“This is the first time we’ve been apart,” Lucy announced with a grimace. From her guesstimate, he’d been gone a little over an hour. “We’re kind of testing things out, now that things have calmed down. The healers said that as long as it’s not for an extended amount of time, I shouldn’t have any side effects. Just that if I start to feel bad, it’s been too long and I need to find him.”
Rue shook her head. “I still think that’s fucking crazy. I mean, this mating stuff makes us actually sick. Like sick, sick,” she repeated. “What would have happened if he hadn’t come to you? I mean, what if he died or something?”
Lucy gasped at the suggestion, her chest immediately tightening. The mere thought of it was enough to take her breath away.
“Fuck, Goose.” Rue stood up when Lucy put a shaky hand to her chest. Her bestie held her arms out, asking for a hug. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even think before I opened my mouth.”
“It’s okay.” Lucy leaned into the comfort of her friend. “Apparently, even the idea of losing him—Jesus Christ, it hurts to even think about it.” Letting out a cleansing breath, she shook her head.
“Well…gee,” Rue said, her lips twitching slightly. “You make all this mating stuff sound so amazing. I can’t wait for my day to come.”
“Shut up, brat.” Lucy pushed her away with a chuckle. “What are you wearing tonight? Sparx said a crew was coming in from the mines, so you know what that means?” The end came out in song as Lucy fluttered her hands excitedly.
“Yeah.” Rue slumped back into the chair and covered her face, ignoring the enthusiastic jazz hands Lucy was still throwing. “I’m going to have a whole bunch of weirdos sniffing me all night.”
“They’re not weird,” Lucy protested, while mentally admitting that some of them were maybe a little weird. “Okay, not all of them are weird. They just haven’t been around women before. We have to cut them a little slack.”
“Oh.” Rue snorted. “I cut them plenty of slack. Just ask Colby what I did when Bitters asked me if I wanted to shave him.”
“Oh God.” Lucy’s imagination ran wild with the possibilities of what her ball-busting friend may have said to the scraggly looking miner that seemed to get on everyone’s nerves. “Did you kill him? Is he still alive?”
“You have Colby to thank for that miracle. He got him the hell away from me by telling him that Sparx had an errand for him.”
At the mention of her mate, Lucy looked down at her watch—only to see the Phaeton band and no watch.
“Ugh,” she said, dropping her head back. If this thing took her vitals and tagged her location, why in the hell couldn’t it tell her the time again?
“What’s wrong?” Rue asked immediately, a little bit of her momma bear coming to the forefront as she leaned forward and eyed Lucy.
“Ummm,” she hedged, not sure if she should be totally honest and possibly worry her friend—or play it cool and not borrow trouble. Sparx would probably spank her if he found out she’d lied about feeling ill—and it wouldn’t be the fun kind of spanking either.
“Goose?”
“I’m starting to feel weird, and I have no idea what time Sparx was supposed to get back.” The blurted confession was only out for a split second before Rue was in action.
“Where’s he at? How do we find him?” Rue asked, popping up and out of the chair with more energy than Lucy had seen her display in a while. “What? Don’t look at me like that. You’re not getting sick on my watch.”
“I didn’t say I was getting sick. I said I felt weird.”
“Girl, you looked like a character in a Rob Zombie film the first day we got here. You were sweating and pasty looking. I’m not going to lie and say I wasn’t worried when I was scared shitless. I ain’t taking no chances.” Rue grabbed her hand, tugging her to the door. “Where can we find your big guy?”
“I don’t know.” Lucy allowed herself to be led like a child until they stopped just outside of the door. Looking left and then right, she shrugged. “He said he was going to the command center, but I don’t remember which tunnel takes us there. You know me and my sense of direction.”
“Yeah, it’s awful.” Rue tapped her foot as she eyed the two directions. “If I were a command center, where would I be?”
“I do know that it’s in the opposite direction of the dining hall,” Lucy announced as she remembered that small bit of information. “Does that help?”
“That would be this way,” Rue said, spinning on her heel to point to their left. “Why was he going to the command center? I figured being the head honcho here meant he was the command center?”
“Another warlord has been running things while Sparx has been—”
“Running you?” Rue asked with a smirk, dodging the smack that Lucy shot towards her.
“Hardy-har-har.”
“Sorry.” Rue held out her hand for Lucy to continue. “Go on.”
She shrugged. “That’s basically it. Another warlord has been running things while Sparx was busy, and he wanted to talk to him. I’m guessing now that the heat has calmed down, the other guy can go home.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I appreciate everything you’ve done for Fyeir.” Sparx clapped Matrix on the back as he glanced over the most recent communication logs.
“You would have stepped in to handle Gunninng for me if our roles would have been reversed,” Matrix said with a shrug of his big shoulders before lifting a hand to touch the scar that ran down his cheek from the corner of his eye, past his mouth. “I remember a time when you did step in and handle Gunninng for me once already.”
“We were both new warlords back then,” he countered, remembering the incident that had required Sparx to step in and
