Project: Adapt - Develop: A Space Fantasy Alien Romance (Book 3)

by Jade Waltz

  “I don’t know what you are, only that you were created by one of my enemies, the Yaarkins. Add that to the fact that you’re involved in my brother’s disappearance, and that makes us enemies.”

  “And here I thought the CEG Assembly was prone to jumping to conclusions,” I muttered, already sick and tired of repeating myself.

  “I haven’t encountered them yet, but when I do, I will make sure I’ve harvested all the information I need from you.”

  “Harvested?”

  His cyan sphere moved tight circles around me as if he was interrogating me in my ethereal form. “What do you think I’m going to do to you when I come for you? I am going to force you to tell me everything you know, and then dispose of you for your insolence once I get my brother back.”

  “You plan to kill me even though I’m trying to tell you that I’m innocent?” I asked in disbelief. “I have rights. If you believe in the Fates and Stars, then you should know that murder of the innocent makes you lose their blessing—”

  “You are not in the position to lecture me.”

  A familiar fuchsia-black thread burst through the crack the cyan presence had made, forming a similar spherical form between the deranged invader and me.

  “Who gave you the right to abuse your Fate’s blessing and violate this female’s mind? Must I remind you of CEG law concerning the invasion of another’s mental walls?” Oeta hissed.

  The cyan sphere backed away as if wary of her unexpected presence. While I wasn’t entirely pleased to see yet another being within my void, where only Zirene and I should have access, I was relieved to have a strong ally to face this intruder.

  “Your laws don’t apply to me,” he mocked. “And I will gladly penetrate her walls when my brother’s life depends on it.”

  “That breaks the law of the Fates and Stars, and you know it!” Oeta challenged, her glow growing a shade brighter. “Selena has nothing to do with you and your brother, so why do you believe she does?”

  “Something about a Cosmic Soul telling him,” I began. “Whatever that is, they told him that I was the key to bringing his brother back. Yet he isn’t taking me at my word when I say I have no clue what he’s talking about.”

  “Cosmic Souls never lie!”

  “Well, maybe this Cosmic Soul read the Stars wrong or something. If you say that CEG law means nothing to you, then you are either a pirate or from another galaxy. In either case, Selena can’t possibly be involved in your brother’s life,” Oeta said, slowly advancing on the cyan sphere. “Selena can’t be in two locations at once, and she’s been accounted for ever since she was discovered. So, if I were you, I would leave this poor female’s mind and never come back, because if you do, you will not only have to deal with me, but my father. Believe me, you do not want to deal with him. He can erase your existence from the other side of the galaxy with a mere thought as soon as he locks onto your mental signature.”

  “He can’t! No being has such power!” the cyan male shouted. I didn’t miss the hint of fear in his voice.

  “Oh yes, he can,” Oeta purred. “My species is known for our mental abilities, and the longer we live, the stronger we get. My father has been alive so long that he saw most CEG species' first attempts at space travel.

  “So try me,” she taunted. “Because now I have your mental signature. If you ever enter CEG space in ethereal or physical form, be prepared to die.”

  “This isn’t over!”

  “I think it is. You see, I knew you would be tempted to reach out to Selena again, so I volunteered to watch over her. Now that I know you are desperate to capture her, I will never let you contact her again. Any attempts at communication will be blocked. If you value your life, you won’t try.”

  “I’ll find a way to outwit you, and when I do, I will make sure you don’t forget it!”

  “Can I have a name to go with this threat? You know, for future’s sake, when we kill you.”

  “Xenak of the Verya,” he chuckled. “Remember that when I come for her.”

  “I dare you. And when you do, know that you will be hunted by Oeta of the Nyaviel.”

  “I will see you again, Selena,” Xenak mocked. “Give my regards to your mates.”

  In a flash, he was gone, leaving me alone and drained from the encounter.

  “Selena,” Oeta comforted, her glowing sphere nearing my form. “There is much to do and so much to explain. But first, are you well?”

