Gravity (Dark Anomaly #1) - Marina Simcoe Page 0,60
fur over his head, pushing it back only for it to fall back down again as soon as he released it. “If you come with me, I’d be terrified for you. It’d distract me, risking possibly getting both of us killed.”
His expression was pleading, making me ease off with my demand.
“What are you planning to do out there?” I asked.
“Just a brief reconnaissance trip. I need to know how things are out there before coming up with a plan.”
“Promise not to start a war all by yourself.”
My words made him smile. “I’m not even planning to show my face to anyone, yet. Promise, no war.”
“Good.” I nodded, clasping my hands in front of me. “How are you getting out of here?”
Crouching by the bag, he opened the map again, pointing at the place a couple turns back.
“I’ll retrace our steps to this spot here. See this corner? Where the hulls of two ships smashed together? If I cut an opening here, this part would hide it from view of anyone in the corridor.”
I stared at the map, already silently praying for his safe return.
He picked up the tool again, heading to the tunnel.
“Vrateus...” I stopped him with my hand on his sleeve.
He looked over his shoulder.
Rising on my tiptoes, I placed a quick kiss on the ridge of his cheekbone. “Please be careful.”
His eyes glistened fiery orange in the blue light of the string.
“I will.”
ACCORDING TO THE TABLET Vrateus and I had brought with us, it’d been only twenty minutes since he’d left, but it felt like hours.
Sitting in the small room, lit only by the short string of glowing blue light, I cuddled into his soft fur blanket. All seemed to be quiet out there. Unnervingly silent. The growling of the Anomaly compressing the wreckage that Vrateus had told me about didn’t reach this far. It must be getting lost in the layers of insulation and paneling, never making it to the outer segments of the disk. Still, sitting alone in this tiny windowless room made me feel claustrophobic and...lonely.
The rustling noise of someone moving inside the tunnel Vrateus had left through sent me to my feet. My heart raced with hope that it was him returning, and fear that it might be someone or something else.
I quickly tossed the glowing string on the floor by the tunnel, illuminating the entrance, it allowed me to hide in the shadows. Grabbing the laser gun from the holster on my thigh, I held it up, ready.
The noise came closer. Then the blue glow fell on the white material of Vrateus’s shirt as he entered.
“You...” I lowered the gun. Relief spread through me in a calming wave.
“Has anyone told you that you look fierce with a gun?” A corner of his mouth lifted in an unexpected smile.
“No.” I holstered the weapon. “Probably because I’ve never handled one before.”
He entered the small space, immediately filling it with his presence. I stepped back to the wall, though everything inside me urged me to come closer.
“You’re a natural, then.” His tone was light.
His words brought back the images of the males I’d killed. I hadn’t thought twice about pulling the trigger, then. I would have done it again, under the same circumstances. The images of the smoldering holes in the dead bodies, however, stayed in my memory.
“Hungry?”
Only now had I noticed a grease-stained, paper-wrapped bundle in his hands. The smell of cooked meat wafted from it. It wasn’t the most appetizing aroma, but my mouth watered. It had been nearly twenty-four hours since I’d last eaten.
“How is everything out there?” I asked, after we both had settled on the blanket, our backs to the wall.
“As I should have expected. Total chaos.” Vrateus shook his head, his mouth tightening into a thin line of disapproval. “They are guzzling unmeasurable amounts of berry wine and butchering a month’s supply of vasai.”
“Are they celebrating?”
“Yes. Crux has declared himself the captain and cancelled all my restrictions.”
He sounded less upset about the loss of his position than about his crew needlessly wasting supplies and resources.
“Here.” He handed me a bone with meat on it. It appeared to be an entire leg of vasai, with a meaty chunk at the very top.
I was too hungry to decline.
“Thank you.” I peeled a strip of meat off then chewed on it, slowly. “Where did you get it? And how?”
“I stole it from the kitchen. It wasn’t hard.” He bit a chunk of meat off another bone he had taken out of the paper