Page 174 of Light Leech

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed.” I took a deep breath. “You’re doing everything right. Keep comforting her no matter how anyone reacts, including me. Hold her through to the end of this thing with the moon, then we’ll figure out whatever’s bothering her. You plug?”

He sighed, then nodded. “You think the moon thing will be that easy?”

“Zeg, no, but we’ll get through it.”

He looked up at me.

I ruffled his hair. “You good?”

“Piss off.”

We smiled.

I followed the sounds of the girls’ voices, waving to Denji and Abbas on the way as they were sitting and enjoying some tea together. Kuni sat in the corner reading a book and sounding out the words under his breath.

Ralia eyed me as I walked in while Naoma was talking to her and Akna. She didn’t interrupt Naoma while she waved me in and put her arm around my waist. She kissed me on the cheek.

Naoma smirked but continued to tell them about the 3Rochi pop-up.

“Really?” Akna asked.

Naoma nodded. “By the time we got to the Palace, Petya had gathered quite the audience.”

I shrugged.

Akna asked Naoma another question but focused on Ralia as she dropped her arm from my waist.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

She cocked her head down the hall. “We’ll leave you gals to gossip. Pet and I have some business to deal with.”

“Okay!” Akna said.

Naoma looked at me with raised eyebrows as we walked away. I nodded, letting her know that I was fine.

Ralia waited until we could no longer hear Akna clearly before speaking. “How’s the recalibration been? Still panicking?”

“I mean, I still have questions, but… how long is the flight?”

“We have an hour flight to the spaceport, then it’s a two day ride.”

“Zeg.”

She nodded. “Plenty of time to plan and think, but I say we leave as soon as possible. If we leave tonight, we could spend the night in an airport capsule then fly out of orbit in the morning. You plug?”

“Yeah, sure, but…”

“But what? I don’t think we need to pack much and I don’t plan on staying longer than we have to.”

“I know. I just… never mind.”

“You wanted more time to rest? Me, too. I want to get this guy over with.” Her eyes were bloodshot and wet . “I’m tired, Pet.”

Those words pierced my core with a violet-infused blade. “Don’t you dare say that.”

“What the zeg is wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry, Ral, I didn’t mean to get so ang–”