by Elsa Jade
“I’ll have to thank, uh, him?” Reyna lowered her voice.
Vaughn hugged her close. “It’s confusing, isn’t it? I’m here now, and I’ll explain everything.” She pushed Rayna away playfully. “Now I get to be the big, smart sis.”
Except Rayna had never wanted her little sister to have to take care of her. That hadn’t been the deal she’d made with the universe: I’ll do everything right, and you make sure nothing else bad happens to my family.
Anyway, Vaughn didn’t have the answers she most wanted…
But she linked elbows with her sister and turned to face the approaching alien. “Dejo Jinn.” She smiled warmly. “I’m told you decoded Blackworm’s secrets to find the space station. I can’t say thank you enough times. And also thank you for keeping my sister out of trouble while I was gone.” She sidelonged a glance at Vaughn who snickered.
Dejo inclined his head, and short, striped feathers in his hair rippled with the movement. “The former was my job. As to the latter…I make no promises about your sister’s troublesomeness.”
Vaughn launched herself at him, making Rayna catch her breath at the reckless maneuver on the stairs—and at the evidence of her previously ornery sister’s affection for the partly feathered alien.
Dejo caught her easily, as if her army-honed body was a feather to him. He brushed his lips over her forehead with a reverence that made Rayna’s eyes burn before setting Vaughn back on her boots beside him. “Still,” he conceded, “it was her obstinance that led us to find you.” He smiled. “And lets her put up with me. So you and I should both be grateful for the way you raised her.”
Vaughn touched his cheek before turning back to Rayna. “I’m so sad and mad about what you went through.” She glowered. “If Blackworm wasn’t already in prison…”
“I don’t remember most of it, before waking up,” Rayna admitted. “And after waking up”—being saved by an alien duke, seeing the universe, having Raz inside her, his strong arms holding her fast and his kiss taking her higher than the stars— “it wasn’t so bad.”
Vaughn scowled. “I want to throw you on the Onoffon right now and set course for getthefuckouttahere. I’ve been here like three minutes and I can’t hardly breathe. Are those actual naked Greek statues holding up the eaves of the house?”
“Well, presumably they are naked Thorkon statues,” Rayna said, restraining a grin; her sister had always been class conscious. “I think they’re kind of festive.” She gestured for them to follow her. “C’mon. You can get a closer look.”
As they topped the stairs, Dejo craned his neck to study the statues. “Quality craftsmanship. Really fine work,” he pronounced. “And provide excellent access to unsecured upper windows.”
Rayna blinked at him while Vaughn snorted in agreement. “Maybe we can offer a discount security consult,” she mused, “and take this trip as a write-off.”
Glancing back at the bigger ship, Rayna paused in the main doorway. “Should we wait for the envoy?”
Dejo shook his head. “We caught up with them because they’re preoccupied with hammering out the specifics of the station ownership. Who knows how long it’ll take them.”
Vaughn nudged Rayna’s elbow as they entered the main hall. “One-fifth of a space station. You’re rich, sis.”
The reminder sank Rayna’s joy at being reunited with her sister, and her confusion over Raz’s behavior swamped over her again.
She’d never wanted to be seen as helpless, but… She’d thought Raz had given her the ring only because he was protecting her from—what had he called them?— “unscrupulous unworthies” capitalizing on her “unworldsliness”. He’d silently declared her as his noble possession, which was unacceptably primitive—and yet also strangely enticing. Being safeguarded by his ring had been as irresistible as yielding to the pleasures of his touch.
But were those unscrupulous unworthies actually him? Had Raz, the powerful male and gentle lover, wanted to shield her? Or had the Duke of Azthronos sought to stake his claim on the value of a Black Hole Bride?
“A fifth of a space station,” she muttered. “I don’t even know what it means.”
