Provoked (Space Mage Book 1)

by Izzy Shows

  Gods, it wouldn't stop, and it hurt so much.

  And my body was coming alive. What was happening?

  My eyes snapped open, and I felt them burning, sending light out into the area around me.

  Dirt. I was surrounded by dirt. But that made sense. I'd buried myself alive.

  I knew that.

  But what was happening? The ground was trembling, the dirt shaking until it started to crumble, and then…

  The rage surfaced inside me, spurred on by the memory of everything Zvarr had done.

  I felt it, that age-old battle rage that I had fought so hard to control my entire life.

  I was the daughter of Ivarr, the greatest warrior the Stryx had ever seen, and I could bend nations to my will.

  There was so much pain, but I could channel it. I could make it my own.

  The ground trembled again and crumbled away, and then I was free!

  The battle fever took me as soon as the air kissed my skin, and I saw red, a haze that descended over me and prevented me from thinking clearly.

  The first thing I saw was some creature pointing a weapon at me. Danger!

  With a roar, I launched myself forward, and I felt the change in my body as I moved. It was like I was ascending. My skin pulsed, flaring a vibrant blue, and my eyes burned so hot that I thought they might melt. My hair flared around me as if it were being pushed by a violent burst of wind, and I felt a euphoric sensation of power.

  The God State.

  I'd heard about it, had read about it in the sacred texts, but no one had ever thought to see it first-hand, much less experience it. It was a state that only one of the Chosen could experience, those imbued with the power of the gods.

  It granted me more power than I could have ever thought was possible, but it also prevented me from thinking.

  All I could see was danger. Threats that had to be extinguished.

  Before me were a number of creatures, all scrambling to get away from me. They resembled Stryx in some ways, but their skin had no glowing hue to it, their eyes were flat colors, and they had none of the bioluminescent markers of our people. They wore odd things on their faces, and their clothing was wrong.

  So odd.

  But there was one who did not scramble away, who did not run from me, and he was the one with the weapon.

  The threat!

  His eyes—slashes of icy blue—glared at me from behind the odd creation on his face, and he stood his ground. He towered over the other creatures, his height rivaling my own, and his skin was a tannish color. Almost like the base color of one of my friends, but again, there was no hue to indicate his emotions, and that was so…odd. His hair, what little there was, was black and cropped close to his head, as if he was ashamed of it.

  Was he being punished for something? Was he in shame, and having to serve penance for a crime he had committed?

  No matter. The rage did not allow me to think much further.

  I descended on him with a snarl, blasting him with a vibrant golden energy that threatened to consume him, sending him flying backwards. He was back on his feet seconds later, shoving the other creatures behind him as if he would protect them from me.

  "YOU WILL BE REMOVED!" I roared, the power of the God State inflecting my voice. Yes, they would be removed from the planet, from existence, for they were trespassers. They were threats.

  Threats like Zvarr.

  The thought of him filled me with an all-consuming rage. He had hurt my people, and these creatures were like him.

  They would pay.

  Kaidan

  Sweet Mother of fucking Christ, what in the hell is THAT?

  I stared in dumb horror at the sight in front of me. Only instinct that brought my weapon to bear on the alien creature. I couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger.

  It was… Holy shit, what was it?

  Alien. Female. Threat.

  The cataloging happened automatically, my brain reverting to basic training instinctively.

  She was tall, that was for certain. If I had to guess, I'd say we were probably about the same height, but she might actually be taller. She'd come flying out of the wall as if hell itself was on her heels, and she was a goddamned sight to behold.

  Her hair was long and pure white, flying around her wildly, but it was framing her face in a way that was startlingly attractive. Her skin was pale beneath a vibrant blue glow—and it was a fucking violent glow, pulsing almost as crazily as her hair was whipping around her. Her face and arms were dotted with little white lights.

  It was her eyes, though, that captivated me. Froze me to the spot for a moment.

  They were pink and purple—pink at the center and flaring out to purple on the rims of her irises—and they were glowing.

  And then, it was like the spell broke and I was able to move again.

  But it was almost too late, because this woman was a fucking war machine.

  I'd seen aliens before—I’d fought a shit-ton of them, and hey, banged a few of them, too—but no one in the galaxy had ever prepared me for the sight in front of me. She was tearing through the machine that had unearthed her and coming forward and—

  Fuck!

  Energy shot through my body, tearing through the tech suit and catching me so off-guard I didn't even have time for my scales to react. It sent me flying back several feet, knocking the squints behind me over as I went.

  God damn, how did she do that?

  Where was her weapon?

  My eyes refocused, and I watched as she gathered power around her…with nothing. There was a brilliant golden light coalescing in her hands, but she didn't have anything to create that energy. It was as if it was coming from her. But that was impossible, wasn't it?

  She had to have some kind of implants…

  Fucking hell, why was I trying to figure her out when I should have been attacking?

  I shot to my feet and yanked the few squints still in front of me behind me, putting my body between them and her to act as a living barrier. I would keep them safe—that was my fucking job.

  But I didn't have to worry about them. I could hear them scrambling back out of the tunnel behind me.

