Ambushed with her Alien Mate

Warriors of the D’tali: Book Two

Ava York

Starr Huntress

Contents

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Troko

Camilia

Camilia

Epilogue: Troko

Are you a STARR HUNTRESS?

Shadowed by her Alien Mate: Sneak Peek

Rekker

Kazan

Rogue Mate

Camilia

“Bandage, please.”

Without even looking to the side, I opened my hand and felt the rough fabric of a bandage against my fingers. I eyed the green D’Tali in front of me, his reptilian eyes betraying his distrust of my methods, and smiled.

“Trust me,” I said, “you’re in good hands.”

Slowly, I covered the gash in his forearm with a paste I had created, then bandaged the cut as best I could. Silently, he watched me work, but his distrust slowly gave way to wonder. I shuddered as I thought about the kind of care these guys were receiving before we arrived.

“Alright, you’re good to go.” I patted the D’Tali soldier on the shoulder and sent him on his way. He thanked me with the typical soldier’s grunt, rose to his feet, and marched out of the infirmary.

“That’s the last one, right?”

I spun around to face Sofia, who stood beside a table littered with everything from improvised gauzes to the medical concoctions I had created from native herbs. The sleeves of her long gown had been rolled up and, even though she looked like she was ready to get down to business, there was still a regal air about her.

That didn’t surprise me.

She was a queen, after all.

Not that she allowed her status to stop her from coming down here to help.

It had taken me a while to get used to it, but I was slowly starting to accept this new way of life. Every time I thought of it, I couldn’t help but wonder about how much my life had changed. A few months ago, I was just another nurse out in the sticks, trying to make a living on the West Coast, and now here I was...God knew how many light-years away from home.

Not that there’d been much for me back on Earth. No family, and friends had been lost in the constant exhaustion of keeping up with my shifts.

All things considered, though, this wasn’t a bad place to be.

If anything, it beat the alternative.

I still remembered how terrifying it had been to regain consciousness after being snatched off the streets. I woke up in a dark cargo hold, surrounded by women and monstrous aliens hell-bent on turning us all into slaves, but luck had been on our side. Their ship was attacked and we crash landed here, on this planet stuck in the Middle Ages.

Thankfully, the D’Tali were good enough hosts.

After initially struggling to talk with each other—which we resolved after using the technology in our original captors’ ship—things were now going as smoothly as possible. So much so that Sofia had even managed to claim King Dojak’s heart. Again, that didn’t surprise me. She was a true leader, and I figured that Dojak simply couldn’t resist that.

After peeking out the door, Sofia gave me a nod.

“That was the last one,” she confirmed, then closed the door behind her. She blew a stray lock of brown hair away from her face and sank onto a wooden stool. “There’s more of them coming every day. I don’t know how you’re going to keep up, Camilia.”

I stretched my back lazily, my muscles relishing the movement. After almost six hours of looking after wounded soldiers, my whole body felt like a tightly wound coil. Sofia was right—if D’Tali kept showing up here, I would need to figure something out. After all, there was only so much I could do.

“You’ll have to start teaching more of them,” Isabella said, raising her head from her improvised workstation. The former engineering student had pushed an old wooden desk into a corner of the infirmary, and the tabletop was littered with small hand-held devices. They looked like something between a tablet and a pager, with small dials on the side of the plastic case. “That’s how I’d do it.”

“Not a bad idea,” Sofia agreed. “Especially since skirmishes on the border have become a daily occurrence.” She pursed her lips and looked down at her feet. I could almost see the gears turning inside her head. “You know, I thought we were getting somewhere with the peace talks, but—”

“Those Aetamian assholes are not easy to negotiate with,” I cut in, then looked up at her and smiled. “You and Dojak are going to figure something out, though. I’m sure of that.” Not wanting to press Sofia for details about the never-ending negotiations with the belligerent kingdom on our doorstep, I turned to Isabella. “How’s that going? Have you managed to make any progress? Vokar has been helping you out, hasn’t he?”

“He has,” she replied in a hurry, but made it a point to talk about something other than the D’Tali assassin. Even though I had never expected for someone as quiet and shy as Isabella to get friendly with an actual elite assassin, the two seemed to get along pretty well. At least when it came to their shared interest in technology.

“We haven’t made much progress though,” she continued, her attention now back on the small hand-held devices. “I’ve already figured out how to turn these things on, but I can’t establish a stable frequency between them. I can only establish a link to the crash site, where the ship is, but that’s just useless.”

After getting the translator device out of the shipwreck, a few D’Tali soldiers under Vokar’s supervision had gone back with Isabella to see if there was anything else in there that we could use. Those communication devices had been part of the looting, but it seemed like there was a long way to go before we understood all that alien tech.

It was ironic.

Our ragtag group of women had been kidnapped by aliens far more technologically advanced than humans, but then we crashed on this planet stuck in the Middle Ages. As it was, we had gone from baffled humans to experts in technological progress.

Even I, with nothing but my nursing skills, had become one of the most sought after healers in the city.

