“Yes, Mother,” Lucy said with a snicker.
Rue thumped her in the face with a spare pillow. “Don’t tempt me to hold it down.”
Pushing it off, Lucy let out a yawn to rival all yawns. “Jesus Christ. I didn’t realize how tired I was.”
“I figured as much.” Walking to the door, Rue turned around to point a finger at her. “Get some sleep. Colby said the healers will be on call if you need them. My guess is we have at least an hour or two before they send escorts to take us to the dining hall for our formal introduction.” She snickered, unable to hide a grin. “Gah, that sounds so cheesy. Formal introduction. Like we’re a group of eighteen-year-old debutantes instead of man-hungry women approaching thirty.”
Lucy nodded, having heard a snippet of that particular conversation after they’d treated her sprain immediately upon entering the city. It was one of those situations where she remembered talking to the healers but had no clue what they’d said when it came to the actual details.
Because her focus had been on Sparx the entire time.
“Your eyes went all dreamy again, so I’m going to take that as my cue to vamoose.” Rue let out a deep, wistful sigh before pulling open the door. “Don’t forget that I’m right next door if you need anything…mostly likely trying to figure a way to chip some of these stones away.” Running her hand over the wall next to the door, she dug her fingertip into the edge of one. “You think they’re gonna check our bags when we leave? I mean, they won’t mind a few missing pieces of wall, right?”
Lucy shot her a narrow-eyed look.
“Geez, Louise. I was only kidding.” Rue laughed, holding her hands up. “Get some sleep. I’ll make sure our escorts take us to the dining hall for our formal introduction together,” she said, finishing with a fake French accent that made Lucy giggle.
“Thanks, Rue.” Lucy blew her bestie a kiss. “For everything.”
“Sweet dreams, Goose.”
Lucy watched the door close before flopping back onto the pillows Rue had practically fluffed underneath her. Staring up at the ceiling, she studied the sparkling slope, her eyes tracking each individual mark that showed where the Djaromir had carved something out of nothing.
Now that she was alone, she had nothing to cloud her thoughts as she tried to work through the pickle she found herself in.
Her ankle wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as she’d worried it would be. In fact, it was essentially a non-issue. The healers said with rest she’d be fine in a few days, a week tops, which was a lot faster than she’d expected. The worry that she was going to be sent back to Earth went up in a puff of smoke, giving Lucy only one thing to fixate on.
Sparx.
She hadn’t been lying to her friend when she said she had no clue what was going on with her. She seemed to be running hot and cold simultaneously, unable to adjust to the temperature around her. Lifting her hands to her cheeks, she palmed the hot-to-the-touch skin.
It was odd for sure.
Emotionally, she felt like a live wire, skipping and hopping all over the damn place with no rhyme or reason as to where she was landing. One minute she was laughing with Rue, and the next she’d been so full of rage, she’d felt like the human torch. She’d never been the type to attack first, talk later, but when she’d seen Tabitha touching Sparx, she’d mentally envisioned breaking every single one of the woman’s fingers.
And enjoying it.
Which was crazy, right?
Lucy rolled onto her side, making sure to keep her bad ankle on the pillow. Staring at the door, she fixated on the grain of the wood as she tried to piece together what the hell was happening to her.
No wonder Rue had asked if Lucy was a pod person…
She kind of felt like one.
Chapter Sixteen
“What is wrong with you?”
Colby’s voice broke into Sparx’s thoughts.
“What?” Narrowing his eyes on his second in command, he grunted. “Nothing.”
So far, he’d been able to somewhat pretend that things were unchanged, and that was how he intended to continue. Everything was normal. Completely normal.
“If you say so,” Colby mumbled barely loud enough for Sparx to hear. “Warlord Matrix is waiting for you in the command center.”
Sparx turned around and began walking in that direction, knowing that the healers would be able to speak with him at any time versus Matrix who most likely would need to leave for Gunninng sooner rather than later.
“He has requested quarters be readied for him.”
Colby’s words made Sparx stop in his tracks and frown.
“Where would you like us to place him?” Colby asked, waiting for Sparx to continue walking before he began again. “We have extra quarters readied off of the kitchens—”
“No!” Sparx snapped shortly. “He can have one of the smaller rooms off the storage caves.”
“But why?” Colby asked, his expression one of confusion. “Those halls are much colder than the areas that we’ve already planned to keep warm for the females.”
Sparx didn’t have to wait long for Colby to understand why he’d wanted Matrix given a room so far from the center. The other warlord had already interfered enough. Granted he had been helping instead of hindering; however, Sparx still wasn’t about to place him next door to the females they’d received.
“Oh.” Colby nodded. “I’ll have the men put fresh furs in one of those rooms and let Warlord Matrix know of your decision.”
“I can let him know myself,” Sparx said as he pushed through the double doors that led to the command center. The men bustling about inside acknowledged his entrance with a small bow.
“Go about your business,” he said, nodding for them to
