The Girl Who Fell From The Sky - Rebecca Royce Page 0,66

pulled away, humor in his eyes. “Breakfast first, and then yes, Bianca, you can play teacher.”

“Oh, you bet I can. It used to be my job.” I kissed him one more time. “Okay. Give me two seconds, and I’ll get ready.”

He shook his head. “When we get there…it’s your day with Astor. I have to…behave.”

I laughed. “We’ll see how that goes.”

This being with all of them was going to be complicated. The question really was, how was I going to behave when I wanted all of them?

It felt like it had been years since I’d been in Astor’s lab, but it had been…days? He looked up with a grin when I walked in, and I saw he wasn’t alone.

Torrin sat with his feet up on Astor’s table. Mattis next to him, but his feet were on the ground. Mattis rose, a big smile on his face, too. Torrin stayed seated, but as his gaze moved over me, it was akin to him taking off my clothes. I shivered with anticipation.

Astor pulled me to him, his mouth coming down on mine. He tasted like he’d just drunk cool water. I wrapped my arms around him. “Hi there.”

“Hi.” He pinched my chin. “You okay? You had a long day yesterday.”

I nodded. “Right now, I’m not feeling much about yesterday. But last night, Nox took care of me. So I think I’m okay.”

He smiled. “I’m going to feed you. I made breakfast.”

Astor, still holding my hand, took me over to where he’d prepared a feast of foods. Most of which I’d never seen before. Every day here, I learned something new. As I sat down, Torrin addressed Nox.

“I would have thought you would have brought our wife to the show last night. I made the good Baron wear honey and feathers while he danced in a circle. I was rather…pissed you weren’t there.”

Nox walked over to grab some food. “You didn’t order it, Torrin. I thought it was okay for me to spend time alone with our wife.”

Torrin scowled at him. “Point taken. Astor just got finished letting Mattis and me know that our time here this morning is limited. Reading lesson and then we go. I’ll just have to see to it that I bring down someone who threatens Bianca on my own frickin’ night. Next time, I’ll make him wait.”

Nox took a bite of something that must have been fruit, so I did the same. I copied really well. It was sweet, and I instantly loved it. But light as the tone was so far, I couldn’t stay silent about what I knew forever. And for once, no one was fighting or hurting or yelling, so this was as good a time as any.

“Well, before we get started, I think maybe I should tell you guys something I suspect from labels affixed in the backs of the books. I think…I think it’s kind of important.”

Astor furrowed his brow. “What does it say?”

I steeled my back. “It says that you guys are all descended from…from a group that was on prison ships that must have crashed here a long time ago. History just calls them lost. The ship carried political refugees, as well as people who had committed huge crimes. Bad ones.” Rape, murder, burglary… I just couldn’t bring myself to say those words right now.

I guess a part of me had wanted them to laugh it off, to tell me that either it wasn’t a big deal or that they’d always known. Or maybe I expected them to be horrified, possibly defensive. They were obviously honorable people now, so knowing who their ancestors were—what those people had done—should disgust such good men, right? The only thing I wasn’t expecting was the reaction I got.

Torrin looked at Astor, who looked at Mattis, who looked at Nox. None of them looked at me.

Mattis recovered first. Clearing his throat, he said, “Um, is that part of the lesson? You wanna show me what the words look like, in the books I mean?”

I was surprised enough that I showed him. Turning to the back endpaper of the top book on the stack—Interstellar Propulsion Physics for Beginners—I pointed to and spoke aloud the same words I’d seen on the first book I ever touched here. “Property of Longergan Prison.”

Nox leaned over to get a good look at the words. He studied them intently, but Mattis played it all in typical Mattis fashion. “Huh. Takes up a lot of space, dunnit? I mean, if I were to