by Nia Mars
Tiam and Uthan exchange glances.
“We’ll be right back,” Uthan says as he and Tiam walk to the door. “You’d better take good care of her, kid.”
Dason offers a hand to help me out of the medical machine. “I hate it when they call me kid.”
“They only do it to get under your skin.” We are face to face, and I let him hold my hand. I think we both need the connection. I’m really glad that he’s here. “You don’t have to take it, you know. You can fight back.”
“I know,” he smiles that charming smile of his that I’ve grown to love. “I let them get away with it, because I don’t want to be constantly fighting. It can’t be pleasant for you to be around us when we are bickering with each other.”
I smile back and suddenly wonder if he’s not the most mature out of all of them.
I fight the question that’s on the tip of my tongue.
Do you have a girlfriend?
Chapter Fifteen
WE ARE IN THE SMALL LIVING ROOM area off my bedroom that I’ve never used before because the kreks have a tendency to keep me in the bedroom. I’m sitting in the middle of the weird bean-bag-style sofa that’s shaped like a giant letter C. Tiam is on one side of me, Uthan is on the other. Dason is sitting at my feet, running his thumb over my ankle in a gentle touch.
After Olipha and I told the kreks everything we knew, federal agents took Olipha back to the pilot academy. She could have asked for a break. She didn’t. She’s pretty tough for a princess. Hell, she’s tough, period. I respect her strength.
I think Tiam does, too, but, starting today, she’s to have her own guard. Tiam wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Now I’m alone with the men, in my living room, because I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be anywhere near a bed.
“Why did you leave the palace?” Tiam demands. His eyes flash steel, reminding me that I promised him that I wouldn’t run off again.
I wrap my arms around myself, prepared to sound stupid and ready to get the embarrassment over with. “After you left me in the garden, I followed you to tell you something. I saw you with that woman.”
Stars, I sound like a jealous twit.
Tiam blinks. “Captain Garet?”
Uthan swears, shooting him a look of sharp censure. “You brought Captain Garet to the Oath Forger’s palace?”
“I didn’t bring her,” Tiam snaps. “She came to report. She is still my captain.”
Silence ensues, stretches. When I break it, my voice is tired and quiet. “She is your lover.”
His jaw tightens. He drops his gaze. “Was.”
I turn to Uthan. “Do you have a lover?”
He flinches. “I broke it off as soon as I heard that you arrived.”
I suck in a sharp breath. I’m nothing but an obligation to them. Why does that make my heart hurt? Had I really thought that these men—literally the kings of the universe—were interested in me for me? My chest tightens as all my insecurities rush back.
Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I lean forward to look Dason in the eye. “And you?”
His expression is solemn. His fingers tighten around my ankle. “Never.”
I slide off the couch to sit on the floor next to him and lay my head on his shoulder. He radiates happiness.
Of course, the other two then come and sit on the soft carpet, facing us, jaws clenched, eyes threatening Dason with murder.
Tiam leans forward and reaches for my hand, but I pull away. He sits upright, his eyes somber. He puts the hand I rejected over his heart. “The moment I saw you, Oath Forger, there was no other.”
I shake my head. My heart is raw and aching. “I understand that you’re committed. I know you’re willing to make sacrifices. The point is you shouldn’t have to. You should be able to be with the woman you love. With Captain Garet.”
“It’s not like that.” His voice tightens with frustration. “I am a healthy adult male. Of course, I have felt desire before. What I feel for you cannot be compared.”
“Compulsion?”
He gives an exasperated laugh, his gray gaze begging me to understand. “Do you not know that you are the most important person in the world to me? The only woman.”
My gaze moves to Uthan. “And you?”
He gives a small smile, his eyes twin golden lakes that want nothing but to comfort me. “The same.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know,” he says, his tone soft with sympathy. “We keep rushing you. We are so blinded by your light that we keep forgetting that you have not come to us because you were awakened to your calling.”