Sure, I had learned a lot from them, especially when it came to the specifics of D’Tali anatomy and the traditional herbal pastes they used as medicine. They had no concept of sterilization techniques, though, and that’s where I came in. After instituting a ‘clean-hands’ policy throughout the castle, disease rates had started plummeting right away.

The differences between humans and D’Tali were significant but, according to my observations, the nutritional needs were pretty similar. That allowed me to detect vitamin insufficiencies in the soldiers and improve their recovery times and survival rates significantly. I wasn’t a qualified doctor, but it seemed that what little knowledge I had was helping the D’Tali become healthier.

That was a good thing—the D’Tali had been extremely kind to us, and every woman in our group wanted to repay them. The way I saw it, I was just doing my part.

Suddenly, our attention was drawn toward the door.

Someone knocked three times, the rhythm steady and militaristic, then the door swung back to reveal a tall, blue-skinned D’Tali. I tensed as Dojak’s right-hand, General Troko, strolled into the room. His expression was serious, the deep scar that slashed across his right cheek doing little to make him seem friendly and approachable.

“General,” Sofia chirped happily, clearly not intimidated by one of the most revered soldiers in the kingdom. “Did you come to check on your soldiers?”

“My Queen,” Troko said, his tone solemn as he lowered his head. He cleared his throat, looked around the room until his eyes met mine, and we promptly looked away from each other. I still didn’t know how to act whenever he was in the room. He was nothing but kind and polite, sure, but he was also intimidating as hell. Scary, even. “That’s the reason for my visit, yes, but I see that they’ve all received the care they needed. I can’t thank you enough.”

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Sofia elbowed me in the ribs. I straightened my back so fast that I almost fell from my seat, and looked straight at the general.

“Yes, you’re welcome...I did my best,” I stammered, feeling my cheeks burning as I withstood the general’s intense gaze. Jesus, why did I have to sound like such a babbling idiot whenever this guy was in the room? “None of them had any major wounds, and they’ll be back on active duty after a day or two.”

That seemed to please Troko.

He bowed his head to me, not a hint of a smile on his face, but I still noticed the easing of his features. That was something. After all, the general wasn’t what you’d call laid-back, his stone-faced expression a clear cut indicator of how serious he was about everything.

“Thank you for your assistance, Lady Camilia,” he said. Before I could reply, he clicked his heels together, turned, and marched out of the room. Only when he’d disappeared out of sight did I realize I had been holding my breath.

“Lady Camilia?” Sofia snorted, an amused smile taking over her face. “Seems to me the general is extra polite whenever he has to address Lady Camilia. Any idea why that is?”

“He’s polite to everyone,” I protested, blushing so much that my face must’ve looked like a ripe tomato. “Now, please, can you help me clean this up?” I waved one hand at the mess littering my workstation, bloody bandages everywhere. In truth, I just wanted to change the conversation. “I need to get ready for tomorrow and—”

“We are at your service,” Isabella piped up, smiling as she looked over from the communicator devices. Even though she was the quiet one of the group, she got more talkative whenever it was just me and Sofia around. Maybe that was why she had set up shop here instead of taking a room for herself. Now it seemed like she had joined the let’s-tease-Camilia bandwagon.

“Seriously?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest. “You, too?”

She bowed her head, smirking.

“Evidently, Lady Camilia.”

Troko

“Damnit.”

I leaned against the stone wall in the hallway, maybe twenty paces down from the door. It had taken me the better part of the afternoon to come up with a reason to visit the infirmary, and when I arrived, those two other women were there.

It would have been bad enough had it only been Isabella, the shy one, but our queen was there. Sofia had a set of eyes that seemed to be able to divine any secrets of our kind. And I wasn’t even sure what secrets I might have worth delving into. In truth, anything I felt was a secret to myself, as well.

Scrubbing my hands across my face, I erased as much of the memory as I could. Speaking to women had never been my strength. I’d never had much occasion to seek their company. The best of me had always been in the field, offering my service against the Aetamians. Anything else seemed like a waste of my time.

Ever since I’d come of age, unless I was able to flank something, or wear it on my sword, I had precious little interest in it. Even at my earliest onset of manhood, the Ancestors had marked me as a man of combat. Softer things were not of my element.

“Shit.”

Looking up into the torch on the wall, I sighed as I considered the flame. Our king, Dojak, who was as much of a poet as he was a warrior, might have said that it was an emblem for Sofia’s hair. Or, even further, that it mirrored the tempest of her nature. To me, it was just a tool to raze the homes of our enemies.

There was very little poetry in me for a woman like Camilia. Not that she had much time for flowery language. She was tough, competent, and pragmatic. Perhaps that was why I had found myself going out of my way to cross paths with her. And now, this awkward, stammering encounter.

I tried to banish my humiliation by grinding the points of my knuckles into my eyes. I had been bested in combat, and even that couldn’t touch the churning sickness I felt at seeing her. It wasn’t even that I wanted anything more than to talk to her.

To get to know her.

