Chapter 678: Awkward Silence

For several minutes, neither Sabrina nor Amunet said much of anything.

Sabrina sat on the edge of one of the chairs in Amunet’s room while Amunet stood near the window, and every attempt at conversation seemed to die after two or three words.

They had already exhausted the easy subjects, the weather meant nothing when they were literally on an alien world, and talking about Grey felt strangely dangerous when both of them knew exactly why the other woman was here.

Sabrina finally sighed.

"Does he always randomly disappear like this?"

Amunet glanced back.

"I thought I’d actually get to spend some time with him," Sabrina continued. "Then I look away for five minutes and he’s just gone, and nobody seems to know where the hell he went."

Amunet’s lips curved.

"Yes."

Sabrina stared at her.

"That’s it?"

Amunet chuckled and turned away from the window. "He’s almost always gone somewhere, though by now I’ve learned that if nobody knows where, he’s probably doing something important enough that we’ll eventually hear about it afterward. Probably from something exploding."

She paused.

"Usually it’s something that decides whether we’re all alive or not tomorrow."

Sabrina sighed again and leaned back into the chair.

"I still can’t imagine that."

"What?"

"Grey running around everywhere like his hair was on fire. I can’t imagine that lazy guy doing anything like that."

Amunet’s brows rose slightly. "Grey was lazy?"

That got a real laugh out of Sabrina.

"Extremely. He never did homework unless someone forced him, always found the easiest possible way to do everything, and I honestly think he would’ve been perfectly happy sitting in a rocking chair between MMA fights if he could’ve figured out a way to feed himself doing that."

Amunet looked genuinely surprised.

"He talked about becoming an engineer sometimes, mostly when he saw something and decided whoever designed it was an idiot, but even he knew he’d never actually go to school for it. Too much sitting in classrooms, too much boring shit before anybody let him touch the fun stuff."

"Then what would he have done?"

"Professional fighting, probably." Sabrina shrugged. "At least until the media eventually dug up all the illegal fights he’d been taking part in since he was a teenager and ruined his career."

Amunet stared at her for a moment.

Sabrina’s smile widened.

"What?"

"I am attempting to reconcile this person with the Grey I know."

"Good luck. He’s never made any real sense anyway. Not even to me."

Amunet fell quiet again, though this time the silence wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable. She had known Grey as many things, most of them difficult, frustrating or ridiculous in their own way, but lazy had never made the list.

Eventually, she asked the question that had been sitting at the back of her mind.

"If he truly was all of those things, why did you like him?"

Sabrina’s expression shifted slightly.

Amunet looked away before continuing, almost as though the rest was easier to say when she wasn’t watching Sabrina’s reaction. "For me, it is understandable. Grey is valiant, extraordinarily intelligent, and he displays both qualities quite frequently."

Her mouth tightened.

"And though I have never cared to admit it aloud, he could be handsome in the runway model sort of way if he didn’t dress like a homeless man everywhere he went and think running his hand through his hair constituted a hairstyle."

Sabrina snorted.

"So that’s your type?"

"That wasn’t my point."

"I know."

Sabrina leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees while a knowing smile slowly worked its way onto her face.

"For the same reasons you do."

Amunet frowned.

Sabrina didn’t elaborate immediately, though in her mind the answer really was that simple. The Grey Amunet knew and the one Sabrina remembered hadn’t changed nearly as much as everyone seemed to think.

He had always been lazy when nothing mattered.

He had always cheated his way around pointless work, always looked for shortcuts and always complained whenever anyone expected him to care about things he had decided weren’t worth caring about. But when something actually mattered, when someone needed him or when there wasn’t anyone else willing to step forward, Grey had always been the one who did.

Sabrina smiled faintly.

"He’s exactly the same."

Amunet looked at her.

"The circumstances changed. He didn’t."

Sabrina’s gaze drifted toward the doorway.

"So no, I’m not surprised he’s apparently at the front of Earth’s whole survival problem now. That’s pretty much the most Grey thing that could’ve happened."

The door slammed open.

Grey came through it at speed, slid several feet across the floor and stopped with one foot braced behind him.

Then his lip twitched.

Amunet stared at him.

Sabrina stared at him.

Grey slowly looked around the room.

This was Amunet’s room. Why the fuck was Sabrina here?

The increasingly murderous look forming in Sabrina’s eyes seemed to be asking him the exact same question.

Grey coughed. "This isn’t what it looks like."

Sabrina’s eyes narrowed. "Oh yeah?"

Grey immediately regretted speaking.

"What does it look like?"

He cleared his throat. "Anyway."

Amunet covered her mouth, trying to hold back a laugh. She needed to learn how Sabrina kept Grey so in line. There had to be a secret here.

Grey pointed between them, pointedly ignoring the snickering.

"Both of you, dress pretty. I’m taking you out tonight."

They both blinked.

"By tonight, I mean tomorrow, actually."

Then he turned and disappeared through the doorway before either of them could ask another question.

Silence returned and they stared after him.

"I don’t have any clothes," Sabrina suddenly said.

Amunet glanced down at what she was wearing.

"Neither do I."

Sabrina’s eyes slowly brightened. "Let’s go shopping. I’ll get L."

"I’ll get Elowen," Amunet said. "It is probably time all of you became properly acquainted anyway."

They both stood.

For the first time since Sabrina entered the room, the awkwardness between them seemed to vanish completely, replaced by something far more dangerous.

The two women headed toward opposite sides of the palace, both smiling. And yet, in both pairs of eyes, a quiet fighting intent had begun to burn.