by Jade Waltz
Her lips pursed as she looked away, but I knew what she was going to say.
In case I’ve been guilty this whole time.
“Sounds good.” Oeta moved to the side, extending her arm. “You do the honors.”
B stormed past the fuchsia winged female on a mission. Knowing her, she was just as frustrated as I was.
Oeta jerked her head in B‘s direction, indicating I should go ahead.
“What do you expect?” I asked as she fell into step beside me. “I am a featherless male, trapped in a thick robe with my wrists bound. Even if I took off running, I would be trapped on this mountain with no place else to go.”
She gripped my shoulder, earning my attention.
“I am not your enemy, nor is she. But we both know that if she displays any more favoritism toward you, she could be reprimanded. She’s already in trouble with Sovereign Darcaw for what happened at the space station. Do you want to be responsible for her punishment?” She hesitated, shooting a glance at B standing at the hidden mountain base. “We both know that another failure won’t sit well with him.”
I didn’t know what to say.
Of course, I knew she hadn’t treated me as harshly as she should have. Any other one of her siblings would have bound my feet and hands and led me around on a leash. Instead, I was roaming free down this pathway, with only my wrists shackled together.
Glancing around, I was impressed by what I saw.
The base sat atop the highest peak on the moon, overlooking all three habitable islands. I could only picture what the view would look like along the edge. If not for the stone pathway connecting the landing pad to the base, I wouldn’t have known it existed, concealed within the vegetation. I could hear the waterfall Kaede’s ship had emerged from as we neared the stone archway. The outer structural supports were built with stone and metal, making the base sturdy and camouflaged against the cliffside.
B leaned against the doorway with her arms crossed as her piercing blue eyes watched our arrival.
“I would say ‘Welcome to our humble abode,’ but it isn’t humble, and you are our first visitors besides Z and Vagren.” She pushed off the wall and crossed the threshold. “Follow me.” She looked over her shoulder toward me. “And whatever you do, don’t touch anything.’
“How can I touch something?” I lifted my wrists and smirked at her glare. “You know you’re just teasing me.”
Oeta coughed behind me.
Serves her right.
She shouldn’t be snooping into my private thoughts if she didn’t want to know all the ways I liked being dominated by B . . . and making her scream my name in return.
We traversed a bare hallway, passing multiple, nearly invisible doors. Without my curiosity and sharp vision, I would’ve missed the thin outlines of each door frame.
B stopped in front of the last door, which automatically opened for her.
Turning around, she gestured for us to enter. “Here we are.”
Six
Qraniebi
If this was the guest room, I wondered what the master bedrooms looked like.
Violet-blue light emanated from the edges of every wall. Against the back wall stood a desk between two doors, which I assumed lead to a closet and one of the oversized lavatories the demi-humans called ‘bathrooms.’
Z had once given me a tour of the villa not long after Selena had been found. When I saw the master bathroom, my jaw had dropped. It contained a bathing pool large enough to seat ten Quaww comfortably.
Why would Selena need a bathtub that size? Her villa had two indoor pools along with a private outdoor pool.
It wasn’t my place to question her luxuries, but I was still envious. Sometimes, I imagined myself floating in one of her pools, enjoying the sun’s warm rays.
Turning, I searched for the room’s bed, spotting it tucked in the opposite corner. While it wasn’t as large as Selena’s nestbed, it was easily twice the size of the one in my captain’s quarters on my old ship. I could easily stretch my wings without worrying about the tips flopping off the mattress.
“Does this work?” B asked, addressing Oeta. “We could try—”
“No.” Oeta raised her hand to silence her. “This is perfect. I just need him to lie down on the bed, so he doesn’t accidentally fall over while I scry his memories.”
B grabbed the chair from the desk, pushing a lever along its side. Instantaneously, the backrest collapsed down into the seat, turning the metallic chair into a stool.
“Would this work for you?” B asked, her gaze flicking to the bed. “Or would you rather lie next to him? How does this work? Do you need to touch him?”
“No, I don’t need to touch him,” Oeta chuckled. “I don’t even need to be in the same room if I don’t want to be. Once I’ve memorized his mental signature, I could reach him beyond this star system. It’s just easier and less nerve-wracking for my client to see me when I scry. Invading his mental shields from afar may cause him to panic, which would make it harder for me to find what I want. That’s why Xenak encountered trouble while invading Selena’s mental shields and breaking into her shared void chamber. If I ever get a hold of that poor excuse for a male—”
“You will have to compete with many males who want to be the first to slaughter him,” I chuckled. “Between Z and Kaede, I don’t know who would enact the worse punishment.”
“As long as I am not nearby when they lose it, I am fine.” B shivered. “Seeing the aftermath of Z’s revenge on his sire makes me never want to think about upsetting him ever again.”
Oeta sat down and gestured toward the bed. “I don’t know about you, but it’s getting late, and I would like to go to bed at a reasonable time. If you could lie down, close your eyes, and relax, I can begin my judgment.”
Gripping the edge of my robe with my talons, I eyed the two females. “Is it possible for me to take my robe off? I’m afraid of what the fabric might do to my down feathers as I lie down on the bed. It’s going to be hard enough to grow my feathers back without accidentally rubbing off what I have left.”