The D’Tali people had precious few women, and their almost mystical status made it difficult to approach them, even for common discourse. How was one to learn how to speak to a woman? And yet, the courtship of Dojak and Sofia had been like something out of legend. How could one come by it so easily?

“What’s eating you up, Troko?” I started, and turned to see Vokar slinking out of the darkness a few doorways down.

“By the…how long have you been hiding over there?”

“Long enough to hear you swear,” he grinned. “Twice.”

“I’m going to have to put bells on your shoes so I can hear you coming.”

Vokar just chuckled at me. “Lot of good that would do. I’d just go barefoot. So.” He leaned on the shadowed wall opposite me and folded his arms across his chest. “What could be driving our stoic general to swearing?”

“Nothing.” I made to leave, but he put a playful foot on my stomach and pushed me back to the wall.

“Oh, really?” He wore that crooked grin that always came when he had a mouthful of intelligence that he was meting out in parcels. The more you wanted, the longer he made you wait.

“Really. I was…” If only I could come up with some failing skirmish to cling to, but I hadn’t ridden into the field in weeks. Not since the great wedding. While my soldiers kept on fighting raiders and Aetamian border patrols, I was stuck behind a desk, doing my best to coordinate between all the deployed units and squads.

“You were just with the women.” Without meaning to, I looked away, betraying any mysteries I may have been holding back. “Why don’t you just ask Camilia to take a walk with you?”

“A walk?” His arrow hit right in my gut, and I sprang off the wall to stalk down the hallway. Vokar ambled beside me at an easy pace.

“What else is there? You’re not one for swimming. And, as tough as she is, I doubt she’s one to hop onto a numa to join a raid.”

“Nothing was ever accomplished on a walk.”

“We’re walking now.” Damnit. He was right. I pulled up short and itched all over. It was bad enough to be punishing myself for my insufficiencies, but now I had someone goading me into conversation about them.

“I’m not one for pleasant conversation.”

“Neither is she,” Vokar smirked. Right again. “Perhaps the next time she goes out into the fields to gather herbs, you could accompany her, carry the basket.”

“Carry her basket?” The image of me trailing behind a woman with a basketful of flowers made me squirm even worse.

“Why not?” He reached out to squeeze my bicep. “No doubt you can carry far more than her slender arms could manage.”

“Don’t you talk about her slender arms,” I snarled with a sudden flare of temper. Jealousy was a feeling I was unused to, and the flash of it startled me as much as it did my friend. He put his hands up in mock surrender and stepped back.

“Take it easy,” he said. “I will do what I can to keep the fair Camilia out of my mouth.” The innuendo rankled me again, and I stepped further down the hall.

“Good.”

“If only I could say the same for the rest of the men.”

I froze in place. Bad enough that our finest spy was able to pry into my secrets, but was I really that open?

“Is it spoken of?” I half turned to face him.

“Maybe.” He broke into a broad smile, and I scrubbed my callused hands over my face again, harder this time. Maybe if I opened up one of my scars, the blood on my face would bring me back to myself. My real self. “I don’t know what the others are saying, but if I know what’s going on…then I can only assume that others have started talking about it.”

He was trying to rile me up, and it was working.

“Rumors,” I snorted.

“You’re doing an awful lot of pawing at yourself if these are mere rumors. You’ve never let idle talk fuck you up before. If it’s all bullshit, then why are you so angry?”

Was I? Looking down, I realized that my hands were balled into tight fists. After so many years priding myself on being inscrutable, now every facet of me was revealing information.

“What I need is a fight. It’s what we all need. Too much time sitting still is making me soft. We’ve grown weak with celebration and laziness, while the Aetamians are in continual practice.”

“True. I’ve seen them.”

“As have I,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose as I remembered the countless reports stacked on my desk. “It looks like they’re preparing for something. I just wonder what that is.”

Vokar shrugged and strode up the hallway to me. “The same thing they are always preparing for.”

I snuffed heavily through my nostrils at the truth of it. In my bed at night, when I should be devising strategies, an entirely different kind of thought had crowded our enemies out. Too much of that was keeping me away from my true cause. My purpose was to lead men and kill our enemies, not drink, sleep, and seek private talk with ladies.

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter. You’ll have plenty of time to spend with your favorite healer soon enough.”

“What does that mean?” There was a dangerous edge under his playful tone, and I bristled that my friend was always speaking two things at once. Everything he said sounded like a riddle—even when he was asking for a drink. You couldn’t pour an honest beer without feeling as though you were being taken for a ride.

“I don’t mean anything,” he shrugged again.

“If you keep doing that, you’ll wear your shoulders out.”

“The only way I’ll wear my shoulders out is under a woman’s thighs,” he said. The image inflamed me and made me run cold at the same time. “The real question is, why are you wasting your time talking to me? You have bigger things in hand.”

“Do I?” As always, he had the advantage of me.

“I should think so. Dojak wants to see you in his chambers immediately.”

“He does?”

“Of course.” He pulled a smug, frowning smile. “That’s why I was sent to find you.”

Clapping a hand on his shoulder in thanks—and maybe a touch of aggravation—I set off down the corridor toward the king’s quarters. Vokar began to whistle and head off down the hall in the opposite direction.

