Saving Verakko: The Clecanian Series Book 3 by Victoria Aveline (books to read for teens TXT) 📕

Relief washed over her, and she let out a chuckle, shaking her head. “Well, you succeeded. When you told me you could smell my…” Lily’s face flamed as she realized what she was saying. Why would she bring up the fact that she’d gotten aroused and that he’d smelled it? Not the time, Lily!

Verakko’s gaze on her darkened, nostrils flaring. His tongue, slightly more pointed than a human tongue, ran across his full lower lip. Lily’s heart picked up speed, and she darted her gaze around the camp, looking for any way to redirect the conversation.

“Let’s play a game,” she blurted, hastily clearing the leaves in front of her. With a stick, she drew a rudimentary checker board.

Verakko popped some meat into his mouth and followed the progress of the stick skeptically. “What game?”

Lily rolled her eyes at his suspicious tone. “It’s not like I’m asking you to play Russian roulette. It’s just checkers. It’s a board game I used to play with my dad when we had free time.”

She collected a pile of husks she’d discarded after cracking the guren and instructed Verakko to break up a twig into twelve small pieces.

Lily explained the rules of the game to a comically serious Verakko. Then made the first move. He stared at the hand-drawn board like it was a the most complex strategy game he’d ever encountered. She bit her lip to keep from laughing. Someone is competitive.

“My mom hated checkers,” Lily mused while Verakko continued to concentrate on the board. “She said it was the poor man’s chess.” He reached out to move a piece, but then froze and pulled his hand back. “It’s not like we could’ve found chess pieces in the forest, though, right?”

Verakko glanced up at her briefly, irritation clear in his glowing eyes. “You’re trying to distract me.”

Lily cocked her head and pursed her lips at him. “No, I’m making small talk while I lose a year of my life waiting for you to make a move.”

The corner of Verakko’s mouth twitched upward, and he moved a piece. “Do you miss your parents?”

“In a way I do. But we weren’t very close.” They took their turns as they talked, a pleasant ease settling between them. “Despite what you’ve told me, I’m still holding out hope I’ll be able to see them again one day.”

Verakko stilled while placing a stick segment in an unwise square and leveled a somewhat confused look at her. He frowned, and his eyes glimmered with pity.

Lily chuckled. “You’re so quick to assume things will never change, I see. You said a Class 4 planet is labeled Class 4 because they haven’t traveled far enough into space yet. Well—” she looked down at herself pointedly, “—I’d argue that if enough human women are found on your planet, that means a good many of us have traveled into space. And even if that isn’t enough, who knows…” Lily shrugged. “I mean, if me sitting on this planet playing—” she moved her piece hopping over two of Verakko’s, “—and winning checkers against a blue alien I’m somehow the same species as isn’t proof that anything is possible, I don’t know what is. Also, if we are the same species, then shouldn’t we technically be classified the same?”

Verakko’s furrowed brows softened a tad, and a thoughtful smile curled his lips. He stared at her like he was admiring a beguiling painting, the meaning behind which he couldn’t quite articulate.

Lily’s face heated, and she glanced away. She moved a piece into place, forcing Verakko to jump it and leaving her goal spot open for the taking. “King me!”

Verakko muttered something under his breath and topped her bit of husk with another.

“What about your family? Do you see them much now that you live in another city?”

“I used to see my father often, but he died a few years ago, and my mother is very busy.”

Lily’s heart clenched at the brief wince she saw on his face. “I’m so sorry. How did he die, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“He chose it, in a way. Most Clecanians take a medication known as the elixir. It extends our lives many years past what’s otherwise natural, but a few people choose not to take it. He wanted to live in the way he believed the Goddess intended and let nature take its course.”

Lily remained silent, not sure what to say. Although her heart ached for him, Verakko seemed more or less at peace with it.

“Queen me!” he exclaimed, grinning and revealing his even white teeth and fangs.

“It’s ‘king me,’” Lily corrected, laying another small stick next to his piece.

“Not in my city.” He shook his head and stared at her again, his playful gaze settling on her lips.

She focused on her next move and attempted to quell the butterflies in her belly.

“We have a figure like your Crockett,” he said suddenly.

Lily glanced up and found him still watching her. “Oh yeah?”

“Daera.” He nodded. “When the city was first settled, she explored the desert, taking note of the plants and animals she found. There are many tales about her, but at the end of her life, it’s said she wandered so far that she found the crystal mountains at the edge of the desert. The sight was so beautiful that she knew she wanted to rest there forever. She begged the Goddess to protect her body so she could always see the mountains, then she covered herself in a shroud and laid down to sleep. When a Swadaeth finally found her, he said it looked as if a thousand lightning bolts had hit, burning the sand and encasing her in glass, perfectly preserved forever, facing the mountains.”

“Wow,” Lily remarked, resting her head in her hand. “Have you ever