Page 68 of Dark Space
‘Get a bucket, King,’ the starling said wearily, tenderly gathering Anna’s hair back from her face, his free hand on her back. He eyed my clenched fingers and shook his head. ‘Do that later, if you absolutely must.’
Anna shook her head as her cheeks took on a green tinge. ‘I won’t be sick,’ she gasped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. ‘Irefuseto waste that food. Irefuse, Vesper.’
‘I believe you,’ the starling said mildly. ‘But we’ll get you a bucket just in case.’
Callan disappeared and came back a moment later with a cleaning bucket, thrusting it under Anna’s nose and then backing away.
I glared at Vesper. ‘Where did you take her, starling?’
‘Where do you think?’ he answered, his eyes on Anna. ‘Earth. Turns out, that wasn’t where she wanted to be.’ He looked up, returning my glare, his eyes glowing. ‘I will always take her whereshewants to be, King. She chose to come back here.’
Anna made a concerning heaving sound, but sealed her lips tightly together and shook her head.
Vesper rubbed her back. ‘Humans are awfully impractical, aren’t they?’ he said musingly.
Anna turned to glare at him.
‘And beautiful, of course,’ he added hastily. ‘Captivating, actually. Even when they make those heinous noises.’
Anna’s expression softened slightly. ‘You’re impossible, Vesper.’
‘My presence here would suggest the opposite,’ he answered. ‘I am inherently and entirely possible.’
Anna shook her head again, smiling slightly. She closed her eyes, taking one more deep breath. ‘Okay. I think I’m okay. There’s no way that salmon is going to waste. And that crème brûlée.’ She tipped her head back, her lips parting, and the three of us froze, mesmerised by her mouth. ‘It had lemon in it, did you notice? I need to try to make it. Divine.’
‘Divine,’ Vesper echoed thickly, clearly gathering his scattered wits more swiftly than Callan or myself could. He let Anna’s hair fall from his grasp; I watched it, utterly entranced.
Anna got to her feet. Her blue gaze settled on me, taking in my formal suit, the gilt on my horns, the gold lining my eyes. Sheswallowed, flushing. ‘I believe I’m late to my wedding. I’m ready now.’
There was a moment of silence.
‘Ah,’ I said, my stomach churning. I considered borrowing Anna’s bucket for a moment, before I realised it wasnerves, and I tried to push them down. ‘Anna –’
‘I’ll get Darius and Bryn.’ Callan slipped outside.
I tried to rally, offering Anna my arm. ‘We thought it might be nice to say the words on the bridge,’ I said, my tongue feeling suddenly too large for my mouth. ‘You can see out of the ship, and there’s a pair of eclipsing binary stars within observation distance. One is burning so hot it’s blue but the other is cooler and red, and …’ I cleared my throat. ‘Well. It looks nice, is what I’m trying to say.’ I paused. ‘Purple.’
Anna bit her lip. ‘I like purple. And the bridge sounds nice, Cide.’
I looked down at my feet so I wouldn’t stumble as we walked. ‘Bryn had an idea. He thought we could record the ceremony and bounce an edited version to Scytha as proof. Would that be all right?’
She thought about it for a moment. ‘Yes, I think that’s fine. I assume you’re not livecasting in case anything goes wrong.’
‘You mean like Vesper changing his mind again?’ I said wryly.
She squeezed my arm. ‘He won’t.’
‘How can you be so sure?’ I growled.
Her lips tugged up into a small smile. ‘I think, King, it’s for two reasons. Firstly, he knows that I willeat himif he tries to do that without my permission again.’
‘And second?’ I prompted, when she didn’t continue.
Anna brushed her lips over the back of my hand. ‘We had a talk, and he seemed to come around to the thought ofsharing. I’m counting on his curiosity, if nothing else.’
I stopped still, trying to work out what she meant. ‘Anna –’
She blinked innocently at me. ‘We’ll be late, Cide. Come along.’ She flicked a glance back at Vesper, who was following nonchalantly behind us, examining the white corridors with interest; I realised that it was the first time he was seeing this part of the ship. When I met his eyes, he gave me a slow, knowing wink.
