With great care, I craned my neck around the bridge door to see if the coast was clear. She had her back to me. But then she spoke.
“I’m afraid my patience has worn thin. You’ll need to be more forthcoming with me.”
I jumped back, heart stuttering in my rib cage, even though it was impossible for her to have seen me, been addressing me. The captain had hailed someone else. I used the opportunity of her new distraction to dart past the doorway. Once on the other side, I couldn’t help but continue to listen in.
“I’ve tried being nice, but now the Olympus is breathing down my neck, and—”
A loaded pause.
“Blackmail is a strong word. Think of it as a business opportunity. We can discuss more in person. I’m nearly done here.”
The conversation was clearly wrapping up, so I made haste to slip away. I knew my aunt could be stone cold, but I never imagined she’d resort to petty blackmail. If she caught me, who knew what she’d do? Returning to the maintenance hold, I found my heart beating unnaturally fast. Between the emergency with Evgenia and my aunt’s suspicious calls, I was on edge. Then it got worse. The communications channel was still open and on speaker, so I got a full stream of Elliot and Klara’s conversation.
“You did not!” Klara shrieked with laughter.
“I absolutely did! Stripped off right there and jumped into the freezing water.”
Elliot naked where and how? Now there was no way I could turn off the comms.
“Totally sober?”
“One hundred percent,” Elliot confirmed.
“Why would any ship want to simulate snow, ice, freezing water? We came all the way up here just to avoid that.”
I could hear Elliot shrug in his suit, mic picking up everything, even the way his glasses clinked against his helmet. “They say it’s a way of staying connected to their roots. It’s a tradition. When you come of age, you jump into the freezing water naked. Everyone does it.”
“But I’d wager most of them do it full of vodka. You just enjoy getting naked; admit it.”
I could practically hear the wink in her tone. Klara was flirting with him, hard.
“I wonder how much time we have left.” That was Elliot again. Klara’s reply came a moment later.
“I can’t believe I never took you out here with me before. You were here the whole time, but we never really hung out, socially.”
“I don’t expect princesses to hang out with the help.”
“You weren’t the help,” Klara was quick to correct him, and now the flame of rage warmed my insides. Just a few weeks ago, she was stubbornly referring to him as the valet! “Besides, you’ve changed a lot since then. We all have.”
“You haven’t.”
“Is that a compliment or an insult?”
I wanted to know as well. Elliot remained coy.
“I hear you’re looking for a husband. That’s new.”
“I have my eye out, but I’m not looking too seriously. I have high standards.”
“That I knew,” Elliot said, tone annoyingly neutral. Was that about her advice to me? Idle flirting?
“And what about you?” Klara volleyed back. “Tell me what you’re looking for. Maybe I can help.”
There was a long pause, some heavy breathing that I thought was Elliot.
“Doing pirouettes to escape my line of questioning, huh?” Klara laughed.
“Just enjoying our time out here.”
“Hmm,” Klara hummed, then grunted. Whatever she did impressed Elliot.
“Showoff.”
“I’ll start you off!” Klara said breathlessly. “You want someone tall.”
“Or short,” Elliot countered. “No preference.”
“Blond?”
“No preference.”
I hated that I couldn’t see them, couldn’t read his body language. Also, was it just me or was Klara describing herself? The next adjective did nothing to dissuade me of that notion.
“Beautiful, of course—and don’t you dare say ‘No preference,’ you liar.”
“I’m not that shallow,” Elliot defended himself. “I care more about who someone is. Their personality. I want someone practical and kind and smart and funny and loyal—”
“You want someone like Leo.”
My heart shot up into my throat. Elliot said nothing. Klara let him hang. I checked the timer. They had less than a minute before the automated system would pull them back.
“If you think I want Leo, then why are you flirting with me? You’re her cousin; doesn’t that violate some kind of code?”
It was maddening how he didn’t actually answer her question, but I pumped the air with my fist at how Elliot threw her flirtation back in her face. He saw it as well as I did—the hypocrisy.
Klara didn’t respond right away, and I could only imagine her sour expression. But then she hit back. “You said yes to her sister at speed dating; isn’t that violating some kind of code?”
The system started to beep, cutting off whatever reply Elliot might have had. It was pulling them back in. Hastily, I switched off the comms speaker so they wouldn’t know I’d been eavesdropping.
I plastered on a smile as twin spacesuits came into view of the airlock.
“Have fun?” I chirped once they’d touched down on the deck and the airlock had closed.
“Oh, yes,” Klara said, shaking her long hair loose from her helmet.
“Where’s Evgenia and Carina?” Elliot asked.
“Evgenia got sick,” I said, moving over to them to help them out of their suits. “Carina took her down to our quarters.”
“She didn’t vomit in here, right?” Klara wrinkled her nose.
“Uh, no.”
“We should go check on her,” Klara said, suddenly curiously concerned with Evgenia’s well-being. Elliot paused, brow wrinkling.
“Wait, someone needs to go out with Leo. It’s her turn.”
He spoke to Klara about me like I wasn’t standing right there.
“I’m fine,” I interjected. “You can go. Don’t worry about me.”
“See? She’s fine.” Klara grabbed Elliot by the arm and tugged him toward the door.
Yep, I was totally fine. With the way Elliot allowed himself to be led away, with how he’d utterly failed to read the disappointment on my face. He used to be so good at reading me, and now . . .
I was left to silence.
My feet carried me, up from the console, through the open safety partition, and over to the window. I stared out into space, black and sparkling. I wanted to scream into the vacuum, feel my lungs burn, the sound dying before it left my throat.
But, no, I wasn’t going to wallow in self-pity. I came up here to space walk, and so that’s what I would do. I didn’t need anyone to go with me, let alone Elliot. With that, I programmed the system for ten minutes to start once I manually triggered the outer airlock, then went inside the bay to get ready.
I did find one benefit to tandem spacewalking—having someone else to help you into your spacesuit was a boon. It took me ages to climb into the bulky costume, contorting myself to find the zipper to close myself in, struggling to bend over to retrieve the helmet. And as I was half bent over, I realized I’d left the second suit in the middle of the floor. I’d have to secure it to the wall before I could go anywhere. Just as I was trying to gain purchase with my awkwardly gloved fingers, there came a rapid tap, tap, tap on the glass behind me.