Page 26 of Unfinished

“I’ll start the launch program, and then I’ll come sit beside you for the trip,” he said as he passed her to make his way to the front and the ship’s controls. He could feel her gaze upon him as he fumbled with the switch that’d open communication with the transportation center’s officers. “Evathi-1 preparing to depart,” he said as he pulled up the navigation portal and confirmed the flyer’s flight plan.

“Proceed, Evathi-1.”

R’kash pulled the initiation lever, and the flyer hummed to life. He hadn’t bothered to sit, and he hurried back to the main passenger compartment to join Sienna. Her eyebrows rose when she saw him returning.

“Is there someone up there?” she asked.

R’kash frowned. “You didn’t seem surprised that the pods were autonomous. Don’t humans have similar technology for their spacecrafts?”

She moved her head side to side, that smile of hers twitching her lips again. “No, well, at least not to the point where we don’t have at least one person in the cockpit in case of emergencies. Are you sure it’s safe?”

“Yes,” he replied, pausing beside the bench where she was seated. It was wide enough for two, but there would be little space between their bodies. “May I sit?”

Sienna motioned towards the bench with both hands spread palm up. “Please.”

He held up his robes, lifting them to the right so that they wouldn’t catch beneath him on the bench. She inhaled sharply as his thigh pressed against hers, and part of him wanted to set his hand over her trembling leg, but he didn’t dare. He swallowed down the anxious vibrations starting up in his throat and tipped his head towards the flyer wall beside Sienna.

“Press your hand to the wall and you’ll be able to change the function from opaque to transparent—if you’d like to view the scenery below.”

She bobbed her head up and down and flattened her palm against the smooth surface. “It’s like the bathrooms aboard the ship and the furniture. They changed like this, too, except they went from solid to mirrored,” she remarked, never turning away from the flyer wall. The moment the surface went transparent, she dropped her hand with a cut-off yelp. “Gosh, it’s like there’s nothing there at all,” she said, leaning back closer into his side. “I feel like I’m going to fall right out. No wonder you said you didn’t recommend leaving it like this for the whole flight.”

Sienna’s right hand drifted towards his knee. It wasn’t quite a caress, but the feel of the edge of her palm against his scales made his muscles tighten and his crown feathers lift.

“Oh, wow. You even have feathers on your arms.” Sienna looked up at him. “Can I touch them?”

“Yes,” he said, the human word coming out raspy and raw.

He knew she’d be able to understand him if he spoke Xithilene, but he didn’t want to highlight the differences between them any further. He must already seem so strange to her. He waited to see if she’d follow through. So far, the only female who’d ever bothered to play with his guard feathers was Veesha.

Her arm moved slowly, but eventually her hand lifted from his leg, and her fingertips stroked along the short, stiffened feathers that grew in a line towards his elbow. It was nothing like Veesha’s touch, and he had to close his eyes to endure it silently.

“I’m sorry—am I hurting you?”

No. It was a sensation past pain, past pleasure.

“No, but my feathers are sensitive.”An understatement of vast proportions.

Neither of them spoke further as the flyer continued to ascend. Sienna reached out to change the setting on the walls back to opaque, and they pulsed with artificial light in response to the suddenly darkened cabin. The air felt as close and thick as it had on the streets of Verkissat, yet twice as hard to breathe. He felt as if he might burst into a million fragments if he didn’t break the silence first.

“Why do you have so many items with you? The other humans did not bring as much as you.”

Sienna’s leg tensed beside him. “Is it a problem?” she asked.

“No.” He had a talent for asking the wrong questions. The gods would make him pay for his deception, make him bleed it out with every misspoken word.

That leg of hers started to shake as her foot tapped. “One of the bags has my things—my clothes and shoes and toiletries, a few devices storing images and books I wanted to have available. The rest aren’t just for me.” Sienna angled her body towards him then, her shoulder pressing into his upper arm and her face only a breath away. “Veesha’s birthday is coming up along with your harvest festival, and then, even though I know it’s not your tradition, we’d written about celebrating Christmas at Evathi. Maybe it’s silly, but it’s decorations and presents, holiday foods and things I thought might make this time feel special. I want to make a place for myself in your life, R’kash.”

He knew he needed to speak. There was no salvaging it if he remained silent now.

“Do you doubt you already have?” he finally asked.

He’d never feared heights. He’d walked the roof of Evathi’s temple every morning since he’d been sent to lead the plainsmen priests. How was it now, on the silk-lined seat of a flyer, with no drop-off in sight, that he grew dizzy enough to fall?

R’kash lowered his head. He had no plan in mind, no motive, just a need to be closer, to soothe her worries. He was transfixed by her soft red mouth, lured in by its sweet promise. Even though he’d never done so before, kissing her was the easiest thing in the world. How many truths did it take to wipe away a lie? Now he knew for certain that he would do his best to find out. Sending her back to Earth was no longer an option.

15

R’kash’s lipswere softer than Sienna had expected. Everything about him was so unbearably gentle, the opposite of what she’d imagined when she’d first seen his stern, handsome face that afternoon. Just about nothing had gone as she’d expected after that initial meeting. There’d been the moment when she’d melted into his arms and the world had seemed perfect and fate had felt real. Then the awkwardness had set in.

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