“Perhaps I’ll stop by the infirmary and see if I can get something to help me sleep,” he murmured as he went. “The nights are so long lately…”

What was it about having friends that made you want to throttle them? There were very few men that I held close, and nearly every one of them had the power to prod me into fury with the slightest provocation.

I gave two brisk raps on the wooden door, and was invited in. By contrast to the passageways in the stronghold, Dojak’s chambers were bathed in a warm amber glow. He was leaning over his table, in deep conversation over some documents. Nelkar, one of his sagest counselors, was with him.

“Ah, Troko. What took you so long?”

“You sent Vokar.”

“Ah,” he smiled. “I did. Never the shortest path. You know Mox Nelkar.”

“I do.” I gave the aged D’Tali a small bow, and he waved me off with his usual mix of good humor and grumbling.

“What can I do for you, Dojak?”

“I have a mission for you.” Without another word, he plucked one of the papers from the table. With a half-smile, he strode over and placed it in my waiting hands. It only took a brief glance to get the idea. “I think you might enjoy it.”

“By the Ancestors,” I whispered. “You can’t be serious?”

Camilia

I was exhausted.

Now that the day was over, I was looking forward to heading back to the tower our group now called home and taking a long hot bath. The water was so scalding in the tower’s bathing area that I came out looking as pink as a newborn every day. I smiled as I imagined the thick, heavy robe I would put on after that. It trapped the heat, easing all my sore muscles and my tired soul.

The D’Tali warriors were patched up to the best of my ability. They didn’t complain much, as it wasn’t in their nature.

All in all, this had been a good day’s work, and they seemed to appreciate my efforts. Maybe, in the future, I could start getting some assistance. Sofia had far more important things to do than be a nurse’s assistant and, besides, it was high time some of these D’Tali learned the basics of good, responsible medicine.

“Let’s hope tomorrow you don’t have as many patients,” Sofia said, hands on her hips as she took in our surroundings. The infirmary was clean and tidy again, all evidence of a hard day’s work now disposed of.

“Maybe,” I replied. “As long as they stop doing stupid things like getting taken by surprise.”

“I agree,” she said, leading the way out of the infirmary. In the hallway outside, most of the soldiers we had treated still seemed to be milling around. Sofia turned to them and raised her voice, her tone playful but kind. “If any of you feel further pain, or it seems like your injuries are worsening, don’t be so, you know, D’Tali. Just come and ask Camilia for aid. Is that understood?”

There were nods and salutes of agreement, and some of the hardened warriors even smiled. Still, I doubted they would do as they were told. They were proud, every single one of them.

“A full afternoon,” Sofia said.

I shook my head wearily. “No doubt. I just want to get back to the tower and get into the pool. I really need to take a warm—”

At that moment, I was cut off by a D’Tali soldier walking in with a formal, stomping march. “I seek the healer Camilia!” he said, far too loudly, his voice echoing throughout the hallway.

I looked over at Sofia, arching one eyebrow, but she merely shrugged.

“That’s me,” I said. “What can I do for you?”

“My Lady healer, King Dojak has requested your presence in the royal chambers!” he barked, his posture so rigid he almost seemed like a statue.

“Soldier, feel free to modulate your volume, if you please,” Sofia said, a hint of a smile on her lips. The D’Tali snapped his head in a small bow.

“Yes, my Queen!” he barked again, his tone even louder than before. “Of course, my Queen!” He probably had no idea what the word ‘modulate’ meant.

“Does the king need me now?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied. “He seeks an audience immediately.”

I sighed. Exhausted as I was, the last thing I wanted was to be pulled into something political. Still, it couldn’t be helped. If the king requested your presence, it was your duty to do as you were told. And that applied whether you were a D’Tali or a human.

“Very well. Tell him I will be there shortly.”

“I will.” He nodded and, before marching off, bowed deeply at Sofia. “My Queen!” Once he was gone, I turned to Sofia. If anyone knew what this was about, it had to be her.

“Okay,” I said. “What’s going on?”

“Don’t ask me,” she replied, shrugging her shoulders. “I’ve been with you all day. But if Dojak has summoned you like this, then I can only assume it’s important.” She waved one hand toward the hallway leading into the royal chambers. “Your king awaits you.”

I rolled my eyes at her.

“You can be a bit too much sometimes.”

Sofia nodded her head slowly up and down.

“Uh-huh,” she said with a grin. “I know.”

I shook my head, gave Sofia and Isabella a parting nod, and headed to the royal chambers. My boot heels clicked loudly on the polished stone hallway of the palace. As I always did, I marveled at the architecture and skill required to create such a thing. Despite their primitive grasp on technology, architecture was something the D’Tali seemed to have mastered. It really was remarkable.

Once I came to the royal chambers, a guard ushered me in. Candelabras stood throughout the space, little spheres of light that kept the shadows at bay. As I approached the throne, I was surprised to see Troko standing there, right next to Dojak.

