Honor Among Thieves (The Honors #1)(32)

But as we opened room after room—many of them self-sustaining experiments and lab facilities—we finally stepped into mystery.

It made no sense to me when I walked into that vast space. It was the last thing I expected to find—a glittering sea, lit from below in slow, rolling pulses of iridescent light.

“I—” My voice failed, and I looked at Bea. “What the hell is this?” The room was dark, warm, and humid. “Please tell me it’s not your stomach.”

“I don’t eat food,” Nadim reminded me. “I eat starlight.”

“Then tell us it isn’t your bladder,” Bea said, which made me nearly choke on a laugh.

“I understand what you mean, but it doesn’t apply.”

“Then back to my original question,” I said. “What the hell is this place?”

Nadim seemed amused. “Zhang Chao-Xing was an Olympic athlete, did you know that?”

Of course I did. I’d been subjected to the brain-numbing retrospective vids in rehab. She’d been an Olympic . . . swimmer.

“It’s a pool,” I said faintly. “But how . . .”

“She had a special request. I arranged it. Don’t worry, the water is exactly like what is found on Earth. I can make it fresh or salt. She preferred fresh water for the pool.”

I went to the edge, crouched down, and dipped my fingers in the water. It was warm as a bath.

“Do you swim, Beatriz?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, and sounded brighter now. She knelt next to me and touched the water. “I used to swim in the ocean. We would pack up the whole family, bring lunch, and I’d bodysurf with my brothers while my mother and grandmother slept in the sun. It’s been years since I’ve been. This is so beautiful!”

Nadim said, “It can be much more so. Beatriz, is it all right if I show you the stars?”

She took in a deep breath. “Not yet. I just need a little time.” She let out a shaky laugh. “So stupid! I studied for this. And yet when I look out there, I feel so . . . so lost.”

“You aren’t,” Nadim said. “I can navigate a very long way. Even if I can’t see the stars, I can hear them. Does that make you feel better?”

“I . . . suppose,” she said. “I’ll try tomorrow. Okay?”

“Yes, Beatriz. Do you mind if I show them to Zara?”

“Go ahead,” she said. “I’ll . . . be in the hall.”

She retreated, and I stood. “You already showed me the stars,” I told Nadim.

“Not like this.” He sounded smug and a little delighted. “Look up.”

I did.

The entire vast roof seemed to vanish. It was just me, the glimmer of the water, and . . . depthless black shot with stars. I should have felt dizzy, I suppose; I should have felt overwhelmed and terrified.

It was the most magical thing I’d ever seen. I sat down, then sank flat on my back to stare. The joy that moved through me felt like the purest thing I’d ever known.

“That’s my home,” Nadim whispered, and I felt how he felt. What had he said about me? Warmth and the taste of stars? Like that. I could almost hear those stars now, a high singing that pulled at me, pulled. . . .

Nadim’s voice came again, sharper. “Zara?”

“Yes?” I felt dreamy. Floating. Everything was warm and wonderful and perfect. The stars were closer. Louder. Echoing in my head and my blood.

“Stop!”

That snapped me back to reality, in a hurry. I sat up, and now I did feel dizzy, and small, and incredibly insignificant. Cold. I felt cold.

“Stop what?” I demanded. I had an edge in my voice too. Something that wasn’t quite a word whispered through the air between us. “I don’t understand!”

“That was . . .” He didn’t seem to quite know how to say it. “You were . . . you saw . . .”

“It’s okay when you pick at our feelings, but not when I do it to you?”

“Yes.” Nadim still sounded very odd. “I realize that’s wrong, but—no one has ever done that before. Reached so deep. I’m not sure—”

“You’re not sure you like it,” I finished. “Fine. I’ll stay out of your head, you stay the hell out of mine. Deal?”

“Yes.” His voice had no emotion to it at all. Just sound.

The stars vanished overhead, and it was just a room, just water, just the taste of my own disappointment.

I stalked out into the corridor and found Beatriz. She looked at me funny. “What?” I snapped.

“You had a fight,” she said, and smiled. “With an alien. That’s quite a first day.”

I shrugged like it didn’t matter. The truth was, I was still reeling from that rejection; it shouldn’t bother me since I’d been looking at people’s backs for as long as I could remember.

“Yeah, well. Pissing people off is kind of my superpower.” Nothing in my training had prepared me for wriggling into a Leviathan’s thoughts. I didn’t know how I felt about it— Wrong? Ashamed? Afraid? Maybe all of that, and yet it had felt so right at the time. Beatriz didn’t seem to get to Nadim like I did, so why . . . Maybe it’s the surgery that fixed my headaches. That little piece of Leviathan DNA. I might be tuned to Leviathan frequency now or something. It would explain a lot. That was . . . terrifying and exciting in equal measure. Did it make me strong in this place, or weaker than ever?