Amid Stars and Darkness (The Xenith Trilogy #1)

This was even more impressive because of their topics of conversation. Throughout the games, they both took turns asking her questions about her life on Earth, what it was actually like there and some of the things she hadn’t seen yet but would really like to when she went back.

Instead of feeling sad and hopeless when they mentioned this, she felt uplifted, like they knew for certain she’d get back there even though she had her secret doubts. And that was enough. Neither of them had taken their denzeration, opting out of them to kick-start their careers early. Apparently, it was a common decision among the Vakar and the Kints.

So she told them about baseball and cheesecake and Rollerblades. Some stuff they knew about, but mostly just from hearsay. It was interesting, how much aliens knew about her species as a whole but how little firsthand experience any of them had with it.

After about an hour and a half, she started dipping into more personal things, like stories about stupid adventures with Mariana, and how her parents had raised her with a certain image of who she’d become. How she didn’t exactly own up to that. She was in the middle of describing Doctor Who to them—a show that had somehow become more popular after the discovery of Xenith—when Ruckus returned.

He looked haggard, with heavy purple splotches under his eyes. His hair was still slicked back, but the strands didn’t quite stick together, insinuating that he’d been repetitively running his fingers through it. His uniform was a bit wrinkled, and there was a distinct smear of blood on his left arm, right below the elbow.

His tired eyes sought her out and he sighed, and some of the tension seemed to ease out of him with his slow exhale. Standing there, he was like a beacon of warmth, and she found her heart skipping a beat and her face stretching into an even bigger smile.

Waving the cards in her hands, she glanced over at the two men across from her teasingly. “You’re just in time to see me kick their asses again.”

“Oh, is that so?” Gibus laughed and slammed another card down, whooping when it was the image of a large red lizard creature complete with fangs, five legs, and large, shiny wings. “Beat that, D!”

She’d discovered that she wasn’t the only one there with a penchant for nicknames, and within the first half hour, Gibus had given her that one.

She and Pettus flipped theirs at the same time, and she scanned the three cards, grinning ear to ear when she realized she’d won the hand. On her card there was a crocodile-type creature with dark blue-black skin and sharp bloodred eyes. Initially, she’d been confused how this card could trump the red creature on Gibus’s, seeing as how that one looked equally, if not more, terrifying, but they’d both insisted that the creatures were no match in a fight.

Pointing at Pettus’s card, which had a fluffy pink creature resembling a cotton ball with googly eyes and antennae, she feigned fear. “Oh no! Not the rush bug!”

“Shut up,” he mumbled, swiping his card off the surface with more force than necessary and flicking it across the table at her.

She caught it, letting out another laugh, and slipped it into the pile before her. Now she had almost the entire deck—so close to winning. There was an empty chair across from her between Pettus and Gibus, and she angled her head toward it.

“Want to join?” she asked Ruckus, who’d remained standing a few feet away.

“As much as I like seeing you actually having a good time,” he admitted, rubbing at the side of his face, “honestly…”

“You’re exhausted,” she finished for him. As she stood, the sound of her chair legs sliding against the hard floor mingled with the others groans of disapproval. “Sorry, boys, looks like we’ll have to pick this up another time. I’ve got to get the Ander to bed.”

They blinked at her.

“Dirty minds, dudes.” She rolled her eyes.

“How are you not exhausted right now?” Ruckus asked her, seemingly genuinely curious about the answer. He reached for her hand when she came close, linking their fingers naturally while keeping his yellow-green gaze steadily on hers.

“I just finished my last year of high school, remember?” she said. “Try studying for a biology midterm three nights straight, then you’ll understand. I suck at science. Seriously, suck.”

“That’s what I’m here for, D.” Gibus collected all the cards back into a deck. “I’m going to hold you to that rematch. I was really close to getting the upper hand.”

“No.” Pettus shook his head. “You were not.”

“I was!”

“Get some rest,” Ruckus ordered them, tugging her gently toward the doors.

“Yes, sir!” they both said mockingly, laughing afterward.

“You understand that’s not what I meant,” Ruckus said once they’d entered the hall. “When I left earlier, you were—”

“A mess?” She shrugged. “I still am.”

“You’re hiding it well.”

“Isn’t that the point?”

His hand tightened around hers. “Not with me, Delaney. You don’t have to hide anything with me.”

“I don’t have to fall apart, either, no matter how badly I want to.” She leaned her head against him. “But thank you.”

For a moment she allowed herself to bask in the contentment, and even contemplate how it was possible for her to feel so relaxed after a day like she’d just had. There was still that underlying sense of fear, but it’d dimmed some over the past couple of hours. Pettus and Gibus had really gone out of their way to keep her mind off the Uprising. Friends really could get you through anything. And that was when she realized that was what she considered them now. Friends.

Weird.

“I never thought I’d be here,” she said softly, breaking the comfortable silence they’d been walking in. “That this type of thing would happen to me.”

“What type of thing?” he asked.

“Being let into your crazy world.” She glanced up at him.

“You mean being forced into it,” he reminded her.

She shrugged again. “Maybe that’s how it started, but I can’t regret everything. Some really amazing things have come out of your kidnapping me in that alley. I know about things that I never would have otherwise, seen things people back home will never have the chance to.” She made a face. “Tasted some things, too, but we won’t talk about that.”

He chuckled and turned them down a corner, bringing them to the opposite end of the hall that led to her room. Stopping before a different door, he glanced at her frown, the only response the curving of his lips as he pressed his palm against a flat panel at the right of it.

A green light passed under his hand, followed by a quiet buzz and a clicking as the door latch undid itself. The heavy gray door swung inward half an inch, exposing a swath of darkness within.

Instead of opening it the rest of the way, Ruckus turned to her, a seriousness having come over him.

“We’ve swept your room and it’s safe,” he began tentatively, “but as you’ve pointed out, I’m exhausted, and I’d much rather not spend the rest of the night attempting to remain on my feet, worrying that something’s happening to you in that room despite all the precautions my men and I have taken. And you made your stance on going back there very clear.

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