  “Honestly, no.” My gaze roamed my shared void, wondering where Zirene was and why he hadn’t appeared. The doors to my nestmates’ void chambers had been left intact, each colored like its member’s mental threads—Xylo’s teal, Odelm’s pale green, V’dim’s turquoise, and Z’fir’s emerald. The almost-healed crack Xenak’s cyan thread had left when we first spoke had been opened once again, and Oeta’s fuchsia-black thread still snaked through the gap. “Zirene and I had almost repaired our walls.”

  “Xenak damaged them?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “Now we have to heal it again, and with Zirene leaving soon, I’m afraid of what will become of it until his return.”

  “I can see the problem,” she murmured. “Let me attempt to coax your wall to recover faster. Once we’ve checked on your physical form, I will ask my father for further advice.”

  “He’s not going to force me to return to the CEG space station, is he?”

  “No, of course not,” she comforted. “He may request that we visit him—or vice versa—sometime soon, but we all know you’re safer on Destima than anywhere else in the galaxy.”

  “Not safe enough, it seems,” I muttered, disheartened.

  “Don’t let that deranged male make you doubt your security,” she consoled. “He would’ve found you no matter where you were in the galaxy, it seems. Try not to worry. I have his mental identity, and once I transfer the signature to my father, Xenak of the Verya won’t be able to enter the galaxy in any form and survive. No one messes with the people he’s sworn to protect, without exception.”

  Before I could reply, she was gone.

  The only evidence that anything had transpired within my shared void chamber was the reopened crack along the wall.

  Sighing, I willed myself back into my physical form, hoping Odelm wouldn’t blame himself for this disastrous evening.

  Chapter Eleven

  V’dim

  One moment he was planning his dinner date with Z’fir with the villa’s kitchen staff, and the next, he felt a disturbance in their clan’s mental web.

  “Selena! No!” Odelm’s mental shout sliced through the Circuli clan’s constant mental hum, nearly knocking him off his stool. Z’fir caught him, preventing him from hitting his head on the floor.

  Within a moment, his nestqueen’s presence had moved from the general vicinity of the performance hall—where Odelm had planned to take her for his date—to the villa’s infirmary.

  Instantly, V’dim jumped out of his seat. Z’fir wordlessly followed him to where Selena’s body lay. Xylo was already connecting her to machines as his team filed in to assist.

  Kaede was yelling at Zirene and his sisters over his wristband in a virtual meeting, not caring who heard about the state he’d found Selena in the auditorium.

  Odelm sat in the seating area, his coloring a terrified white as his body shook uncontrollably.

  V’dim could barely handle the force of extreme emotions radiating within the room, not due to inexperience, but the strength of his connections as an Ulax prince and nestbrother to his clan. He had direct access to each individual’s aura, which was making it harder to control his own.

  Kaede’s aura screamed an angry red, so bright that V’dim was afraid its radiance might burn him. Surprisingly, Xylo’s emotions—along with his small crew’s—were tightly controlled, as if their professional training prevented them from turning anything more than a slightly worried orange. An emotional healer was a poor one, as they risked the lives of their patients. The most distracting emotional presence
in the room was his fellow Ulax, Odelm. V’dim suspected he was dealing with what he had witnessed at the concert hall.

  “I will reach out to Oeta and see if Kaede can teleport her here. It might be worthwhile to give her one of the villa’s extra rooms,” Z’fir pathed. “Then, I will help Xylo with anything he needs, even if I must extract knowledge from Odelm.”

  “We aren’t extracting anything from Odelm,” V’dim defended the musician. “Look at him. He wouldn’t be able to handle it!”

  “Then calm him down, because we need answers, and he was the only one who was with her.”

  V’dim nodded, knowing that Z’fir would pick up his acceptance.

  He sat down next to the forlorn male, offering him his hands. If he was going to comfort his brother, contact was the best way of doing so.

  Odelm flicked his pale-green gaze toward him and sucked in a quick breath as a shiver passed through him.