  Good. I didn't have to worry about collateral damage.

  I hefted my weapon and took aim. I had to neutralize the threat.

  And then someone yanked on my weapon. I whipped around, my eyes burning as I hunted for who had interrupted my shot—and laid eyes on fucking Walter Reed.

  The goddamned psychologist.

  "What the fuck are you doing?" I roared.

  "You can't kill her!" he gasped. His eyes were wide, and his whole body was shaking as he held on to my gun as if for dear life.

  A blast of energy slammed into the wall beside us, and he flinched violently.

  "Get the fuck out of here, kid," I said, shoving him off my weapon.

  "No, no, don't kill her! Please! You don't understand—you can't. This is such an opportunity! We could learn so much from her. She’s a new breed of alien, and she could be so beneficial to the project. She's a native—can you even comprehend how amazing this discovery is?"

  "Boy, can you not see that she is coming straight at us, and it's only luck that's kept us alive up till now? Get the fuck out of here so I can take care of this!" I shouted at him, then grabbed a fistful of his jacket and threw him behind me.

  I didn't have time for fucking scientists wanting to make their fucking discoveries. Leave it to a squint to not care about his life in the face of the most destructive force I had ever seen.

  Fucking idiots.

  I tried to refocus my aim on her, but that migraine came back full-force, like claws raking over my brain, and along with it came the pulling sensation. Yeah, it was definitely coming from her, because it was yanking me in her direction.

  Another blast rocked the ground in front of my feet, and I gritted my teeth.

  I had to get myself under control.

  "Please, don't kill her." Walter was still begging from som
ewhere behind me, but I shut his voice out.

  And then it was like a lightning bolt hit me, something painful passing through me. God, it hurt, hurt so much, but I was powerless to do anything but absorb the pain.

  My hand opened, and the blaster fell harmlessly to the ground.

  Dimly, I was aware how fucking bad that was. I had to get it back, had to be able to kill her, had to protect Walter…

  My eyes were burning again, burning like they were on fire and they might melt out of my head.

  "SHE IS MY CHILD, AND YOU WILL SAVE HER."

  The voice thundered in my head, driving a howl of pain from my lips, but with it came a dawn of understanding, of knowledge and power.

  I knew what to say.

  My eyes locked with hers, and my lips parted as if of their own accord, powered by something bigger than I was.

  "Aolin, shack sin ka forth. Sinch, Xiva Moraio, sinch. Shack sin ka." Be calm. This rage is not for you. Be at ease, Xiva Moraio, be at ease. This is not you.

  It was as if the words were ripped from my throat, leaving a burning sensation in my lungs, my throat, my mouth.

  She froze, though. Her head cocked to the side, and she looked at me with narrowed eyes.

  "Ka ta pran van Gio?" You speak the language of the gods?

  "Vis." Yes.

  "Ho keest zet yo?" How can it be?

  She walked towards me, the black skirt fastened around her waist swirling about her feet. Only now did I notice her attire—she was wearing what appeared to be a black tech suit, with large spiked pauldrons and that cape/skirt thing. Her feet were clad in black boots.

  "Isht sin ka mae kun." It is not for me to know.

  Pain rippled through her features, and she reached for me. A lone tear slid from one eye and trailed down her cheek. Her hair settled about her shoulders, and the burning light of her eyes calmed.

  "Il zain ze beinzing." I am so lonely.

  My heart ached for her, and I clasped hands with her, suddenly endowed with the ability to feel her pain. It shouldn't have been possible. I shouldn't be able to feel that, but it was mine as well as hers.

  The pain of someone who had nothing, the pain of someone who had been abandoned. I knew that well and truly—but there was another pain inside her that I couldn't put my finger on.

  I wanted to comfort her…

  No. What the fuck has gotten into you? What are you doing? This is an alien threat. She tried to kill you!

  Logic came rushing through me like a wave of cold water, and I started to let go of her, but her features clenched and she held on to me.

  "Lach het sin, ishen." Leave me not, stranger.

  What could I do?

  Her pain was so great, and I knew it so well.

  She collapsed into my arms. I barely caught her in time, but she was so light, it didn't matter.

  "Sorry. So sorry. I had to. It’s for her own good…" Walter muttered from behind her.

  The bastard had drugged her.

  Kaidan

  I cradled her body against my chest, as if she were a fragile doll that might break if I moved the wrong way.

  You're acting like a fool. She's an alien threat, and now she's compromised. Finish the job.

  But the pain I'd seen on her face prevented me from killing her, weak though it was. I couldn't make myself do it, couldn't make myself take her life now that I had seen into her eyes. Now that I'd humanized the enemy.

  She didn't feel like the enemy right now, in my arms, her face smoothed of the worry it'd displayed just moments before. She looked so innocent now, so at peace, that it was hard to imagine the terrifying war machine she'd been so recently.

  A scuffling sound in front of me drew my eyes away from her—but, God, how slowly they moved—and I caught sight of Walter again.

  The kid had the decency to look ashamed of what he'd done, his face flaming red as he stared down at the ground, the empty syringe in his hand.

  "You just carry that thing around?" I snapped at him.

