Chapter 17
Blair
The first floor of The Crucible was designed to look like an upscale French restaurant. The crystal chandelier overhead was working overtime, casting prisms across the white linen and silverware, but the mood of our table? About as bright as a black hole.
Probably didn’t help that my date was still tied up in the seat across from me. I thought they’d release Osid once we were dismissed from our little therapy session, but apparently not.
Couples sat in perfect harmony at the other tables, their bodies frozen in midair.
Some of them were human, while others were Sankado; all of them were smiling or laughing, yet it felt deeply unsettling, teetering on the edge of uncanny valley.
Smooth, almost-too-perfect skin, eyes that glistened unnaturally with no light behind them, and expressions that felt rehearsed rather than genuine.
Even their poses were stiff and practiced, like marionettes waiting for the puppet master to pull the string.
Then came the voice over the loudspeaker.
“Subjects 12 and S 52, welcome to The Crucible. You are now on Floor One, where your journey through the Biodiversity Conservation Initiative’s relationship-building simulator begins.
Your first trial is designed to simulate the experience of a first date.
Traditionally a social engagement between two individuals in which they explore each other’s personalities—”
“We know what a damn date is!” I snapped.
The voice paused briefly, and a whirring sound came through the speaker, as if it was fast-forwarding.
“In this trial, your task is to engage in conversation, share experiences, and foster an emotional connection. The optimal conclusion to a first date is a kiss, which symbolizes mutual attraction and the potential for future romantic development. Completion of this task will allow you to proceed to the rest area before you begin the second trial on the next floor. You have two hours. Bon appétit.”
With a final chime, the voice cut off, and the couples around the room came to life. All of them chatting in hushed voices I couldn’t quite make out, like they were speaking from another room.
The bindings restraining Osid clicked and fell to the floor in a loud thud. Once freed, the unrestrained king shot up from the chair like his ass was on fire and immediately started tearing apart the makeshift restaurant, looking for a way out.
“Let me out of here now!” With a roar, he shot a blaze of fire at the locked door, causing it to go up in flames.
Instead of the telltale smell of burnt wood and victory, his efforts were rewarded with the sight of a metal wall behind the door before tiny pixels repaired it back to its former state.
In a rage, he picked up a chair and threw it at another couple chatting amiably in a language I couldn’t understand.
It struck a potbellied man in the head and knocked the skin clear off his face.
What was left behind was a deeply unsettling-looking android with a bunch of tiny holes in his face like a wasp’s nest. More little nanobots shot out from those holes to repair the face back to the smiling man chatting with his date.
And I thought the uncanny valley look of their faces was bad enough. Nearly spitting up the water I managed to choke down, I turned to the king and asked, “Please never do that again. That was disgusting.”
“You!” I could feel the heat radiating off him when he stalked over to our table and hissed, “I will have you assassinated.”
“Mm-hmm. Sure.”
Osid invaded my space, towering over where I sat like he intended to eat me, bones and all. “You think I won’t after what you’ve done?”
Refusing to back down, I took his clenched fist and spread his fingers apart. I guided them around the skull tattoo on my neck. The heat of his palm licked my every breath.
I hated him. I wanted to fuck the shit out of him.
“Save us the trip and do it yourself.”
His fingers tightened, and I saw my own lust and loathing reflected back at me through his eyes. “I’d snap your neck if I could.”
“But”—I smiled, knocking his hand away—“we both know you can’t.
So quit your hissy fit and sit down. We’re not getting out of here like that.
” I gestured to his seat. “Tell me a story about your childhood or something, and I’ll pretend to listen.
With any luck, the doors will open after a few minutes of small talk, and we can get out of this creepy restaurant. ”
“We may not get out of here at all because of you,” he snarled. Yet still he pulled his chair closer to mine and sat like a good boy.
“All you had to do was release me before we were brought to this prison. Yet here we are!” He threw his arms out wide in mock disbelief.
He stilled, resting his elbows on his thighs.
Even when slouched, he was taller than me.
The beautiful bastard. “Why? Why would you doom us to the hard way out?” He lifted a fist and knocked on his head.
