Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Luna softens a bit, her gaze darting sideways to the quiet Hallan guard who knows his place and that it isn’t in the middle of our conversation. “I’m sorry, I just—”
“No, you’re not. Let’s help Zarah. Isn’t that what she needs now?”
We can get back to fighting later.
It’s better when we’re alone, anyway.
All at once, the three of us in the corridor seem to remember the task at hand, and all it takes is a nod from me to the guard. He tilts his head down the hallway, and Luna and I follow behind when he once again takes the lead, and we walk side by side.
“Does she do this often?” I ask, not entirely sure what the situation is.
Luna lifts her shoulders in a half-hearted shrug, and I get the impression that the answer isn’t simple or easy. “Everybody has good days and bad days, you know? No matter how your life has been spent, it all won’t be in a bed of flowers.”
“Fair enough.”
“Imagine what bad days are like for broken people,” she says quietly. “And in there, if I could get her calmed down or at least quiet before the attendants came, then the end-result wasn’t so bad. Well, sometimes.”
I’m flooded with the memories shown to me of the prison Zarah called home. Seeing it third hand through my brother didn’t lessen the impact it had on me, but I am sure my disgust over her treatment is nothing compared to Zarah’s lived experience of it. It doesn’t help that knowing my mate would have suffered similar harsh treatment and disrespect during her stay leaves me unsteady and on edge for more reasons than I care to name.
“How bad could it get when you wouldn’t comply?”
I convince myself to ask the question even if I’m terrified to. I shouldn’t, though. I shouldn’t ask at all. I know good and well her answer will make me want to order the captain to turn the ship around. Oh, and wouldn’t my stubborn little mate just be over the moon about that.
“Never bad enough that I couldn’t take it or go somewhere else,” she eventually whispers.
Her sentiment doesn’t leave me with a comforting feeling about the ones who couldn’t take it. The ones like Zarah.
“She’s gotten herself wedged in between the box of sand and the wall,” the guard explains as we finally come to a stop in front of the only other door left open in the hall. “She wanted to see the ship but the longer we explored, the more withdrawn she seemed. I don’t think she realized the size from the outside, or the number of … well, the people. There’s a lot.”
“There are,” I agree.
“We got back to the room,” the guard continues to explain, “and she asked to go in alone but after I realized I had forgotten to show her how to run the panel, well …”
He trails off, frowning.
“So, you went in,” Luna fills in.
“I didn’t mean to frighten her. I’ve been very careful with her from the moment you put me on her post, Halun. I swear it.”
“I know,” I tell him.
He’s a young Hallan guard, but a good one. Dedicated and loyal—in the ways that matter most to me, anyway—and there was a reason I picked him to be on my closest post shortly after he finished his training, after all.
“Once I realized she’d run to hide from me, I didn’t want to make the situation worse than it obviously already was, so I came to find you,” the Hallan says to me.
I’m not quite sure what to say, and the silence in the hall allows us to hear the soft sobbing from somewhere deep in the darkened sleeping bunk. At the sound, Luna is the one to break the silence between us first.
“If it’s okay,” she says to me, taking one step forward but meeting my gaze, “I’ll go in alone.”
Honestly?
“That’s probably best,” I return.
Luna nods and continues forward.
At her back, I add, “But I won’t be going anywhere until everything is fine and you are also ready to leave.”
“Big shocker,” my mate mutters.
I smile as her blistering reply feels like it starts the two of us all over again, but I’m beginning to enjoy this game of ours.
“Yell for me if you need anything,” I call while her steps quicken over the threshold.
Not that I expect her to.
All I get in response is the wave of Luna’s hand over her shoulder before she disappears completely into the shadows of the sleeping bunk. I listen to the sound of her footsteps receding into the space while the faint sobbing continues to echo out from the darkness as well. I know when Luna finds Zarah because the older woman’s voice, shrill and scared, cuts through the quiet.
“No, no! Please, no—”
“Shhh,” I hear my mate hush. “Zarah, it’s me. Hey, it’s okay. It’s me. It’s Luna.”