Tiam had figured that out, too, earlier today. I shouldn’t be surprised that Uthan wasn’t far behind.
“You were simply kidnapped by pirates,” he adds.
“What is it...three times now?” Tiam puts in on a sigh.
I hate the damn pirates. I groan. “To be fair, this last time around, I snuck onto their ship.”
“Don’t remind me.” A half-smile pops onto Tiam’s face. “You do know how to give a man a heart attack.”
“Several men all at once,” Dason says above my head.
I poke his ribs. “Hey, whose side are you on, anyway?”
“Always on yours, Oath Forger.” He shifts even closer to me. “Never on anybody else’s.”
Tiam scoffs at him, but before he could say anything scathing, his comm unit pings. “Med report on the pirates,” he says and sends it to the wall display.
I read it along with the men. I’m unfamiliar with most of the medical terminology, but I can read the gist. Internal damage, multiple organ damage, there’s the word liquefied in there, then cause: unknown.
“Consistent with those sound wave weapons some of the planets used a couple of decades back,” Uthan says, tapping his knees with his fingers, eyes focused on nothing in particular, as if he’s lost in thought.
“Outlawed,” Tiam tells me. “There’s a treaty against those now. It’s illegal even to make them, let alone use them.”
“The pirates wouldn’t care about that.” Dason scoffs. “Maybe they had one on board and it malfunctioned.”
Tiam shakes his head. “The federal agents would have found it.”
Uthan is looking at me. “Whatever it was, the most important thing is that it didn’t hurt you, Oath Forger.”
“And why is that?” Tiam asks.
Suddenly all three men are looking at me.
I shrug. Are they seriously expecting an answer?
“Different physiology?” Dason guesses. “She’s from Earth.”
Tiam shakes his head at that, too. “They weren’t that much different.”
“As Oath Forger, would she have some kind of special protection?” Dason keeps going.
Tiam and Uthan look at each other.
Uthan presses his lips together then relaxes them, “From Smys, you mean?”
And Tiam says, “Not that I’ve ever read about in the records.”
Dason won’t give up. “But it’s not impossible?”
“I can’t unequivocally say that it is,” Uthan tells us after several seconds.
And because none of us have a better answer or any other insight, we all stay silent for a while. I’m not even sure how Smys figures into any of this. Smys is the original spirit of the universe, the original consciousness that was ripped apart at one point. According to their belief system. We all carry shards of it, the kreks more than others. But I’m not a krek. I’m not even the Oath Forger.
Dason’s comm unit pings and breaks the silence.
A voice on the other end sounds like it’s giving a report. Must be in Dason’s language. I don’t understand a word.
Tiam and Uthan do, judging by their darkening expressions.
“What is it?” I ask when the transmission ends.
Dason pushes to his feet. “An attack on our most important mining colony. It happened during the opening ceremony for a new mine. Some politicians were take
n hostage.”
“Pirates?” I ask as we all stand.
“We don’t know yet.” Dason’s gaze cuts to the other two men as if to ask, Did either of you have anything to do with this?
He’s all steel suddenly, Krek Dason, ready to defend his territory and people. Violence shimmers in the air around him in a way I haven’t seen before. Just because he tends to show me only his gentle side, it doesn’t mean that he’s not every inch as much of a warrior as the others. I keep forgetting that, and I shouldn’t.
“No more attacks,” Tiam says.
Uthan gestures at me. “The Oath Forger is here.”
Dason’s expression tightens. “Koah?”
Uthan comes to his defense. “He wouldn’t.”
“Roax?” Tiam puts in.
“Not if he knows we have the Oath Forger.”
“But can we know for certain that the news reached him?” Dason demands.
Uthan draws a deep breath. “We can’t.”
Dason runs his fingers through his bristly blondish-brown hair, then gives a brief nod. “I have to go.”
“Good luck,” comes from Tiam. And from Uthan, “Try not to get killed.”
He doesn’t add kid. And not only that, but they both leave, giving me a moment to say goodbye to Dason in private.
