“Don’t you feel bad about splitting them up when they’re clearly in love?” Zoey asks, her expression sweet and dreamy.
“No.” Yes. A little.
“Stone cold, big bro,” Zoey teases. “Stone cold. We’ll be fine, by the way. You gave us the easy job. Kivian wants to pretend to be transport so we can rob any one we don’t like.” She rolls her eyes. “He thinks like a corsair at all times.”
It’s not a bad idea, but I don’t point that out to Zoey. She seems to think that Kivian’s rough edges should have smoothed out the moment he and Fran had a child, but Kivian is the same as he ever was—loud, extravagant, charming and showy. “Next you’ll be chiding me for focusing on the Sister too much.”
“Aren’t you?” she teases back. “I know how you work, big bro. You pick up all the slack because you don’t trust Kas and Adi to do their end. Give them a little more responsibility. Let them sweat a bit more. It’ll do them good.” She wags a finger at me. “And you need to relax.”
“I’ll relax when this is done.”
“Sure you will,” she jokes. “Sure.”
We talk for a bit longer about the Sister and the Jabberwock, and then compare notes on nav paths. Zoey’s got such a good eye for saving fuel that I send her my routes so she can tweak and modify them. It feels good to just talk to someone without worrying they’re going to goof off or stick a finger in my ear. Someone that listens when I mention my worries. In a way, it’s kind of like talking to Helen, which is odd. Helen listens intently to everything I say.
Which reminds me…
When Zoey yawns, I say my goodbyes, promising to talk again the moment we’re back from our mission. “Tell that mate of yours to take good care of you. Love you.”
“Sentorr takes excellent care of me,” she says and touches her stomach. “Don’t you worry about that. See you on the flip side, Mathiras. Stay safe.”
She winks and ends the comm before I can ask if her touching her belly means what I think it means. I digest this, then decide I don’t want to know until we get done with the mission. Time to go retrieve my crew, make sure they get a full night’s rest, and then we head out in the morning.
CHAPTER 13
HELEN
Watching Jade say goodbye to Adiron is hard. She stands near the dock, the Scarlet Gaze behind her, and she keeps kissing Adiron’s face and crying.
“I thought I could do this,” she sobs. “But I don’t want you to go.” Her fingers twist in his tunic and she presses another desperate peck to his face. “I’m not handling ‘goodbye’ very well.”
Adiron is seated on one of the crates being loaded into the Gaze, just the right height for Jade to keep peppering his broad face with kiss after kiss. He holds her tight, a tortured look on his face. “I know, love. We won’t be gone long, I promise. And Matty needs me.”
“Your brother doesn’t need anyone,” Jade says, kissing his nose. “Not like I need you. How are we going to manage being apart?” Her voice catches in a hiccup, a sign that she’s been crying for a while. “I know the right thing to do is to let you go and help out. I know. I just…I’m so tired of doing the right thing.”
Adiron just holds Jade closer, saying nothing.
Poor Jade. Maybe she thought she could do this and she can’t. It must be hard to be separated from the male you love, especially after having a lot of sex. In the vids I’ve seen, everyone just goes crazy the moment a penis is exposed. It’s like the thought of mating overrides everything else, and maybe it’s like that for Jade. I watch from afar, sitting on another crate as the last-minute preparations are made for the Gaze. I’ve said my goodbyes to Ruth and her twin Ruthie, hugging them both a dozen times easily. I hugged Kaspar and Alice, too, and their sweet pet Sterre. I actually went through the entire ship, hugging everyone I ran across just because I like hugs and the a’ani crew is nice to me. They’re like a bunch of brothers, and it feels good to look at their faces and see bright red skin like mine. They’re unashamed of being clones, and I like that. I wasn’t sure what to think about being a clone when I was first told that I was one. I thought my skin was naturally red, but instead, it’s a marker that I’ve been made in a lab. The a’ani have made me comfortable with who I am, though. They’re no different than anyone else, and that makes me happy.