Oeta faced B, allowing her to decide as her wings tensed.
B crossed her arms and sent me a hard stare.
“I guess you could, though I will have to uncuff you,” she sighed. “It’s not like you can escape right now.”
“Thanks for having faith in me,” I muttered, rolling my eyes.
She tilted her head and smirked. “You’re welcome.”
Raising my wrists, I approached her and watched as she unlocked my restraints, tucking the cuffs away in her utility belt.
Rubbing the raw spots on my wrists, I backed away until the back of my knees touched the edge of the bed. Keeping my gaze locked with B’s bright-blue eyes, I pretended I was giving her a striptease, disrobing in a little mating dance.
Pulling up the front of my robe, I whipped the garment over my head in one fluid motion, earning a gasp from both females. I stood and let them study my bare body with their mouths wide open. If I weren’t already naked, I would’ve continued my teasing dance to persuade B to form a flock with me. But first, I had to prove my innocence. Besides, I didn’t want to give Oeta the wrong impression.
Tossing the robe haphazardly onto the floor, I climbed onto the soft bed, enjoying the smooth sheets against my skin. I turned over and did what Oeta had instructed, hoping to get this procedure over with quickly.
Lying in bed with my eyes closed, I tried to control my breaths to force myself to relax.
I felt a presence push against my mental shields. Instinctively, I tried to block her attack, even though I consciously knew it was Oeta. The presence prodded my mind again, and this time, I could see the color of her thread.
It was a black mental thread that glowed the same fuchsia color as Oeta’s hair. I welcomed her, bringing the thread inside my turquoise shields.
“Good job, Qraniebi,” Oeta’s mental voice coursed through me. “Now, stay relaxed, so I can shuffle through your memories and
search for the evidence I need to prove your innocence.”
I had only experienced this once before when Oeta’s father Mwe had proven to Z that I wasn’t a Quaww spy and opposed my species’ government.
Back then, I had panicked and fought him, creating unnecessary stress. I’d woken up with a painful migraine and sworn to myself that I would never put myself in that position again.
And yet here I was, having to prove myself once again. My memories were the only evidence I had to show that I was an innocent victim and had nothing to do with Selena’s kidnapping.
I forced myself to remain calm as I felt Oeta’s thread form an orb within my mental shields like a growth under my skin, making me want to slice open my skin and yank her out.
Her orb slowly flattened, lining the inside of my mental shields and blocking them from my vision.
Suddenly, my memories flashed before my eyes, moving backward in time.
The argument with Vagren, the discussion with B in my prison cell, witnessing her storm down my ship’s hallway with her blasters drawn.
Oeta paused at Kaede’s last moments with Selena, rewinding and watching the memory over and over. After her fifth viewing, she halted the memory at the moment Kaede pressed the activation button and watched Selena’s Cryopod zoom away.
“Kaede really does believe in the Cosmic Power,” Oeta’s mental voice murmured in awe. “What he said is true. If he truly believes that they are stars in the same constellation, then they will see each other once again.”
“Can’t you confirm his belief?”
“I cannot. I doubt even my father could until the constellation is completely connected at last. Until then, it’s up to the living stars to find each other.”
“What if I don’t believe in the Cosmic Order?”
“Then you are missing all the signs around you,” Oeta replied in a sad tone. “You should treasure the moment you find your constellation—nothing else will matter once you do.”
“What about you?” I challenged. “Where are your missing stars? I haven’t heard you mention any mates.”
“That is because I haven’t come across them yet. When I do, I won’t fight our connection.”
“I’m not fighting anything. It’s her.”
“Keep telling yourself that.”
She didn’t allow me time to reply as she searched my memories until the moment Kaede had first discovered Selena and me. Oeta only rewound the scene once before continuing backward in time. Hearing my crew torture Selena, feeling them pull my feathers out, getting captured in my quarters, and then observing my crew asking for forgiveness and another chance.
Instead of stopping there, she barreled on, too fast for me to track. Images and sounds all blurred together into one inseparable mass.
Suddenly, Oeta stilled at the exact moment I had first met Selena aboard the Destiny, watching me teasingly flirt with her as I tried to get a rise out of her mates.
Little did I know at the time that those males were the exact ones that surrounded her in real life before she was kidnapped.
“I’ve made my judgment.”
“And that is?” I asked, confused by her cryptic tone.
“You are innocent,” Oeta replied, her voice seeming lighter as if she was relieved that I had been telling the truth all along. “While I don’t agree with all of your life choices, you had nothing to do with the Beacon’s kidnapping.”
“So, will you tell B right away? Or will you report to Z first?”
“It depends. Now that I don’t have to suffocate you out of existence, I can ask you an important question. What are your plans going forward?”
“What kind of question is that?” I asked, shocked by the sudden change of subject.
“A simple one, so answer truthfully.”
“I want to petition Z to let me join B’s search for Selena.”
“What about your relationship with Bryeca?” Oeta questioned. “What makes you believe that she even wants you as a partner? She’s used to completing missions alone. What if she would rather go without you?”