Vaughn held up her hand and enclosed her fingers until only the middle one remained. “One-fifth. That’s to Blackworm,” she said. “Dejo has an accounting acquaintance at one of the biggest transgalactic firms. We won’t meet with the envoy and the consortium and everyone else until we’ve heard from him. He’s running some numbers to make sure you don’t get fucked.”
Too late. Rayna bit the inside of her lower lip to stop herself from giggling or blurting out the whole larfing story to her little sis.
Back at their suites, she introduced her sister and partner to the other women. She’d asked Lishelle and Trixie if they’d prefer to retreat to the back rooms rather than risk more memories that would have to be erased, but once they heard about the space station deal, they decided not.
“We’re rich?” Trixie repeated weakly as she sank onto the couch.
“Not quite yet.” Dejo smiled up at Rayna as she brought carafes of coffee and pixberry tea to the low table. “But that’s our aim.”
Had that been Raz’s only aim too? Rayna found herself twisting the ring again as she ignored the carafes and sat beside her sister, too agitated for either caffeine or the sweet-tart memory of Raz’s kiss.
Lishelle shook her head. “How are we supposed to figure out what to do with a space station?”
“That’s one of the things we’ll have to work out,” Vaughn said. “I’m guessing there will be some sort of conservatorship.”
Rayna clenched her hand. Had that been Raz’s guess too? Who better to run a space station than the leader of the nearest inhabited solar system?
She needed to see him, to ask him what his intentions were. Did he care about her at all? Or only the windfall represented by the station?
Did she even want to know?
She couldn’t sneak away to find him, not with her sister just arrived. And then Dejo, with the rest of them listening in, had a long comm from the alien accountant—a drakling with deep purple shadows and a hint of scales in his dark skin—who ended with a stern recommendation that they not sign anything without his review. “The Earther envoy represents that closed world, with its focus on global ignorance, not the females’ wellbeing. The galactic council’s agent seeks only to minimize the council’s exposure. Open Worlds For All will try to exploit the females for the consortium’s agenda. And Azthronos of course will want to keep it all.”
Trixie made a soft sound of dismay, and Rayna felt even worse. She should warn them that Raz had already made his play.
“Now I remember why I hate chess,” Lishelle muttered. “Not only is it black and white as if there’s nothing in the middle, but that whole ‘pawns with no power’ thing sucks.”
“But the piece with the most options is female,” Dejo said.
Rayna glanced at Vaughn, eyebrow raised.
Her sister shrugged. “Some of those interstellar jumps are long and boring. Just like chess.”
“We don’t have any queens,” Trixie said. “But maybe we have a duchess.” She pointed at Rayna.
Who sat back with her hand over the ring when her sister peered at her.
“It’s a fake engagement,” Rayna said weakly.
“What?” Vaughn narrowed her eyes.
So Rayna had to explain to her little sis how, mere days of consciousness after being abducted by an alien, she’d ended up with another alien’s engagement ring. It sounded even more damning in the retelling.
“You may have made a bargain with a devil,” Dejo said. “The dukes of the Thorkonos Galaxy have held their territory by might and right for millennia. For all their decorous manners, they are fierce fighters and don’t concede graciously.”
“God of Oaths,” Rayna murmured. “Not a devil.” And if he held territory like he’d held her, she doubted anyone ever tried to fight him off.
“I might be just a pa
wn,” Trixie said. “But I want the someday duchess on my side.” She held up a glass of what Rayna realized was ghost-mead. And it didn’t look watered down. “I hereby grant control of my one-fifth space station to Rayna Quaye. Negotiate for me in good faith, my lady.” She hiccupped.
Rayna boggled at her. “You can’t do this while you’re drunk.”
“Not drunk,” the younger woman said with great dignity. “But not scared anymore either.”
“I’ve had tea all night,” Lishelle said. “And I want you to negotiate for me too. Carmen and Anne aren’t even awake. Who’s going to speak for them?” She gave a sharp nod. “It’s gotta be you, girl.”
