by Zoey Draven
For the first time, he realized that he hadn’t felt a fresh breeze on his skin in almost ten years. It had been twelve years since Kerivu had been destroyed but ten years since he’d come to Everton.
He hadn’t seen a real sunrise in ten years. Only artificial, programmed ones. He almost felt sorry for the Earth colonists. Because many of them had never known any different.
And Valerie…
His Valerie.
She had never seen a real sunrise either. She had a picture of one on the wall of her room downstairs, an old photograph of her home planet.
But she’d never seen one.
Dravka paced in front of the window, feeling like something was trying to crawl its way out of his skin. For the first time in a long time, he couldn’t stand being there. He couldn’t stand never being allowed to leave.
Ten years of his life were gone.
Wasted in this artificial place where nothing was real except her.
And for the first time, he was enraged with himself. He was enraged that he hadn’t gone with Khiva and Eve when he’d had the chance. He was enraged that he hadn’t taken Valerie, in the dead of the night, and just gone.
What had he been thinking, all those months ago?
The restlessness was buzzing under his skin.
And now, he was almost out of time.
Tavak appeared then, emerging from his room in the Cluster. Casting a look at Ravu’s open door, however, he asked, “He’s not back yet?”
Dravka shook his head, “Veki.”
Clients could stay the night until eight in the morning. He would be back soon.
Tavak dropped into the armchair, a deep sigh escaping him. Though Dravka kept his gaze out at the dawn, he felt Tavak’s stare.
He waited for him to say something, but finally he heard Tavak shift, heard the slide of metal and knew that he’d taken out the Nu device instead.
Dravka began to pace again, his nostrils flaring when a sudden flash from last night came into his mind. Of Valerie, of her soft gasps and even softer lips. Her taste, vauk. The firmness of her backside underneath his palms. The way she’d responded to him so eagerly before…
He cursed underneath his breath just as he heard the door to the Cluster open. His hearts stopped briefly, hoping to see her standing on the threshold, but it was only Ravu.
Tavak greeted his brother with a sharp jerk of his chin. Ravu’s gaze slid to Dravka, pacing at the window. His brow bone lifted, his gaze catching on the tented material of his pants.
“Hope that’s not for me,” Ravu said dryly, though Dravka caught a hint of amusement in his tone. “My client drained me for the day.”
Tavak chuffed out a small laugh, already scanning through the news on the Nu, while Dravka adjusted his inconvenient erection, blowing out a sharp breath.
Tavak’s laugh suddenly stopped.
A creaking sound came from the armchair as Tavak leaned forward, his lips parting, his brow furrowing. His eyes were scanning rapidly over the Nu device. Even Ravu noticed and approached.
“What is it?” he asked.
Not again…
Dravka’s throat was suddenly dry. He half-expected to hear more news about Valerie’s engagement…but not even that would cause the sudden change in Tavak so dramatically.
“What is it?” Dravka repeated, edging towards the chair, the sunrise forgotten.
“Tavak?” came Ravu’s quiet voice.
Tavak’s gaze flickered up to his brother then came to Dravka before they lowered once more on the Nu.
A sharp breath escaped Tavak’s lips. “Firestones are in circulation again.”
Shock froze Dravka in place, feeling something pinch in his gut at the name.
Firestones.
“There’s an article here about Kerivu’s history,” Tavak rasped, shoving the Nu into Ravu’s waiting hands. “About how the firestones brought the end of the Dark Age. And that they are being made once more.”
“Kruvu?” Dravka breathed. “By Khiva?”
“It has to be,” Ravu murmured, his eyes furiously scanning over the words they’d all learned to read during their time on Everton. “He’s the only one that knows how. Demav, he’s done it.”
Dravka sank into an empty chair opposite Tavak as Ravu finished reading whatever article his brother had stumbled across.
Firestones?
Firestones had fueled Kerivu’s economy and some believed that they’d brought about Kerivu’s destruction. Firestones were one of the most powerful fuel sources across the universe. Pure energy that had fueled merchant vessels, transport vessels, that had helped power colonies and planets. They were even more powerful than Luxirian crystals and they were what had brought prosperity and wealth to Kerivu.
Khiva’s family had been the makers of them. As such, Khiva’s family had been one of the wealthiest and most powerful families on all of Kerivu. Khiva himself had once been called the Prince of Firestones.
But with that power and wealth came outside greed and interest. Many tried to replicate the firestones with little success. Greed turned to anger and envy, which led to war. And it was war and hatred that had destroyed their home planet.
“You think it is him?” Tavak rasped. “He said he’d never make them again.”
It’s in his blood, was Dravka’s first thought. Khiva believed he’d had a hand in the destruction of Kerivu, but Dravka had never believed that.
“You think it’s a coincidence that firestones are in circulation again, a few months after Khiva escaped Everton?” Dravka asked quietly. “I don’t.”
Valerie had said Khiva and Evelyn Tesler had settled on a colony named Dumera. His mind started whirling. They were obviously building a life there. Khiva obviously thought it was safe enough, if he kept his female there.