  "It's all my fault," he murmured, his voice almost inaudible above the infirmary's noise.

  "What happened?"

  Odelm grabbed V'dim, wrapping his arms around him as he buried his head into his prince's shoulder.

  Circuli were biologically incapable of crying, which made the concept hard for V’dim to understand, but at that moment, he wished he could. The amount of distorted sadness radiating from his nestqueen's unofficial Second stunned V'dim into silence.

  In his entire military career, V’dim had never been sought out for comfort. He had experienced many deaths, felt each soldier severed from his crew's mental web, but a leader could never allow the loss of a mental strand to affect him. If he did, his distress would spill over to the others within their web, potentially costing the lives of more warriors by distracting them mid-battle.

  This was why it was so difficult for him to allow himself to feel.

  Growing up bonded to Z’fir as a brother had only strengthened his mental shields, allowing him to hide from the influence of his peers. When Prince Zirene had requested they join him in the war front, Z’fir and V’dim had asked to leave their mother’s presence and lead the Circuli fleet.

  The first losses in the war only hardened their resolve. As most of their bonded crew died one by one, their mental threads became so brittle; they could barely hold on until they were able to return to Circul. Most surviving warriors had been able to rekindle their connection with their nestqueen, strengthening their mental health and recovering from their body’s weakened state. Those who’d been too far gone slowly disintegrated into madness.

  That was a life lesson that had forever changed him.

  And now, here in his arms was his nestqueen’s Second, the most fragile Circuli he had ever come across in his lifetime.

  Nestqueens among the Circuli had to be strong enough to lead the clans, communities, and kingdom. He and Z’fir were never supposed to lead, but their royal bloodline and unique bond made them stronger than all the males and most of the females within their species.

  When Selena had accepted them as a pair into her clan, to save their crew from being recalled to Circul in disgrace, she had lifted a significant burden from their shoulders. Even though they’d initially planned to ask Prince Zirene’s Aldawi scientists to find a suitable planet within his territory, the troubles they might have faced building a colony from the ground up would have been demoralizing, especially with the nestqueens aboard the Destiny unable to cycle.

  He and his brother would’ve had to bond with separate nestqueens to increase their chances of siring an heir. The colony needed a princess to take over their rule once she reached maturity and they were comfortable with retiring.

  But that was in the past, along with all the old possibilities and what-ifs that had plagued their minds while they tried to do right by their people.

  With Selena as their nestqueen, they were able to step back and lead only when needed, but more importantly, they weren't alone. Selena's clan provided the support they’d always craved—and needed. Her mental shields protected them from most of Destima’s Circuli community’s chatter, muting it to a constant low hum in the back of their minds, easy to ignore.

  Holding his anguished nestbrother in his arms caused him to spiral deeper into his own despair. What could have happened to Selena to render the musician so inconsolable?

  “Tell me, Odelm, what happened to our nestqueen?” V’dim said in soothing tones, sending pulses of calm through his fingertips. “Everything felt fine through our clan’s connections up until a few moments ago. How did she fall unconscious?”

  Odelm sucked in a breath, his fingers slowly loosening their grip.

  “We were—I was—” Odelm croaked, shaking his head. “I was performing a song I dedicated to her. I wanted to tell her how I felt through my music, and everything between us felt...” He pulled away and stared directly into V’dim’s eyes. “I connected to her during my performance, allowed myself to direct her emotions, and echoed hers with mine. We danced like lovers do in the heat of passion, riding each other’s bliss, until I realized what we . . . what I was doing. From that moment on, I smoothly transitioned into the original piece I’d arranged for her on the Destiny and withdrew my control on her emotions, and she just . . . fell.”

  The horror reflected in the musician's pale-green eyes told him everything he needed to know. Somehow, Odelm felt responsible for Selena’s condition, even though V’dim wasn’t sure he’d had anything to do with it.

  “When did you notice she wasn’t there with you?”

