Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 58483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58483 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 292(@200wpm)___ 234(@250wpm)___ 195(@300wpm)
I give a small laugh. “I suppose I’m a little worried that nothing happened. Maybe I didn’t do it right.”
She laughs, but gently. “Would there be a better way to give someone a gift?” She squeezes my arm. “I will treasure it because it’s from you and from so far away.”
I wrack my brain. “Maybe I misunderstood what Leylah wanted. Remembered wrong.”
“All of us who have the sight have different gifts that manifest in various ways. The coin may have allowed Leylah to focus and distill her images. For me, it’s enhanced greatly by Zandian crystal.” She touches the collar at her throat, studded with priceless crystals.
“I’m sorry.”
“But for what? If she asked you to get this to me, you’ve more than fulfilled your promise. Taisha, think. You escaped, stowed away, survived dangerous missions, and have arrived millions of light years away onto a new planet, the one rock within the entire galaxy that welcomes humans as free. And you carried the coin, somehow, this whole way. And used it to gain us an ally. Isn’t that the amazing thing in itself?” She pulls up a stool and sits beside me.
“Perhaps Leylah only wanted you to treat the coin with importance so it could serve you well. Maybe the journey was the destination all along.”
“Do you think so?”
She shrugs. “Maybe it’s a key to friendship. Maybe it’s just a symbol to help bring beings together. She told you it was for me, but it was for you all along.”
I consider this. “That would have been very clever and tricky of Leylah.” But I can see it. I smile. “I miss her.”
“I know.” Lamira gives me a sympathetic look.
“I… when you said the crystals help your visions”—I bite my lip—“I don’t have visions, but sometimes I get little flashes?”
“Are you wondering if they are real?”
I nod, grateful that she understands. “I worry that I am not strong enough to bring them forth. That I’m not doing it right.”
“I think you worry too much.” She laughs, but her face is kind. “If you are meant to be a seer, the visions will come, in their time. Don’t feel the need to force it.” She pauses. “One thing I truly believe, though? If you are a seer, you will never need something physical and unique, like a coin, to trigger your visions. Because they come from inside.” She touches her chest. “So the idea that this old coin holds the power to your visions? Let that go.”
“That idea is very freeing. It’s like being out of coin jail.” I laugh loudly, relieved at her words.
She giggles along with me. Then she says carefully, “So, what kinds of flashes did you get?”
“I thought I saw Bayla’s human children.” I hold my breath.
She gasps. “You did?”
I nod. “But I don’t know if was true, or my imagination. And it was just the once.”
“If you see them again, come tell me. Perhaps I can help you.”
“How?” I’m eager to hear more.
“Oh, I have no idea.” She tilts her head. “Yet. But if you have flickers, we should work together, if we can. At least try.”
“I will.” I feel much better to have an ally in this.
“Tell me about your escape. Killing the guard with the toxin.”
“You know my story, then.” I use one finger to pull the coin across the table top so it sits just inches from the edge. It’s cool and remote, looking just as it did back on Romon-3. Well, just a bit shinier now.
“Just the words. You tell me the emotions. I know that’s the hard part.” I can see from her face that she’s sincere.
So we sit and talk, and share our stories, and little by little, I let go of my disappointment in the coin. I let our words and laughter bloom, and soon it’s clear: I have a new friend. I even confide in her about my intense night with Drayk. I know we’ve just met, but she’s so easy to talk to, and she clearly cares. She laughs and blushes with me when I disclose how he gave me so many orgasms I was almost sore the next planet rotation from all the pleasure.
As I rise to leave, Lamira gives me a satchel of fruit. “Take these home with you.” She smiles. “Share them with that tricky Zandian of yours.”
“Like he deserves that, after what he did.” I snort. “And he’s not exactly mine.”
The answer is automatic, although he sort of is. After the explosion in the lab and our equally dynamic night together, where he was both masterful and tender, things changed. Nothing was said outright about a union, but I’ve never felt more connected to him.
What she says next, though, changes everything.
“How far you’ve come with him since that mixed-up start, right?”
“How do you mean?” The look on her face, sort of jolly and “told you so,” confuses me.