Chapter Seven

Graven

She gets back in her speeder, and I panic.

I shouldn’t. I told myself I wouldn’t. But I step out from behind the giant pillar, the only spot big enough to hide me on the block.

I shout, “Hulda,” unsure how she’ll react. She may feel annoyance, disdain, even disgust at seeing me. She may put on a nice face and pretend to be happy. I know she doesn’t want to see me. But it was like a biological demand in my body. I couldn’t physically stay away from her.

I missed her, uncontrollably. Or maybe it was just her touch I missed. That must be it, because I couldn’t have actually missed her. I have no heart. I’ve never experienced love or affection or good emotions. I’ve never even had a friend. My past is an oasis of emotional numbness. I’m incapable of emotionally attaching to someone.

I just have a lustful infatuation with her. That’s all.

She looks at me, and her emerald green eyes widen in the most pleasant way. “Graven?” A smile spreads across her face, so beautiful it sends chills down my spine. She must be faking that joy in seeing me, but hell, she has me fooled that it’s genuine.

She hops out of her speeder and walks toward me. “You hide.”

“I couldn’t stay away.” I step toward her, drawn as if on a string. “I know they said you shouldn’t see me, and you should probably run away or tell me to go, but—”

“Graven, it is okay.” She puts a hand on my arm, and I can’t feel it, of course. Last night, she healed something inside me, I don’t know what. My skin has no more sensation than it ever has. But just seeing her touch me again sends a thrill through my chest. “Do not leave.”

I put my hand over hers on my arm. “You’ve addicted me, Niva. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t not come to see you. I’m sure you have dozens of people to see today and…”

She lifts my hand and kisses it. “No people. My office is closed.”

“Oh.” But… “Why?”

“I’m going away. I take you with me.”

Confusion, broad misunderstanding tightens my throat. “Wait…how are you speaking my language?” There must be some mistranslation going on. “Yesterday, we barely understood each other.” I knew the Fellamana were fast with languages, but this fast?

She preens with pride. “I studied last night. It is…um…” She thinks of the word. “Uh… talent! In my family. And your language is easy. Simple compared to Fellamana.”

I frown. “You’re fluent in my language after one night?”

She purses her lips and tries, “Floo-lent?”

Okay, that makes a little more sense; at least she doesn’t know everything. “Fluent. It means you can speak and understand a language easily.”

“Ah.” She lifts her shoulders. “I am fluent now.”

This female, I swear, she gets more extraordinary every day. “You’re amazing.”

“Yes,” she pokes out her chin with a grin. “I am.”

I laugh and have the urge to hug her, but I don’t dare. Her accent still has that beautiful singsong lilt that all the Fellamana speak. I could listen to her talk all day.

“Now.” She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the speeder, anxiously looking up and down the block. “We need to leave fast.”

I go with her, not wanting to stop her for anything. “Where?”

“Family mountain house.” She points to the passenger seat in the speeder that is hardly big enough for me. “Get in.”

“I don’t understand. What’s going on? Why?”

“Graven, now!” She stares down the street to where other Fellamana are passing by but not looking this way. “Someone will see.”

“Niva, if this is going to get you in trouble then I don’t want to…”

“Get in!” she snaps.

I don’t know why I’m arguing. I want her more than my next breath. I don’t understand, but I get in as best I can. I scrunch as small as I’m able, my knees to my chest, my arms tight around them, but my elbows extend out the sides. They’re going to poke her in the captain’s chair. There’s nothing I can do about it.

“Mmm,” she stares at me and my predicament. “You cannot hide.”

I chuckle at how she did not take my size into the account of her plan. “No. I can’t.”

“We will go fast.” She hops into the captain’s chair and starts tapping on the instrument panel. It’s see-through with no buttons, and I have no idea how she knows what to press.

A blaring alarm goes off, and the machine talks to her in a warning voice. She speaks to it in Fellamana and turns off the alarm.

“Are you sure about this?” I ask, not wanting her to break the speeder’s engine to go as fast as she wants.

“Hold on,” she warns, then the engine starts with a roar, way louder than I would’ve believed this little vehicle could.

There’s nowhere for me to really grab, so I just duck my head as best I can behind the windshield. She straps in with the safety belt that is laughably too small for me.

With a vicious kick, the speeder drives forward, thrusting us back in the seats with the force. I grit my teeth and pray it isn’t more than this machine can handle.

It tilts backward and starts to lift off. The engine shifts hard; the whole speeder shakes, but it shoots us high into the sky over the city.

“Ah!” She cheers with excitement and looks below us to be sure no one noticed. “We did it!” She looks at me, exhilaration brightening her eyes. Her sky blue complexion has tinted with shades of bright pink that spread like a wave down her shoulders, swirling in among her usual calm azure waves. I have the urge to ask what the pink color change means. It seems to signify a mood shift in her, a good one.

The speeder levels. We’re still below the clouds, but high enough that no one below could see who we are. The speeder turns, self-navigating us toward a destination she programmed. She sits back, no hands needed on the controls.

A silence falls between us.

It’s a little awkward. I don’t even really know her. And she certainly knows nothing about me.

“Why are you doing this?” I ask, loud enough to be heard over the wind and the engine.

“I’m going to heal you,” she calls back.

My heart starts to thud hard against my ribs. “At your mountain house?”

“Yes, I have three days’ leave. I’ll heal you.”

“You’re going to heal me for three days?” My mouth goes dry. Three days with her, just that alone is a dream, but her healing me for three days? If that means what I think it means, I may leap out of this seat no matter how painful the fall would be.

“You hurt a lot. It will take three days of sex to fix you.”

“Three days…of…” I gulp like I’ve swallowed a frog and start to sweat.

She puts her hand on mine. “It’s okay, Graven. Don’t be scared. I will take care of you.”

“With sex?” I blurt, my astonishment absolute.

She pats my hand again, reassuringly. “You will like it.”

I sputter and choke on the wind. I don’t have the will to correct her. Like doesn’t even cover it. To say I’ve dreamed this…no. This is beyond my dreams. Beyond my imagination. Beyond what I’m capable of handling.

Three days of sex with her… I don’t know how I’ll survive. I’m not sure I can do it. It’s going to be embarrassing as hell.

She’s a godsdamn sex goddess.

And I’m a fucking virgin.