Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
"I don't have nightmares," he says again in that blank voice.
"Sure, buddy." I pat his shoulder and lead him toward the bed. "Under the covers now."
"I smell," he confesses even as he gets into bed, as trusting as a child. "I'm going to smell up your house."
"You are, but I'll air it out in the morning. It's fine." He's also getting hay everywhere, but it can be swept up. I ease the blankets over his body and give him a little pat, and then I pull the spare blanket out of my trunk and lie down next to him with it. "Go to sleep."
Zhur is quiet for a long moment.
"I do not want to close my eyes," he admits in the darkness. "I do not want to dream it again."
God, I know how that feels. I fumble through the blankets, reaching for his hand, and I find it and squeeze it. I expect him to fling me away but he clings to my grip tightly. "You want to talk about it?" I ask.
"I cannot. I dare not."
"Then we go to sleep. I'm here with you, Hairball. It'll be okay. You're here on Risda with me. When you wake up it's just going to be barns and cheap shampoo, just like normal."
He manages a choked laugh, but I notice he doesn't let go of my hand. Well, I've slept through stranger situations than a big, reeking cat-man clinging to my arm. I give his hand another reassuring squeeze and drift back to sleep.
CHAPTER
THIRTY
ZHUR
How humiliating.
I wake up the next morning with the memory of my nightmares, Maeve awakening me, and the stink of sweat mingled into my fur.
I also awaken with Maeve's fingers entwined with mine, which is...less bothersome.
I glance over at her in the bed. She's turned towards me in her sleep, her hand still clasped in mine. Her cheek is squished against her pillow, her dark mane spread out around her, and she mumbles in her sleep. She looks very human and very peaceful, and these are two things that should irk me because I need to get up...but I am strangely reluctant to let go of her hand.
She was kind to me last night.
After all of our differences, all of our arguments, she did not shame me when she came upon me in the depths of nightmares. She awoke me and supported me. She brought me to sleep with her because she hoped it would help. She reassured me that the nightmares would eventually fade, and that I was all right. She made it seem like it was natural and not something to be embarrassed of.
I wonder what it is that she had nightmares about. Her abduction from Earth? All my life I have heard about the trendy human pets, and I've seen them enough times that looking one in the face no longer startles me. I've never owned one, but I've also never had any pets. It never occurred to me that someone like Maeve might not want to be taken from her primitive planet. That she would resent being torn from her home. I never thought about a human's feelings at all.
Now, I'm starting to get it.
With my free hand, I rub my brows, trying to push the dreams back a bit more. The nightmares were awful. I re-lived the realization that soldiers led by my brother were coming to the palace to take it by force. Of looking for guards to find that no one was at their post. That communications were down.
That no one was there for me but Uba. That he was the only one at my side, the only one loyal even as certain death approached.
Even now, just thinking about it makes my body tighten with fear. I hate feeling helpless and out of control, and watching on the feeds as a mob surged toward my stronghold? I was completely out of control. In my dreams, Uba doesn't rush me into a secret passage and reassure me that he's planned for my escape. In my dreams, he doesn't tell me that he'll send along credits and thirty trunks of my possessions, and in my dreams I don't escape with a slightly wild bounty hunter named Zebah who's been paid far too much to sneak me out.
No, in my dreams, I can't find Uba or the passageway. In my dreams, I'm searching for an escape, over and over, but I can't find it. All the while, the mob comes closer and closer, calling for my head.
I shake my head to clear it, because there is no mob. I am here, and I am safe.
Even if “here” is the arsehole of the universe.
My twitching awakens Maeve. She blinks awake, her gaze sleepy and soft, and her mouth curls into a smile as she looks at me. "You okay?"