Cronius breathed a sigh of relief. “I’d do it for twice that long if I had to. Thank you, sir.”
He stood and extended his hand to the major. Onyx stood as well, placing his own hand in Cronius’.
“Don’t make me regret this,” he warned.
“I won’t, sir.”
By then, Isaias had emerged from the bathroom, though he could still hear the sound of running water indicating that his companion had entered in his place.
“Perfect timing,” Onyx said to his ensign. “We’re done here. Lieutenant, I expect to see you at the meeting with Avaron’s captains this evening? We’ll be having dinner with them and discussing Avaron’s security in light of the Matsai sighting nearby.”
“Of course. I’ll see you then.”
He straightened and saluted the major, who returned the salute before turning to leave. When they were gone, Cronius fell onto the sofa, throwing his head back and laughing hysterically. Just the day before things had seemed so hopeless. He’d been about to lose his career in addition to his wife and family. He told himself to find Dia Tian and thank her at the earliest opportunity.
Onyx clenched his teeth and tried not to stare at the woman sitting across from him. One of the six Avaron captains present for the meetings, she’d caught his eye the moment she entered the room. Not because he found her attractive, or because anything about her struck him as remarkable, but because of the piece of jewelry she wore around her wrist. The sight of it robbed him of his concentration, causing him to lose track of the conversation taking place around him frequently. To his left and right, his first and second lieutenants watched him in confusion, though neither remarked on his state of distraction.
“Which is why I think an increased military presence in and around Avaron is the wisest course of action considering the circumstances.”
Onyx blinked, realizing he’d missed almost everything Captain O’Ryan had just said. He leaned back in his chair and pretended to consider a course of action he hadn’t even heard. His eyes continued flitting back to the female captain and the bit of silver hanging from her wrist. It just didn’t make sense.
What was a stranger doing with his wife’s bracelet?
“I’ll need time to confer with my lieutenants on the matter,” he said finally. “We’ll reconvene in the morning after breakfast to discuss the matter further. I may have to put in a call to my superiors at Napet.”
“Very well,” Captain O’Ryan replied, seeming satisfied with his answer. “Until tomorrow.”
The room began to empty as the Avaron officers stood and took up their files, folders, and notepads before trickling out of the conference room.
Onyx stood as well and located Isaias in the room. He took his time making his way toward the ensign, careful not to show any outward sign of urgency.
“Isaias.”
The ensign saluted. “Sir?”
“That female captain… what do you know about her?”
Isaias followed his gaze across to the room to where she stood smiling up at Cronius. The two were talking in hushed tones.
“That’s Captain Moore. I believe her first name is Vivian.”
“I need to speak with her alone. Arrange that for me, please.”
“Right away, sir.”
Onyx resumed his place at the conference table and waited, hands folded in front of him. He fought to keep them from shaking as anger gripped him. Two things he’d never been able to abide were liars and thieves.
A few moments later, he sat alone in the room with Isaias and Captain Moore.
“Should I leave, sir?” Isaias asked, glancing awkwardly between him and the captain.
“No,” he answered. “Sit. I need a witness.”
Isaias obeyed silently, and Onyx turned to the woman sitting across from him.
“Captain Moore, I hope you don’t mind if I cut right to the chase.”
The captain shifted uncomfortably in her seat and cleared her throat. “Of course not,” she replied. “Is something wrong?”
He shrugged. “That all depends. I need to know where you got that bracelet.”
Her eyes widened, and she glanced down at the piece of jewelry. Just the sight of it touching someone else’s skin filled him with rage. The woman didn’t even know she played with fire by parading it around in front of him.
“Captain, when I give a command, I expect swift obedience,” he snapped when no answer was forthcoming.
She jumped, her face not unlike that of a deer in the headlights. “I don’t want anyone to get in trouble.”
Onyx frowned. “Whoever you’re protecting, I suggest you think of yourself and your own career. If I report you for wearing stolen property, you could lose your rank.”
Vivian gasped. “Stolen? I think there’s been some kind of mistake. This bracelet was a gift.”
He raised one eyebrow dubiously. “From?”
“Look, our personal lives are our business. It was giving to me by the man I’ve been seeing, and he’s a fellow officer—one of yours. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it’s not stolen. He’s not that kind of guy.”
Onyx stood, bracing his fists against the table. He was quickly losing the battle for composure.
“I can assure you, the bracelet is stolen. You see, it belongs to my wife. I know, because I gave it to her. The inside bears an Ethelene inscription. Seeing as I am the last remaining Ethelene in the universe, I think it’s safe to say it’s the same one.”
“An Ethelene…” She trailed off, reaching down with one hand to unclasp the bracelet.
It fell onto the table with a ‘clink’, and she turned it over, revealing the markings etched onto the inside, not unlike the tattoos he bore on his chest and back. He had committed the inscription to memory:
I’ll always come back to you.
It had been his father’s promise to his mother, just as it was his to Dia’s.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. She looked up at him, her mouth hanging ajar. “I’m so sorry, sir. I didn’t know, I swear. He gave it to me and… oh, I feel so stupid! What kind of guy gives someone another woman’s bracelet?”
