by Kali Argent
She pressed her lips together in a thin line and stared up at him as her vision blurred with unshed tears. Her nose burned, and her throat tightened, forcing her to swallow roughly as she fought back the wave of emotion that threatened to consume her.
Her reaction didn’t go unnoticed.
Placing the last gel-pack behind her head, Xi took her hand again and knelt on the floor beside the bed. “I know it’s uncomfortable, but it’s not for much longer. Please don’t cry.”
But she couldn’t help it. He’d called her princess.
“I guess my first trip away from home didn’t go quite as planned, did it?”
“What do you mean?”
Wasn’t it obvious? “Well…I’m dying.”
“No,” he snarled. “I won’t allow it.”
Ah, there was the big brother she knew and loved. “We didn’t even finish the project.”
“You will. As soon as you’re better, we’ll return to Earth, and you can finish your work.”
“We?” She couldn’t have heard him right. Maybe she was hallucinating now, too. “You’ll go back with me?”
“Not just me,” he assured her. “Syrie and Osian as well. They’ve already agreed.”
It seemed impossible that just a few short weeks ago she hadn’t wanted any of them to accompany her. The news that her siblings were willing to abandon everything and everyone they knew for her was too much, and the tears she’d been fighting finally spilled over.
Xi didn’t comment on her emotional state as he gently brushed them away from her cheeks. Instead, he asked, “Why is it so important to you.”
There were a lot of reasons. It was partly because she felt honored that the king had asked for her help. Partly because she was a scientist who loved figuring things out, and the human fertility project was a puzzle she couldn’t resist. She also wanted to help all those females who so desperately wanted families of their own. Perhaps she possessed a touch of vanity, because it brought her great joy to know she was making a difference.
She was just too tired to tell her brother all of that, though, so she settled on the most important reason. “I wanted you to be proud of me.”
“I have always been proud of you.” He looked a little offended that she hadn’t known that.
“You never said.”
Sighing, he rested his elbows on the edge of the bed and pressed his forehead to their joined hands. “I know I’m irritable and stubborn and rigid. I don’t like change, and I’m not good with words. I’d rather say nothing than say the wrong thing.” He lowered their hands and met her gaze. “You’re the best of us all. Maybe we hold you to a higher standard, and maybe that’s not fair, but I know I speak for Syrie and Osien, too, when I say that we are honored to call you our sister.”
All this time, how could she have thought him so indifferent? “But you’re always yelling at me like I’m a child.”
He surprised her when he chuckled at that. “Jael, you are a child, at least you are to me. You’re always going to be my little sister, and I’m always going to be protective of you. I just don’t want to see you hurt.”
“You yell at me because you care?” She wrinkled her nose. “That’s stupid.”
He laughed again, the sound a little hoarse but pleasant, nonetheless. “You’ll understand one day, princess.”
“Since when do you call me that?”
“I used to call you princess all the time when you were a youngling.”
Ah, now she understood why he’d found it so humorous when Maacon had asked if she was royalty. “Why did you stop?”
“You told me not to call you that anymore because princesses couldn’t work in labs, and you were going to be a scientist.”
Stars, she didn’t remember that at all, but since she’d been a rather precocious child, she didn’t doubt it. “How old was I?”
“Nine.”
And for more than three millennia, he’d respected that request. “You can call me princess again if you want.”
He nodded slowly, and his smile chased away the hollowness in his eyes. “I’d like that. I love you. Don’t ever doubt that.”
“I love you, too, brother.” It was kind of sad that it had taken a tragedy for them to have the conversation, but she was glad it had happened.
“Get some rest, princess.” He released her hand and adjusted a couple of the gel-packs before standing. “I’ll send Luke in to sit with you.”
“Okay,” she mumbled, her lids already closing. “Thank you.”
When she awoke again, it was to the feeling of something warm and wet being rubbed over her face.
“It’s just me,” Luke said before she could even get her eyes open.
She blinked up at him and frowned. “Am I leaking again?”
Pulling the damp cloth away, he fisted it in his hands and smiled, but the expression looked strained and unnatural. “A little, but you’re as beautiful as always.”
“Liar.” It was a sweet lie, so she decided to let it go. “I’m sorry about your lab, neelum.”
Any pretense of calmness vanished as he snorted at her and dropped back in the chair he’d pulled up beside the bed. “I don’t give a damn about my lab, Jael. Hell, burn the whole fucking house to the ground for all I care.”
“You should sleep.” She wondered if her words sounded as slurred to him as they did to her. “You’re very irritable when you don’t sleep.”
Sighing, he leaned forward again and pressed a gentle, lingering kiss to her brow. “How are you feeling?”
“The same.” Which was to say she felt like she’d been run over by a glider, dragged through the deserts of the Western Isle, then dropped into a volcano.
“Any more seizures?”
She shook her head but stopped that nonsense straightaway when it felt like her brain might explode. “No, no more seizures.”
“Just hang in there, beautiful. We’ll be docking in about ten minutes.”
“I’m hanging.” Ten minutes sounded like an awfully long time. “Is Daisy okay?”
If he was surprised by the question, he didn’t show it. “She’s okay. Cami says the little beast ate another pair of my shoes.”
