Shadow Assassin: An Alien War Romance (Galactic Order Book 7)

by Erin Raegan

  “Fisand has it handled,” I gritted back.

  Fisand turned from the control panel, raising a thick black brow at me. He was born Kilbus, one of only few left of our species. His braids and dark hide the same as mine. The rest of my crew and army was a mix of various species that chose to defect from their homes for whatever their reason and the last few dozen surviving Kilbus born.

  I looked out at my army as they fought the Order’s full force.

  Viytenus had not taken any chances on Earth. While my Dahk allies were fighting the dredges of the Bour fighter ships—a joke, Viytenus had truly lost touch with rationality— my old assassin friend was taking on the brunt of Viytenus’ warships and combatants on Juldoris.

  But here. Viytenus had sent all of the Order’s forces to Earth’s front door. Perhaps he hoped to take the planet for himself, or even the humans themselves.

  But none of it mattered now. Hishin, the Juldo Master—now the assassin’s recent assassination—had put this entire ridiculous war in motion. And though, Viytenus no doubt was pulling his strings all along, with the master now dead, the Bour leader did not have the Juldo or their bloodlust aiding him.

  Instead they fought against him. After speaking with Chyn, I knew Viytenus had fled long before his armies reached Juldoris or the Dahk world.

  I knew the coward was always going to flee, no matter that Chyn’s newfound brother was now hunting him down.

  Chyn and Uthyf would destroy the Bour forces swiftly, however, and most unfortunately, the Order was not so easily conquered with the rest of the Council leading them.

  Earth would suffer a great defeat before this battle was done.

  “My daughter was right, you’re too distracted right now,” Burin continued cautiously.

  I rubbed my temples, blocking his bleak thoughts and fear from my mind. Another look from Fisand had me turning to the human leader. I was ever reassuring these humans. It was growing tedious. “Your worry is noted.”

  Fisand snorted and I barely managed to find the strength to reach into his mind, issuing a deep warning. He winced and turned away.

  I focused on the battle past the Earth’s moon and that of the one closer to the sun. The Order converged on Earth from all sides. The planet was taking heavy fire and though the Xixin had come to Earth’s aid, the damage would still no doubt devastate the planet and the remaining human population if this did not end soon.

  Still, I could not find it in myself to lead my crew as I should have. I needed to be down there. On Earth soil. Searching.

  I was fond of the Earth. So much so, I regretted its eventual loss. But there was not much to be done for it after the Vitat’s invasion. Earth had been heading toward destruction for quite some time.

  And there was only one reason I fought for its survival now. And she was not on this ship.

  Burin hesitantly stepped closer, his trepidation not from his current position above his home planet, but from the horrific thought running through his mind.

  I glared at him, baring my fangs. “Do not say it.”

  “You don’t want to hear it,” he said in a pitying voice— I nearly gutted him right then for that offence alone— “and I know you can keep me from saying it if you wanted but you aren’t. And I think that’s because deep down you need to hear it.” I looked away from him to control my anger. He believed I could stop him from speaking the words, but what he did not know was that I was nearly depleted of all strength. All this time spent searching and searching and I was losing control of myself and my mind and in turn the minds around me. “Maybe you haven’t found her because she’s d—”

  I clenched the male’s weak throat in my fist, shutting his words inside my grip. “No, human, I am not ready to hear it. I will never be ready to hear it,” I snarled. He froze in my grip, sweat beading at his temple. “You would be wise never to utter those words around me. For if they are true—” I clucked my tongue, “then all that is left of your world will suffer for it.”

  He gasped as I tossed him away, stumbling on his feet. “Fine then.” He stood tall, admirably shielding his fear from me. “But if you want the chance to find her,” he pointed out to the battle beyond my warship. “You need to make sure there’s still a planet to search.”

  I sighed.

  Indeed.

