by Aileen Erin
The last was the most important.
I settled in to relax for a single moment of quiet with Amihanna. As I lay there with her tucked into my side, I realized that I’d made another mistake.
I’d been trying to rule alone. I’d been trying to take on the weight of it alone. I’d been doing it because I wanted to spare Amihanna the burden. I wanted to give her time to have some peace before I pulled her into the chaos of politics and war. I wanted to be able to save her from it, and in doing that, I’d pushed her away.
The truth was that I couldn’t rule alone. I could try, but I would keep making mistakes. It was only with her that I could truly become a good High King. Because she was my shalshasa.
I should’ve been pulling her in to every meeting and call I had.
I should’ve been there when she decided to start training for invading Earth.
We should’ve made that choice together.
Because I’d not only asked her to marry me, but to be my High Queen. To rule beside me. When she woke up, we’d talk about it.
But there was this worry now. She’d faded far too fast while we were apart. It’d been less than three days, which meant it couldn’t have been those jumps that had weakened her.
My wrist unit buzzed, and I looked down. Fynea.
When is she going in the pod?
My friend didn’t need me to tell her what was going to happen. She knew. I’m giving her a few more minutes to fall soundly asleep, and then I’ll carry her to the med bay. I answered her.
We’re here and ready outside your doors. I already had Audrey transferred over. Do you think it’s the lucole?
My whole body went cold.
It was impossible. She’d been scanned over and over and over again. We’d run every test imaginable before we left Sel’Ani, and Amihanna said that Audrey had come to her ship and done a few more scans. If there was some poison still in her body, we would’ve found it already.
But what if it was the lucole?
I was done waiting. She was asleep enough. I slid off the bed and gently lifted her in my arms.
She was too light, and now I was scared. Truly terrified. Because if something was wrong with her that our pods couldn’t detect, then how could we heal her?
The Goddess wouldn’t do this. She couldn’t give Amihanna back to me only to take her away.
I exited my rooms and saw Fynea waiting for me. Amihanna’s guards were also there waiting.
I gave each of them a look to tell them that she deserved better. They were supposed to be protecting her, in any form that took. We would have words before this was done.
Fynea placed her hand on my shoulder, guiding me down the hall. “Come on,” she whispered to me. “Audrey is getting set up right now. Let’s get her to the pod. It will be okay. We’ll fix her.”
Would we?
I prayed as I walked.
I wasn’t going to lose her now. Not like this.
Chapter Twenty-Three
AMIHANNA
We’d ended up taking another three full days to get to Telnon. Not because that’s how long it actually took to get there, but because that’s how long it took me, Audrey, and an entire team of medical staff to convince Lorne that I was fine. Since Lorne refused to continue our journey to Telnon until I’d been cleared for anything and everything, we were officially extremely late to the meeting. The man refused to see reason when I told him that we couldn’t keep our allies waiting, but he didn’t care.
Was I sick when I got to Lorne’s ship? Yes. I felt like death, but I wasn’t actually near death. I was just exhausted.
The final decision from the medical staff on board—plus Audrey because she’d come right over when she heard I needed the pod—was that the lucole had left some lingering side effects in my system, but that I had no actual poison in my body. I just needed more time to heal and balance my body. It was unusual for an illness to linger like this after so much time in a healing pod, but not unheard of, especially when dealing with something completely new to the Aunare. They hadn’t fully figured out a standard treatment protocol, which meant it would take a little time for me to recover fully.
That diagnosis was a massive relief.
The doctors said I’d probably been too weak to travel when we started our journey, and if I’d stayed on Sel’Ani another day or so, I might have gotten through the jumps just fine. Yes, I would’ve felt them more than the average Aunare, but they shouldn’t have made me so exhausted and nauseated. They shouldn’t have even made me sick. I should’ve only needed some extra nutrients, which was why Plarsha had stocked the fridge.
