Infinity's Embrace

by Anna Carven

  Some people just reacted to that sort of power in a ridiculous way, and apparently, she was one of them.

  “You and that planet don’t mix,” Abbey had told her, regarding her with a strange look. “He killed the entire Imperial Kordolian guard, and you’re even worse. You destroyed the whole damn palace. Its foundations have totally collapsed. Both of you had better get out of this sector and go far, far away before my husband changes his mind and decides you’re a threat to the Universe after all.”

  “Believe me,” Noa had said quietly, “we don’t ever plan on coming back.”

  She wasn’t supposed to have that kind of power. Nobody was. It had absolutely terrified her.

  The General had studied them with a cryptic expression and muttered something about catalysts before sending them packing on a specially commissioned stealth cruiser.

  And so they’d made a quiet return to Earth, vowing never to return to Kythia again, and somehow they’d ended up here, in Noa’s dusty apartment in Old Los Angeles.

  It is… nice here, Ashrael murmured as he dropped his disguise and emerged into the light, removing the mask from his face. Noa stared at him for a moment, appreciating the way the afternoon light and shadows played over his perfectly honed body, which was covered in a rather flattering garment called a skinsuit. He only wore it when he wanted to go invisible, and he only went invisible when they traveled.

  Walking around in broad daylight with a Kordolian, particularly Ashrael - who wasn’t the typical Kordolian Humans were more familiar with - could be draw a lot of attention, so most of the time, Ashrael preferred to go incognito, weaving the ka’qui around himself and hiding in plain sight.

  Of course, he wasn’t invisible to Noa. She could feel him through their bond, and it was rather nice to know that one of the most deadly assassins in the Universe - an invisible wraith with very sharp knives concealed on his person - walked by her side.

  After what had happened to her with SynCorp, she’d never felt safer in her life.

  Ashrael unzipped the front of his skinsuit and slid the garment down his arms so that his torso was distractingly bare. He drew her into his arms, planting a smoldering kiss on her lips. “Your dwelling is…” he searched for the right word, “it’s very you.”

  Noa glanced around, flustered. “Tomas has ruined the place. Everything’s in a mess. It’ll take me ages to get it back in order. My books, my artwork, my furniture, my…”

  She looked over her shoulder, her attention drawn to the contents of the next room. Slowly, she turned, grasping Ashrael’s hand, pulling him along with her.

  She led him into the living room, where the afternoon sun filtered through the windows, casting criss-cross shadows across the furniture.

  Clear synthetic dust protectors covered the furniture, including the one precious item she’d been hoping to find.

  The piano stood in a shadowed corner of the room. Almost in a trance, Nos walked across to it and pulled off the dust cover. She reverently ran her hand across its deep brown walnut surface, lifting the lid.

  The Bluthner was a proper antique of a thing. It had existed for five hundred odd years, and it had been lovingly restored and reconditioned by her father before he’d passed away.

  No modern instrument could replicate the depth and richness of its sound.

  Noa lifted the lid and brushed her fingers across the keys.

  “This is your instrument, isn’t it?” Ashrael stood beside her, his hands resting gently on her shoulders. “This is what you used to play before they damaged you.” His voice was both gentle and menacing, and Noa remembered his quiet promise to kill those responsible for her suffering.

  “It is,” she said, pulling out the stool. “I still don’t know if I can play anymore.”

  She’d been afraid to try. Although she remembered the music now, her hands hadn’t touched the keys for so long, and she didn’t know whether the brain surgery had damaged the part of her that could physically play the music

  He caressed her shoulders as she sat down, his aura calm and still, although underneath it all, she sensed an undercurrent of anticipation.

  Why, her Ashrael almost seemed… excited, even though he would never admit it.

  Noa took a deep breath and pressed one of the keys, playing an imperfect C. She experimentally tested a few of the others and found that the piano was slightly out of tune, although it wasn’t as bad as she’d been expecting.

  “This is Human music?” Ashrael asked, a certain childlike innocence about him.

  Noa laughed, touched at how wondrous and uncertain his voice sounded. “Not quite.” She hadn’t been able to share her music with him yet; her audio-buds had been lost during the chaos on Silence. “We do all kinds of music on Earth, and a lot of it is fantastic, but my specialty is an older type of music. Let me show you.”

  She hadn’t been sure of what to play, but suddenly it came to her, and she tentatively played the first few bars of the Raindrop Prelude.

  She hadn’t wanted to try anything too complicated or fast or technically difficult, because she was so out of practice and her hands weren’t up to that yet.

  But sometimes the simplest pieces could be the most difficult to play, because they left the musician completely exposed and vulnerable.

  Noa closed her eyes and leaned into the music, a shudder coursing through her as it all came back to her as naturally as breathing. A tear slid down her cheek as she played, and she wasn’t sure whether it was from relief, sheer happiness, or sadness.

  Probably a mixture of all three.

  She rode the climax of the piece, shaping each note and losing herself in the music. Her ka’qui rose and dipped, merging with Ashrael’s as his warm hands gently rested on her shoulders.

  The music drew to a close, and after she had played the last bar, they were both still for a moment, soaking up the silence.

  Then Ashrael bent and kissed her hair, taking a deep breath. “That is the energy of the Universe made into sound,” he murmured, gently wiping the wetness from her cheek with his thumb. “No wonder you were chosen to be gifted with the talent. In some ways, you already had it. They just had to open your mind up to it.”

  “I still don’t know much about this strange and mysterious ability of ours, but I’m learning,” she said as he leaned in and kissed her salty tears. “But the most important thing is that I’ve found you, and if those terrible things hadn’t happened to me, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

  And so the curse had turned into a blessing.

  “No,” he whispered. “And I wouldn’t be bonded to the most magnificent, scarily powerful, and talented sarien in the Universe.”

  “I’m hardly all those things. I’m still terrible at controlling this strange power of ours. I’m a flawed, imperfect soul, Ash.”

  “And therefore, you are perfect.” He tasted her lips, drawing her up into his powerful arms.

  As they pulled back and stared at each other, she marveled at his serene expression. He was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, and he was all hers.

  And you are mine, he whispered in her head, drawing her into his sweet, dark embrace.

  * * *

  Dear readers, thank you for taking the time to read my book. I do hope you enjoyed it.

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