" For a tick there was only her weight, her warmth, and relief.
And then everything came back: the crush of people in the transport vessel, their silence as they stared, Isae and Cisi strapped in near the nav deck. Cisi gave Akos a smile as he caught Cyra around the waist and picked her up. Cyra was tall, and far from dainty, but he could still carry her. For a while, anyway.
“Where are your medical supplies?” Akos asked Teka and Jyo, who were coming toward them.
“Jyo has medical training; he can take care of her,” Teka said.
But Akos didn’t like how Jyo was looking at her, like she was something valuable he could buy or trade. These renegades hadn’t rescued her out of the goodness of their hearts; they wanted something in return, and he wasn’t about to just hand her over.
Cyra’s fingers curled around the armor strap on his rib cage, and he shivered a little.
“She doesn’t go anywhere without me,” he said.
Teka’s eyebrow lifted above the eye patch. Before she could snap at him--which he got the sense she was about to--Cisi unbuckled herself and made her way over.
“I can do it. I have the training,” she said. “And Akos will help me.”
Teka eyed her for a beat, then gestured to the galley. “By all means, Miss Kereseth.”
Akos carried Cyra into the galley. She wasn’t completely out of it--her eyes were still open--but she didn’t seem there, either, and he didn’t like it.
“Come on, Noavek, get it together,” he said to her as he turned sideways to get her in the door. It wasn’t quite steady on the vessel; he stumbled. “My Cyra would have made at least two snide remarks by now.”
“Hmm.” She smiled a little. “Your Cyra. "
― Veronica Roth , Carve the Mark (Carve the Mark, #1)