  “I had closed myself off from her—from everyone—to prevent any outside forces from interfering with the originality of the song,” Odelm murmured, flicking his gaze toward the medical staff members surrounding Selena. “I felt it was important to keep the song in its purest form, for if I felt her reactions, I may have unintentionally altered the melody, falling into a trap of my own making.” He gripped V’dim’s shoulders, shaking his head aimlessly as he continued, “You don’t understand how addicting our nestqueen’s mind can be. I could bathe in her thoughts all day, getting lost in her aura as I float in our pool . . . or play one of my instruments...” he trailed off, sending a loud wail into the infirmary’s crowded lobby. “Or wrapped up in her bliss, riding the high into the night.”

  “Who says you can’t do those things again?” V’dim gave Odelm a pat on the back, rubbing light circles along his spine between his tentacles. “She isn’t dead.”

  “No, but she isn’t with us either. Do you feel her? Because I don’t!”

  “I do!” V’dim grabbed Odelm’s web thread—and slightly cursed at himself for not forming a nestbrother bond with Selena’s Favored before now, which would have been a more straightforward task than going through Destima’s Circuli’s web—and shoved Odelm’s pale-green thread against his nestqueen’s golden one. “See? Her presence is faint, but she is still with us. Something—or someone—must be isolating her like Master Chamber Mwe did during her trial—”

  “Or when she slipped into her void chamber with you and Z’fir. Xylo and I felt as if she had died,” Odelm muttered, his gaze heavy. “I don’t like this. This is the third time someone—or something—has broken her barriers and taken her away from us, pulled her from the living.”

  He pointed toward Selena, lying on the medical bed. “I don’t know about you, but this isn’t sustainable. It’s not right. Her body is barely alive while her mind—her spirit—is elsewhere. There has to be something we can do to prevent this from happening again. I fear there will come a time when she doesn’t come back to us. Then what are we supposed to do? We’d have, what, three or four months to live without her until we fade away?”

  Odelm pulled away from V’dim. Instead of his usual shades of violet, his coloring ranged from scared white to angry red, reflecting Kaede’s aura when he’d last seen him. V’dim watched the fuming musician pace along the lobby’s square seating, wondering what had triggered the male to turn from troubled to raging.

  “She isn’t dying, Odelm,
” Z’fir scolded from Selena’s bedside. “Get a hold of yourself.”

  “No, she isn’t dying—yet,” Odelm seethed, turning toward the Wudox prince. “I don’t know about you, but if she doesn’t come back, that’s it for me. Now that I’ve had a taste of what a real nestqueen is like, I’ll never be satisfied with another. I was already severed once, cast aside because I wasn’t willing to give up a part of me for someone who didn’t value me for who I am. Selena only asked for one thing—to be loved. If she dies, I will die with her. The Stars better lead me to her in the afterlife, because she will forever be my nestqueen.”

  “No one is dying on my watch,” Oeta declared, as she walked up beside Odelm, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Sleep.”

  Odelm’s eyes widened as his pupils rolled into the back of his head. A moment later, his knees buckled. Kaede swooped in behind him and hooked his arms under the musician’s armpits, steadying him before he crashed to the floor.

  Instantly, all of the Circuli members within the room sprang to high alert, appendages fully extended and ready in their defensive stance.

  “A little warning next time?” Kaede hissed, dragging the unconscious male to the nearby couch to drape him across the cushions haphazardly.

  “Why did you let the fragile male work himself up into another panic attack?” Oeta scoffed. “I could feel him from my apartment across the island. There’s no way I can concentrate with him hovering nearby.”

  “What did you do to my nestbrother?” Xylo questioned, advancing a few steps toward the fallen clan member. “I thought you were on our side.”

  “You have nothing to worry about, Xylo.” Her fuchsia gaze surveyed the room, studying every male as her stained-glass-like wings twitched. “I only put him in a deep sleep for his own good. I was afraid he might go on a rampage or do something he would regret later. This way, I’m saving him from himself.”