Where are you?
Up top, killing ferals, I sent back.
A few minutes later, the steel door creaked open and she came out. I was halfway down the hill in the middle of a band of bog ferals, but I finished them off, then headed back up to join her.
She cocked her head, the lace in her eyes shifting from wide to thin as she studied me.
“How did you improve your cloaking so drastically in one day?”
I stopped a couple steps away from her and hooked my hands in my back pockets.
“I’ve been practicing,” I said, shrugging. “And Hungry Ghost gave me some pointers.”
“Now it’s telling you how to execute Spirit techniques?” Her dark brows scrunched down. “You shouldn’t trust that thing, Hake.”
I snorted. “Don’t worry, I don’t.”
“Giving you stuff all the time is a classic prison planet tactic,” she said. “Once you’re indebted to it, that’s when it’ll start asking for stuff in return.”
“Seriously,” I said, putting my hands up. “I’m not giving it anything.” Not now that I know it could take over my body whenever it wants.
She stared at me for a few more seconds like she was trying to get me to confess.
“Okay, good,” she said, relaxing.
In my head, I hoped she would do better at spying on the Technols than she did at interrogations.
“What have you been up to?” I asked, trying to get the scrutiny off me.
“Just got a departure time,” she said, holding her HUD wrist out like a watch. “The Technols are sending a transport for me in a few hours.”
“Today?”
She nodded.
I let out a low whistle. “That was fast.”
“I didn’t want to wait around,” she said, leaning against the wall and tucking her hand and stick arm behind her. “The sooner it’s over, the sooner I can get back...to other stuff I want to work on,” she covered hurriedly.
Geez. She was going to get found out Day One. I pulled my hand down my face, then held both of them out like Come on! trying to get her to see what a bad idea this whole thing was.
Kest glared at me to shut up and pointed down at her HUD.
“You really want to do this?” I swallowed hard, trying to think of anything I could say without giving her away. “What if it’s dangerous?”
“What they’re giving me in return is more than worth the risk.”
We stood there not talking for a while. It was awkward. I wanted to argue with her, but I couldn’t. Maybe she had stuff she wanted to say, too, but couldn’t. The rain slowed down and turned into a mist.
Sushi swam by, long spindly mosquito legs sticking out the corner of her mouth.
Kest snorted. I couldn’t help it, I laughed, too.
After a second, I took off the Parasite necklace and held it out to Kest.
“I didn’t use this today.” As far as I knew, anyway. “You should take it, just in case.”
“You could’ve used it,” she said. “That scythe would have let a ton of blood if you’d cut your opponent with it.”
My insides flinched, imagining what could’ve happened while Hungry Ghost had control of my body.
“I don’t think that’s going to be a thing I fall back on,” I said. “The blade is too big. It’d chop someone in half.”
She made an agreeing sound in her throat.
“I’d rather you have it anyway,” I said, bouncing the pendant around on my palm until I could see the mosquito inside better. “It’s not much, but it might help. Anyway, you could always sell it if you needed the credits.”
Kest frowned. “I would never sell something you gave me, Hake.”
That hit me right in the guts. I tried not to grin like an idiot.
“So, you’ll take it?”
She nodded. I handed it over. She fumbled with the clasp, metal stick fingers clinking. Her lips pressed into a thin line.
“This hand can’t do it,” she finally said. “The fine motor function isn’t advanced enough. Will you help me?”
“Sure.” I fastened the pendant around Kest’s neck, trying not to notice how she was staring up into my face the whole time.
When that was on, I leaned back against the wall next to her. She rested her head on my shoulder, so I slipped my fingers around her metal stick hand. The cinnabar wasn’t as warm as her skin, but it wasn’t freezing, either.
“That doesn’t bother you?” she asked, holding our hands up. “That you’re touching metal, not real skin?”
“No, I—” I stopped myself, face burning.
Kest frowned. “What?”
“I just realized what I was going to say, and it sounded like a total creeper.”
“Tell me anyway,” she said, shouldering me a little.
So I took a deep breath and blurted it out. “I just like to touch you. That’s what I was going to say. That I don’t care if it’s metal or skin because I like touching you.”
That shocked a giggle out of her. She slapped her real hand over her mouth. Lace faded into her cheeks, so at least I wasn’t the only one embarrassed.
“Exactly,” I said, dragging my free hand through my hair. “Creep city.”
“I wasn’t laughing because of that.” She turned so she was face-to-face with me and stared into my eyes. “I like to touch you, too. I just didn’t know how to say it.”
That made me a little lightheaded. I swallowed and tried to play it off like I wasn’t going ballistic inside. We were really close together, I realized. If I leaned down a little bit, I could kiss her.
As if she was thinking the same thing, Kest stretched up on her toes. She put her metal stick hand on my shoulder for balance, so I put my hand on the back of her neck. The stray hairs from her buns tickled my fingers. My heart pumped like it was going to explode through my sternum and blow my ribs out like one of
