Page 34 of Crush
Adeline sucked in a breath. “Oliver.”
He released his grip on her, his little hands clenching. “Because I care about you, Teq. And Roxy cares about me too. That’s why we can’t leave. Because nobody else knows how to care about a rock.” He spun back. “Mom, I’m not mad and scared anymore. And you shouldn’t be either. We have to stay so nobody gets lonely.”
If Robert’s family lawyer could add this to the deposition. Her jaw ached almost as much as her heart. “Oliver. I know this is hard to understand, but you’ll see—”
“I’m not a baby anymore,” he told her. “Why won’t you listen to me?”
“Oliver.” Teq’s low voice silenced them both. “You know that orcs have another sense that Earthers don’t, yes?”
After a hesitation, Ollie nodded. “Echolocation, like bats and dolphins.”
“It’s there for us when our other senses aren’t much use, when we are in the deep and silent dark.” Teq tapped the glyph etched on his torso. “As a crusher, I have another sense. Sometimes I can tell where to dig—and when to stop digging.”
After another little moment, Ollie sighed and threw his arms around the huge orc, burying his face. Whatever he whispered made Teq close his eyes.
“Always.”
She couldn’t reach down to join the hug. She felt frozen in place, as if any movement would break her. So when Ollie looked up, she could only force a few words out. “Time for bed.”
He went without another word.
Teq gazed at her. “Good night.”
She nodded. But even if it was always night somewhere in space, she wasn’t sure how it could ever be good again.
Chapter 11
It was deep in the sleep cycle, but Teq could not rest. He’d told Oliver about the orcs’ echolocation, but all of his senses reverberated with a presence no longer there. Everywhere he sensed Adeline: the smell of her in his nest, the echo of her breathy cries still stroking through his antennae, her caresses burning in the i’lva. How could he ever sleep again?
Because as soon as he did, when he woke it would be the work cycle, and then Mag would summon the IDA ship to take her away.
He hadn’t wanted to feel anything, now he understood what that meant, and wished with all his not inconsiderable might that he could reverse the arrow of time and go back to feeling nothing at all.
And yet when his door started to chime the presence of someone without, he leaped up to answer. “Adeline…”
Kinsley blinked at him. “Sorry, no. She has her datpad avatar locked down or I would’ve gone to her.” She looked with him. “There’s really nobody else I can go to.”
“Whatever you need, I am not the one,” he informed her. He couldn’t even hold onto one small Earther. “Sil keeps strange hours.” He started to close the door.
“It’s the rock,” she blurted. “Roxy.” She rolled her slightly bulbous Earther eyes. “I know you orcs care about that.”
“Sil knows more about that than I do,” he informed her.
She rolled her eyes in the other direction. “Him,” she said with a little inhalation of air that probably meant something to another Earther female. “He thinks I’m trouble.”
“Aren’t you?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Yes. Which is why you should listen to me.”
At least this Earther was a distraction, he gave her that much. “What about the rock?”
She glared at him, although he felt he’d done nothing to warrant it. “You’re going to say this is my fault, but for once it’s not. Completely.” She shifted her weight from foot to foot, as if she wanted to run away. But she’d already made clear that she didn’t think she had anywhere else to go. Unlike a certain Adeline.
He straightened to his full height and looked down at her. “You’ve already broken into the processing bay and made it seem as if you would steal our fortune,” he drawled. “What can be worse?”
“Somebody else does want to steal it,” she blurted. “One of your orcs.”
He stood back, gesturing her inside and directed her to close the door, although he did not invite her any farther. “Tell me.”