They tested and scanned and monitored me during long training sessions to make sure I was totally okay. I passed every single one. So, Lorne finally gave his captain the go ahead to make the final jumps to Telnon.
Now that I was rested and well fed, the jumps weren’t that bad. If I’d had my memories, I would’ve known something was wrong with the way I’d been feeling—that the extreme reaction to the jumps wasn’t normal for me—but now I knew. I wouldn’t let myself get that drained again.
The only good thing that came out of the delay—besides getting a little time to recover—was that Lorne finally let me in on his plans for the meeting and his list of friends he wanted to coordinate meetings with. We made plans based on what we thought we might get from each, and two more backups. It had been a lot to figure out, but I was more determined than ever to find a way to take down SpaceTech while on Telnon.
After days of planning, I could almost picture the path we’d go down to win, but I couldn’t fully envision winning yet. It was a good start though. Hearing from Haden wasn’t the only thing that was fueling me. It was that I knew where this war was going to end up. Lorne and I officially decided that we were going back to Earth. We weren’t sure when or how, but it was happening. And I was ready for it, even if the fear of being on Earth—in that dangerous environment again—was there in the back of my mind.
I wasn’t going back to Earth how I left. I was going back stronger.
I was a warrior.
I was a leader.
I was the person that was destined to take down SpaceTech.
Lorne and I stood beside each other on the bridge of his warship in front of the massive view screen which showed us Telnon. It was red and brown and green with swirls of their atmospheric weather churning. Our support ships surrounded us, making sure that if SpaceTech decided to show up for this meeting of the alliance members, they couldn’t approach. They wouldn’t stand a chance.
In a moment, we’d make our descent and leave my warship, all but one of the support ships, and most of the fighters in orbit. We weren’t allowed to land very many ships on Telnon, but those that stayed in orbit were under the protection of the Yhona.
Still, it seemed like a good idea to stick around in orbit for a few minutes to make sure no other foreign ships moved toward us.
I glanced at Lorne after a few minutes, and he nodded. No one was coming. We were safe to make our descent.
He turned to his head pilot—a woman named Captain Zaeshel ni Eiloa. She pressed her fist to her heart, and started to give commands in Aunare.
I inched closer to Lorne, linking our hands together, as the ship sped closer to Telnon’s atmosphere. Lorne gave the Yhona our changed arrival date when I was in the pod days ago. We were arriving late to the summit, but we were still hours ahead of when we told them we’d be there. If there’d been an attack planned for us, hopefully our early arrival threw things off.
Fynea and Roan were in an office by the ship’s exit, along with a couple of Lorne’s other assistants who’d come along for the trip. They were all working together to coordinate the schedule. Since we were late, we’d missed part of the meeting, but there was a dinner tonight and a few one-on-one meets to confirm. The most important of which was today’s.
Lorne stood beside me. His crown was on his head—a simple, thin band of gold that fit just perfectly across the
middle of his forehead. He’d wanted me to wear one too, but I’d refused just like I had every other time he’d asked before. I didn’t actually hate the idea of wearing a crown anymore, even if it felt weird to think of me wearing one. Maybe it was stupid, but it felt too much like a lie. We were engaged, not married. I was the future High Queen. Not the actual High Queen. I didn’t want to give the impression that I was something that I wasn’t.
Except if this whole not-married-yet turned into a problem politically, I was going to piss off Fynea a lot. I would marry him today. Right now. I would do it just because that’s how much I wanted to marry him—I didn’t need Fynea’s big show of a wedding—but if being married gave me an added bonus to get the information we needed, then I’d do it. No hesitation.
I hoped I didn’t have to marry him sooner for any other reason than because I wanted to. I didn’t want anyone to think I was using our marriage for anything other than what it was—two people who wanted to spend their lives together in every possible way. But I would do anything to protect our people. And more than that to protect Lorne.
As we neared the surface of the planet, two ships approached ours and hovered in front of us. They didn’t engage or attack, but they made me nervous.
“Who are they?”
