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“What do you mean?”

“It doesn’t make sense that they’d just give her medication every day without ever telling her why. Now I have to figure out if her headaches are from not having the medication, or if it treated her headaches.”

“Do you know enough about human medications to look into it?”

“I know nothing about their medicines. Keep everyone on board healthy for the next few days while I research.”

“What do I do with her in the meantime?”

“Keep a close eye on her.” He looks at the monitor showing all her readings. “Everything looks good now. She’s okay to leave.”

He stays behind, already beginning his research while I walk out into the main room. Her eyes are closed, the fringe of hair that grows along her eyelids fans out over slightly purpled skin. I move to place my hand on her arm but stop just before making contact. I have to stop touching her.

“Neev.”

Her eyes flutter open at the sound of my voice. She blinks a few times and pulls herself into a sitting position. “Am I good to go?”

“From med bay? Yes.”

“Good.”

She tosses the blanket that’s covering her off and swings her legs to the side. Her legs are bare from mid-thigh down to her bare feet. Altis clearly didn’t think to grab her shoes. The floors are clean on the ship, so I’m not concerned for her safety in the hall, more so just for her comfort.

But as I watch her stand and begin to walk toward the door my worries for her comfort seem to be misplaced. She moves like she’s on a mission. In fact, her speed is the quickest I’ve seen so far, not that I can’t easily catch up.

“Bet you’re having second thoughts about snatching me up, aren’t you,” she says when I fall in step beside her.

“Not at all. I did want to apologize for earlier.”

Her pace falters. “What do you mean?”

“For mind walking without your consent first.”

“Why would you be sorry about that? You did it to help me.”

“Yes, but it’s an intensely personal thing to invade someone’s mind like that. I could have seen things you wanted to be kept private.”

“Did you?”

“I didn’t see anything but you.”

“It’s unsettling, isn’t it? That void of anything within my head.”

“How long has it been like that?”

“Forever.”

“And you get stuck in there?”

“No, never like that. Whatever the Order gives me always stops me from having those types of episodes.”

Walking beside her while I’m fully dressed in my uniform and she’s in only her night clothes makes her feel fragile beside me. A protective need claws at my chest from inside me. I fight it back with logic and reason, reminding myself that no matter how small, how soft, how lovely she is, she’s still just a tool.

My mission is greater than the need for a female in my bed.

Which is why I bite back any questions or further conversations with her. She’s nothing more than means to an end for me. I wait by the door to my quarters as she disappears inside and then go straight to the training center. Even if I can’t spar, I can guide others.

* * *