Huh. Maybe they’re all maturing.
I give Dason a good, long hug, worry buzzing along my skin like electricity. “Make sure you come back.”
It’s easy to think that I’m not sure about the men and my future with them, when I’m thinking about it in the abstract. But at moments like this, when Dason is leaving, and I know he’s going into very real danger, my feelings become a lot more unequivocal. “Please stay safe.”
He keeps his arms around me as he looks into my eyes, his smile verging on cocky. “You know, I’m not as inexperienced and incompetent as the others make it sound.”
When I don’t say anything, he sighs. “Oath Forger, of course, I’ll return. I just found you. A comet couldn’t drag me from your side.”
“Good.”
Because I think my heart would break if something happened to him.
Chapter Sixteen
A WEEK LATER, sitting in the library late at night, when I can’t get into any of the stories I’ve brought up to listen to on the comm unit, when I don’t even care for the bowl of sweet agra fruit next to me, I have a startling revelation. I miss the men.
Koah and Dason are still gone. Both Uthan and Tiam are busy investigating the murder of the dead senator I found on the pirate ship. Tiam is also investigating Olipha’s kidnapping. The clues point to Erith, a neighboring planet, so they spend most of their time there. I should feel free—no expectations, no pressure. Instead, I feel desperately lonely. I should be daydreaming about my eventual return to Earth. Instead, I’m waiting for the return of my men.
My men.
When did I begin thinking of them like that? My friends, I try to correct, but my brain won’t have it. Something deep inside me is claiming these men in a way that goes far beyond friendship.
Am I awakening to the call?
For a startled moment, I actually consider it. Then I close my eyes and groan into the empty silence of the cavernous room. Of course, I’m not awakening. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I’m not the Oath Forger.
I know this for sure. I’ve spent the past week calling up book after book on my comm unit to learn as much as I can about previous Oath Forgers. The biggest thing I’ve learned is this: they were all way more impressive than me. They had powers, abilities that ranged from telepathy to mystic healing.
When the library door opens behind me, I turn.
Dason steps in.
I take the first full breath in a week. “Are you okay?” is my first question as he walks toward me. “You are not hurt?”
He grins, pleased at my worry. “Did you miss me?”
When he opens his arms, I fly into them. “I did.”
“I missed you, too. Pretty nightgown. It’s shorter than the other one. I like it.” He buries his face in my neck, and nibbles.
I swat him away. “Don’t do that.”
He laughs. “Why? We’re alone. I hear Uthan and Tiam are off planet. Let’s take advantage.”
Stars, all that boyish charm.
I shake my head, but I don’t resist as he takes my hand and draws me out of the library and into my bedroom. We should go to the living room, but I don’t protest. Instead, we sit on the bed, across from each other, cross-legged. I keep hold of his hands.
“What happened?”
“Nothing good at first. As my fleet fought the pirates, I engaged their flagship. They locked onto us. We were seconds from being vaporized. All our systems were disabled. So there I am, preparing for death,” he grins, “when their cargo bay pops open, and Koah’s ship zips out. In rough shape. I have no idea how it still flew.”
My heart stops. “He was captured?”
“His ship must have been taken as soon as he arrived at the Breach. My attack on the pirates distracted them enough so he could finally break free. But instead of flying to safety, he slammed his ship between me and the pirate flagship. His weapons had enough of a charge left to join me in the fight, caused enough damage so my ship could wrench free from the enemy’s tractor beam.”
I hold my breath. “And then?”
“I blew up the pirates. By then Koah’s ship was dead in space, shaking apart. We beamed in all survivors: Koah and two crew members. They were trying to keep him breathing.”
“How badly is he injured? Who died? Captain Embrin?”
“Koah didn’t take his personal ship. He took a larger fighter. Different crew.” Dason clears his throat. “The pirates tortured him pretty badly.”
My fingers squeeze his. “Is he alive?”
