Lunar Alchemy by Stefon Mears

Lunar Alchemy by Stefon Mears

Author:Stefon Mears [Mears, Stefon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00


25

Trapped.

How could Father have found her so quickly?

Anna’s hands pulled at the five-point safety belts locking her to a chair that had felt deep and comfortable only moments ago.

Now it felt like quicksand, pulling her down. Her heart pounded and the air in the Third Son’s main cabin felt unaccountably warm, as though the huge, glowing red feather on the ceiling generated heat as well as light.

But Anna’s school training minimized her outside signs of stress. A trickle of sweat between her shoulder blades, but not a drop on her forehead. Breathing still slow and deep, despite the jangling of her nerves, because there were eyes on her in a public place.

A Lukyanova could feel fear. Fear had its uses. But none must ever see that fear. An early lesson from childhood grown into reflex over time and training. She could not even blush in a public place, not even under the leer of that awful Captain North.

Edmund didn’t leer, but his eyes kept coming to rest on her. They glanced everywhere, not just at the other passengers, as though the ship itself fascinated him as much as even Oolaut did. But still, as he sat in his passenger seat with effortless elegance, his eyes kept coming to rest on her.

Interested. She could tell. And he had the good looks and poise to go with what seemed to be a gentle nature. Anna rarely got to meet men like him, not at the kind of social events Father required of her. Under other circumstances, Anna would have smiled. Flirted.

But Father was here. This was no time for games.

Carl’s eyes were on her too. Not leering or flirting, of course, but not judging either. Not even gloating, which he had a right to do. He simply observed her, as he had no doubt observed the slight pomegranate scent to the air, a suggestion that Captain Barshai used gentle bindings for his air and earth elementals.

Maybe Carl studied her reaction, or her lack of any obvious reaction. Either way, he had watched her ever since Dola poked his head through the cockpit door and announced that they were landing again in response to a formal request from Alexei Lukyanov.

Why couldn’t Captain Barshai have been the space pirate he looked like? Then he could have flown off. Led Father on a merry chase, then a narrow escape and she could have been free once and for all.

Two days in Kennedy and no one she knew would have recognized her.

But no, Anna could not blame Captain Barshai for landing. He had to live and work here on Luna. He could not disappear as easily as she could. And Father could have run him out of business, perhaps even off of Luna entirely, with so little effort he might not have noticed he’d done it, except to take pleasure in crushing someone who defied him.

Anna had defied him. Publicly. No doubt Father looked forward to crushing her too.

Anna looked over at Oolaut. Those disc-like yellow eyes stared back at her, and she could not begin to guess what went on behind them.



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