Page 17 of Trusting Warik (Hissa Warrior #9)

Chapter 17

Nisha

It was many hours later before they were able to take a break. Shift sent the three of them off to rest, warning everyone that the next day would be just as hard.

Nisha’s body was exhausted, but her mind was strangely active and alert as Warik guided her to one of the bunk rooms. There were three bunk rooms on the station with multiple beds in each.

“This one is ours,” Warik said as he guided her into one of the rooms.

“I’m over here if you need me,” Malk called out from the room on the opposite side of the hall.

Warik or Malk had taken the time to secure two narrow bunks together for her and Warik to share. It was slightly bigger than the bed they’d shared on Valkavin, but there were only two pillows. She always needed at least two for herself; one to use and one to accidentally toss off the bed in the middle of the night. Frowning, she looked around at the other bunks for more pillows.

“If you don’t want to share a bed, that’s fine,” Warik said behind her.

Confused, she turned to face him. “Huh?”

Warik didn’t meet her gaze. Instead, he kept his eyes trained on her feet. “Ultimately, I’m in charge of this mission and through my actions, you almost died. If I were you, I wouldn’t want to be near me either.”

“That makes no sense,” she said, stepping forward. When he took a step back, she stopped. “Warik, you have to know that’s not logical.”

“I’m the one who agreed to Shift’s plan,” he continued. “I could’ve gone with my first plan, which wouldn’t have manipulated the environmental controls and caused the imbalance in the stabilization system. I’ve failed to keep you safe twice now. Once on Valkavin and again here.”

Right. This was a continuation of the blame party he, Malk, and Shift played earlier. Crossing her arms over her chest, she scowled at him.

“I stand by everything we did,” she said, interjecting as much authority into her voice as she could. “Your plan to storm and take everyone out by yourself while they were awake was reckless and dumb. If you got injured or worse, we would’ve rushed in to save you and all of us might’ve gotten killed.”

“No, you would be safely on the—”

She cut him off. “Do you really think any of us would stay back if you were in danger? Really?”

She was getting good at figuring out what he was thinking and feeling from the most minute movements of his facial muscles. Right now, he was trying to figure out how to deny her argument.

“No, you wouldn’t,” he finally agreed. It took a lot for him to admit that, so she softened her tone.

“None of us could've known about the stabilization system,” she said, feeling like she’d repeated the same phrase a hundred times to him, Malk, and Shift. “It’s not as if anything here is in excellent condition. This entire place is in a race to see which system will disintegrate first. In a way, it was lucky that I got caught in the blast.”

He finally looked up to meet her eyes, his expression incredulous. “Lucky! How could you say that?”

“Because I’m the only one who could be put in a grow vat and heal,” she answered. She reached up and tugged at her short hair. “Except for the pixie cut I didn’t ask for, nothing is different. I don’t remember the blast or any pain, only waking up disoriented. You or Malk would’ve died. So yeah, I think the outcome was lucky.”

Warik blinked. “I never thought of it that way.” He paused as if debating about saying something.

She gave him an encouraging nod of her head. “What?”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were Decanted?”

A big grin exploded across her face. “I tried to, but you were too busy explaining that it didn’t matter that I wasn’t Decanted, you were still interested in me.”

“That must’ve been annoying," he said, rubbing a hand over his head. “I’m sorry about that.”

“Honestly, it was funny,” she said with a little wave of her hand.

“That wasn’t a good time, but you could’ve mentioned it other times,” he said. “If you told us you were Decanted, we might’ve taken your information more seriously earlier.”

“I doubt that. You wouldn’t have believed me because I don’t have the scar so there would’ve been a lot of time-wasting tests,” she pointed out.

“Possible,” he agreed.

“You know I’m right,” she said. “Besides, it wouldn’t have changed anything about our relationship. I wasn’t sold into slavery, so I didn’t need to be rescued by the Hissa. I was raised by a loving mother in a stable environment. It seemed more important that you trusted me as a source of information than anything else.”

“I guess it didn’t matter for the mission,” he agreed. His tone clearly said he didn’t believe those words. Why was this an issue? Then something horrible dawned on her.

“Does it bother you that I’m Decanted?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. “You spent so much time assuring me you liked me because I wasn’t Decanted. Now that you know, does it change your opinion?” she huffed, feeling anger rush to the surface. “Humans on Earth tend to look at the Decanted as if we’re not fully human, but I didn't think you'd have that issue. If you don’t want sex with me again, that’s fine. It was fun while it lasted.”

Hurt, she tried to stomp past him. He moved to block the door and held out his hands to stop her. “No! I don’t care if you're Decanted or fully human! Please don’t leave. This all started because I thought you didn’t want to sleep with me anymore. You looked at the bed, frowned, and started looking around at the other bunks.”

Relief made a laugh bubble out of her chest. “Are you trying to tell me this stupidly heavy and emotional conversation happened because I was looking for another pillow?”

A slow grin eased across his face. “You wanted more pillows?”

She dropped her arms to her sides and nodded. “I like having several and the bed only has two.”

“You can have mine,” he said, stepping close. He opened his arms invitingly, and she stepped into his embrace. “I’m sorry. I’m having a hard time controlling my emotions. I promise to do better.”

“Or you could talk to me,” she said. “We both tend to jump to conclusions so instead, let’s try asking each other. Something like this, ‘Hey Nisha, why are you frowning?’ See how easy that is? Now you try it.”

“Hey, Nisha,” he said, copying her tone and cadence, “would you like to share a bed with me?”

“Sure, Warik,” she said, trying to make her voice low and gravelly like his. “That sounds like a great idea.”

You two are weird, Shift said, making both of them laugh.