purpose of life before Ghost came crashing into mine. Of course I would have a difficult soulmate.
“And when one mate dies?” Killian asks.
“Then you try to be useful while you wait for your own death.”
“Is that what you’ve spent your life doing? Just waiting for death?”
I’m taken aback for a moment. Thoughts of Ghost distract me, and I struggle to find the answer the old me would have said. “Something like that.” I shrug, feigning indifference.
“Why did you decide to become a police officer?”
“Because they get all the cool toys.” I am confident in my well-used answer while holding my personal reasons close to my chest, just as I always have.
It’s fast-paced work that gives me a rush.
Killian simply stares, reflecting my smirk through the lens of his glasses, and giving away nothing in his thoughts.
“While we’re on the topic of deep bonding questions.” I straighten in my seat. “What’s up with the glasses?”
Killian reaches up, lifting the frames and takes them off. In place of his left eye, the skin is marred and sunken. His other eye is a warm brown with an inner ring of amber, boring into me.
“What happened?” I ask, otherwise stunned.