“I would rather be aboard a ship than planetside. However, if B refuses, I will ask to remain on Destima and protect Selena’s clan. I could use this guest room or one of the spare bedrooms at the villa if Z allowed it. In any case, I want to return to work. Sticking around with no ship or mission will only drive me insane and make me more miserable about my lack of feathers.”
“So, you will stop pursuing Agent Bryeca?”
“Of course not. If she wants nothing to do with me now, I will wait until my feathers grow back then present myself to her once again. Maybe once Selena is safe and peace returns to the empire, she will be more open to what the demi-humans call ‘dating.’”
“Don’t you have plans to settle down in a home, gather a flock, and create offspring?”
“Who said anything about offspring? All I want is for B to call me hers.”
“No one,” she said, her tone too happy for my liking. “I will tell Bryeca you’re innocent before I report to Sovereign Darcaw. My work here is complete.”
Seven
Bryeca
Leaning against the wall as I watched Qran get his mind scried was nerve-racking.
I had seen enough of these procedures to know that he wasn’t resisting. The only sign that he felt any unease was the twitching of his feet; other than that, he was lying completely still.
What I was nervous about was what Oeta would discover as she scanned through his memories.
Would she see every time he had attempted his mating dance—and each of my rejections? What about the times we’d had sex? Qran was a very passionate lover, and we enjoyed getting lost in each other’s arms between missions.
Would watching the memory again arouse Qran? Glancing at his untented loincloth, I sighed in relief.
I considered what to do with him once Oeta declared him innocent. Do I want him as my partner to travel the galaxy, searching for Selena? Once we left together, there would be no way to get rid of him other than going against Z’s wishes and dropping him off at some random spaceport. Even I wasn’t that cruel.
No, if Z assigned him to my mission, I would have to accept him. I didn’t want to hurt the fragile relationship we had.
I knew my rejection had hurt him, but he had said harsh things to me too. Blame my many years in isolation and only having my siblings to talk to. While I was better at conversations than Selena—bless her—I wasn’t a normal CEG citizen, growing up in a social environment.
None of the demi-humans were socially adept, which was why we enjoyed living together. When the Circuli had moved to the Main Island, many misunderstandings arose due to cultural barriers and social awkwardness on both sides. The Circuli kept to themselves, even among their own kind, while the demi-humans often created a stir with public displays of affection.
How could they have known that the Circuli didn’t kiss?
A loud moan from Qran filled the room as he covered his face with his forearm.
Stars, I had forgotten to dim the lights while lost in my thoughts.
“Sorry!” I ran to the wall and waved my hand over the control panel, dimming the lights. “I forgot how I felt waking up from a mind scry.”
“It’s okay, Agent Bryeca,” Oeta replied, her voice sounding slightly tired. “It’s understandable.”
I stared at the male stretched out on the bed. “And the verdict?”
Activating LUO’s target chart, I prepared myself to turn his threat status from neutral yellow to his new designation.
“He was telling the truth,” Oeta confirmed. “Qraniebi is entirely innocent.”
Smiling in victory, I changed his status to a friendly green.
I felt a weight lift off my shoulders that I hadn’t known was there.
“Is there anything else I should know?”
Oeta’s eyes locked onto mine as I felt the familiar pull of a mental thread trying to contact me.
Demi-humans n
aturally shielded their minds. Even though I couldn’t expand my mental thread to contact another, I had learned how to allow and deny access to my mind.
Opening a small door, I allowed her to connect with my inner self.
“This is a breach of privacy and uncharacteristic of me, but I believe if I don’t say anything, both of you will only fight and waste what little time you may have together.”
“What are you saying?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the confusing female.
“As you know, I work with Master Scholar Xylo on his research team. Recently, your sister Kaica joined our efforts to heal Selena’s injured Favored. Xylo’s Master Healer fathers will also land here in a couple of days.”
“What does that have to do with Qran and me?”
“I know your secret—why you keep resisting this male. My advice is to stop avoiding him. Sit down and have the much-needed conversation you’ve promised him. The last I heard, the Fab Five were a group of honorable females who kept their word.”
“How would you know how I feel?” I demanded.
“My mother died during childbirth while she was working to solve my species’ fertility problems,” she hissed, her fuchsia glow brightening. “I am the only female born in my generation, and if I don’t find a solution, I will soon be the last remaining member of my species. So take it from me: Stop wasting time you don’t have, or you will end up like your brother and never get a chance at love because you are too busy worrying about the future.”
Her words stung.
I couldn’t muster a response, and she had to know that, for she left my mental shields.
Oeta stood, fluttering her wings to stretch them.
“I’ve completed my task, and my presence is no longer needed,” she announced, already heading toward the door. “It’s getting late, so I would like to report to Sovereign Zirene as soon as possible from the comfort of my room.” The door slid open at her approach, but before she crossed the threshold, she stopped and glanced at Qran. “I applaud your commitment to proving your innocence. Lesser males would be too scared to allow my father or me the freedom to scry their minds. I hope I won’t have to do it again—no offense.”
