"To me, you are," Graydon said. "You're what? Fifty? I'm nearly two hundred of your years."
"I'm thirty-nine," he snapped.
Graydon made a less than impressed face.
"Somehow I don't think you’re helping your case." Kira leaned toward Jace.
He shot her a dirty look. "In the eyes of humans, I'm considered a mature adult."
"Try middle-aged," Kira said with a wicked smile, touching on the phrase he'd carefully avoided using.
Jace snarled. "I'm not middle-aged. I have years to go before I'm considered that. I haven't even had kids yet."
Kira blinked, surprised. Jace had grown up an only child of only children and had lost both parents in the early part of the war. He'd always talked about the family he'd have one day when the war was over.
"Better get on that," Kira told him, keeping her voice light. "You don't want to be chasing them around when you're an old man."
Amila leaned forward, her gaze curious as she stared at Jace. "You're really forty years old?"
"Thirty-nine."
"It's one year, Jace. Just get over it," Kira told him.
"It's an important year," he said stubbornly, trying for dignity and failing.
"That's right, boss man," Nova called. "You hold onto your thirties as long as you can. Once you hit forty, it's all downhill from there."
Kira bit her lip to keep from laughing as Jace's shoulders bowed, the man's words hitting him where it hurt.
As much shit as they were giving Jace, he was right. He wasn't quite middle-aged. With health advances from the last century of space travel, humans now lived to be close to a hundred and fifty years—longer if they could afford the anti-age boosters. Jace was at least four decades from retirement and considered to be in the prime of his life.
"How old are you?" Pare, one of Graydon's oshota warriors, asked Blue.
"Twenty-six."
Pare choked as several of Graydon's people stared at Blue with wide eyes.
"What?" she asked.
"You're a child," Amila said in a hushed voice. She turned to Jace. "How can you let a child serve in such a dangerous position?"
He started to defend himself before giving up and shaking his head.
Kira took pity on him. "Blue's not a child. She's considered a full adult."
She might be considered an adult now, but when she'd attached herself to Kira's team fourteen years ago, she had been a child in truth.
Blue had learned the hard way—war spared no one. Not even children. The only way Kira had known how to protect her was to show her how to fight and keep her close.
It'd worked out for Blue. The tactic wasn't as successful for others.
"None of us have anything on the Grandma over there," Raider said with a curl of his lip.
Kira didn't react to the statement or the barely veiled dislike there.
"You're what, sixty-five?" he asked.
"She's ninety-two," Graydon said, not pausing as he strode down the hallway, leaving the rest of them staring after him in surprise.
Kira hurried after him. "How do you know? I thought you didn’t know who my parents were."
"I didn’t. Not until Liara confirmed you were a first cousin. She only has one—a girl, stolen days after her birth. If you're her cousin, as Liara believes you are, it would make you ninety-two," he explained.
"Damn Phoenix, you're so old," Blue said.
Kira didn't respond, her expression pensive as she followed Graydon. If he was right, it meant she had lost more decades than she wanted to think about in that awful place from her childhood.
Roderick stepped to the side and gestured inside a room. "This is your wing, Lord Graydon. The Overlord felt it would be best to keep your people together."
Most of Graydon's oshota filed inside, leaving Graydon and Amila outside waiting with her. The Curs followed, Raider pausing beside Jace as he shot him a questioning look.
"I'll be there," Jace said.
Roderick frowned at Kira. "You're this way."
He led her away from the others, the twisting halls and stairs confusing. He gestured at a door.
Kira stepped inside.
"The Overlord hopes this meets with your approval," Roderick said tersely. He didn't wait for a response, stalking off without another word.
Graydon watched him go with a frown. "If you need anything, call for Amila. She'll stay out here for now."
Kira grunted, wandering around the large sitting room. It was roomy. At least ten times the size of her ship's entire living space.
High ceilings overhead contributed to the airiness of the room. It was decorated in shades of white and subdued neutrals, as if the Luathans were afraid colors would destroy their calming palette.
A wide bank of windows led out onto a stone terrace.
The warm tones of wood furniture saved the space from being stark. It was a welcome relief from the whites and faded blues.
Jace peered around, his eyebrows climbing. "It's a lot of room for just you."
Kira glanced back, noting Amila standing sentry outside the door as she and Jace drifted through the room, exploring.
Kira headed further into the suite, moving toward an intricately carved wooden door. She opened it and ventured inside to a bedroom out if a dream. A large wooden sleigh bed dominated one end of the room, framed on either side by tall rectangular windows. The bathroom was easily half the size of the bedroom with a large tub that could have fit ten people.
She'd certainly say this for her cousin's people—they sure knew how to live comfortably.
If this was how they treated unwanted guests, what must their normal quarters be like?
"Nice room," Jace said from the archway.
Kira glanced at him but didn't respond beyond a nod.
"If you ever told me I'd be standing in a place like this back then, I would have checked you for drugs," Jace said, glancing around. "It's unbelievable. Hard to believe first contact ever mistook them for unadvanced."
Kira hummed in agreement.
"I'm sure you want to get settled. I'll send someone by in a bit to check on you," he said, moving toward the door.
Kira fought to keep her silence, but in the end, she couldn’t let him leave without a warning.
"Jace, be careful,” she called. Her face was grave as he looked at her in question. “This place is beautiful, but I have the feeling its also deceptive."
Jace arched an eyebrow at her. "You know something?"
"Not for sure," she said. "But if I was you, I'd watch what you discuss with your squad."
Awareness filled his eyes as he caught onto her meaning. He glanced around, suspicion creasing his forehead. "Did Jin pick something up?"
"Nothing definitive, but their technology is way more advanced than ours," Jin said. "Just because I can't find it doesn't mean it isn't there."
Jace studied the two of them with a somber face. "You don't think you're being a bit paranoid?"
"If the situation were reversed and our people thought they could get away with it, they'd have this place wired from one end to the other. You know they would."