She didn’t want this. She’d never wanted this, not for all the riches in space. Or one-fifth the riches in a space station.
But the next morning, she found herself dressed in another Thorkon day gown, marching through the estate with Vaughn and Dejo flanking her in response to a summons from the dowager regarding the dispensation of Blackworm Station.
Conscious of the lingering ball guests whispering in the halls, Rayna held her head high. Trixie had picked out the tallest slippers while Lishelle had done her hair in “power braids”, and the head-to-foot styling by her friends gave her a few extra inches. She’d need all the confidence she could muster.
Because she knew Raz would be at the meeting. What would he say? Would he try to convince her he loved her, that she should keep the station in orbit around the singularity while he found a way to monetize the station or the story of the Black Hole Brides? Or maybe he’d just have a legal or military excuse. Maybe he wouldn’t say another word to her now that she didn’t need him.
Her heart felt shrunken in her chest, rattling uncontrollably.
She didn’t need him, not anymore. With the riches the space station represented, she wouldn’t need anybody ever again. She was wealthy, independent, with free run of the whole universe. It was like all her childhood dreams come true times infinity.
So why did that thought make her want to cry?
Chapter 14
Raz shifted restlessly in the oversized seat—larf it, might as well call it a throne—at the head of the table in the great hall. He remembered sneaking in here once, seeing his sire on this throne, negotiating some deal, probably poorly. That was before he’d been sent away to his own studies in management and mining, finance and farming, trade and taxes and tourism, industry and investment, and hundreds of other topics so necessary to the success of the duchy until he’d felt buried in obligation, bound by duty, born only to serve.
And yet all he could think of now was how much he needed one little ray of light.
The big table was filling up with interested parties: the Earth envoy, the Open Worlds For All representatives, the galactic council delegates. His mother was seated beside him and next to her two of his sire’s favored advisors. His restlessness curdled into concern.
Where was Rayna?
Just as he stood with the intent to go find her, the far doors opened and she entered.
His heart sped, as if it would fly across the room without him to greet her. She strode with a sureness that had nothing to do with the smooth descent of a moving stair—no, this was all her. The gold scallops of her gown emphasized the tawny silkiness of her skin and the earthen richness of her braided hair, and her dark eyes swept the gathering with a touch of fire.
Or maybe that was just when it landed on him.
As the silence spread out around them, he realized he’d crossed the room, against all noble protocol. Not that he cared. He took her hand with the intent of guiding her to the last open seats—at the far end of the table from him, much to his chagrin.
“My little honey-bird,” he murmured, quiet enough not to carry as the conversations resumed.
“Your Grace.”
He frowned. Her fingers in his were chilled and rigid.
And bare.
She wasn’t wearing his ring.
He already knew she’d found out about her space station inheritance—the Octiron crew had tried to corner him and the Ajellomene had been delighted to tell him of its interference while its camera hovered in his face. And of course he knew she’d hear all about it from the Earth envoy and her sister.
Apparently she’d heard…and decided she didn’t need his ring or him.
His jaw tightened, and the stiffness froze all the way down his spine, straightening him over her. He didn’t mean to loom, but—
The two beings accompanying Rayna stepped up to either side of her, and he couldn’t restrain an angry curl of his lip at their imposition when he so urgently needed to talk to her.
“My sister, Vaughn,” Rayna said. “And her partner, Dejo Jinn.”
With a short jerk of his head, he battered away his irritation. This was her family. “You decoded Blackworm’s secrets,” he said. “Without you, we wouldn’t have known about the space station unlawfully sited on our border. And we wouldn’t have recovered Rayna and the others.” He gave them the short, precise bow of a blood champion to an equal.
The hivre iomale rippled his hair-feathers in acknowledgment while Vaughn stared at Raz sharply. “Even without you, we were on our way to get her,” she started but subsided when her older sister touched her arm.
“We should take our seats,” Rayna said quietly. “We have a lot to talk about.”