Why didn’t I leave with them? Why didn’t I take Valerie with me and never look back?
Regret swarmed in his mind before he pushed it out. Regret accomplished nothing. It only kept one trapped, frozen.
Which is what I’ve been for the last ten years, arguably longer, he thought.
Ravu finished reading and handed the Nu to Dravka. The slim device felt abnormally heavy in his hands. He didn’t read the article. He slid the device onto the table instead before rubbing at his eyes.
“There’s nothing about Khiva,” Ravu said quietly. “The article says that small batches of firestones are being produced. The first orders are already sold out everywhere. They are originating from the Second Quadrant.”
Most neutral colonies were in the Second Quadrant, so it made sense. Dravka assumed that was where Dumera was.
His hearts were suddenly pounding in his chest. The three Keriv’i males in the Cluster were all quiet as they processed this new information—as they processed what it meant.
“There’s something else we have to talk about.”
Dravka swallowed, knowing that he needed to tell them about what he’d learned last night. He’d heard Valerie tell Tavak and Ravu to trust her, that she was trying to make things right, to give her time.
But this involved all of them. This was too much for Valerie to have to bear alone. Not that Dravka would let her go through with this.
Determination shot through him as Tavak and Ravu regarded him, waiting for him to speak.
Ever since Kerivu’s destruction, he had been…idle. He had grown stagnant. A part of him had been resigned to die on Everton, to live out the rest of his life here, fucking hundreds of faceless human women who only wanted him for his teela.
Truthfully, a part of him had always known that he would have to watch another male take his place in Valerie’s life. She was a beautiful female with a beautiful heart…and he had always believed that another male would discover that, that another male would take her from this demav-forsaken brothel, take her from Dravka, and give her everything that she deserved.
He wanted that for her. He wanted her to be happy because she deserved to be.
Yet he had th
e startling realization that maybe…he could be that male for her. That he could make her happy and give her everything she wanted. And that maybe, she’d only ever wanted him to begin with.
Because that was why she was doing this—she wanted that same happiness for Dravka. For them all.
Dravka loved her. Demav, he loved her. He had loved her since the very first moment he’d seen her, on that cloudy, wintry day she’d first set foot in the brothel.
Gabriel Larchmont wouldn’t love her like Dravka did. No male could.
If Dravka wanted Valerie to be happy, then he would make her happy.
If he wanted to have a life with her—if he wanted to build her a home on a peaceful colony, if he wanted to build her her garden, and give her the children he knew she craved—then he needed to fight for it.
Because he could give her those things.
Regarding Tavak and Ravu, Dravka’s nostrils flared. They were running out of time.
With the news of the firestones, however, it gave Dravka renewed hope. Hope that he hadn’t felt in a long time.
“We have to talk about Valerie,” he said, “and Dumera.”
Chapter Twelve
Valerie watched the property agent slide into a driverless car at the end of Eve Tesler’s walkway.
She was leaning against the front door, shaded by the overhanging porch, a Nu device clutched in her hands with the contract for the closing. There was a buyer who had already made her an offer for the townhouse.
The number shone up at her, more credits than she’d ever seen in her lifetime at once.
1.2 million.
It had taken all of a day and a half to have an offer drawn up. Property was scarce on the colonies. A detached townhouse in the Garden District of Everton was even more rare. The tree-lined streets of the quiet, exclusive neighborhood had made it an easy sell.
And all Valerie had to do was sign the documents on her Nu device, send them to the property agent, and the credits would be threaded into a private account she’d set up yesterday. An account that Madame Allegria would never know about, one Valerie had made for Dravka, Tavak, and Ravu, which they’d be able to access once they left Everton.
Valerie knew she could probably get more for the townhouse, which was what the property agent had told her a few moments before. This was only the beginning, she’d said with a small smile on her ruby-red lips.
But Valerie didn’t have the time to wait for more offers. 1.2 million credits were enough for now. She would only add to that number once the buyer from Genesis sent her the credits for the collections and furniture within the townhouse.
It will be enough, Valerie thought, swiping her signature on the numerous documents flooded across her Nu device. The property agent wasn’t even down the street by the time she was finished.
Madame Allegria was on her way back to Everton at that very moment. As if in reminder, her left shoulder ached a little. She pressed her fingertips to the back of it, skimming them across the bone where her tracker had been implanted years before.
Valerie sighed, knowing she needed to hurry.
It was the late afternoon, two days after Dravka had kissed her with the taste of brandy on his tongue. And like a coward, she’d avoided him since. Every spare moment she had, she was at the townhouse, making final preparations.
And now that she’d agreed to its sale, she felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. She felt like she could breathe.
Turning back inside the townhouse, she saw the carefully packed boxes were lined up in the sitting room, boxes that would soon be shipped off to Genesis. The top floors were already bare. She’d already hired a transport to take the boxes away. She wouldn’t need to return.
Valerie reached out her palm to run across the wall. For a time, it was nice to be free of the brothel. To be within a house that had obviously held special memories. Love. Valerie could almost feel it.
But now, she’d picked the home clean. She’d sold it off quickly. She didn’t even feel guilty about it.