  "It's standard procedure." His voice was so quiet, I might have missed what he said if it hadn’t been for my enhanced hearing. "When we're off-base like this, it's necessary to have a sedative in the event that someone might be injured and need to be relieved of pain while they're transported back to the base."

  I grunted, vaguely aware that I was holding the woman tighter against my chest. I glanced down at her again, curiosity compelling me.

  Who was she? How had she ended up buried in the ground, and how had she survived it?

  At the back of my mind, I was aware that I had spoken her name earlier, but the words I'd used had vanished from my memory as quickly as they'd appeared for me to speak.

  Pity. It would have been useful to know what I'd said, because I had a feeling I might need to know it in the future.

  What if I had promised her something and now wouldn't be able to keep that promise?

  That left a bitter taste in my mouth. My word was my bond. I didn't give it out lightly, and I always kept it.

  I would just have to hope that hadn't happened.

  "Well, we should get her back to the base, shouldn't we?" Walter asked.

  "Try not to look so excited about it," I snapped, then turned around and strode through the tunnel.

  Walter scrambled to keep up with me, needing to take two steps to match one of mine.

  "I know you wanted to…to get rid of her, but really, this kind of opportunity can't be ignored. She could have vital information about the planet that the others need for the mission. And the wealth of knowledge she must have about what lived here before…" He whistled in admiration, clearly in love with the idea of finding out more from her.

  "You're assuming she's from this planet," I said.

  "Why would you think otherwise?"

  "She could be an off-worlder, same as us. Crash-landed here. That would explain why she was in the ground."

  "Yes, that is terribly interesting. I can't wait to ask her how she ended up like that."

  He kept on prattling about all the things he was going to ask the alien woman as soon as she woke up back on base, but I tuned him out. I was more concerned with what I wanted to ask her.

  I didn't really think she wasn't from this planet. I knew in my gut that this was her home, and I had learned early on to always trust my gut. It had never led me astray.

  She was my best bet at figuring out why the planet was calling to me, why I'd had the sensation of coming home the moment I'd set foot here. I knew she had the answers I was looking for; it was just a matter of asking the right questions.

  Hopefully, she wouldn't be terribly difficult in that regard. I'd met a lot of aliens who spoke in ridiculous riddles, refusing to answer a question outright, always out for themselves instead of trying to help anyone else.

  I really hoped she wasn't like that.

  I knew there was something up with this place.

  The affirmation of my suspicions was greatly appreciated. It made me feel a little bit better about having reacted so…so tremendously to this planet. I'd known there was something weird about this place, that we weren't alone here.

  But still, there was that itching feeling at the back of my neck, telling me there was something more.

  It had to be that I still didn't have my answers.

  Yeah, that's all there was to it. Nothing else to worry about.

  We came out of the mouth of the tunnel to find all the scientists clustered together, panting and trembling and holding on to one another.

  "You have the alien?" One of them, Jessica, gaped at me. "You actually captured her?"

  "Thank Walter for that," I said, feeling a little grumpy. "I was going to eliminate her, but the kid had to have his little pet."

  The words felt wrong in my mouth.

  Jessica immediately turned her eyes to Walter, who seemed to shrink under her penetrating gaze.

  "Why? Why did you stop him?"

  "You clearly aren't thinking about the possibi
lities she presents," he said, lifting his chin stubbornly. "She could tell us a lot about this planet, and she's living proof that it's capable of sustaining life."

  She sighed. "This is… This complicates things."

  The ramifications were pretty clear, but I didn't know what the scientists were going to do about it. This woman was proof that this planet was inhabited. Which meant we couldn’t terraform it. Not without figuring out who was in charge here and getting permission from them.

  It would have to go to the UPC, and they would need to make a new determination.

  Anders was not going to be happy about that.

  "Can't you just…finish the job?" James, another one of the squints, stepped forward.

  Before I could say a word, Walter exploded. "Finish the job?" His voice turned into a squeak so high, it was almost impossible to understand him. "She's a sentient being! She's protected!"

  "She was attacking us."

  "But she isn't anymore," he said smugly. "You can't touch her now. She’s not a threat. It's no longer self-defense."

  All eyes turned to me, quite a few of them wide, and I was surprised to find a healthy amount of fear there.

  The silence provided me an opportunity to hear a strange, threatening rumbling sound.

  What was that?

  Oh. That was me.

  I was growling. And I was holding the alien quite tightly.

  Immediately, I stopped, relaxing my hold on her.

  Don't know what the fuck has gotten into me.

  "Uh…well, let's just get her back to base. It's up to Anders what to do with her," Jessica said.

  It was then that I realized that Anders wasn't present anymore. Weird. I wondered why he'd left, and when he'd left.

  "Fantastic," Walter said. "Let's get going."

  "But you stay right beside her, Norton." Jessica's voice was authoritative, and the aggression in her eyes couldn't be ignored.

  Immediately, I rebelled, although if she hadn't said anything, I doubted I would have done any different.

  "Why the fuck am I on babysitting detail?" I snapped, glaring back at her. She wasn't my superior. I didn't have to follow her orders.