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He looked up to see Élisa looming over him from the other side of the magnetized barrier.

His heart kicked, but he maintained calm as he met her cold, accusatory gaze.

‘Reading.’

She did, given the twist to her lips. ‘What exactly?’

‘Poetry.’

Her irises dilated. Sharing eloquent passages about love and life had been one of the passions they’d enjoyed all those many years ago.

Her eyes flicked around as she tried to process how she felt about his confession.

‘You’re familiar with balladry?’ he rasped, needling her. ‘Sonnets derived from the human condition and its wellspring of emotion?’

She tossed her head. ‘Ifokkin’ know what ballads are.’

‘You just don’t know how to feel about them.’

Her voice was an arctic clip. ‘Stranger, I don’t feel anything about your reading. I came by with your meal, and seeing an old-fashioned book in your possession, I was curious.’

Damn, she was so bewitching, even when outraged.

He nodded, conceding the point. ‘They are rare in Pegasi.’

She narrowed her eyes at the volume that looked tiny in his oversized Ribau paws. ‘Where did you find that one?’

He was confident she would not recognize it as the same one he’d read to her years ago. Its cover was new, and the pages were ivory-colored from age instead of their former white.

‘A book master on Galicia restored it.’ He fudged his meaning, hoping she’d let its provenance go.

‘Would you like me to share a passage?’ he chanced, raising the book toward her while keeping his face innocent.

An even colder expression fell on her features, her eyes darting around as if a memory had been triggered. ‘No, stranger. Keep your words to yourself.’

She touched the control panel on the side of his cell, which led to a small opening in the barrier.

She placed a tray of food through it, gave him yet another enigmatic look, straightened, and left.

Her hip-rolling exit, although rushed, was ever more sensuous to Riv.

He guessed why she’d fled, and he smiled, for the language of poetry was one indefensible weapon.

Perhaps it’d form the basis for a salvo over the bow to get through to her.

5

Seven Thousand and One Nights

RIV

It didn’t take long before they slowed down.

Thrusters kicked in, and Glimmer’s engines whined as the gunship descended through an unseen atmosphere.

Only then did Riv sit up.

Mirage?