I could see a hint of surprise in Troko’s eyes, but he hid it well. I, on the other hand, was doing a terrible job at hiding my discomfort.

“Camilia!” Dojak boomed, his charisma filling the space. I could see why he was such a well-loved king…and why Sofia had mated with him. “Thank you again for taking such excellent care of my soldiers. You are an incredible asset for the D’Tali.”

I bowed slightly.

“My King,” I said.

“I believe you know Troko, do you not?”

He knew that I did, but I let it go. For the moment.

“Yes, I do.”

“Excellent,” he continued, leaning slightly forward as a smile crept to his lips. “Because the two of you are to be envoys for a diplomatic mission. You’re going to Aetam.”

I blinked, not understanding.

“Your Majesty?”

“You would agree, would you not,” he said, “that this bloody and pointless conflict with the Aetamians needs to stop?”

“Without question. I’d rather not spend my time sewing D’Tali soldiers back together.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” he nodded. “That is why I am happy to report that we have an opportunity to negotiate a truce with Aetam.”

I was shocked. I knew that Dojak had been trying to broker a peace for weeks now, but it had always seemed like a pipedream.

“That’s amazing,” I muttered. “Congratulations!”

“Congratulations to us all, Camilia,” he continued, his tone warm and polite. “But this peace is tentative, we should bear that in mind.”

“Of course,” I said. “Such things are delicate.”

“That they are.” Shifting on his throne, he gave Troko a look I couldn’t quite understand. “How familiar are you with the Aetamian king?” he asked me.

I shook my head.

“Only vaguely,” I said. “I know he’s on the older side.”

Dojak laughed and Troko smirked.

“‘The older side’ is one way to put it. King Moffat makes fossils look young and vital. But, having said that, he’s still a shrewd and skilled negotiator,” Dojak said.

“I see,” I said, having no idea where this was going.

“He’s also the father of a daughter and, from what I understand, for him, the sun rises and sets on her.” He paused slightly, and then his expression became graver and more stately. “As it turns out, King Moffat’s daughter has taken ill in some way. And it’s fairly serious.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.

“As are we. So, in the spirit of peace, I offered him our assistance.” He paused, his gaze bearing down on me. “If you accept it, I am sending you to Moffat’s palace to see what can be done for his daughter.”

I was stunned. I’d never done anything remotely like that before. Besides, I was just a nurse, not a surgeon with a mobile hospital. There was only so much I could do.

And from what I’d understood, although the D’Tali and the Aetamians were closely related, there were differences. What if that wasn’t just in their appearance, but something deeper in their anatomy?

“That, huh...well, I’ve never done anything like that before. Do they not have their own healers among the Aetamians?”

“None so skilled as you, Camilia. I understand your knowledge of our anatomy is limited, but the Aetamian healers haven’t been able to produce any results. Your unique perspective might be what she needs. As it is, I doubt the Aetamians are aware of the sterilization techniques you use, as well as what you call basic care methods.” He smiled warmly, paused, and then continued. “We’ve brokered a temporary truce, and the convoy you’ll be a part has been granted safe passage. Should you manage to help Moffat’s daughter regain her health, then peace between our two kingdoms becomes a very real possibility.”

My head was spinning.

Travel in Aetamian territory? I just wasn’t sure I was up to it. The last time I had met those guys, they were ambushing us in the desert, too damn eager to put their arrows through us. Even though I wanted peace, it was hard to be excited about having to pay them a visit.

“I’m honored by your confidence, but are you sure I’m the one for this?”

“I am,” Dojak nodded. “I understand your concerns, believe me, but Troko here will be accompanying you. He will make sure that you are safe. We don’t want to send in a whole squad of warriors, of course, as that would be too aggressive a gesture. Still, a small number of experienced warriors will be part of this diplomatic convoy.”

I looked at Troko, but the hardened general remained impassive. Still, I thought I detected the vaguest, tiniest hint of a smile on his lips. Being alone with him wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen, I thought.

Suddenly, Dojak stepped down off the dais of his throne and approached me. Standing in front of me, he reached out a hand and put it on my shoulder. “Camilia, you hold the future of our people in your hands,” he said. “And I’ve never known a steadier pair. I have every faith in your ability.”

I bowed deeply.

“You humble me,” I whispered. “Thank you.”

He waved it off.

“If all goes well, we will all be thanking you.” He turned to Troko and gave him a smirk. “And Troko. Just try to keep your focus on the mission.” He offered me one last smile, his fingers gently squeezing my shoulder, then marched out of the room, his long cloak whipping behind him.

Troko sighed and shook his head.

“What did he mean by that?” I said, following Dojak with my gaze. Troko stepped down to meet me on the floor. He cleared his throat and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“I’m not entirely sure,” he said, but I didn’t know if I believed him. As he grew closer to me, there was an undeniable charge in the air. I could feel it right away.

“So,” I continued, working hard to be oh-so-casual, “we will be working together.”

“Yes,” Troko said simply.

“And traveling together.”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll be...protecting me.”

