by Presley Hall
Both of them, his gray eye and the blue robotic one, are glowing as if lit from within, and they begin to twitch back and forth, slowly at first and then faster and faster. I can’t help but stare in mute shock—it’s clear that something is literally uploading into his brain, and if there’s one thing I truly never thought I would see in real life, it’s this.
It seems to go on forever. His body starts to tremble, his eyes moving impossibly faster, the glow of his irises so bright that they’re almost white. I take a hesitant step forward, fear humming in my chest. It’s almost as if I can see it happening in front of me—him turning into something else, his mind being warped, changed into a weapon for the Orkun.
This is what was done to him fifteen years ago. Angry tears fill my eyes at the thought. How could anyone be so vile as to do this to another living being?
Finally, his eyes stop moving, going unfocused but still glowing. He reaches behind his head with an unsteady hand, ripping the wires free, and begins to stand up, unfolding all of that muscled, seven-foot-plus frame just inches from me.
Terror washes over me. His eyes aren’t glowing white any longer, but they’re still strangely lit from within, and I can see that he’s not himself. His head turns toward me almost robotically, and my heart almost beats out of my chest.
Even if I try to follow through on my promise to kill him, I’m suddenly not entirely sure I could manage it. I have his dagger and he’s unarmed, but he’s so much bigger than I am, so much stronger.
It doesn’t matter though, because I can’t kill him.
I can’t.
I’d do anything for him, I realize, anything to help him, anything to save him. But I can’t do that. Because I know Brele, and I love him.
Letting the weapon in my hand clatter to the floor, I throw myself at him, my arms going around his neck, my hands curling into his hair. I press every inch of my body against his, forehead to thighs, my fingers tangling in the roots of his hair and around his horns. My lips move against his unresponsive, cold mouth as I put everything I am into the kiss.
“I love you,” I whisper.
I should’ve told him this morning. I should’ve told him days ago. Maybe it’s too late, but I need to say it now. I need him to know. I’ve loved him since the day we escaped from the cave. Maybe even longer than that.
And I can’t lose him.
“Brele, come back to me,” I murmur between kisses. “Please. Please come back. I love you.”
For a second, I’m afraid he can’t even hear me, that he’s too far gone. He’s motionless in my arms—like a robot, my mind screams at me. A cold, unfeeling robot.
But that’s not my Brele. That’s not who he is. And I’m not giving up on him.
Then, as tears start to fill my eyes and stream down my cheeks, making our kisses taste of salt, I feel him twitch under my hands. His body jerks spasmodically. I break the kiss, still holding on to him as I back up a fraction and look up into his eyes.
“Brele?”
The terrifying glow drains out of his eyes. Suddenly, they’re the eyes I know, one blue and one a soft gray.
“Jade?” He rasps the word, blinking dazedly.
“I’m here,” I breathe. And then I can’t say anything else, because he’s kissing me so fiercely that it steals all the air from my lungs.
He propels me backward, and I bump into the hard wall of the ship as we try to make it to the door, hands and mouths everywhere, desperate to touch one another, to be as close to each other as we possibly can. We spill out into the sunlight, stumbling backward, and fall down into the thick grass together.
Brele’s hand slides up under the strip of leather around my breasts as he groans against my mouth, his hips surging forward so I can feel the hard ridge of his cock against my thigh.
We can’t get our clothes off fast enough. His loincloth is easy enough to undo, but I still yank clumsily at the ties as he works on the ones at the side of my skirt. Our clothing ends up scattered in the grass around us as he spreads my legs and grinds against me. Then he reaches down to guide himself inside my channel.
He growls, a primal sound that echoes in the open air, and pitches his hips forward, filling me with one hard movement. His expression is wild as he starts to thrust, his fingers digging into the earth beside me as he takes me, each powerful thrust sinking in to the hilt.
It feels incredible. Wild and carnal and perfect.
I want more, and I hear myself moaning as I lock my legs around his waist, meeting each savage thrust with one of my own. It’s desperate, passionate, and intense, everything I could have ever fantasized about and like nothing I thought I would ever experience.
My soul has recognized yours, he said when he realized I was his Irisa.
I didn’t understand it then. But I do now.
Our bodies are wrapped around each other, but I still want to be closer—as if I could melt into his flesh and become one with him. Our mingled sweat slides over our skin, and I can feel his breath in my mouth, his scent in my nostrils, his cock buried inside me.
I’m his—body, heart, and soul, down to my very bones. All my life, I’ve run away from belonging to someone. But I belong to him.
Because I know that he belongs to me too.
His cock throbs as his hips jerk against me in that shaky rhythm that I know means he’s about to come, and it sends an orgasm crashing over me too. My body shudders and writhes under his as I moan his name over and over. I feel him come hard, spilling inside me, the heat of him filling me.
For a seemingly unending moment, we’re lost in it together, existing in some other place where there’s nothing but pleasure.
Nothing but us.
As we come down from the high, Brele rolls off me to lie in the grass nearby. It makes me think of when we escaped from the cave and he collapsed next to me like this, and how badly I wanted him to claim me then and there.
