by May Sage
They were planning to attack Draks. If the Imperials occupied it, they’d have a military base in his sector.
But they’d get rid of Kai’s enemies in the process—the loyalists, slavers and barbarians who deserved nothing but death.
Kai wished he could take a knee and think,, but it would have felt awkward in the presence of his cabinet. Instead, he folded his arms behind his back and watched the stars through the large window. Emptying his mind of all concerns, he searched for an answer.
Seconds passed in silence. Kai saw a pair of blue eyes pass through his mind.
Her.
He never felt her these days, although no hour passed without him thinking of her. She’d shut him out, blocking their bond just as he’d become conscious of it.
Yet, he could almost hear her whisper in his ear today.
“There are innocents on Nimeria. Children, Kretians. They’ll be slaughtered along with the rest.”
The words came out of his mouth, but it was almost as if she were saying them.
“Prepare the fleet. Let us send a message. We will be protecting our worlds.”
But they were too late.
Twenty-Four
The Imperials
Nalini felt them before the alarms were raised. She woke with a start and rushed to wake Kronos up; no need, the child had jumped down from his bed and was already tying his boots.
“We need to get out of here. Now.”
Something was coming, something big with thousands of souls, all intending destruction. Kai’s armies, she supposed. She wouldn’t—couldn’t—be in the base when they descended upon them, because there was no way in hell she was going to protect the loyalists.
Kronos was ready in minutes; they left all their belongings, just taking the clothes on their backs.
They were halfway through to the tunnels, walking as fast as they could without being obvious in their intention, when a high-pitched siren sounded. In no time, there were soldiers running everywhere, none of whom were paying them any mind, until one rushed to her, calling her name like they were familiar.
Veli Hora. She closed her eyes and counted to ten; by the time he was at her side, her features betrayed nothing more than mild distaste, rather than her desire to crush him with her bare hands.
“Where are you going? There’s no time. We’ve ordered an evacuation,” he said, dragging her where he’d just come from. “Let me put you in my transport. It’s safest.”
She took her hand back and stood her ground. “Yours?” She laughed. “I don’t think so.”
Veli stilled, watching her closely.
“Look, whatever you’ve heard, I don’t intend to harm you. I never touch ladies. Only slaves.”
She hadn’t heard a thing about him, but each word coming out of his pretty mouth confirmed the gut feeling she’d had about him from the very start.
“You,” he said, “I’ve never seen a female as precious as you. My intentions are entirely honorable. But now is not the time to do this. Just get in a transport and head to safety. This is no simple raid. The Imperials are attacking with weapons we can’t even identify.”
Her eyes widened. After a beat, she took a step back and turned on her heels. “I’ll take my chances, thanks.”
She heard him make his move, and Nalini smiled. There ended pretense. It didn’t matter anyway; she was done with the loyalists’ crap, for good.
When he attempted to grab her, she took hold of his arm instead, pulling it to her with all the strength a year fighting with warriors had infused in her small frame. Then she leaped, jumping to his shoulder, breaking his arm. A guttural scream escaped him as she kicked his face, hard, breaking his nose. He fell, unconscious.
He deserved all that and more.
Despite the alarm, everyone in their immediate area had stopped moving, staring wordlessly. She’d not used any magic, not here, and she didn’t need it against scum like him. Still, they stared in awe; she was nothing, just an irrelevant healer in gray whom they’d seen running around for a couple of weeks. And she’d taken on one of their highest commanders like he was a weakling.
Nalini spotted Heio amongst the crowd. She didn’t mind the foot soldier. Actually, she didn’t mind most of the lowly males and females around the base. They didn’t seem to have much of an opinion; they just knew Kai had attacked their home, and they’d joined a group that swore to defend it. She hadn’t heard demeaning, racist, or sexist comments from them. And then, there were also the slaves. She doubted Veli had arranged transports for them.
“I’ll be leaving this hole through the neko den,” she informed them. “The beasts won’t be a problem. If you don’t want to take on the Imperials by air, follow me.”
She made one quick detour along the way. Standing in front of the locked doors of three bunkers, Nalini hesitated. She was no hacker. There was only one way to open those doors without a key. Magic.
The doors burst open before she did a thing about it. Turning to her left, she saw Kronos, hand outstretched, his signature yellow energy in hand.
There were terrified whispers behind them. The boy! The boy is a mage.
She opened her mouth to ask why he’d done this, but closed it again. She knew why. Kronos was tired of hiding; he’d been tired for a long time now. But she hadn’t been ready to expose herself, and he knew it. She’d protected the boy for so long, it was strange to see him return the favor now.
She smiled as the stunned slaves. Some of them had scattered when they’d seen magic. Those who were left would live.
“Let’s get out of here.”
Kronos destroyed the door at the end of the tunnel; the other side was dark and cold.
“You’re sure about this?” Heio asked.
“No,” she lied.
There was nothing she feared inside this cave. The only thing she feared was her own race.
“Let’s go.”
