The walls of the aerie felt too close, oppressive. Giels’ study felt even more so, a velvet and crystalline trap. The heavy desk he sat behind had a careless scattering of diamonds and sapphires on it, the largest one almost the size of a fist. The lamp cast Giels’ face into shadow.
Marcus stood just behind her, his presence reassuring and nerve-wracking all at once. A day ago Giels had given her Marcus. He could remove him just as easily.
“Enjoy your little outing?” Giels’ chair creaked as he leaned forward. “I presume you’ve finished. You certainly took long enough.”
&n
bsp; “Not yet.” Sunniva struggled to keep her voice steady as she outlined her work on the sensors, taking refuge in technical details. She’d made sure her jacket was still on, covering the mostly healed burn on one arm and the lack of mesh on the other.
Giels frowned. “Enough,” he said, after a few minutes. “Let’s talk about why you found it necessary to nearly kill someone I went to a lot of trouble to train.”
Sunniva’s stomach lurched. How much did he know? And how?
Giels glanced over at Marcus. “Perhaps I missed something.” His tone made it quite clear that it was most unlikely.
Surely, if he knew everything, he would have sent the lizardforms sooner. If he knew only when and how the opal had activated –
“During the last installation a human child was playing at the site,” Sunniva said. Would Giels check? Could he? “I needed to stop Marcus attacking.”
Giels considered her with cold hatred. “You countermanded my direct order.”
At least he hadn’t challenged her lie. “You’re right. I should have asked for help. I need to consider the wishes of the clan.”
“So you admit you aren’t capable of doing so.” Giels sat back. “I agree.”
It felt as though she’d given away something important. Sunniva bit her lip. She wanted, desperately, to know if she could carry on with her work.
“Give me the opal.”
Sunniva stared at his outstretched hand. Her dragon’s hackles lifted, making the back of her neck crawl. Marcus stood next to her, impassive.
“I need a bodyguard to leave the aerie.”
“And you shall have one.” Giels snapped his fingers. “I can summon you two lizardforms. As you originally requested. I need this human intact for the meeting, and I want you to have the best chance of completing your project without any — distractions.”
No. Sunniva’s thoughts ran round her head in panicked circles. Her dragon snarled, an almost audible vibration. You can’t have him.
Sunniva took a breath to steady herself. “The human has been helping with the installations. I’ll be safe with the lizardforms, but I won’t finish before the council meeting. I’ll be careful.” She made it as matter-of-fact as possible.
Giels swung his head towards Marcus. “Is that true?”
“I have some relevant experience.” Marcus sounded perfectly polite, but Giels’ hand tightened into a fist as he spoke, and his eyes gleamed with malice.
“Filthy saboteurs. Fine. Keep him until you’ve finished. If he attacks any other humans, don’t stop him. In fact, take him for a stroll back to his village if you have the time. Otherwise I don’t want to see either of you until the meeting.”
He hit the table for emphasis.
Sunniva gave Giels a half-bow and murmured a polite goodbye, relief flooding through her.
Back in her workshop, she stretched before digging her fingers into her scalp, wincing when she found a couple of tender spots.
It was late, and she still had to work on the matrix. She looked over at Marcus.
“Relevant experience?”
Marcus shrugged. “More destructive than constructive. Mainly I follow orders from wiser individuals.” His eyes met hers, with that increasingly familiar electric shock of contact.
“I don’t want to order you,” she said slowly. She didn’t. She wanted shared desire, not compulsion.