“It should be a welcoming party, but we’ll see.” Lorne pointed to the vidscreen, which had swirling gold Aunare written on it. Lorne said a few words in Aunare, and a large middle section of the vidscreen switched away from Telnon to show a man.
His pitch black hair was disheveled and he looked like he had a fine sheen of sweat on his face. I wasn’t sure if that’s just what someone from Telnon looked like or if he was actually nervous. “Welcome, High King ni Taure.” Our warship’s translator kicked in automatically, voiding over the man’s audio with the ship’s computer voice. “In case you don’t remember me, I am Beta Omo Sha Yhona, assistant to Supreme Leader Melina Ze Eta Yhona. I’m sending a message to the guide ships in front of you. They will escort you to the correct landing pad. Please follow them.”
No sooner did he say the words than the ships flipped away to lead us to the right and dipped below the clouds.
Lorne gave his head pilot a nod and the warship started to follow.
Beta Omo fidgeted with his hands a little and then finally spoke again. “I have to apologize. We’re not quite ready for you or your entourage yet. We were told you wouldn’t be here for hours.”
Ah. Yeah. He was sweating because he was nervous. He had the Aunare High King here and he wasn’t ready. Whoops. That must’ve been embarrassing.
Lorne met the man’s nervous gaze with his steady, emotionless kingly mask. “I’m early. Is that a problem?” The edge in Lorne’s voice had me turning to him.
Lorne gave me a slow look, and I had to smother the smile. I dared this guy to tell Lorne that it was a problem. I wasn’t sure what Lorne was thinking right now, but I was curious enough that I wanted to find out.
“No. Not at all.” Beta Omo sputtered, but from the way he was wiping his brow with a cloth from his pocket, it seemed like it actually was a pretty big problem. “The thing is… The thing is that your rooms aren’t ready. The Supreme Leader Ze Eta Yhona isn’t prepared to receive you yet either. She—”
Oh boy. This dude was really going to get it.
“We are not staying in the city. We’ve made other arrangements, which I’ve already sent ahead.”
Beta Omo kept opening and closing his mouth, as if he had no idea what to say next, but this shouldn’t have been news to him.
“Don’t worry yourself with what we do from now until Ze Eta Yhona is ready to meet with us. I assume I won’t see her until the dinner tonight. We will entertain ourselves in your capital city until then.” There was a warning in Lorne’s voice. A dare. “Unless there is a problem?”
Oh yeah. That was Lorne asking Beta Oma for a fight.
I wanted to cross my fingers and hope this Beta Oma dude would take the dare and we wouldn’t land. I wasn’t sure what Lorne would do or what protocol would allow, but I was curious enough to want to find out.
“Yes, of course. You’re more than welcome to make use of all of Telnon’s many lovely features. I can send someone to escort you—”
“I’ve been here before. I know my way around, and I have my own guards. Unless there’s some other danger I should know about?”
I glanced at Lorne. Okay, now I knew something was going on. First the king mask, then the dare, and now he was being cold?
Lorne wasn’t usually so gruff with a person. Granted the guy sending fighter ships at us and then sputtering and sweating was annoying, but the ice that was starting to punctuate Lorne’s sentences was a little strong for him. Which meant there was a history here that I didn’t know about.
“No, your majesty. I merely mentioned it because your father enjoyed having an escort, but you are of course more than welcome to explore our capital city as you see fit. I’ll be at the landing pad to formally accept you and your guards under our protection per our usual agreement. Once that’s done, you have only to reach out on my personal number with any needs you have, and I will see to them.”
“Good.” Lorne gave his head of coms a look and the transmission ended. No goodbye. No thank you. No nothing.
“What was that all about?” It wasn’t like Lorne to be so outwardly rude.
“I hate that little man, and the feeling is mutual. He’s made it his mission every time I’ve visited to belittle and undermine me. Except now I’m the High King. I don’t think he ever thought I’d get my position. He preferred my father and the lazy type of ruling.”