“I thought I lost you,” I whisper softly, reaching down to link my fingers with his as I roll onto my side to face him. All thought of clothing or modesty is gone. It doesn’t matter out here. It’s just us. I almost wish we could stay this way forever, although I know we can’t.
The right thing to do is go to Jocia. For both of us.
“I thought I’d lost myself.” He turns his head to meet my eyes, his brows drawing together. “You promised to kill me.”
“Aren’t you glad I didn’t?” I meet his gaze with a challenge.
He glances down at his deflated, exhausted cock lying limp on his thigh, and then down the length of my naked body. “Yes,” he says with feeling. “I’m deshing thrilled that you didn’t. But still, when you make a promise…”
“I’ll keep it next time.”
“I hope not.” He laughs again, letting his head fall back into the grass. He gazes into my eyes, and I realize that what I said earlier was true—not just born out of desperation, but the absolute truth. I love him. It all happened so fast, but that doesn’t make it any less real.
“Did you mean it?” he asks softly. “What you said in the ship?”
“You heard that? You were…”
“Not so far gone that I didn’t hear you say that you love me.” He rolls to face me, his fingers stroking down my cheek. “Was it just to bring me back?”
“No,” I whisper, my hand coming up to cover his. “What was it you said in the house, when you knew I was your Irisa?” I know it, but I want him to say it again.
“My soul has recognized yours.” His voice is low, serious. He meets my eyes when he says it, and I feel something shift inside of me, the last piece clicking into place.
“My soul has recognized yours,” I echo softly. “I love you, Brele. I meant it. And I mean it now.”
“I love you too.” He leans forward, pressing his lips to mine. “Forever, my Irisa. My Jade.”
“Forever.”
At long last, at the far end of the universe, I’ve found the one thing I never expected to have.
&nb
sp; Love.
24
Brele
The next morning, we pack and get ready to set out for Jocia.
My brain is full of information about the Orkun, so much so that my head hurts. It was hard to sleep last night, no matter how blissfully exhausted my body was from taking Jade to bed once again after we returned to the house. I hate that my mind is full of my enemy, of knowledge about them and information about them.
But at the same time, I can’t help but be fiercely proud of it—of what I’ve done.
They took something from me. Now I’ve taken something from them, every bit as valuable. They used me as a weapon to betray what I loved most, but now I have the key to their defeat. And even if it means my life, I’ll see that this information gets to Khrelan. Somehow, I’ll make him believe that it’s real. That I’m not coming to betray him a second time.
I’ll use every bit of information in my head to defeat the disgusting, vile Orkun and see that my people are free of their threat at last.
Jade slings a pack onto her shoulders, barely flinching at the weight of it. I look at her with pride—my magnificent, fierce Irisa. She’s perfect. There couldn’t be another person in any galaxy or on any planet more suited to me than she is, human or not.
“Are you ready?” I murmur.
She meets my gaze, her expression determined. “Yes.”
I lean over and kiss her, firmly and thoroughly, then look back at the house I built for myself one last time. I’m proud of this house, of what I did to put it together, of how I survived over these last fifteen years. But it’s time to put the past behind me.
I have a future now, with Jade.
The journey from my dwelling to Jocia is far from easy. The terrain is uneven and rough in places, large swaths of it untamed. Kalixians pride ourselves on taking only what they need to from the planet, and the only real, modern city is Jocia. Everything else is villages and outposts and small towns, and we have to stay on the outskirts of those. I can’t risk being seen until I make it to the capital, and to Khrelan.
I was exiled on pain of death, which means that although it’s not the Kalixian way to kill our own, my return puts me in grave danger. The males of Kalix have one purpose now—revenge. And their thirst for vengeance will most certainly extend to the traitor who was responsible for so much destruction in their eyes.
Jade doesn’t falter or complain, and it only solidifies our bond. We travel largely in silence, not wanting to alert predators or anyone out hunting or scouting in the area, and at night we’re too exhausted to do more than sleep, for the most part.
Even the unending urge of the mating lust is muted by the exhaustion of travel—although I’m hard every time I’m near her, the rest of my body has very little energy to follow through, and Jade feels the same way. But every night, we sleep curled up together, my arms wrapped around her. And along the way, as we hunt or fight off predatory animals we come across, my mate and I work together like a seamless, perfect team.
Finally, after twelve days of travel, we near our destination. The sun is setting, its last rays lighting up the skyline of Jocia as the city looms in the distance.
Jade gasps, pointing to it as she comes to a halt. “Is that it?”
“Yes,” I murmur. “That’s Jocia. The capital city of Kalix.”
Jade stares at it, awed, and as I watch her take it in, I know I made the right choice. She’s missed civilization. I can see it in every line of her body, yearning toward the skyline of the city. She belongs there more than she belongs out in the wilderness.
But most of all, she belongs with me. And that’s a large part of why I’ve made this choice.
My own heart pounds in my chest as I look at the city that was once my home. It seems like decades since I’ve been there, longer than even the fifteen years I’ve been gone, and I realize with an ache in my chest that I’ve missed it far more than I let myself admit until just this moment.
