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“Yes. I’ll be fine. I feel completely back to normal. I’m sure the headache was a response to all the reading I did.”

I press a kiss to her forehead, inhaling the scent of her hair. My scent on her. A deep satisfaction rolls through me realizing that even when she’s clean, she still smells of me.

“Okay. I need to go down to the training center for a session with Mydax if you want to get cleaned up.”

“Okay. I’ll go find Hyva and ask him about a fitting for the lenses.” She sits up, her long dark hair spilling over her shoulder and down the arm she braces herself on. “What time are we going back down to the surface?”

I fill her in on the plans as I stand and dress, loving the feel of her eyes on me as I do so. When I turn and find her heated gaze still on me, I smile slowly, prowling to where she still sits in the center of the bed. I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear and press a chaste kiss to her lips.

“If you keep looking at me like that, we won’t be leaving this room today.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” she says, her voice thick with promise.

I step backwards, so I don’t dive back into bed with her. “Don’t tempt me, female. I’ll let Hyva know to expect you.”

CHAPTER26

NEEV

* * *

Cuna reaches the med bay just before me. They give me a nod in greeting and halt just outside the doors, gesturing for me to enter first. I haven’t had very many interactions with the chief engineer, but from what I understand, they’re amongst Raiz’s most trusted officers. If Raiz trusts them, I have no reason not to as well.

Hyva glances up from his desk as we walk in, his smile widening even as his eyes rake over me in a clinical sweep. “How are you feeling?”

I hand him the cold wrap. “Better. This really helped.”

“Good. I’ll have several sent to your quarters.”

“Thank you.”

“Anything else of note to tell me?” One of his brows lifts slightly.

“No. Just the headache.” I appreciate that he and Raiz are keeping my episodes to themselves. From what I understand, not even Hyva’s closest assistant knows about it. I’d like to keep it that way, if at all possible.

“Great.” His gaze moves from me to Cuna. “Did you make the adjustments we talked about?”

“No.” They toss a small box to Hyva in a move belying their annoyance at being questioned.

“No need to get sassy.” Hyva catches the box and pats the end of the bed next to him. “Hop up, Neev.”

I do as he says and watch him as he opens one side of the box and pulls a small lens out of the saline solution. He sets it on his fingertip and turns to me.

“Have you ever seen these before?” he asks.

I shake my head. “If anyone on Oculus Nine needed corrective lenses, they were just given glasses, like I was for eye strain. Or they had corrective surgery.”

“Unfortunately, what these can do for you I’m not sure surgery could. Not only will they give you perfect night vision like ours, they will also act as your glasses did.”

Cuna watches quietly, their eyes falling on my neck briefly.

“Do they just go right on my eye?” I ask. They’re shaped as though they would fit over them.

“Yes. Do you want me to apply them, or would you rather do it?”

“I will.”

He sets the lens on my fingertip, and I walk over to the mirror. In order to get them onto my eye, I have to pull my eyelids out the way. As soon as I get it properly placed, I feel it suction to my eye with the slightest pop. The other eye takes a few more tries than the first, but eventually I feel the same little pop as it settles into place. I blink several times, my eyes watering at the feel of a foreign object covering them.