Page 8 of Crave
Sil reached out one hand to touch her elbow. “My brother would not do that. I wouldn’t let him. Such a terrible place is not for you.”
Oh, he really was the absolute worst! Given half a chance, he would fall for her lies—once she started telling them—because he thought he was doing it for someone else. Dammit, he didn’t even ask who would get the other half of the fortune she was so magnanimously suggesting he take for himself.
She scowled. If that was how he was going to be—compassionate and innocent and sweet—then she couldn’t be blamed for what happened next.
***
What happened next was that she had breakfast with June and half spilled her guts. Ugh.
June was even more compassionate and innocent and sweet than Sil. The two of them, Sil and June, had probably been secretly matched by the IDA from the instant those metrics touched in some perfect algorithmic fate.
So why did this unsought jealousy feel like the ugliest ugh ever?
It wasn’t like she’d wanted a match for herself. She’d just needed to leave Earth, and the IDA had been too good a chance to miss.
Too closed, suspicious, and untrusting. Okay, yeah, that was her. She would probably be right at home in the Forbidden Zone of Heartless Villainy.
“So you do like him?” June gazed at her over a cup of coffee.
Kinsley jerked up straighter. “What?”
“You like Sil. As you were telling me about Roxy, whenever you said his name, your eyes lit up.”
“That was rage,” Kinsley corrected. “Because he’s so clueless and annoying and…” She took a gulp of the coffee, even knowing she should be appreciating it since who knew how long it would be until they got more. Unless she went back to Earth. “Tall. Just really unacceptable.”
June giggled. “I’m used to being the short one, but yeah, I bet that’s odd for you.” She served some of the burrito-like orc breakfast that had become a favorite among the Earther women.
“Too bad being tall wasn’t enough,” Kinsley muttered. She took a bite of the burrito. Since she hadn’t been an official member of the IDA Earther/orc exchange, she hadn’t gotten a universal translator or access to the instructional guides. She’d been scrambling to catch up ever since, just like most of her life, but luckily breakfast burritos seemed to be a universal pleasure.
As for the other pleasures of the universe that the Intergalactic Dating Agency had dangled in front of them, the Zarnox Zone aside…
Once again, that wasn’t why she was out here.
She took another fierce bite, and June made some small noise, snagging her attention. “What?” she muttered again around the mouthful.
June shook her head. “That’s why we’re all here, right? Because we couldn’t get what we needed on Earth.”
The word “get” was doing a lot of work in that sentence, Kinsley mused. Never mind “get”. Take, cheat, scam. Those had been her words.
She swallowed hard, the mouthful a bigger lump in her throat than it should’ve been. “Thanks for letting me come eat with you. Actually, thanks for everything you’ve done since we got here. You are a really nice person.” She made sure to modulate her tone so those last words didn’t sound like condemnation.
June reached over to pat her hand. “No one blames you, you know. Not any more than we blame Ollie. The rock was just calling out to anyone who might hear it. Which happened to be you.”
That wasn’t why the orcs were suspicious of her, Kinsley knew. But she was grateful enough for June’s gullible kindness that she wasn’t going to argue. “I haven’t always been as nice as you,” she confessed. “I think everyone senses that, whether they have antennae and glow-in-the-dark eyes or not.”
June shrugged. “Kinda like being tall, nice isn’t necessarily a winning strategy by itself,” she noted. “After all, I’m here too.” Kinsley would’ve given her the chance to say more—anything to turn the focus away from her own failings—when a ping from the door interrupted. June called permission to enter. “I asked Adeline if she wanted to come over too.”
Kinsley kept her expression neutrally pleasant, and Adeline did the same when they locked gazes.
June peered past the new arrival. “Is Oliver not with you?”
Adeline chuckled. “Teq offered to let him run some extra special crushing machines, and I could offer absolutely nothing that compares to smashing apart chunks of space rock.” She helped herself to some burrito and coffee and settled at the table with them. “But that makes this a good time to discuss the future of the Omega Reclamation Crew and us.”
June stiffened. “Wait. You’re not leaving, are you?”
Adeline shook her head. “Not me.” Her eyes glimmered in a way that made Kinsley think of the giant mollusks that spread their shiny paths around the ship. “Teq and I…” A smile even more mysterious than those lights flickered around her lips. “Anyway, I’m staying. But the situation isn’t quite what we were told it would be, and per our contract, anyone who wants to leave, can. With the IDA transport inbound, Mag asked me to check in with you all, find out what everyone else wants to do.” Her gaze flicked first to Kinsley, the warm light in her eyes cooling and sharpening. “Since Dorn’s betrayal challenged his standing as apex, Mag has been…well, not humbled—not sure he knows the meaning of the word in any language—but made painfully aware that he can’t deliver on everything he offered.”
Kinsley knew that was partly her fault. Not her fault that Dorn had tried to steal the orcs’ fortune, but she’d almost abetted the thievery and exposed the apex’s mistakes. Of course Mag couldn’t forgive her. And why should he?