Jael almost giggled. Almost. “What’s going to happen to Nell?”
Luke took her hand, idly stroking his thumb along the inside of her wrist. It felt nice, but she also knew he was using the gesture to cover the fact that he was checking her pulse. Judging by the look of abject panic in his eyes, it wasn’t good, but when he spoke, his voice was steady.
“After everything she did, you’re still worried about her.” He snorted rather unpleasantly. “Tariq and Cami turned her over to the Alliance, along with the surveillance footage, her doctored notes, and your updates ones. Probably some other stuff, but I don’t remember.” He waved his hand. “There will be a trial, but there’s more than enough evidence to find her guilty on a whole list of charges.”
“Why?”
“Why did she do it?” He shook his head. “I don’t really understand it myself. No matter how far we advance in medicine or technology, there is just something fundamentally wrong with people like her.” He ceased stroking her wrist and squeezed her hand. “Don’t feel sorry for her, beautiful. She doesn’t deserve it.”
Jael didn’t feel sorry for her, but not because the female had tried to blow her up. Nell had betrayed Luke, and whether he would admit it or not, it had hurt him. For that alone, Jael could never forgive her.
“Tariq did a little digging,” Luke continued. “He found out that those elites Nell was meant to bond with hadn’t even known about the arrangement until the day they met her.” His laughter echoed around the room, and it lit up his entire face. “One of them is a neuroscientist, and the other is a robotics engineer.”
Jael didn’t get the joke until she remembered why Nell thought they hadn’t wanted to be with her. “So, it wasn’t because she’s smarter than them.”
“Not even close. They just thought she w
as a spoiled brat.”
She didn’t know exactly what a brat was, but then again, she was having a hard time concentrating. Her vision pulsed, dimming and brightening, the repetition making her queasy. A dull ache had started in her right arm, and sharp, stabbing pain exploded at the base of her skull.
Not wanting Luke to worry for her even more, she gritted her teeth and didn’t make a sound. She breathed deeply, willing the pain away, but even when it subsided enough for her to speak, she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.
Luckily, Luke never seemed to run out of things to talk about, especially not with her. “Out of curiosity, why did you suspect Nell in the first place?”
“Almonds.”
His scowl was kind of comical. “I think I’m going to need a little more explanation.”
“Vada is allergic to almonds.” She hoped that had made sense, because her voice had sounded thick to her own ears, and she swore her tongue had swollen to twice its usual size. “Allergic reaction.”
“Jael, open your eyes. Come on, beautiful, open your eyes.”
She hadn’t even realized she’d closed them, but she forced them open at his request. “Hurts.”
“I know, baby, but I need you to stay awake. Just a little bit longer.” He moved from his chair to the edge of the bed, easing down gently so as not to jostle her too much. “Tell me what happened in the lab.”
She didn’t want to talk anymore. She just wanted to sleep.
“Jael,” he barked, and his hand came to rest on her hip. “Stay awake. Tell me what happened in the lab.”
“Blew up.”
“That’s right. Officials said it was a chemical bomb. They also said you were lucky to survive it.”
“Magic,” she slurred. “Used it.”
“I figured as much.”
Thick, viscous moisture spilled from the corner of her eye and trekked down her face. “Am…crying?”
“No, beautiful. It’s okay.” He reached for the washcloth on the nightstand and used it to blot her face.
While he tried to hide it, she couldn’t miss the distinctive crimson splotches on the white fabric. “Luke…” Her hand opened and closed reflexively, her muscles seized, and her entire body began to tremble. “Die to want don’t I.”
“Shit,” her mate breathed as he rolled her onto her side. “You’re not going to die. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Breathe, baby, just breathe.”
“Approaching destination. Initiating docking sequence.” The mechanical voice echoed through the suite. “Please prepare for landing in twenty…nineteen…eighteen…”
“Do you hear that? We’re here. Less than a minute a now.”
The trembling turned into violent shaking, her eye started blinking uncontrollably, and her vision narrowed to a tiny pinprick of light. Her stomach spasmed, forcing her knees up toward her chest with the intensity of the cramps, and she cried out as her body contorted into impossible positions on the mattress.
“Jael! Damn it, don’t do this. Not now.”
“…nine…eight…seven…”
Her pulse raced, her heart knocking against her ribs so hard she feared they would shatter. Another twist of her stomach launched her forward toward the edge of the bed where she heaved twice, then vomited an extraordinary amount of crimson across the carpet.
“…two…one. Docking sequence complete.”
“Thank the stars,” Luke breathed as he pulled her into his lap and rocked her back and forth, clutching her tightly. “We’re here. It’s okay. We’re here. It’s okay.”
He chanted the words like a prayer, although they both knew her situation wasn’t anywhere in the vicinity of okay.
“I…love…you…”
“Don’t do that,” Luke snapped at her. “Don’t say it like a goodbye. You’re going to be fine, and when you’re better, you can tell me.”
Footsteps thundered in the distance, the sound growing louder, coming closer. She couldn’t say how many, but it sounded like an entire army was bearing down on them. Help was coming. It was so close now.