“Well,” he said, clearing his throat once again, “that’s part of my role, yes. I’ve also been assigned to the convoy so that I may be part of any peace conversations that may arise. But don’t worry. My priority is to make sure you’re safe.”

I didn’t know what it was, but there was something about his tone that sent a shiver up my spine. And it was a pleasant shiver. I stepped back and took him in, the full view. Despite the scars, despite his ever-serious appearance…he actually looked good.

“Let me ask you something,” I said.

“Please do.”

“Do you get the sense that the king and queen are maybe having a little fun at our expense?”

He gave me an amused look, some emotion finally showing on his face.

“I’m not sure they’re ‘having fun’ as you put it. But I am certain they’re doing a little matchmaking, at the very least.”

“Yes,” I said. “I think that’s pretty accurate.”

We stood there, looking at each other.

A little awkward, a little intrigued, a little unsure.

“Well,” I finally said. “If anything, this is going to be an adventure.”

“An adventure,” he repeated then, miraculously, a smile dawned on his lips. “Yes, I believe so. And, as far as I’m concerned, it’ll be a safe adventure. This I promise you—no matter what happens, I’ll make sure that nothing happens to you.”

Intimidating as he was, it was hard not to believe him.

With him around, I’d be safe.

Troko

“We’re going to need more ink. Be sure to ask the council to send along a signet, as well.” Nelkar sent his page Clujean scampering back into the palace, and continued securing his lockbox to his saddle.

“A signet?” I turned to him, and he slowed ever so slightly at my question.

“Dojak has given me the authority to speak in his name.”

“This is a gesture of courtesy, Mox Nelkar, not a diplomatic mission.” This time, he stopped outright and fixed his gray eyes on me.

“We are journeying into the very heart of the Aetamian people to render a unique service to their king. Everything about this is diplomatic. Remember that. You and your men are the muscle, and I am the brains.”

“No need to get touchy, Nelkar.” Oshril swaggered up beside us, fresh from sharpening his sword. “We’ve got brains of our own.”

“Mox Nelkar is right.” Krilik clamped a firm hand on the younger soldier’s neck. “We may have brains, but our purpose on this trip is brawn. Each to their own abilities, hey, Mox?”

“Quite so.” The page tore back up to the Statesman, dropping the signet into his palm. “And thank you for remembering my rank.”

“If we don’t have respect among ourselves,” I said, “we can’t expect the Aetamians to respect us.” With that, I cut my eyes back over to Oshril. This expedition was meant to be a proving ground for him. Under the watchful eye of our best bowman, the wild young soldier was meant to rise in standing.

As Krilik dragged the impetuous young man back to continue packing his numa, I caught sight of Camilia arranging her own supplies. She said something to the D’Tali standing next to her, and he set off toward the infirmary. Her glinting eyes were dark under a furrowed brow as she looked over herbs, bottles, and medicines.

“She runs her own little roost, doesn’t she?” Brulic was at my shoulder, admiring her with eyes not unlike mine.

“She certainly does.” As we watched, she barked another order at whoever was close by, and they jogged off as well. Brulic chuckled and shook his head.

“The human women have a particular sway around here. Especially now that Dojak has taken one as his queen. It’s like everyone is hopping, waiting to see who comes next.” He chortled again, eyeing the busy redhead with admiration.

I had always liked Brulic. He was a fighter before I was ever trusted with a sword, the kind of man who kept his head down. With a little more ambition, he would have been a member of the Council by now, but he was content to stay in the field. As a younger man, he had been everything I aspired to be.

“Are you packed?” I asked him. He looked at me as if I were out of my mind.

“I was packed last night! When the rest of you weren’t in the courtyard by sunup, I nearly went to bang on your doors.”

“Good thing you didn’t try it.” I pointed back over to where our Mox was standing. “Nelkar is setting the tone for this little excursion. I’m willing to wager we won’t ride further than the Stone of Elric.”

“How much?” Digging into my pouch, I came up with two golden coins. Brulic nodded and produced two of his own. “I say we pass it.”

“Done,” I sealed the wager.

“Are we ready?” Nelkar was already astride his numa, looking at the rest of us as though we were intentionally holding him up.

“To saddle,” I cried, and the soldiers leaped into position, eager to get some miles behind us.

“Wait!” All eyes turned to Camilia, as she stepped forward. “I’ve still got some supplies coming.” Nelkar huffed at her, but she held her ground. “If I don’t have all the things I need, then everything about this mission will be a failure. You can wait five minutes if it means saving the king’s daughter.”

Nelkar pulled his lips into a tight line, but stayed silent. All of the soldiers in our party suddenly had things to keep their hands very busy, faces turned away into the distance, in an effort not to have the Mox see them giggling.

For my part, laughter didn’t even enter into it.

Instead, a lump rose in my throat at the thought of spending so much time in close proximity to Camilia. Up to that moment, I had never managed to be anything other than awkward in her presence. Spending days in a group of seven was hopefully going to change that.

In truth, I was anxious for the time.