“Did you knock something loose when you fell from the sky?”
“Why what?” I crossed my arms over my chest and shrugged. “Why didn’t I free the psychopath who’s been chasing me through hell and high water and holding me as a political hostage the past week? Gee, I don’t know, it’s a real mystery.”
“I thought you were working with the general—”
“I’ve never seen that guy until you dragged me to him,” I yelled. Fury nearly choked me. “I’ve done absolutely nothing to warrant this suspicion. I even tried to tell you about Jivorn’s assassination attempt, and you just patted my head like an idiot and went on like nothing happened.”
He gave me an incredulous look. “Jivorn is the grand chancellor, the most trusted advisor in the realm. He’s served loyally under my father and then me for nearly thirty years. He’d never betray me.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Oh, my mistake. It must have been another guy getting ready to plow a spear through your heart when I saw you in that fire.”
Osid shook his head slightly, disbelief still clear in his voice. “The smoke must have clouded your vision. That fire was caused by bloated buttons, and the only place those bombs grow that we know of is in Bloodcry territory. If anyone was trying to kill me, it must have been them.”
“Or he’s working with them. Look, man, I’m not going to pretend to know or care about the political machinations of this weird bootleg planet. Don’t want to believe me? Fine. Just stay away from me.”
He drew back as if I had lashed out at him. “I can’t leave you be, we’re bonded—”
“Don’t give me that crap, I refuse to be bonded to a guy who throws a net over me and drags me off like some caveman or pulls me into some crazy-ass battle where I almost get my head chopped off.”
“You were always under my protection—”
“And what wonderful treatment I’ve been given so far. A whole cage of my own with fresh hay and three square meals a day. You know what? The boomers were right, my generation is ungrateful.”
“I acknowledged you as my wife the moment I knew what you were. How was I to know a strange alien was my Zhali from another world?”
“I saved your life, you asshole!” I pulled the chain of my necklace free. “Stare deeply into this Tamagotchi of hate. What you see is what you made.”
The door to the kitchen glowed a deep blue before it dinged.
A waiter walked through carrying a silver tray with two covered dishes on it.
He strolled over to us with a friendly but empty smile on his face before setting each tray down on our table.
With a bow, he walked back through the kitchen door.
Osid tried to follow him through, but an unknown force shot him backward, and he went crashing to the ground.
I picked up the cover of my tray to see, to my utter fucking delight, lobster pasta with cherry tomatoes.
Listen, alien abduction and questionable dating practices aside, I became a different type of bitch when faced with good food.
A happy bitch, to be specific. I didn’t know what restaurant the AI looked at to get this level of creamy Tuscan-spiced euphoria, but my compliments to the fucking chef.
Of course, because men ruin everything, Osid picked up my plate and threw it so hard at one of the fake windows that the chandelier shook, damn near causing me to drop my fork.
Frustrated, I picked up a dinner roll from the center of the table and threw it at his head. “Boy, will you stop with that destructive shit? You’re scaring the hoes. The hoe is me!” I reached over and took his plate. “And I don’t need you getting your aggression on my plate.”
“Why are you acting like I’m the crazy one?” He ripped the fork from my hand. “Stop eating this crap, it’s probably poisoned.”
I snatched it back. “Why would they poison our first date if they want us to get along? What purpose would that serve?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Are you this na?ve? If I had my enemies trapped in a room like this, every last bit of food would be poisoned.”
I stabbed a bit of lobster with my fork and swirled noodles around it. “You’re forgetting that we’re not their enemies. We’re their test subjects. Having us drop dead on the floor doesn’t really bode well for their breeding program, now does it?”
“You act like that’s any better, besides it could still be poison. Don’t eat that!” Osid snatched the fork from my hand, threw it on the ground, then stomped on it.
I shook a finger at him. “Wasteful man.”
My chair screeched on the tile floor as I shoved it back and stood. Grabbing up my plate, I shot Osid the bird before moving to a separate table. I shoved the android out of the chair he was occupying and spun his date around so I didn’t have to look at his weird uncanny valley face.