meal with relish. This causes the surface of the Ramen shell to pulse, and little red blisters form on it, breaking out like his food suddenly has hives, and that’s when I lose all courage and dive from my seat.
“What the tevek are you doing?” Bash asks, wiping his mouth politely on—I kid you not—a cloth napkin he brought in his lunch sack. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I’ve lost my appetite,” I tell him as I pack up my little lunch tray. “Jonoh!” I call.
Bash growls.
“Yes?” Jonohkada asks, appearing instantly like the wonderful lackey he is.
“Here,” I tell him, pressing my tray into his chest. “Eat it or give it away; I don’t care.”
“Isla, no,” Bash argues, not sounding amused anymore at my squeamishness and beginning instead to sound concerned. “You’re working too hard to start fasting.”
Jonoh is neatly rearranging what I have on my tray. “Technically, humans can manage a surprising amount of exertion while fasting as long as they’re provided with the proper amount of electrolytes.” His face becomes animated as he splits his attention between the two of us, warming up to his subject with clear excitement. “There are some fascinating studies we obtained from Earth, where—”
“Sit down,” Bash commands.
Jonohkada sits, clutching my tray in his lap.
Bash transfers his laser focus from me to Jonoh, his icy silence causing discomfort with the power of third-degree frostbite.
“You meant Isla,” Jonoh says simply, blinking.
Bash continues to stare at him.
“I’ll go now,” Jonoh declares in his easy way. He stands from the spot that Bash meant for me to have and gives me a strained smile. “I’ll disperse your lunch.”
Bash mutters curses that are new to my translator, and mostly come across as clicks and rumbling sounds of intense, extreme displeasure.
“Thanks,” I say to Jonoh. To Bash, I give a wave. “I’m going back to work.”
Bash inhales, sucking all the smoke that he’d been producing in these last couple of unhappy moments right back into his lungs. I’m guessing Rakhii can’t contract emphysema, otherwise they would all be going gills up, and Bash seems healthy as a horse. An angry nightmare of a horse, but a healthy one nonetheless. “Wait.” He releases a stream of fire on his food, turning it into half of a brick of charcoal, and he bolts it down with a speed that is a testament of his practice at eating badly burned things.
“Ick,” I mumble.
Bash sends me a dark look and scrapes his napkin across his mouth.
Whatever he just ate? The smell of it does not improve with death by fire, by the way.
Even Jonoh’s nose has wrinkled.
Bash knocks back a thermos of water and cuts him a glare that should set his wings on fire. “Get her the electrolytes you mentioned.”
Jonoh looks troubled. “I believe we’ve run out of—”
Bash glares at him.
Jonoh dips his chin. His wing talons cup each other, looking anxious over his shoulders. “I will appropriate more and bring them here.”
“That’s the correct answer,” Bash says.
CHAPTER 31
BASH
(Crying Counter: Laudable)
Jonohkada hands Isla’s food tray to a nearby luncheon grouping of women, snaps his wings open, and flies off to wherever electrolytes can be found.
I turn to Isla to find her head cocked, her eyes somewhat squinted as she studies me. “I know you just ate, but maybe you’re still hangry.” She sends me a faux-prim dip of her head. “You’re definitely still bossy.”
I growl at her noncommittally, making her smile.
“When we finish with the day,” I warn, “I’m going to take you to my den, and make sure you consume a hearty meal.”
“I don’t want what you were having, but thanks.”
“Then you’ll have something else of my hand. Now shut down and work with me.”
“Shut up.”
I skid to a halt, browplates raised.
She sends me a fast laugh and smile. “I was correcting you, not telling you to shut it.”
I shake my horns at her and walk her to the station I intend to work at, the tool station this time, and she stays with me. My desire to have her near was implied when I didn’t shout at her to get away from me, but I’m more aware than ever of the importance of clear communication after she reprimanded me for being too quick to condemn her yesterday. “I’m going to spend the evening with you after our shifts here end.”
Isla drops a wrench on my tail.
I hiss.
“I am so sorry,” she squeaks. Her hand flies to cover her mouth. “I just wasn’t expecting you to say that! You want to spend