“No.” Gibus waved a hand at her like she was ridiculous. “It was meant for tagging oompha, of course.”
“Of course.” The corner of her mouth twitched as she held back a grin, and she glanced sideways at Pettus, who was staring back at her and doing the same. “Gotta tag those oomphas. Wouldn’t want them getting out of hand.”
“Definitely not,” Gibus agreed with a curt nod.
“It’s a fish.” Ruckus made his presence known and stepped up to her, dropping a kiss to her cheek.
Before she’d met him, she would have thought the gesture too sappy for her, but now …
“A very large one that often jumps so far, it can be misconstrued as flying. They’re fast, so hard to tag with traditional means. The science department in charge of monitoring underwater life requested that Gibus come up with a solution.”
“And what did I get for slaving away for five weeks?” Gibus chimed in with a disgruntled look. “They went with someone else’s invention. Morons.”
“Want to get out of here?” Ruckus leaned closer and whispered against the curve of her ear, effectively sending her body into a heat wave. “It’s late, and there’s something I want to show you.”
She nodded and they said their good-byes, heading out of the room, her arm linked with his.
“Shouldn’t we be more careful?” she asked as they walked leisurely. Whatever he wanted to show her, he wasn’t in any rush to get there. “What if someone spots us?”
“I know when all the guards do their rotations, Delaney,” he reminded her. “And all the schedules. I am the one who made them. There are certain perks involved with being an Ander.”
“Hmm,” she said, acting impressed, “perhaps I’ll try out for the role then. How hard can it be to become an Ander anyway?”
He mock-glared and then before she knew what he’d intended, picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. She barely had a chance to inhale before he was moving down the hall at such a fast pace that the floor blurred beneath his feet. That was all she could currently see in her position, and she fought down a wave of vertigo.
Fortunately, he stopped them just in time, slipping through a doorway so that within moments the hard floor turned to curly grass.
“Are we at the pools?” she asked even as she pressed against his back to lift herself and take a look. Sure enough, she was met with the stony interior of the room they’d swam in over a week ago.
“It’s about to happen,” he told her excitedly, slipping her down his front but keeping a firm arm wrapped around her waist to keep her to him.
Her feet touched the ground, and she glanced around at the tiny white-and-yellow star-shaped flowers and the dark green climbing vines. It was just as peaceful and exotic here as she remembered, with the trickling of the water. She couldn’t see the falls from here, being blocked off by a thick rock column, but she remembered how beautiful they were. The smell was a mixture of salt, sweetness, and an added tangy hint.
“What’s about to happen?” she asked. Above them, the sky was darkening. In less than a minute it’d be completely black. She was so busy looking up that she almost missed it.
“Look.” Ruckus breathed against the curve of her ear and she turned her head down.
Gasping, she pulled away from him and rushed over to the nearest batch of climbing flowers. They were starting to glow, one after the other lighting up like a string of Christmas lights. One strand of them would burst into a vibrant neon-greenish white or pale yellow, and then the next, until the entire place was lit up.
“Holy shit,” she whispered, awed by the beauty of the place. “You weren’t kidding. This is gorgeous.” She reached for one and paused. “Can I?”
“Go ahead.” He motioned her onward. “They aren’t poisonous. Only pretty. But don’t pick them; they’ll stop glowing immediately if separated from the vine.”
She stopped herself from doing that just in time, changing tactics and stroking the soft petals instead. It felt the same as it had the last time she was here; only at her touch, they sparkled like she’d sprinkled silver and gold glitter on them.
“Whoa.”
“Oh yeah,” he added smugly, “they do that, too.”
“I wish I could take some with me,” she murmured, mostly to herself. When he remained quiet at her back, she glanced over. “It’s not the only thing, you know.”
He canted his head, suddenly serious. “Are you saying you’d take me home with you if you could?”
It was a weighted question, and for some reason she sensed there was more to it than she was getting. She didn’t try too hard to decipher it, though, caught up in the serenity of the moment.
“Ruckus.” She took a tentative step toward him. “I am going home, and we both know you can’t really come with me. You have a life here, and I respect that. Despite the joke I made in the hall, I know how hard you’ve worked to get yourself here, to make Ander. I would never ask you to give that up.”
“What if I want to?” he whispered, the words almost lost over the sound of running water. His yellow-green eyes had darkened, and he was so still in the dim lighting, it was almost as if he wasn’t even breathing.
Did she want that? She certainly didn’t want things to end with him, liked being around him, but she’d thought these thoughts before. The idea of leaving him behind was upsetting, yet she also meant what she’d told him. How could she expect him to leave everything he’d ever known and come with her to a foreign world?
“How would that even be possible?” she asked. “How would you explain away leaving? And what about your family?”
“They’re dead,” he admitted, continuing before she could utter an apology. “They died during the war with the Kints. I have an aunt, and we’re close, a cousin as well, but they’d understand.”
“And what about your position? I have a life back there, on Earth, but you, your life is here.”
“I didn’t ask you to list all the ways it wouldn’t be plausible,” he stated. “I asked whether or not you’d want me to. Will you miss me when you’re back on Earth? Or was this”—he pointed between them—“merely a matter of circumstance?”
“Of course not!” She wanted to touch him, reassure him, but his demeanor kept her at bay. He was too still, too distant. She got the distinct impression she’d somehow hurt his feelings, but she couldn’t place her finger on how. She was only trying to be honest, and keep her own emotions safe at the same time.
“Of course I’ll miss you,” she said softly. “And of course I’d love it if you came with me. We just both know that’s not very realistic, and pretending otherwise … I don’t want to get my hopes up for something that can’t actually happen. No matter how unique this”—she mimicked his motion with a finger—“is. I wouldn’t ask you to go any more than you would ask me to stay.”
He deflated all at once, shoulders slumping even as he removed the space between them, cupping her cheeks in his strong hands. The glow from the flowers reflected phosphorescent yellows and whites off his lightly tanned skin, making him appear even more alien than ever before.