at Gwen’s mouth—reliving the special talents of those lips.
“Born on Troy?” the woman asked Gwen, breaking their moment. “Welcome home.”
Ari’s desire flipped over into surprise. “I thought you were born on Lionel.”
Gwen shifted in her seat and gave the woman a polite smile.
Oh, shit. Had Ari just given them away?
“No worries, honey,” the woman said. “In my experience, the marriage is more legit if there are a few secrets. Otherwise it seems like you’ve been quizzing each other.” Ari’s nerves eased but didn’t back off all the way. The woman kept reading and then looked at Ari. “Your birthplace is listed as Ketch.”
Ari tried a smile. “That’s gotta be the star center on the bingo board, am I right?”
The woman sprang out of the room as if she were fleeing Merlin’s bizarre magic. In the corner, a red light went off soundlessly, and Ari heard the door lock in several places.
“What the—”
Gwen smiled at the red light. “Don’t say anything, baby girl.”
Ari ached to stand or pace, but Gwen kept her cool smile on the red light, holding Ari’s hand tightly. Ari leaned back to Gwen’s ear. “Did you just ‘baby girl’ me?”
“Too cutesy?” Gwen asked.
“The jury’s still out. Buttercups.”
“Vetoed.”
“Understood.”
Despite having spent a week trading pieces of their histories, sharing scars, and shedding clothes, this closeness felt new. It was highlighted by their fear. “Ari… listen,” Gwen said, her words breathy, small. “We might have to deal with the Administrator. I’d hoped he wouldn’t take notice, but…”
“The Mercer CEO?” Ari shot sideways out of her chair as anger, accusation, and rampant fear flamed through her body. “Gwen, he knows—”
“Stop,” she whispered.
“—where my parents are locked up. He—”
Gwen tugged on the front of her shirt, with that Damnit, Ari look. They were kissing so fast Ari’s internal fire sizzled. At first, it was a tender heat, but then the desperation of this entire trip built until Ari was holding Gwen as close as possible.
Gwen’s face nuzzled against Ari’s ear. “We can’t let him know what we want. He’ll use it against us. Trust me.”
Gwen pulled back, her brown eyes bright, her lips flushed red. “Aren’t we giving him a show?” she announced in the direction of the warning light. “Enjoying this with popcorn, Administrator?”
Ari felt sick at the idea of someone watching them. Not just someone. The man who ran the most powerful company in the galaxy—and therefore the universe. The door unlocked, and Ari reached emptily at the spot over her shoulder where Excalibur should be.
Gwen and Ari followed the flashing lights along the wall to an elevator on the dizzying top floor of a skyscraper. The Administrator’s office was a circular room made entirely of windows, the décor solidly Mercer white with bold black accents.
Ari had heard stories about the Mercer Company’s CEO over the years—and of course seen his face in his innumerable ads—but none of that prepared her for this meeting. He lounged across a couch, middle-aged with long limbs, his skin as white as if he had been grown in a tank of bleach. He was nondescript in the face, the body, the clothes. His hair was a white-blond thatch, oddly sparse. If Ari had tried to draw him, she would have managed a stick figure and given up.
He held up a bowl that had been resting in his lap. “Pretzels, not popcorn. What do we win for stumping you? Your planet? How about that awesome crown?”
When Gwen did little more than tighten her grip on Ari’s hand, the Administrator shot up and crossed the room. “We kid, we kid.” He hugged Gwen as if they were old friends, and Ari ached to dismantle the embrace with her bare hands.
Gwen allowed him to touch her and then breathed through her nose. “How lovely of you to drag me up here once again.”
“Oh, my sweet and spicy Gweneviere. Tell us you missed us.”
“No, thank you.”
His eyes twinkled as he turned to Ari. “Ara Azar, how delighted we are to find you still living. And married to my favorite monarch! Should we discuss celebrity power couple names or let something emerge organically?”
Ari felt slapped.
Azar.
Her bones knew that name. Her heart did, as well.
Only her head was behind.
“How do you…” Ari started, trying to find the words.
Gwen bristled whole-bodily, tugging them to the couches to sit while Ari’s mind stroked every single letter of Azar as if it were the greatest gift she’d ever been given… but that meant she was in debt to Mercer, which did not feel