“That’s what I aim to find out,” he said, reaching across the table to take up the bracelet. She didn’t fight him. “I want a name.”
She sighed, lowering her head. “To think I tried to protect the bastard.”
“He could have gotten you in trouble, so there’s no need to shield him,” Isaias cut in. “Sorry, sir, for interrupting. Captain, whoever it is, you’d be better off letting the major handle him.”
Running a hand through her short hair, she snorted in disgust. “Lieutenant March. Do your worst with him, I don’t give a rat’s ass.”
Onyx felt his fingers close tight around the bracelet, and his lungs began to burn. He’d forgotten how to breathe. He was drowning, suspended in this moment and dying a slow, painful death. He hardly recognized his own voice when he spoke.
“Cronius? You were the woman in his apartment this morning?”
She nodded. “Yes, and don’t go spreading that around. We didn’t want to get in trouble for fraternization, but now I don’t want anyone to know I had anything to do with that scumbag.”
“Cronius March gave you this bracelet?” he asked, needing confirmation.
It made no sense. Why would his lieutenant have his wife’s bracelet? Had he been right to suspect him based on Isaias’ information? It seemed like evidence, yet he couldn’t fathom how it had come to be.
“He left it in the bathroom for me,” she confirmed. “He’d already left when I finished getting dressed and came out to thank him. We made dinner plans, and I was going to thank him for it then.” She made another sound of disgust. “I’ll thank him with my foot up his—”
“Leave,” he choked out, no longer able to suffer her presence.
She frowned. “I’m sorry?”
“You’re dismissed. Don’t tell anyone we had this conversation, especially not the li
eutenant. I’ll deal with him.”
“You’re welcome to him,” she muttered, standing and making a quick getaway.
Onyx slammed the bracelet down onto the table once she’d gone. His entire body trembled, and he clenched his hands into fists in an attempt to keep from breaking something. A long silence stretched on, during which he felt the sympathetic eyes of his ensign on him. After a while, Isaias spoke.
“Sir.”
“Don’t,” Onyx snapped, shaking his head. “You’ve done enough.”
“Me, sir?”
“You planted doubts in my mind about Dia,” he murmured. “You opened my eyes to… hell, I don’t know what. I think a man whose wife cheats on him is happier not knowing.”
“You don’t mean that,” Isaias countered, taking the seat beside him. “A man who walks around blind is weak. Knowing makes you strong. It strengthens you to deal with betrayal.”
“You don’t understand,” he whispered, lowering his head. “I am an outcast here. No one understands me. I’m not one of you and I never will be. But Dia…”
“She loved you anyway.”
“A lie, apparently.”
“Maybe not, sir,” he offered. “It all seems like a big misunderstanding to me. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for all of it. Just talk to her. Everyone knows she loves you.”
Onyx wanted to believe that. Up until now he had.
“After the Earth Army took out what remained of my people and captured me, I was imprisoned and studied. The government wanted to know everything they could about me and my kind. Once they determined a lone Ethelene wasn’t a danger to them, I was let go. I was twelve. Do you know what I wanted?”
“No, sir,” Isaias replied.
“To belong,” he replied. “I wanted it so badly, that I did everything I could to be like the other boys. And for a while I thought it was working. A group of kids in the orphanage I lived in seemed to take me under their wing, inviting me places with them and letting me join their games.”
“That’s good, isn’t it? It worked.”
Onyx laughed, shaking his head. “That’s what I thought, before they led me down a dark alley and beat me until I was blue as well as black.” He laughed again, bitterly. “They reminded me that I wasn’t one of them, and had no chance of becoming like them. From then on I was shunned.”
“But things have changed now. You’re one of the most powerful men in the army. You’ve come a long way.”
“Do you think for a moment that my position is secure? As secure, as say, Lieutenant March’s? After what he did, he should be discharged, but because of me he is going to keep his rank and stay in the army. Do you think if I behaved in the same way I would be given the same mercy by my C.O.s?”
Silence was his answer.
“Exactly,” he continued. “It’s why I’ve always striven for excellence. If I couldn’t be like everyone, then I would be better. I have to prove myself to everyone just to cling to the edge of their good graces.”
Isaias nodded in understanding. “You didn’t have to do that with Dia.”
He stood, pocketing the bracelet. “I thought I didn’t.”
“Do you think she’s playing with you, like those boys did all those years ago? She doesn’t seem like the type.”
Onyx paused on his way to the door and glanced at Isaias over his shoulder. He shrugged. “Neither did those boys, until the very end.”
With that, he turned and left, his mind in turmoil over the evidence seeming to burn a hole in his pocket.
Chapter Eight
When Dia returned from across the hall visiting Ellena, Onyx was waiting for her. He startled her, his voice reaching out from the dark bedroom where he sat in a chair in the corner, face shadowed. She faltered on the threshold, uncertainty causing her stomach to flip. He’d been acting so unusual lately, she hardly knew how to approach him.
“Hey,” she said, reaching to turn on the light. “How was your meeting? Why are you sitting in the dark?”