The two D’Tali men she had sent off came trotting back, each one with some little tokens that she nestled into her pack. As we all watched, she secured the medical kit to her saddle and made sure everything was tightly bound in place. Even with the entire team watching her, she remained unruffled.

Perhaps Camilia’s greatest asset—greater even than her beauty—was the steel spike she kept for a spine. Oshril could learn something from her discipline.

“May we go now?” Nelkar leaned over his pommel, offering her a smile of mock deference. A spark of ire flickered inside me that he should be so disrespectful while insisting on being respected, but I chose to swallow it. With a single kick of her long legs, Camilia vaulted into her saddle and smiled back at him.

“Make the call.”

“Alright,” I called the men to attention. “Set out.”

The wooden gates opened and our band of seven galloped out into the field. When launching a battle, pride of place was important, and everyone followed their rank. But, for a journey like this, all that mattered was covering distance. As much as Mox Nelkar would have loved to ride at the head, we quickly fell into a more informal cluster.

In short order, we cleared the green landscape surrounding the D’Tali kingdom and crossed into the desert. The ground was hard from being baked under the sun, the air sharp and arid.

If I had worried over Camilia and how she might survive in this atmosphere, I could put it to rest. She rode with as much stamina and confidence as even the most experienced rider. I held a small suspicion that it was a front she was putting on for the benefit of the men—she was the only woman, after all.

Still, if it was a façade, it served its purpose. After an hour’s ride, even Mox Nelkar regarded her differently. In point of fact, he was the first one to call for water.

“Quickly, quickly.” He snapped his fingers at his page, and Clujean fumbled to keep a hand on his reins while pulling the water skin out of his pack. What must it have been like to have a servant whose sole job was to keep one comfortable.

“Actually,” Oshril crowed, “me, too.” He snapped his fingers at Krilik.

“Oh, fuck off.” Krilik gave Oshril a smack to the back of the head, and we all got a solid laugh. Well, most of us. Nelkar didn’t seem to find the humor in it and was less than pleased to catch Clujean snickering into his sleeve.

Our two red moons hung low in the sky, and Nelkar called the day’s journey to a halt.

“We’ll camp here,” he declared. “That leaves less than a full day’s ride for tomorrow.”

I looked back less than two hundred paces and saw the Stone of Elric solidly behind us. Turning to find Brulic, I saw he was already watching me, a smug smile lighting up his battle-scarred face.

“Shit.” I flicked the two coins at him as I hopped down.

After all the tents were set, everything went still. Things went dark quickly out in the desert, and one of our moons had set shortly after the sun. That left the dim, red glow of a single moon to dust everything in a low light. It reminded me of why I loved being in the field.

“Thank you.” Camilia’s voice caught my ear, and I looked to see her parting from Clujean with a bundle in her hands. She headed in the direction of her tent, and I kicked at the dirt at my feet. We had ridden the entire day, some of it even side by side, and yet I hadn’t mustered up the will to speak to her.

That had to end. After all the things I had faced in my life, I wasn’t about to let myself be intimidated by the prospect of speaking to a woman. But what was I going to say to her?

Did we ride too hard for you today? No. There was far too much she could read into that. Even if I didn’t mean it in any particular way, I wasn’t going to open our first substantial talk with a double meaning.

I’m glad you’re the one they sent for this expedition. Who else would Dojak have sent? She’s far and away the most medically capable of her kind. I found I was already walking in the direction of her tent.

Do you have everything you need for the night? That was perfect. Helpful, without being overly solicitous. It could show that I cared for her well-being, but not that I was trying too hard. Reaching her tent, I squared myself, and cleared my throat.

“Camilia?”

No answer.

“Camilia?” A little louder that time. Still no answer. Feeling a little bold, I pushed aside the flap of her tent. “Forgive me, but I wondered…” It was empty.

Slightly confused, I walked around the perimeter of her tent to see if perhaps she had ducked around the side to check one of the spikes. That’s when I heard a light splashing. We had made camp next to a small lake, so I figured she had gone over to fill up her water skin before turning in.

The idea of catching her under the moonlight by the water felt more than a little enticing, so I padded down to where I might hope to meet her. She wasn’t at the edge of the water. I could make out something on the shore and, after a second, I realized it was a heap of fabric. Clothes.

“By the Ancestors.”

There, in the faint red light, I could see the clean, full line of Camilia’s back. The water stopped just at the cleft of her backside as she stood bathing. I was stunned. Anything I had ever planned to say to her fled my mind as I stood, rapt at the vision before me.

She cupped water between her palms, and brought it up to her shoulder. Turning and dipping low, she submerged herself to the shoulders, then rose back up. She was facing me, her body shimmering with the damp. It gleamed down along her chest, over the crest of her breasts, and down along her ribs.

My heart warred with itself over whether to fall completely still or race faster than it ever had. A small movement along the shore answered that question. A faint slithering motion shook me back from the reverie of seeing her pristine body.

That lake was teeming with yeriliths.

They were voracious, remorseless, and killed in packs. And, at that moment, I could see at least half a dozen gliding toward her along the glassy surface of the lake. So, with that, my heart made up its mind.