They did. But not with other people getting in the way.
He waited until her trio sat then stalked back to his end of the table.
While the galactic council delegates droned on about the ideology of keeping closed worlds ignorant—and the OWFA representatives made snide replies—Raz kept his brooding gaze on Rayna. She leaned sideways to listen to something the hivre murmured at her, studying a dat-pad he angled her way. At first Raz thought she was engrossed in whatever she was studying, but when she darted a quick glance at him before returning her gaze to the screen and her cheeks flushed, he realized she was ignoring him. Or trying to.
She’d run away from their night together. And he’d understood the impulse, like it was a larfing cold fusion engine in his own ballistic-grade pants.
The intensity between them was too much, happening too fast. Hard not to panic when good sense was circling the black hole of passion—no, not just circling, joyfully hurtling itself into the abyss. No wonder she was afraid; he wasn’t sure what would happen to them on the other side either. If there even was an other side.
And he should have told her that, should have shared his fears even if blood champions and avatars were historically known to be fearless. He’d told her she needn’t be alone…and then he’d left her by herself to wonder.
He’d needed time to think too, and—he admitted now—he’d been hurt when she hadn’t answered his question about whether she wanted his ring for more than one night. He’d told himself he was just giving her time to answer.
His gaze dropped to her hands clenched tight on the tabletop, ring finger bare.
Apparently she had answered him.
When the Earth envoy finally rose to speak, the dowager cleared her throat delicately. Well, delicately but at full volume. “While the philosophy of worlds open or closed makes for wonderfully idle discussion over pixberry tea, Azthronos has been honored to provide material support for Blackworm’s victims after their awakening. And we will continue that support, of course. No doubt Earth’s envoy would like to take their citizens home now, as the journey is long and they have been away even longer, so we believe it would be best to officially formalize an agreement to oversee the dispensation of Blackworm Station. We should engage to unite the Black Hole Brides with the best champion for their fate and wed these grand philosophies with practicalities to everyone’s credit.”
She nudged Raz, hard, in the ribs.
He restrained a wince, both at her sharp elbow and her even more pointed grasping for the station. She did it for the good of the duchy, he knew, just as she’d sent him away for the same reason.
&nb
sp; He laid his hand on her shoulder—part affection, part warning—as he stood. “The Duchy of Azthronos stands ready to defend its sovereign system, and unincorporated bordering space, for the good of the Thorkonos Galaxy and the security of the transgalactic community as a whole. Whatever assistance we rendered to the abducted Earther women was done in the spirit of our belief that all beings should be free to choose their paths to the stars. We look forward to bearing witness to the flourishing future of the Black Hole Businesswomen, wherever their new space station may take them.”
“Wherever—” his mother sputtered. “She’s right there. Take her from right there.”
She was staring down the long length of the table at him, dark eyes wide. Slowly, she stood, matching him, though so far away.
“Thank you to everyone here for having our best interests at heart.” Her voice wavered a moment on the word heart, then steadied as she continued. “Especially my sister and her partner who were key in actually finding us.” She took a breath. “On the recommendations of counsel we’ve retained, the two conscious survivors of Blackworm’s criminal actions have assigned their shares of the space station to me.” Over the sudden buzz of the table, she added more loudly, “And I’ve begun proceedings to claim representation for the other two survivors currently in stasis. Blackworm took our choices away, but we’re taking those back, along with his space station.”
Raz straightened at his chair as the murmuring around him rose above her voice. Such a claim wouldn’t make her merely wealthy but powerful in her own right. He bit back a little grin to see the shock on the Earth envoy’s face and the consternation from the galactic council reps. Those expressions rapidly turned considering as they contemplated their own best chances for working with this suddenly not victimized little space station heiress.
His mother hissed as he sank down beside her. “What are you doing? Get in there. You have the best claim on the salvage. You were there first and all that.”
He shook his head. “Rayna was there first. And she didn’t really need to be saved.”