I want to go home, more than anything. And because of Jade, I have a chance to do that.
We pass the night on the backside of the hill, eating cold food. I don’t dare light a fire this close to the city. I want to enter Jocia on my own terms, with purpose, not be found out by scouts or guards who’ve seen the light of our fire.
Jade falls asleep almost immediately from pure exhaustion, but I lie awake for most of the night, the information about the Orkun buzzing inside my head. Tomorrow, one way or another, my plan will come to fruition. And by tomorrow night, I will be forgiven—or I will be dead.
In the morning, we pack up in silence. Jade takes my hand as we walk toward the city gates. The firmness of her grip in mine reminds me that there is one person in the world who believes in me and loves me, no matter what. It can’t calm all of my nerves though, and I feel as if every inch of my skin is twitching. But I’m determined not to let it show.
I have to keep my cool, be calm, prove I can be trusted, and gain the time I need to plead my case.
The moment we reach the city gates, the guards step in front of us, long spears crossed. They’re dressed in the familiar black tunics over black leather pants, embossed with the golden crest of the royal family. My heart twists in my chest at the sight of it, but I keep my head high.
“Brele, fallen prince and traitor.” The one on the right sneers at me as he speaks, and the other spits into the dirt.
I’m not surprised that they know who I am, despite the years that have passed. I expected it, just as I knew we had to avoid anyone on the journey here. My face is widely recognized, and my brother and I bear a strong resemblance to each other.
“You were banished on pain of death, and yet you return to Jocia?” The first guard growls. “Seize him!”
Both men grab me at once, the shouted command bringing a cadre of five more, weapons at the ready.
“Take him into custody,” a tall male with iron-gray hair and black horns says with authority. I recognize him immediately as Vykren, a soldier high in the ranks when I was still a prince. It seems he has command of the guards now. It’s a promotion I would have approved of.
They pull me forward, hauling me through the gates and toward a guard holding a pair of cuffs. I don’t struggle, determined not to give them a reason to distrust me or hate me. With any luck, I’ll be able to speak to Khrelan before I’m executed. If my brother is the same man I remember, he wouldn’t send me to my death without looking me in the eye first.
At the very least, telling them I hold important information about the Orkun ought to be enough to buy me an audience with him.
But then two more guards grab Jade, yanking her arms behind her back as they peer down at her. “This one isn’t Kalixian, she’s female!” one exclaims. “Terran, from the looks of her. But not one of the others. She must be in league with the traitor.”
The others? What is he talking about?
I whip my head around and see the guard who’s holding her pull her forward none too gently. Jade stumbles on the stony path as he fishes a pair of cuffs from his leather belt.
No! Don’t deshing touch her.
Fury rising up in me, hot and uncontrollable. I’m willing to let them haul me in like a criminal—I know I deserve their hatred and mistrust. But Jade doesn’t deserve any of this. She’s done nothing other than stand at my side and walk into Jocia with me, and I won’t let them treat her like this. They’ve clearly linked her together with me, deciding that she deserves the same harsh treatment I do.
I’m suddenly terrified of what that will mean. That she’ll be hurt. Maybe even executed alongside me.
Krax. It never occurred to me that her innocence in all of this wouldn’t be perfectly obvious, and I curse myself inwardly. Fear twists with the anger in my chest until I’m nearly blind with it.
With a snarl, I yank free of the guards holding me, reeling backward as I swing a fist at one of them. The blow catches him hard on the chin, making his head whip to the side. He stumbles back, going down to the dirt. They st
ripped me of my weapons immediately, and Jade too, but I still have my fists.
I won’t let them hurt her. I’ll die first. And by all the gods, I’ll take a few of them with me if I have to.
Jade is my Irisa. The other half of my heart.
And no one will harm her.
25
Jade
“Brele!”
I shriek his name, lunging forward against the iron grip that the guards have on my arms.
It’s useless. They’re as strong as Brele is, and I can’t get loose no matter what I do. I’m a good fighter, but I’m no match for more than one of them.
Fear rises up in me, making my stomach churn. I’m terrified for him. He’s mad with rage over them touching me, I can see it, his calm demeanor gone in an instant. I can see the killing fury in his eyes, every bit as intense as the lust I’ve seen in them before.
It’s just a different kind of lust now, for blood instead of flesh, and I’m terrified it won’t abate until it’s satisfied. And if he kills any of the guards, I know all chance of his banishment being revoked is gone. He’ll never be forgiven, never be allowed to live among his people again. He’ll be punished even more harshly than before—or killed, more likely.
What’s worse, he’ll have proved to himself that everything he feared is true. That he’s a monster.
I scream his name over and over, trying to pierce the fog of rage blinding him. I struggle against the guards, trying to break free and get to him, but I don’t fight the way I normally would. I just writhe in their grasp, screaming for him until I’m hoarse with it, because I know more violence will only make this situation that much worse. We can’t fight our way out of this.
We have to do it diplomatically—and Brele knew that, until he saw them grab me. I have to get through to him, I have to make him stop. I have to break him free of it, the way I broke him out of the control of the wiring on the ship.
But this time, no matter what I scream, it’s not working.