He glanced up at her, jaw clenched, eyes wide. None of the familiar warmth and kindness were on his face, and she felt as if she looked at a stranger.
“I have a headache,” he replied, shrugging like it was no big deal. “Where have you been?”
“Oh,” she replied, crossing the room and flopping down on the bed. “Across the hall with Ellena.”
Instead of pacifying him, her answer seemed to irritate him. She knew Ellena could be annoying, but she hadn’t realized how much Onyx disliked her.
“Across the hall,” he murmured, not exactly addressing her. He stared off into space as if thinking that over—as if her words presented some mystery that needed solving.
She folded her hands in her lap and sighed. “Is something wrong? Did you have another bad day?”
No response. Staring at his profile, Dia fumbled for the right words to say to help him snap out of this funk. Usually, she could make things better for him, soothe him when the outside world treated him badly. Lately, it seemed she’d lost her touch.
“Onyx,” she ventured. “What’s going on? I wish you’d talk to me. I don’t like to see you like this.”
He emitted a short, dry bark of laughter, his eyes snapping up to meet hers. “Is that so?”
She wrinkled her eyebrows. “Of course not. Please talk to me.”
His nostrils flared as he took a deep breath and released it on a sigh. “I have a question.”
“Okay,” she said, hoping they were now getting somewhere.
“Did you bring your bracelet? The one I gave you… my mother’s bracelet?”
She nodded. “Of course. I always have it with me.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I haven’t seen you wearing it.”
She stood, crossing the room to the small chest holding their meager belongings. “That’s because I only wear it for special occasions—you know that. It’s right…”
She gasped, trailing off as she opened the little box she kept her bracelet in to find it empty. Her heart began to pound, and she rifled through her clothes, searching for even the slightest flash of silver.
“It’s gone!” she whispered, her voice strangled. “But I always keep it in this box!”
Onyx stood, crossing the room. Looming over her, he gazed down, his face hard and brutal. “Did you lose it? Misplace it somewhere, maybe?”
Her heart pounded in her chest as she continued searching, panic bringing tears to her eyes. She’d always loved that bracelet. Onyx had given it to her before telling her he loved her—a night she always thought of as the greatest in her life. It had belonged to his mother once, so she knew it was special to him. She’d been honored that he wanted her to have it.
“I don’t know how that could have happened,” she insisted. “I wore it the night of the banquet and then… I swear, I put it back in here.”
One of his hands clenched into a fist at his side. “Are you sure you didn’t wear it again after that? Maybe it fell off.”
She stood, running a shaky hand through her hair. “I must have without realizing it. I’m so sorry, honey. I’ll… I’ll find it. I will search this entire station if I have to.”
His upper lip curled as he stepped closer, reaching into his uniform’s breast pocket. “There’s no need. It found its way to me.”
Confusion and hurt tore through her, and her eyes widened when she recognized the piece of gleaming silver in his hand. Why would he torture her like that? She lifted her hands and shoved hard against his chest, anger brimming over and spilling out of her in a rush.
“Damn it, Onyx! Why would you screw with me like that? It’s not like I lost it on purpose.”
“Of course not,” he countered. “I’m sure you would have expected your boyfriend to return it to you the next time you visited him, right?”
“My… my what?”
“Don’t play stupid, Dia. This was found in Lieutenant March’s quarters… in his bathroom. So, what happened? Did you leave it in the
re while showering after screwing him?”
Before she could stop it, her hand shot out toward his face. His head whipped to the side when her palm made contact, cracking across his cheek with a loud and resounding ‘smack’. She trembled from head to toe as the tears she’d been holding back finally began to fall.
“Have you lost your mind?” she asked, her voice rising a few octaves. “How could you accuse me of cheating on you?”
His jaw hardened, and it seemed the slap had hardly fazed him. “Then explain how your bracelet got in his chambers. Explain why I saw you on Isaias and Ellena’s balcony the other day, holding his hands.”
Her throat constricted and went dry. “It’s not what you think. I only went over there because he asked for my help. He didn’t want to lose his commission—”
“And screwing the major’s wife ensures he gets whatever he wants, right?”
“No!” she cried. “It wasn’t like that!”
He threw the bracelet across the room and reached for her, his fingers biting into her shoulders. She cried out in pain, but he only held her tighter.
“Don’t tell me how things are,” he whispered, his voice far more ominous in its quiet. She would have preferred it if he’d screamed at her. “I know how the world is. People smile to my face, and scorn me behind my back. I never thought you’d be one of them.”
She shook her head, choking back sobs. “You’re wrong,” she murmured. “I love you. I would never—”
“Stop lying to me! Let’s just be honest with each other for once, Dia. It was fun while it lasted, but maybe you realized marrying me was a mistake. And who can blame you? I’m not even human.”
“How can you say that? Don’t you know me at all?”
He shook his head, letting her go. “I thought I did. But now I’m starting to realize that you’re just like the rest of them. I don’t know you.”
She swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand and backed away from him. “I don’t know how Lieutenant March got my bracelet, but I swear nothing happened. Please, you have to believe me.”
Onyx (A YA SciFi Retelling of Othello) Page 5
