Roan was quiet for a second, and a moment later, the sound of a pod stopping to hover in front of us made me jerk away from him.

I blinked a few times at the bright yellow, double-capacity pod. I almost didn’t believe it was there. “You called a cab?” They traveled on tracks above the human-driven vehicles and had a sharp fee as a result.

“I think we’ve had enough excitement for one night. My treat.”

As we sat down in the cab, that smelled way too much of body odor and cheap booze, I wondered how long I could actually keep hiding. My heart-shaped face made me look all too much like a female Aunare. I wasn’t as tall as their women—they were six feet at a minimum, and I was five feet, seven inches. But if the shape of my face didn’t give me away, the size of my eyes might. They were a little too big. Thankfully, I had my mother’s light brown eye color instead of the brighter shades of Aunare blues and greens. Still, if anyone looked too closely, they’d know I was a halfer.

Roan took out a small case from his pocket. He carefully opened the lid, pulled out the fingernail-size device inside, and flipped it on. Now we could safely talk. The tiny piece of tech would disrupt all video and sound recording that SpaceTech mandated for every public transportation vehicle by adding static to both feeds so that our faces were now blurred and anything we said would come out as unintelligible hissing.

“Are you okay?” Roan said, breaking the silence.

My breath shook as I released the air I’d been holding in. “That was too close.”

Roan pulled me into his chest, squeezing me tight. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have rushed through the light. And I really shouldn’t have climbed the light pole. My flirting almost got us killed, and I’m so fucking sorry. I just… That was so iced. Seriously, Maité. SpaceTech Police Force never does that. They never stop people on the street. They have bigger problems and they—”

“I know.” That wasn’t the point. That wasn’t why I was freaking out. “How much longer do you think I can keep hiding? Really. I mean, let’s be honest here. It’s only a matter of time before I do something wrong or someone notices. I can’t change what I am. I’m terrified that—”

Roan pulled away and grabbed my face. “You won’t get caught.”

“You don’t know that.”