Jael inhaled deeply, then immediately choked and coughed. More blood sprayed from her mouth. Her lungs froze, refusing to take in any more air.
The bedroom door slid open. There was a lot of shouting. Someone called her name. Something was pressed against her lips, and a warm liquid trickled into her mouth, but her throat was too swollen to swallow.
More shouting.
Someone else said her name. They sounded angry.
Then, everything stilled.
The pain she’d fought for so long disappeared, and she felt weightless, euphoric. She saw nothing, heard only the beautiful sound of silence. It was glorious.
Smiling to herself, she let go and floated, content to slip peacefully into the unending blackness.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
A warm breeze swept across her face, bringing the familiar scent of the sea mingled with fresh zisa blooms. Songbirds heralded the morning, their voices cheerful and elegant but not loud enough to completely drown out the roar of the river.
Jael smiled. If this was death, it really wasn’t so bad.
“You’re not dead,” a laughing voice answered her unspoken question.
She knew that voice, knew it as well as her own.
Opening her eyes, she rolled over in the bed—her bed—and blinked against the silvery sunlight that shown in through the windows. Huh. The afterlife looked a lot like her modest bedroom, complete with a cluttered desk and a small mountain of clothes piled in the corner. Kind of disappointing.
“Stop making that face. You look like a dutak.”
“What?” Jael croaked, and winced at the dryness of her throat.
“She even sounds like a dutak.”
She knew that voice, too.
“Did you know on Earth they call them toads?” She didn’t know why she felt the need to share that, but it was a fun fact. “They’re green, sometimes brown, and they’re really fat.”
“That sounds disgusting.” The bed bounced, and Syrie’s smiling face swam into view. “Hey, little sister. You’re looking better.”
Okay, so…not dead. That suspicion was further confirmed when Osian flopped down on the end of the mattress and pinched her big toe. She couldn’t be dead, because she was sure she’d never done anything to warrant an eternity in the afterlife with her two, annoying siblings.
“How long have I been sleeping?”
“About four days,” Osian answered cheerily as he tugged on her toe. “Did you know you hum in your sleep?”
Jael kicked at his hand and huffed. Maybe she hadn’t actually died, but she’d come pretty close. Yet, her siblings insisted on teasing her relentlessly. In a way, it was reassuring to know that some things never changed.
“Why am I home?”
“Because you live here.” Osian’s lilac eyes danced with merriment as he shoved her leg. “And they call you the smart one.”
“I didn’t get to see X11.” After everything that had led her there, it was silly to feel disappointed, but she’d really been looking forward to seeing an Alliance space station for the first time.
“You didn’t miss much,” Syrie informed her, her gray eyes—just a shade lighter than Xi’s—narrowing at the corners. “I wouldn’t recommend a return trip.”
Crawling up the mattress to stretch out beside her, Osian poked her cheek with his index finger. “Did you know that if you rip off a Reema’s arm, it will grow back?”
She didn’t even want to know how he’d learned that. “There is something very wrong with you.” She glanced back and forth between her sibling, then rolled her eyes. “Both of you. This is my sick bed. I’m sick. Be nice to me.”
“Nope.” With a deep chuckle, Osian rolled off the mattress and bounded to his feet. “You can’t pretend to be sick like you used to as a youngling to get out of practicing your incantations. We know your tricks.”
Actually, she didn’t feel sick. She didn’t e
ven feel tired. Sleeping for four days probably had something to do with that. Stretching her arms over her head and pointing her toes, she moved around experimentally, pleased to discover it didn’t cause her even a twinge of pain.
In fact, she felt amazing.
Her siblings didn’t know that, though.
“Don’t even try it,” Syrie warned, pointing a finger at her. “The medics said you were completely fine.”
“I didn’t even say anything!”
“But you were going to,” her sister accused.
Damn having siblings who knew her so well.
“Your mate did about a million tests himself,” Osian added. “He seemed satisfied that you’d make a full recovery.” Picking a loose, golden thread from the sleeve of his jade tunic, he flicked it away and shrugged. “He’s okay, I guess.”
“I like him.” Syrie took her hand, laced their fingers together, and squeezed. “Fate chose well for you, Jael. I’m proud of you.”
Crap, she was leaking again. Only this time, it wasn’t because she was sick, and instead of crimson, it was crystalline tears that streaked down her face.
Sighing, Osian sat down on the edge of the bed again and shook his head at their sister. “I think you broke her.”
Laughing through her tears, Jael released Syrie’s hand so she could push herself upright, then held both arms out to her siblings. “Stop talking and come here.” When neither responded, she wiggled her fingers and huffed. “Both of you. Now. Bring it in.”
“Bring what in where?”
Her brother’s confusion just made her laugh harder. “It’s an Earth expression. It means get your asses over here so I can thank you properly for saving my life.”
“I think these Earthlings have had a bad influence on you.”
She winked at her sister. “Luke says that a lot. Now, I mean it. Come here and let me hug you.”
“Like, together? At the same time?” Osian looked horrified by the very idea.
“Yes, it’s called a group hug.”
Syrie shook her head. “Groups should not embrace. It’s unsanitary.”
Stars, she loved them.
