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Cover Reveal!

Writer's picture: Lacey St. SinLacey St. Sin

Happy Friday readers! I hope that everyone had a good holiday, relaxed, and maybe got some reading done *wink wink. Today I'm excited to give you all a preview of the finished cover for the fourth book in the Amber Aerie Series: The Dragon's Assassin, courtesy of cover artist Clarissa Yeo at Yocla Designs!



And for those of you waiting patiently every week, here is the next chapter of Needing Cassidy.


CHAPTER 7


It turned out the bathroom wasn’t that difficult to clean, it was almost as obsessively sterile as the rest of the building. Cassidy spent a good amount of time, getting in the nooks and crannies around the sinks and the odd seat-tube that passed for a toilet.

Fortunately, she was no stranger to high cleanliness standards. Both of her jobs had insisted on it, and the touch of anxiety that ran through her every night when she came home to the overcrowded, mess of a trailer reinforced it.

Now, sitting in the little room that had been designated as the ‘lab’, Cassidy bent over a piece of alien equipment. It was cube like, for the most part with various slots and shelves, the control panel Tor had brought up had enough options and links to give her a nervous breakdown.

She tapped at the blue indicator that would, somehow, draw the test sample they were using into focus.

“No, that’s too far. See the lens filtration adjuster? The setting must be moved minutely or you will lose definition. And if you go to far the bio light will destroy the tissue and the Mag-lens won’t read anything. Reverse the density,” Tor told her, looking over her shoulder. He was crowding her a little, probably worried about how she was treating his precious cube. But his nearness was making her nervous.

What was it he said? Cassidy hesitated, her fingers above the controls. Oh man, she was in way over her head. She purposely avoided his intent gaze and moved her fingers, slowly to the red flashing indicator at the top right of the screen.

“...what...you aren’t understanding me at all, are you?”

She pulled her fingers back. No, she wasn’t, but she hadn’t wanted to ask him to repeat himself. A girl could only handle looking stupid so many times…

“Alright,” the calm level of his voice surprised her. She had expected an insult, or impatience at the least. “Let’s go back to the beginning.”

She eyed him suspiciously.

He looked back at her, his face far too near, expression serious.

Huh. Okay.

She moved the stool she sat on to the side so that he had access to the cube as well.

He strode over to a shelf and gathered a box from it. “These are some samples that I prepared earlier. I’ve already analyzed them, so should they be destroyed by accident it won’t matter.” He pulled out a glass prism and handed it to her.

It looked just like the prism he had coached her through preparing from her tree samples earlier.

“Put it in the access portal,” he urged.

This was too easy. Why wasn’t he yelling? Or asking why she was so stupid? Or something.

Not wanting to push her luck too far she pressed the button that would release her tree sample and replaced it with the one that Tor gave her. Then followed his directions, step by step, only failing once, when he reached for the controls and guided her hand to the correct part of the screen.

She ignored the spark of awareness that suddenly had her body on edge.

“See the rounded cells that have formed spread out masses?” he pointed to the display screen.

Sure enough there were blobs of pinkish stuff, like paint splotches. They were blurry, but they were there. She nodded.

“Let’s adjust the lens, for now you can drag your finger up along here,” he showed her the defined area that would change the focus. “Once you get closer to the ideal focus then you will tap at the top here, and it will change one unit at a time.”

Cassidy did as he said, first changing the focus rapidly and then, when the image started to clear, tapping the top until it was in focus.

“Stop,” Tor urged, just when she had decided she had gone far enough.

Well. That wasn’t too hard.

“Now it gets more complicated,” Tor pulled a stool next to hers. “We go through the analytics. Let’s start with the most simple bacteria.” He showed her the buttons to press, each selection needed a second or more to process and when the image on the display didn’t change he moved on to the next.

“From here we can run tests that will help us narrow down the options. There,” he pointed. “We didn’t even have to go through the entire set. See those darker spots, two concentrated dots connected to one another?”

Cassidy looked back at the screen. Sure enough the image was the same, except now groups of dots, in sets of two were highlighted a deep purple. They had been there before, she was certain, but had been lost in the miasma of tissue. Now they stood out.

“What are they?”

“This is a sample of a patient’s blood. Those smaller dual cells are called ridatchia, a bacteria common here on Callaphria. Generally it causes round swollen masses at the infection site that can be quite painful, but are easily treated. Of course the Mag-lense only gave me an idea of the general family of bacteria, once that is determined there are many other tests to narrow the scope down farther. Though, in this case it didn’t matter since the treatment is all the same,” green eyes peered at her, assessing if she still followed.

Okay. That wasn’t too difficult.

Tor nodded, satisfied she was understanding now. “Let’s look at your sample again.”

Obediently Cassidy switched the samples, resetting the cube to its original parameters. The second time through the process was easier, though she stopped a little too soon leading Tor to give the screen a few extra taps.

The picture was vastly different from before. Green, as it was a sample from one of the infected leaves, it looked like a miriad of holes lined up into neat rows and surrounded by the squares that were the plant’s cells.

Tor said nothing, just waited next to her patiently.

Carefully she tried to mimic the next bit.

“That’s right,” Tor murmured, and she squashed the urge to look at him again. He was inches away, watching the screen and the controls carefully. “Now we wait.”

In the end it took much longer to go through the cube’s procedures than with Tor’s sample. It was nearly two hours later when the machine finally bleeped and something on the display changed.

Cassidy jumped at the sound. It hadn’t made a sound before, had it? She leaned over, looking at the display, Tor crowding in as well.

“Huh,” he grunted.

“The Mag-lens doesn’t know what it is. It’s bacterial, see how it was able to highlight the cells?” He pointed. Sure enough there were several clusters of tiny red cells lingering within the leaf structure. If she looked closely she could even see the damage they had done, the cells around the clusters more disorganized the walls broken in places.

“What does it mean?”

Tor shrugged a little. “Only that the Mag-lense wasn’t programmed for plant infections and cannot identify them specifically.”

Dammit.

Cassidy deflated. Well. There went any hope she had. For some reason she had assumed that the advanced technology of the Livarians could provide the answers, maybe even a treatment. It was hard to remember, sometimes, that they were working with a fraction of what they had once been capable of.

“Well,” she sighed and stood, ejecting the sample from the cube. “Thanks anyway, Tor, I really appreciate your effort.”

Those green eyes blinked at her. “That’s it? One setback and you’re giving up already?”

“I’m not going to magically identify this disease out of my head.”

“There are many files in the database. Millions, in fact. Certainly there would be information on your plants. The diagnosis only takes a little digging.”

“That would be super helpful if I could read Livarian,” Cassidy told him. “But by the time I’m capable of that, whatever this is will have spread and we might have no orchard at all. I was right the first time, we need to cull all the diseased trees and burn them.”

That answer didn’t appease Tor, if his frown was anything to go by.

“What?” she asked when his attention became uncomfortable.

“What if I help?”

Cassidy stared. What the hell had gotten into the medic?

“Stop looking at me like that,” he demanded, the surly tone she was used to returning.

“It’s just...I’m starting to think that you want me to stay…”

Tor huffed and turned back to the cube, fiddling with the control that was now useless, since the sample was removed. “Yes...Well...there are several more storage rooms that need attention. Do you want my help or not?”

Cassidy smiled. “Yes, yes I do.”



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Lissa Rothgeb Loiselle
Lissa Rothgeb Loiselle
Dec 31, 2021

Happy New Year! Enjoying the story so far... Thanks Lacey!

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megolas96
megolas96
Dec 31, 2021

Happy New Year! Love the boo cover and love the budding relationship between Cassidy and Tor! I always wondered if he got a gal ☺️

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