Maddie placed a hand over her heart as if touched. "Honey," she told Jade warmly, "that is the most romantic thing anyone has said to us in at least an hour."
Jade's brow lifted by a hair, but the princess held her composure.
"We do not need padding," Maddie added, her eyes sparkling with ruin. Then she tilted her head at Phei. "Do we, honey?"
Phei turned and kissed her quickly on the lips, a swift affectionate kiss that managed to be both reassuring and provocative because he had long ago become offensively good at those.
"The faster and more dangerous," he said as he turned back to Jade, "the better."
Jade's gaze flicked once to Maddie, then returned to him, and if she judged either of them for being two attractive lunatics standing in a palace of machinery and asking how to make a death missile less safe, she gave no sign of it.
Maddie then leaned up and whispered something into Phei's ear.
His expression changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