  29

  London

  I watched wide-eyed from a distance as Bour fighters bounced harmlessly off the Dahk’s atmospheric shield. Uthyf and his commander were up there on their warship, systematically and mercilessly tearing down the massive distraction the Bour leader had sent to Hone World.

  If Chyn was right, it was some distraction. The sky was exploding with bright flares of explosions and battle. If so many were here? How many were on Juldoris right now? Just how massive was the Bour army?

  Viytenus had successfully split his army to battle the Dahk and Guhuvin, and Chyn had let him. I could see now why Chyn hadn’t teamed up with the other alien leaders, somehow, he knew all along Viytenus would come for the Juldo and he hadn’t wanted to leave Juldoris unprotected. He kept surprising me. I just hoped it wasn’t a bad move. It took three armies to battle the Bour here and the Juldo were all alone.

  Vyr hadn’t told me if Uthyf knew he was fighting a distraction Viytenus had sent here to keep them busy instead of aiding Chyn—not that I thought Uthyf would have anyway, he sort of loathed Chyn from what I understood. Vyr had just dropped me off with the other women and disappeared. We were all tense. None of us could take our eyes off the sky.

  A sea of Dahk surrounded the castle, and it was so intimidating that I had to wonder why Chyn thought it was safer for me here. Both worlds had their own battles, but I knew clear across the universe, Kil and my father were fighting the Order.

  Peyton and the other girls were too emotional to understand most of it, but I had seen my father’s planning with Kil. I knew they had been battling the Order for a while now. Viytenus had successfully started three insane battles clear across the universe in three separate locations. It was a war so big, so mammoth, I didn’t know how it was possible.

  The Bour leader had effectively split up Uthyf’s already shaky alliances and laughed at them as he sat from a safe distance away. The Guhuvin fought with Uthyf above Home World, but Kil had called for the Xixin from Earth.

  But Chyn was on his own. The Juldo were on their own.

  It was terrifying to think about what might be happening there. Chyn had dug this grave for himself and it made me furious. Why go it alone? If he had just agreed to work with the other leaders and share what he knew but had been keeping secret they could have split their resources.

  But I also tried to remind myself that the Juldo were a different kind of army than the Dahk and Guhuvin. It helped to know that Chyn was so calculating. A little niggle of intuition told me he may have possibly even anticipated this war happening, exactly in this way, and made sure all the players were where they needed to be.

  It was unnerving and mesmerizing all at once.

  The other women nibbled their nails and chattered anxiously a few feet from me. They had tried to engage me when Vyr dropped me here, but they didn’t know me and they were all too afraid for their mates to put much effort into it. And honestly, I didn’t mind. I was hung up on my own thoughts and didn’t really want to talk.

  It didn’t matter though, in a matter of hours, the Dahk defeated the army Viytenus had sent. When they returned, they looked disappointed.

  The thing was over so quick, most of their blades were still clean. Then again, I didn’t know how much a space battle really called for hand-to-hand combat. But some of them did look like they’d managed to engage the Bour directly.

  Three days later, and several long meetings, Uthyf came and gave us the news that floored us.

  Kil and the Xixin were also successful and had sent the remaining Council army fleeing, but not before Earth took yet another hit. Earth had been so scarred from the recent attacks and so woefully unprepared to h
andle the recovery that my dad and the other surviving world leaders needed to make a very big decision.

  Stay and risk becoming extinct from a failing world, or trust in the tentative alliances they had forged with the Dahk and Kilbus and let them relocate an entire race.

  There was a lot of crying that night.

  Uthyf and Tahk tried to console us with the reminder that they were willing to take us in, as were the Xixin and Guhuvin leaders, or we could take Kil up on his offer of searching for a new home. But there really was nothing anyone could say to make us humans feel better.

  We had already lost so much. Our loved ones, our faith in the safety of our home. We had taken blow after blow and fought to remain standing, and now we would lose our only home and there was nothing we could do about it.

  We may have a few years left on Earth before the weather spiraled out of control. A few years before the atmosphere couldn’t hold up against the pounding it had taken.

