Page 20 of The Stolen Tribute
Jaxir’s face darkened. “Maybe one day I’ll tell you.”
A secret? Why was I not the least bit surprised? I’d bet his tattoos had something to do with it too.
The lights flickered, adding to the drama of the situation.
I fidgeted with the cuffs of the flight suit, trying to figure out what to say next. I was no good at small talk. I was a gamer girl. I barely spoke to people in real life at all, outside of work.
Jaxir turned away again, dealing with whatever was beeping on the control board.
I stared at him as he worked. I should be mad at him for stealing me away from my Tribute mate, but I wasn’t. I should have been scared about dying out here in the middle of space, but I wasn’t. I should have been worried about what was going to happen next, but I wasn’t. I felt oddly secure. Safe. Comfortable. What was this feeling?
I certainly didn’t have that feeling about Dal. The brute who I had been Tributed to. He made my skin crawl from the moment he claimed me. If it weren’t for Jaxir, who knows what Dal might have made me do on our first night together. I shuddered.
The radio crackled again.
Jaxir hissed under his breath and fidgeted with the controls. “Hello? Can anyone hear me? Over.” He spoke in English and then in the Zexian language.
Nothing replied but the overpowering silence of space.
The Zexian punched a few more buttons, and something began to creak. Slowly, a sort of shade-thing came over the back window— a solar panel.
“We need to charge up more,” He said.
I glanced through the crack between the panel and the thick glass. There were no stars close enough. Unless the sensors were more sensitive than I thought. Maybe. The nearest star to us wasn’t close at all.
“What if we can’t?” I finally asked.
Jaxir looked over his shoulder at me. “Trust me. This old starfighter knows how to pull through,” He said with a confident grin.
Something about his smile made me go warm. He was cocky, confident, everything that I’d imagine a fighter pilot to be in real life. But he wasn’t a warrior, he said so.
It made me more curious. What was his story? Well, we had all the time in the world right now, so what else was there to do but find out?