Some stayed back, returning to their stations; a dozen soldiers and all the slaves followed her down the endless maze of tunnels.
They braced themselves, expecting death at each step, but no felines crossed their path; they didn’t even go anywhere close to the nekos’ den. Heio and the others talked of luck, but Kronos smiled knowingly, seeing Nalini’s eyes remaining amber in the darkness.
The felines had been very, very close, but, at her bidding, they remained in the shadows, despite the temptation of their flesh. Oh, how the beasts liked the smell of their flesh. Nalini could almost feel their hunger.
Underneath it all, she felt something else, too.
She turned back toward the caves when they’d reached the other side of the mountain.
It was calling to her, would have said her name if it had known how to speak.
“You look like you’re considering something extremely stupid,” Kronos said. “Please, tell me I’m wrong.”
She rolled her eyes. “Stay with the group, unless they look like they want to burn you at the pyre. I won’t be long.”
“Unless the Imperials bomb the mountain and you die.”
She had to chuckle. “Yes. Unless that.”
And, on that note, running, she returned inside the cave, this time turning right when they’d come from the left.
She immediately came face-to-face with one of them. And oh, damn, but Heio had been right. They were huge, bigger than her in fact. The feline’s sharp teeth were longer than her entire face. “Good kitty,” she said nervously, focusing her mind on it, on keeping it docile.
It took a lot of energy. Animal or not, his mind was strong. “There, there,” she said. “Stay put, and don’t eat the Nalini.”
The neko’s head followed her progression, hissing.
As she walked through the tunnels, more of them came to her, each of them challenging her, pushing through her mind. She was sweating by the time the tunnel spilled inside a cavernous, dimly lit cave. Looking up, she found thousands of starbugs on the natural ceiling, each of them adding a little brightnes
s. They really did look like stars in the sky.
There was a shallow fountain at one end of the vast cave, and, next to it, lay the most ginormous of these beasts—so large Nalini doubted she’d fit through any of the tunnels.
She didn’t need to pass through, though. No, this beast was fed where she lay. She just looked at any of the others, and they obeyed wordlessly.
This was their queen.
She could have fought Nalini and eaten her then and there, had she wanted to. Instead, she watched her.
Nalini moved toward the ground slowly. One of her knees touched the floor, and then she sat, legs crossed, far from the beast, but it could have, would have, closed the distance in one leap had it wanted to.
“Have you called to trap me here?” she asked, her head tilted.
She should be afraid. She wasn’t.
The beast moved, shifting to get to her feet. As she did, Nalini saw the four creatures at her sides. Each of them was huge already over half the size of Nox, although they’d only been born a few days ago.
Her heirs. Two little princes and two princesses.
Three of the felines were already fighting, their little claws outstretched, toothless jaws closing on their siblings’ ears and paws. They ignored the last one. Pale and unmoving. Red blood down his leg. Practically dead.
If he stayed on their cold, harsh world, he would die.
Nalini understood then. It hadn’t been her power at all that had gotten them through the tunnels. How arrogant she was, believing herself strong enough to subdue all the beasts, just because they had fur and claws.
She, Kronos, and the others had been allowed safe passage by the queen of these tunnels for one simple reason.
Nalini crawled forward slowly, taking care not to touch the three children that weren’t hers to care for.
“He’ll be safe with me,” she promised, gathering the weak body in her arms, noticing his shallow breaths.
The queen didn’t talk, but she might as well have.
He better be.
Nalini got out of there before the neko queen changed her mind She was still in the tunnels when an explosion took down half the mountain. She felt it. It should have destroyed everything; there was no logical reason why these tunnels were holding above her head.
Only magic could have done that.
She stole one last glance backward. Amber eyes, not unlike hers, watched her in the darkness.
Nalini hastened, clutching the neko closer against her heart. She emerged out of the mountain a little more knowledgeable about the world.
The skies above the mountain were clouded, stars hidden by two humongous ships that turned their day to night. One of the ships, and all its fleet, were retreating; it fled, jumping to warp. Hopefully, that was good news.
Tracking Kronos’s familiar mind signature, she found her group with ease. They’d arrived at a clearing, and all of them stood, hands held up in surrender. Two dozen soldiers in exosuits held them at gunpoint.
She froze. She stopped moving, thinking, breathing.
The soldiers didn’t retain her attention.
There, in the darkened clearing, an immaculate cloak over his combat gear, a white and red mask over his head, stood Kai Lor Hora.
Twenty-Five
The Dominion
He didn’t know how he managed to keep it in check, but he forced himself to remain where he stood.
Nalini. He felt her. Smelled her. He had to hold on to what remained of his senses as everything in him stopped and then started again, recalibrated, reborn.
Finally, he turned to her. He’d purposefully avoided looking at her until then, needing an instant to prepare himself for it.
She was it now. Completely. His dreams and nightmares, the vision he couldn’t chase away. Sometime over the last few years, she’d completed the tattoo around the scar that ran along her shoulder and down her arm. Right now, as he looked at her, both of her eyes were blue, like they’d been in the vision branded in his memory so long ago.