With one last look, she left and ordered a driverless car to return her to the brothel. Just as she slid inside, she received a call from the property agent, who told her the buyer would wire the credits that night and would give her time to get the boxes shipped off before taking full possession.
When the car slid up to the front of the brothel, which had been her home for over five years, she felt…hope. For the first time in a long time.
Things were working out…almost flawlessly. A part of her couldn’t help but wonder when they would start to go wrong again.
Once inside, she snuck down to her bedroom with a quick glance at the stairs. It shamed her that she was hiding from Dravka but she didn’t know what else to do. That kiss changed things between them.
Once down in her bedroom, she changed out of her dirtied, loose clothes just in case Madame Allegria came early. The smell of smoke still permeated the basement level. It had seemed to thread between the fibers of her clothes. It was in her sheets, in the walls.
But it made Valerie smile. She wasn’t even afraid of what her aunt would do when she found the burned ropes and whips lying in a useless heap next door. Because she couldn’t do anything. Not anymore.
She was just smoothing back her hair, wrapping it up into a tight knot on the top of her head, when a knock came at the door of her bedroom. Just one…and then it was opening.
Valerie froze. It was Dravka.
He was dressed in a black, soft shirt and black pants. His feet were bare. And his eyes were on her, intense and observing her carefully as he stepped into the room.
Slowly, her hands lowered from her hair but since she hadn’t finished tying it up into a knot, it fell down her back, a few tendrils drifting across her cheeks.
“Dravka,” she said quietly, her eyes flickering to the open door behind him. “What are doing down here?”
Twice now, he’d come down to her private room. Twice in a week when she didn’t think he’d come down here that many times in the past two years.
He must’ve thought her darted gaze behind him meant she was thinking of bolting…because he shoved the door closed, trapping the both of them in that small space.
Dravka leaned back against the door for good measure. He had to hunch a little because the ceiling was lower closest to the frame…and Valerie didn’t think the small room had been constructed with a bulky, seven-foot-tall Keriv’i male in mind.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” he remarked.
Valerie felt the shamed flush that crept over her cheeks. Swallowing, she tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear, a ridiculous excuse already on her tongue.
“I’ve been busy at the townhouse,” she informed him. “I—I sold it today. 1.2 million credits that will be in the account I set up. And I have more coming in from the collections that Eve and her father—”
“Valerie,” Dravka interrupted, pushing off the door and approaching her.
Her swallow was audible and she barely stopped herself from taking a step back. She looked up at him, but not without remembering his tongue stroking against hers…and those lips on hers…and those hands clutching possessively around her ass…and that hardened thickness between his legs pressing—
Stop! she mentally screamed. This was Dravka. Her friend, who had never kissed her until a couple nights ago. Hell, he’d barely even touched her. He’d just been drunk and sad and maybe a little angry.
With sudden realization, she thought that the kiss really hadn’t meant anything.
“I don’t give a damn about the credits right now,” Dravka rasped, approaching her until the backs of her knees hit the edge of her bed. He stopped within arm’s reach of her, still blocking the view of the door with his broad shoulders. “I want to talk to you.”
Her heart gave another furious little pump before she tried to settle it down again.
“About what?” she asked quietly.
“About why you’ve been avoiding me,” he said
, his head dipping slightly, his voice dropping deeper.
A shiver raced up her spine, one she couldn’t hide.
Valerie thought it was obvious.
Then again, as she looked up at him, she thought it was possible he didn’t remember. She knew some humans, if they drank too much alcohol, could have lapses in memory. Valerie had never had a drop of alcohol in her life but maybe Keriv’i males reacted the same.
Somehow, the thought that he didn’t remember the kiss only depressed her more.
“Do you…” she started, licking her lips.
His eyes dropped to her mouth for a brief moment. “Do I what?”
“You had a lot to drink,” she commented softly. “Do you remember it?”
His eyes flared, his pupils going blacker and wider. Then his eyes narrowed. “Remember what?”
Suspicion rose in her just as readily as confusion. Was he going to make her say it? Or was it that he really didn’t remember?
“Do you remember what we talked about in your room?” she whispered, frowning. “And…and what happened afterwards?”
“What did happen afterwards?” he asked, his voice dropping even more, a slight smile quirking up at the edges of his mouth, which baffled her. “Tell me.”
Did he think it was…funny?
Suddenly, Valerie felt her temper snap. Suddenly, she felt anger rise with her confusion and sadness. She was disappointed. With him, with herself, with believing that the kiss meant something at all, when it was obvious that Dravka was just…was just toying with her.
She knew him. She could read him well. Did he think this was just a big game? Because if he did, maybe she didn’t know him so well after all.
She’d dreamed of kissing him for years. Now that she finally had—feeling those lips glide along hers, feeling his warm palms digging into her hips, and his heavy breaths against her—he thought it was…amusing?
It hurt.
There she’d been, worried and embarrassed and wanting more of that kiss for two days…and he found it amusing.
“Never mind,” she bit out, her hands going back up to her hair, clenching her teeth hard to keep from saying anything she might regret. “Nothing happened.”
