Ari’s face crumpled, tears connecting the dots between his freckles. He petted at Orin’s face and hair like he was something precious. His soft touch hurt Orin worse than the ache in his arms. “I don’t suppose there’s much chance that you have another spouse hidden among the raiders?” His voice cracked and wobbled around the edges of his attempt at lightness.
Orin chuckled weakly, letting his face fall into the cup of Ari’s hands. “’Fraid not, sugar.”
Ari nodded absently as he catalogued Orin’s face with the same level of concentration Orin had seen him devote to his rocks. No detail left unnoticed under all that brilliance.
Ari wiped at the tears on his face and traced the line of Orin’s jaw with damp fingers.
“I love you,” he said, and it slipped over every inch of Orin just like silk, so smooth and so soft that it flowed right across all his ugly places, whispered over his jagged edges where he always thought it would snag and tear and get ruined.
It didn’t. It wasn’t ruined. It was right there, in those eyes. Huge and green and fair shining with the words.
“I love you,” Ari said again, like maybe Orin didn’t hear him right the first time. Like those words in that voice wouldn’t be ringing in his ears until his dying day.
Orin collapsed forward, pressing their lips together messy and soft and as sweet as he could make it with the taste of blood still in his mouth, whispering secrets like a cup spilling over with honeyed wine.
“Sweetheart. You don’t even know how much I love you. Adore you. Cherish you, baby. So much I can hardly breathe for all the love I got for you, filling up my chest with hearts and flowers and stars-be-damned poetry. Mixing up my mind ’til you’re all I can think of. All the time.”
Ari laughed, and the sound mended something in Orin’s bones, something cracked and aching for so long he barely noticed it anymore.
Orin was so light and lifted he almost didn’t hear the sounds of feet approaching.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ari shifted in place beside the door, trying to keep his broken cuffs balanced around his wrists, small blade clutched in his clammy fist.
Orin stood in front of the doorway, head down and knees bent like a bull about to charge.
Ari’s chest clenched painfully as the small grid on the top of the door slid open, revealing just a hint of glow from the raider’s bizarre teeth.
“Got a buyer already.” Glowing Teeth sounded upbeat, almost chipper. “You’re lucky Park’s crew was in the market for some muscle as well as a Doll for his house. Sounds like you’ll be kept together a little while longer, lovebirds.”
He opened the door noisily, a small bolt shimmying free from the scarred surface and bouncing on the floor with a metallic ping. The odd conical barrel of his pistol entered the room before he did, wavering for a moment before settling on pointing at Ari, the raider’s smug grin glowing Orin’s way.
Orin’s jaw clenched, acid glare burning into the raider’s skull.
Glowing Teeth stepped inside the room to reveal another man waiting silently in the doorway.
The man looked dangerous, dark eyes hard and flat in his rawboned face, black ink climbing over his skin out of every edge of his clothing like smoke escaping. Up his neck and down over his hands, strange patterns of intersecting parallel lines with small circles and hexagons and— And Hangul. There. Across his knuckles where he held a charged laser pistol at the ready.
Ari sucked in a breath so sharp he choked, coughing violently, grip tightening around the little blade in his hands as he stared up at his brother’s abductor.
It made a horrific sort of sense now. Hearing all of this talk of Ari’s value as a Core-born Doll, whatever that meant. Theo must be equally valued, and it appeared this Park was a slave trader, the lowest form of scum in the dark.
Ari could only hope Theo was still aboard his ship when Ari and Orin were brought on.
Orin planted his feet, muscles tight with determination. Ari shook his head frantically, wishing he could tell Orin what he had discovered. Orin’s face creased in confusion, but his stance relaxed somewhat, assuring Ari he was no longer preparing to charge.
Ari needed this man to lead him to Theo. This was his best chance, falling into his lap like serendipity holding a laser pistol to his head.
Park was arguing with Glowing Teeth now, deep voice spitting angry words in some language Ari had never heard before. Glowing Teeth shoved against his chest, but the man didn’t move an inch.
Park stepped back before calmly administering a swift kick to Glowing Teeth’s chest, sending the man scraping across the floor with a shout, wires ripping out of his arms and legs in a shower of sparks and fluids.
Park spat out another string of words in that language before Glowing Teeth held up a hand, scowling at his loose wires peevishly.
“Alright, alright. Like I give a shit as long as I get paid. You gotta load them up though, I’m not touching that huge Verge fucker again; he weighs a metric assload.”
Park turned directly to Ari then, something unreadable flickering in his hooded eyes. “Come with me. Both of you. Now.”
Ari followed him out, Orin right at his heels, already glaring daggers at Park’s back. If only they had a moment to themselves so Ari could explain what he had just discovered about their new captor.
Nausea rolled in his stomach, a terrible chemical reaction of excitement at the possibility of being reunited with Theo and absolute dread at the possibility he could already be gone. Sold off wherever this evil man did such despicable business.
They followed him out onto a small ship, only slightly bigger than Delilah but significantly older, exterior dented and scraped down into a rough patchwork made up of countless layers of paint and rust.
Park gestured to an emergency seat bolted into the dingy wall. “You, redhead, sit down and buckle up.” His gaze slid to Orin disdainfully. “Verge trash can sit on the floor.”
The doors shut behind him with a loud shriek of scraping metal as he left them there, engines thrumming underfoot.
Ari sat on the chair, buckling in as Orin sank onto the floor at his feet, shoulder pressed to the outside of Ari’s thigh.
Ari pulled a hand out of his cuffs, reached down to run his fingers through Orin’s hair, then held his head still as he leaned in as though to give him a kiss. Instead, he whispered urgently against Orin’s mouth, “This is the man I’ve been searching for, this Park. This is the man who took Theo; I’m certain of it.”
Orin sucked in a harsh breath, the rough scrape of scabbed-over lips pressing to Ari’s as he said in a quiet rumble, “So we’re just biding our time to see if he leads us to your brother?”
“Precisely.” Ari sat back up but left his hand to card through Orin’s hair. He braced him against his leg as the ship took off with a terrifying wobble and headed jerkily away from the raider ship.
Orin barked out a harsh laugh, scorn dripping from every word. “This asshole can’t even fly. We’re pulling to the aft from some piece of junk he’s hauling, and he’s not even correcting for it. Idiot probably couldn’t fly a paper plane on a rusted stick.”
Ari gave a tiny smile at Orin’s outrage, petting his poor, stiff shoulders as his mind reeled with the possibilities. Scenarios ran through his head one after another, ranging from the terrible to the sublime, layering over one another into a tangled mess.