“I don’t know, Oath Forger. We dropped him at the best hospital at the nearest planet. He was beyond the capabilities of the med unit on my ship. I thought about contacting you then, but then I thought it might be better if you heard it in person.”
“I want to check on him right now.”
He does, using his comm unit. I hold my breath as I listen to a female medic report that they patched Krek Koah up. He’s on his way here, in transit. Under sedation.
“When can I see him?” I ask Dason once the transmission ends.
He glances at his comm unit again. “He’ll be here by morning, at the latest.”
Morning is an eternity away.
“What’s the Breach?” I ask, the word bubbling back up in my brain. “You said he was captured at the Breach.”
Dason makes a swirling motion with his hand. “The galaxy has arms.”
I nod. I’ve seen pictures.
“Earth is here.” He points. And then he points again. “We are here.”
“On arms that are next to each other.”
“Yes. And between us is the Breach. It’s a difficult stretch of space to cross, under the best of circumstances, but it is also the edge of the Frontier.”
Where the pirates’ territory begins.
I lay down on my side, facing the door, willing Koah to walk through it, healthy and bossy. Dason is silent behind me. After a while, his fingers touch my hair. He’s brushing it back from my face, soothing me. That is how, a long and anguished hour later, I finally fall asleep when exhaustion claims me.
Much later, I wake to the sound of the door opening. Then I freeze as a dark stranger strides in. The only light is from the moon shining down through the glass cupola above me. It’s the middle of the night.
Where are the palace guards?
My gaze catches on the heap of Dason’s clothes on the floor next to the bed, but I don’t see his weapon. My heart races. I curl my hands into fists under the blanket and get ready to fight. I shift slightly to wake Dason, but he doesn’t take the hint.
The stranger stops just out of reach and looks at my face, takes his time, while I can barely breathe.
“They weren�
��t lying.”
His voice is the soft slice of the blade you didn’t see coming.
He is tall and wiry, his eyes are bottomless dark holes in the night. He’s wearing a uniform of what looks like black leather, but it doesn’t quite move like leather, so it has to be some space material. He is so breathtakingly handsome that for a moment all I can do is blink. But not handsome like Koah and Tiam, or like Uthan and Dason. This guy would not be the hero of the movie. He would be the sexy, charismatic evil villain. The psychopath who seduces the heroine before slowly murdering her, and she doesn’t mind the knife because she’s in love with him.
“Who the hell are you?” I ask when I find my voice and outrage. I’m sick of people barging into my bedroom.
Curled around my lower half, nuzzled into the curve of my hip, an arm thrown across my thighs, Dason is finally stirring awake.
I sit up because I feel way too vulnerable on my back in front of the intruder.
A flare in his dark eyes says he doesn’t miss a thing, but he chooses not to remark on my move. Instead, his gaze flashes to Dason who’s emerging from under the covers. “Out.”
“She lets me sleep with her,” Dason defies him. “She chose me to be here, Roax.”
Roax? I choke on my own spit as the man looks at me and raises a dark eyebrow. Roax? My fingers clench the edge of the blankets. This is my fifth? The one Koah had called an ugly bastard? Clearly, I’d missed the irony.
His eyes are vicious as they snap back to Dason. “You’re her pet. She lets you sleep at her feet like a damned puppy.”
Dason shifts closer, and I take his hand while I yell at Roax.
“Out! Get the hell out of my bedroom, and don’t ever come in without my permission.”
Roax steps right up to the bed and grabs my chin, tilts my head up to his. “I’m not sure what your four houseboys told you about me, but I don’t take orders, Oath Forger.”
Goaded into a response, I shake off his hold, jump from the bed, and stand tall, nose to nose. Okay, nose to chin. Not nearly as impressive. And I make it worse by nearly whimpering when the full weight of his gaze hits me. The way he looks at me, the way his nostrils flare as he breathes, make me want to drop my gaze, make me want to maybe drop to my knees in front of him.
