Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
"That's not on the table yet."
He rubs his hands together. "Are we negotiating, then? Diplomacy? This is something I excel at."
Somehow I have my doubts. "This is just for talking and breakfast, nothing more."
"Until we agree to more, yes." Zhur sounds far too eager about that part. Well, if he tries to kick me out or won't leave when I tell him to, I'll go straight to the Port custodians. I'm the one with all the power here. He needs to realize that.
We head inside, and once the breeze is gone, I smell him. It's amazing how fragrant one person can get sitting in the corner of the barn, but damn. He stinks. Zhur reeks of barn animals and sweat and musty hay. As he follows me inside, I notice pieces of hay fall from his tangled fur that he was so darn proud of. He looks like his finger was stuck in a light-socket, because his white fur is sticking up in clumps everywhere. "You're a mess, if you don't mind me saying."
"I am in shambles," he agrees. "This is not the life I am accustomed to."
No shit. But his tone is fairly mild, so I don't snark at him. I point at the little table parked between my kitchen and the nook of my living area and indicate he should sit. As he does, I find my tea kettle and put it on the stove, giving up all pretense of the lies I used earlier. "This isn't exactly my home territory either."
"It's not?" Zhur sounds absolutely astonished.
"Uh, no. This Little House on the Prairie lifestyle is not my jam. I'm a city girl at heart." I glance over at him as I pull more roots out to dice and fry up in a skillet—kind of a sweet version of a hash brown with the texture of a fritter. It's one of the few things I can make for myself that I like as much as Simone's baking. "I know you're focused on how you were dumped here without your luggage and your money, but that doesn't make you special. Literally every single human on this planet was taken from Earth against their will and dumped on this end of the universe. We have nothing, and we had to start over."
My voice is growing bitter the longer I talk, and I chop disks of the root viciously with my knife, imagining it to be my kidnapper's heads.
Zhur is silent. Good.
"I think that's the big difference between you and I, and why I get so mad at you," I say to him. "The universe has taught me that I ain't shit. You think you still are. Hot shit, that is. And you haven't realized that you're just as fucked as the rest of us."
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE
ZHUR
My jaw drops at the way she speaks to me. She dares?
No one speaks to Heir Zhurrrvas this way. I am one of the most important males on Praxii Minor. My household is powerful. I—
Reality hits me. I was all those things. Now I am just Zhur, who lives in a human's barn. Zhur who has thirty trunks left somewhere with an untrustworthy bounty hunter who might not be back for months. I am at the mercy of a human who does not like me. And there is nothing I can do about it. I cannot complain to anyone on this planet. I cannot contact anyone back on my planet. I am nothing and no one and it is terrible.
Absolutely terrible.
The only thing I can do is hold my tongue and glare mutely at the female as she makes food in a pan. The food smells excellent, my mouth’s watering. I haven't eaten anything since that paltry bowl of soup she gave me last night. I need more food to fill my belly. I need a bath. I need clothes that fit. I need a servant that understands all of this and that can help me. Someone that is on my side.
I feel very alone at the moment.
Very filthy and alone.
"Now," Maeve continues. "I'm a nice person and I've been where you are before. When I was freed, Lord va'Rin's wife took me aside and helped me, and I'm going to do the same for you. Paying it forward, so to speak."
"I cannot pay anything," I point out, my voice thick with defeat. "We have established that."
She shakes her head again, scraping the food in the pan and flipping it. "You misunderstand me. That's just a human expression. Someone does you a favor, so you do a favor. Put the good back into the universe and all that."
"There is no good left in the universe," I say bleakly. "Evil has won."
"Oh my god, stop being so dramatic!" She turns and gives me an incredulous look. "You're worse than a teenage girl, and I know because I was one!" Maeve shakes her head at me and reaches for a few cups, all but slapping two of them on the table in front of me. "Do you know how to pour tea from a kettle or do I need to teach you how to do that too?"