  Just a few years before everything that kept us alive on Earth completely broke down and rendered our home uninhabitable.

  There were already so few of us left. We had no choice but to ask for help.

  My father was devastated. I couldn’t even talk to him over the Dahk comms without completely breaking down. I was so relieved he was still alive, but the bleak shadows in his eyes killed me.

  Come nightfall, I was the last one left in the small room we had been occupying for days. I would have felt forgotten if not for Tohn quietly guarding me by the door. He’d tried to engage me, but I couldn’t make my mouth move. I was just numb.

  I knew he tried to come for me. Chyn hadn’t been lying to me after all. And though I was grateful, I was too worried to show any kind of appreciation. At least, not in the way Tohn deserved. I was grateful.

  But I was just too inside my head, worrying over someone who I was just now realizing had grown to be a vital part of me. Of my happiness. I needed to know he was okay. That Chyn wasn’t off getting himself killed. And that our tentative relationship, this bond we were building, or at least I was building, was okay. That he was okay.

  I dozed in a chair, but I couldn’t stay asleep for long. I kept startling awake from nightmares.

  My mother used to haunt my dreams. Her screams as the Vitat invaded our home and brutally ripped her from my life. But not that night. Far, far worse things haunted me that night.

  I felt bruised all over when Chyn finally came for me. He knelt at my feet, taking my freezing hands and pressing them to his mouth. I choked on a sob, and he lifted me and the furs on my lap into his arm and nodded to Tohn before taking us home.

  Chyn was still coated in blood and I had no idea if any of it was his, but it didn’t matter. He was alive and I was broken and I wanted him to hold me. And I wanted to hold him.

  He walked right into the warm pool in our bathing room and sat down, clothes, furs, and weapons with us.

  I cried for a long time. My wails were loud and broken and he held me through them. At some point, I started to doze again, so he stripped me and slowly cleaned me in soothing strokes. When he finished cleaning himself, he relaxed and held me as he closed his eyes.

  “How did it go?” I felt the will to ask.

  Our room looked the same. No debris or signs of Bour guts on the walls. Either they didn’t touch the castle or my imagination was running from me.

  Chyn sighed, cupping my neck and dragging my head to his shoulder. “The Bour are no longer a threat.”

  “Did you lose anyone?”

  “Their deaths were honorable,” he murmured.

  “I’m sorry.” I rested my wet cheek on his shoulder, looking at his chin and rubbing a small cut there. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

  “No,” he murmured.

  “Good, that’s good.” I sighed, shifting. “What happened that day, when that guy Vex was here?” I pulled his lip down and absently ran my finger along the bottom row of his sharp teeth. “What was that?”

  He sighed and shifted. “My past.”

  “Care to elaborate?”

  He closed his teeth around my finger and bit then soothed the sting with his tongue. “I’ve lived a long time. Revisiting my past will not comfort you.”

  “I don’t need it to comfort me. I just want to know you.” I scowled when he pushed my fingers down and looked away from me.

  “Why?” He scowled at me, pushing me off his lap and to the side.

  I swallowed, wrapping my arms around my chest to ward off the chill his skin had been covering me from. “Why wouldn’t I want to know you?”

  He groaned and dropped his face into his hands.

  I pulled on my earlobe. “I’ll tell you about me.”

  “You think I want to know about the measly few years you lived on that planet?”

  I flushed, my eyes stinging. “Men and women, they share things with each other when they’re together.”

  He turned to me, his eyes flashing. “Do I look like a man?”

  I backed away from his irate face, my own scorching.

  “I am not a man, London.” He bent over me, his hands slapping against the lip of the pool on either side of me. “I am so much more than a man. I am Latari. I am shadow and death. I am nothing like your human men.”

  I swallowed, facing his anger. “Vyr doesn’t feel that way. He gives so much to Vivian, he—”

  “I am not Vyr,” he roared, spinning and surging from the pool, dragging buckets of water with him.