I wanted to say that it was surprising to hear that someone didn’t like Lorne, but I wasn’t sure that was true. From the way everyone in the alliance was waiting to meet before backing Lorne, it made sense that this assistant to Ze Eta Yhona was missing Lorne’s father.
“Plus, I don’t want anyone connected to Ze Eta Yhona around right now.”
“Why not?”
He gave me a sly look. “They might try to come off as neutral, but I don’t know that they are. I don’t want anyone around our meet with Vyic.”
“Noted.”
If we couldn’t truly trust the Yhona, then I didn’t want them around either. This Vyic we were meeting was Gsvinaish, from all accounts a very unique long-lived race. Vyic’s father had been ruling the people of Gsvina for centuries and had been dealing with SpaceTech ever since they’d come to power. Vyic was his father’s heir, but it seemed unclear when—if ever—Vyic would take over. His father had already lived for centuries, and when I asked Lorne about it, he just shrugged. He said to trust him. That I’d understand better when I met Vyic.
I trusted him in all things, but I was curious. Very, very curious.
The ship landed a few minutes later. The area around the landing pad was a dense forest. So dense that I couldn’t see beyond the first row of trees. The air was hotter, wetter, thicker than on Sel’Ani. I knew places on Earth had that wet heat, but I’d never been to them. For most of what I remembered, I’d lived in the dry heat of the desert.
I shouldn’t have liked this heat, but the moisture in the air seemed to open my lungs, my pores, my soul.
I took a deep breath in. Was the air sweet? Is that what I was smelling? It smelled good and I couldn’t figure out why.
I turned to Lorne, who was watching me closely. His skin was glowing. Not brightly, but enough that I was surprised. He wasn’t glowing a second ago, and I hadn’t done or said anything. Nothing had happened.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I asked him.
He was quiet for a second, as if he were thinking about his words. Measuring each one to make sure it was the right one. “There’s a bit of a chemical in the air. It’s naturally occurring, so don’t think it’s meant to purposefully manipulate you, but at the same time, it does exactly that.”
“What?” Was that why I liked the heat here? Because I hated the heat. Especiall
y after Abaddon. I took cold showers after really hard workouts just to cool myself down.
“It makes people calmer. It’s not a sedative exactly, but it can dull the senses.”
“What?” Why had no one warned me?
Lorne started to smirk, as if my outrage was somehow making him happy.
If I were him, I wouldn’t be smirking because I was about to be super undiplomatic to the people of Telnon.
“It’s why the conferences usually take place here, especially when things are tense. It’s another layer of protection that Telnon provides. Just by breathing the air here, the meetings go a little smoother.”
Protection? I wasn’t sure I’d use that word. I didn’t like being chemically altered, even if it was naturally occurring. I wanted to think and feel and be what I was without any restrictions. I’d been afraid for years that I would be discovered as a halfer. I hadn’t even been allowed to be who I was or say what I wanted because anything even slightly derogatory toward SpaceTech meant prison or death. To show my face fully in public meant risking execution.
I’d been oppressed, and this—this felt like a violation.
My skin lit instantly. I was ready for a fight.
Lorne grinned down at me. “And this is why I love you.”
“What?” I had no idea what he was talking about. “Because my skin is glowing?”
“No. Because I told you that you were being altered without permission and you fought. You’re burning off the chemical with your power. Even if you didn’t realize what you were doing. You’re doing what all of our guards are doing right now.”
I looked around us—Ashino, Eshrin, Ginu, all the other guards—and he was right. Lorne was right. All of them were glowing. Not bright. But enough.
“Won’t that make us stand out?”
Lorne shrugged. “We stand out anyway. We’re taller than most of the other races. People know exactly what I look like. Exactly what you look like. They know our skin glows. It’s up to our guards to keep us safe, and—” Lorne motioned to the craft approaching us. “It’s up to them to make sure we’re safe.”