She was dressed plainly, in dark gray, cheap cloth, not the colorful satins, velvets, and leather he would shower upon her. Seeing him, the female froze, her eyes widening in surprise and concern.
Kai noticed him then. The male who rushed next to her, adopting a possessive, protective stance. His veins turned to ice. Looking away from her took every bit of self-control he’d gained over the course of the three decades he’d lived through.
But somehow, he managed.
He signaled the leader of a small unit. “Take them to the Dominion,” he ordered sternly. “Give them private quarters.”
His order would have been different if Nalini hadn’t been amongst them. Eight amongst the group wore loyalist colors. They were prisoners, at best.
“Yes, sir.”
“Everyone else, with me.”
And he advanced, heading out to secure the rest of the planet.
What was left of it, in any case.
He’d only moved three steps when he heard her voice.
“Just try to touch me, see how it turns out for you.”
Kai smiled. A tigress. She was a tigress. He saw it in her fierce eyes, in the way she held herself. Five foot six, tops, when most females reached five ten. Males topped her at six foot three or more. Yet turning to see what it had all been about, he saw the squad leader squirm.
The male bravely stood his ground. “The beast can’t come. Might be infested. We have strict directives aboard the Dominion to keep the environment clean and safe for everyone.”
“Then fucking leave me here,” she countered.
Kai turned on his heels and advanced toward her, each of his steps purposeful. He would have been logical and reasonable about this, had she not said those precise words.
Leave her here? He glowered.
Kai stood right in front of her and stared. Even Ian Krane would have faltered under that look. She stared back defiantly.
“I’m not going anywhere without this neko,” she informed him.
Kai glanced down toward the animal in her arms. A young, wild beast, dirty and sick.
“No, I don’t suppose I can stop you from saving a pathetic creature at your mercy.”
He found himself smiling.
“We have a veterinarian on board. The beast will be cared for.” So would she. He didn’t add that. “I’m in charge of this evacuation. You’re going onto my ship. Tell me we understand each other, Nalini Nova.”
«Tell me you’ll be in the Dominion when I head back.»
He didn’t say those words out loud, but she’d heard them, he was certain of that. Yet, she gave no answer.
Which left him no choice.
Kai turned to the squad leader. “You’re now in charge. See that this operation goes according to plan.”
He wasn’t losing her again. He just wasn’t.
He’d found her. Finally, after all this time, he’d found her. She was really here, not a vision based stars away. He felt her mind. Smelled her. Apple, cinnamon, pine, and Heaven all wrapped in one heady flagrance. A scent that could drive him mad, engulfed his senses.
She was small, yet not fragile. The voice, the gaze, the presence—it was all strength. She had an inherently majestic way of moving and talking.
She was a queen. His queen.
Now, it was just a matter of holding on to her.
«Come with me, Nalini. We’ll talk... later. And I’ll let you go if you demand it of me.»
He gestured her forward, and remained in that position until she sighed.
“Alright. Show the way.”
Glaring all the way, she nonetheless moved, following him as he walked toward his ship. He felt the corner of his lips inch up under his mask.
Finally. Fucking finally.
We’ll talk... later.
The words were a haunting promise.
They ran through Nalini’s mind, again and again, as she followed silently, her eyes never leaving his back. Their transport left the
ground, heading up towards a sleek, black, gorgeous, custom command ship. Only the best for the warlord, she supposed.
They reached it in no time, speeding through clearance when Kai talked to the command ship’s security guy, simply stating, “It’s me.”
The shields were lowered immediately without anyone asking for a code.
The transport’s doors slid open, and Kronos gasped as his eyes took in the seemingly endless white hall, where thousands of such transports were neatly parked. Nalini just glanced at her new surroundings before her gaze returned to the warlord.
It was really him under the mask. Kai. The subject of her every dream and nightmare. The main character in most of her visions. Darkness reborn.
He was cold. He gave orders that sounded like threats; his enforcers tripped on their own feet to obey rather than face the consequences.
And yet….
Kai was the first to step out of the transport; he was greeted by half a dozen enforcers ready to take his orders.
Kronos leaped out after him.
Nalini’s hands were filled by the sleeping neko, or she would have held him back—by his arm, hair, or the scruff of his neck if necessary—as he smiled and dashed up front, passing through three rows of enforcers.
He stood next to Kai’s imposing figure.
Nalini groaned.
“Hey, I recognize the presence,” the boy announced. “Wanted to say thank you for last time, for… you know.”
Oh. Bringing him back to life. Of course, he wanted to thank him for that.
“You’ve already expressed your thanks. It wasn’t required the first time around.”
Cold. So cold and formal, even with an enthusiastic teenager.
“All the same,” Kronos insisted, not bothered by Kai’s response. “I figured we wouldn’t see much of you after this, so I wanted to say it while I got the chance.”
Kai stopped, looking right at the boy through his visor. The twelve enforcers behind him had come to a halt. He gestured two men forward wordlessly.