  “I didn’t mean it like that.” I followed him. “If I’m honest, you’re nothing like him.”

  “What does that mean?” He grabbed a towel and tossed it to me. “Cover yourself.”

  “No thank you,” I snapped, tossing the towel to the floor. “It means he’s not hung up on an outdated idea that a sun is a god, that a planet is a god, that the entire universe is a god.” I thrust my hands in the air before slapping them on my thighs. “That an infection is a demon that cursed an entire species when in fact it was just a terrible infection that tragically caused the death of your home.”

  Chyn sucked in a breath and shot it out of his nose, searing me with his eyes. “Do I look like an imbecile?”

  “What?” I shook my head.

  “Vyr has his theories and doubts. But he is young still and knows nothing of where I come from. My brothers and sisters were babes. They knew nothing of what was outside of Latari. I have lived long past what should be natural for any being. There is nothing in this life that surprises me. There is nothing I fear, not even death. My eyes were opened long ago.” He stalked to me and took my arms in his fists. “But that will never keep me from honoring where I’ve come from. Do not speak of the gods. Your human naiveté could not hope to understand what is possible in this universe. My brothers and sisters were infected by a demon,” he growled. “My demons are not the monsters that haunt your imagination. They are real as you or I as are the gods. They come in many forms, as does all life. The Latari interpreted them in the way they could. Life does not exist to exist. We all come from somewhere.” He looked me up and down. “We are all born from something. As was the very first kernel of life.”

  I looked away from him, staggered by his conviction. “Fine, I can accept that there are things I will never understand. But you brought me into this life. You trapped me here, and now that I am willingly standing in front of you, you’re pushing me away.”

  He dropped my arms and walked to the doorway.

  “You said you’re not scared of anything anymore. But that’s a lie,” I called to his back. “You are terrified to accept me. Us. And I deserve to know why. You owe me.”

  He shot me the ugliest sneer I’d ever been on the receiving end of. I went cold all over, my stomach shriveling.

  “I owe you?” He turned, and I barely noticed his nakedness as he looked me up and down dismissively. “There is no us, London. You are a necessity that I am trapped with for the end of my days.”

  My mouth parted and my breath fled i
n a soft sound of pain. I curled my arms around myself and blinked away tears, my cheeks stinging from all the crying I had already suffered through. “I-I—” I blinked rapidly, sucking in too short breaths.

  His brows pulled in and his face twisted in pain. He misted right to me and cupped my face so gently, dropping his mouth to my lips. His kissed them, then my cheeks, my brow, my ears, my neck. “Milvira, I meant none of it.”

  A sob shot from my mouth and he pulled me against him, clutching me all over.

  “Ask me,” he snarled. “Ask me anything and I’ll tell you.”

  “W-why?”

  “I am a fool. I want you far from me, but I cannot bring myself to keep you away.”

  “I don’t understand,” I wailed, pushing him away as he trapped me against his chest.

  “You don’t want to feel anything for me. I am far too old and set in my ways. I am no good for you.”

  I shook my head and he trapped it in his hands and kissed my lips, forcing them open and licking inside.

  “I am rotten inside,” he rasped. “I will bring you nothing but death and pain.”

  My breath hitched and I clutched him back.

  “I was born a weapon. That is all I am. I cannot give you peace and comfort. I will always be what I am and I want better for you.”

  I kissed him harder, desperate to shut him up. He couldn’t know, but everything out of his mouth only made me want to hold onto him tighter. “It’s too late. You’re the only thing I want.”

  He growled and cursed, sucking on my neck. Chyn lifted me, and I wrapped my legs around his hips.

  “I know I should send you far from me, but I am too selfish.”

  30

  London

  Chyn laid me in the bed, pressing his body down on mine from top to toe. I licked into his mouth frantically, my fingers grabbing his skin all over.

  “Wait.” He grabbed at my hands, but I growled and pushed them away, touching him all over. He rasped a chuckle. “This will not last if you do not contain yourself, milvira.”