Now was the time to hammer away.

Camilia

The water felt absolutely delicious against my skin. After such a long day of traveling, this was exactly what I needed. I could feel the dust and grime coming off of me with each stroke as I swam.

Flipping onto my back, I looked up at the stars. I had a moment where I wasn’t sure where the sky ended and the waterline began. Stars reflecting stars reflecting stars. Like I was swimming through space. A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.

Not bad, I thought. Not bad at all.

When was the last time I had stripped down and jumped in a lake? I had never had the time for such things as skinny-dipping and star-gazing. When I was child, maybe. I made a note to myself: I needed to do this more often. It was one of life’s true pleasures.

I ducked my head under the water for a moment, feeling myself fully enveloped in cool, refreshing sensations. Breaching out again, I threw my head back, shaking my hair and splashing everywhere. I laughed at myself, delighting in the moment.

I floated on my back again and closed my eyes, drifting. Both on the water and in and out of consciousness. Honestly, it felt like I could fall asleep. Obviously, not wanting to drown, that wasn’t the choice I was going to make. But I could float along, right?

In my daze, I thought I heard someone shouting far, far away. I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming, but the shouting was insistent and ongoing. Then I heard a splashing of water. A splashing that I definitely wasn’t making.

That brought me to my senses quickly.

I stopped floating and flipped back into a swimming position, facing the shoreline. To my surprise Troko was there, waving his arms and looking agitated. Damnit, I thought. He comes now? When I’m completely naked? I wasn’t quite ready for that, and was almost a little angry. That’s when I realized his shouting wasn’t just to get my attention. He was warning me. That’s what was happening.

But what was he warning me about?

I heard another splash in the water and turned around. There, not fifteen yards away, were...I didn’t know exactly what they were. They looked like some type of crocodile, but much bigger than I had ever seen before. There were maybe six of them. They hunted me in a pack, like wolves. I could hear the slight beginnings of growling coming from them, the sound threatening and ominous.

The two pairs on either side dipped their heads under the water at the same time, moving like they were reading each other’s minds. I guessed this was a family unit. Hunting together was what they did.

I slowly started backing up through the water, my heart hammering inside my chest. I was in some real trouble here. I didn’t want to turn my back to them, but maybe it didn’t matter.

Hadn’t there been more of them?

I looked around frantically. I would have sworn there were six, but now I only saw four.

Where had the others gone?

Underwater, maybe. Or were they already behind me?

Surely, I couldn’t outswim them. If I dove underwater and swam like mad to get to the shore, they’d rip me apart before I made it halfway there.

That’s when I heard a roar and turned to see Troko running into the water, splashing like a madman. He had a knife in his teeth and, as soon as the water was deep enough, he began cutting through it like he was part fish. And what did I know? Maybe the D’Tali had a little fish in their genetic code.

He reached me faster that I would have thought possible, and just in time. Two of the creatures, the pair to my left, charged at the same time, mouths wide-open, row upon row of sharp teeth gleaming in the moonlight.

Troko punched one, literally in the mouth, and sent it splashing backwards. He grabbed the other by the throat and quickly brought down his knife right on the top of its head. It sank like a stone.

Troko turned to me, shouting.

“Head to the shore! Swim, now!”

He didn’t need to tell me twice and I took off as fast as I could. The four other creatures focused on him. For the moment anyway. I looked over my shoulder and saw one of them break out of the water like a whale, its enormous tail whipping back and forth, trying to crush Troko underneath. He ducked to his left and cut upwards with his blade, gutting it.

I focused on the task at hand. I knew the best thing I could do to help him was to get the hell out of the water. I swam harder than I ever had in my life. Troko grunted and cursed behind me, fighting the three that remained. At least, I thought it was three.

I heard a loud hissing behind me, like a giant tea kettle announcing that it was boiling, and I turned to see one of the crocodile-things hurtling toward me. There wasn’t time to think or scream or do anything but swim. I put my head down and pumped my arms and kicked my legs as hard as I could.

But I couldn’t stop taking glances over my shoulder, torn between being too afraid to look and too afraid not to know what was going on.

Troko fought off two at once behind me, who had learned from their brethren’s errors. They attacked as one, their movements pincer-like. Troko struck out with his knife suddenly and caught one dead in the eye. It started thrashing and roaring wildly, the tail sawing its way back and forth, kicking up waves.

This hissing behind me was louder and I swore I could hear something like glee in it. I was almost at the shore, but I wasn’t sure I would make it. It was going to be close. Too damn close.

Just fucking swim, I told myself. Just swim. That’s all that matters. Swim!

I heard Troko scream in triumphant rage behind me. I turned to look.

“Not today,” he shouted, and I saw him wrestle the last one in a headlock, bringing his blade right down between its eyes. It roared in anger and pain, then it dropped under the water, dead.

But in looking at him, I’d allowed the creature giving me chase to sneak up. It opened its maw and I could see how deep that throat went. You go in there, I thought, you’re never coming out. I quickly dove to the right and it just missed me.

I was tired, and I didn’t think the adrenaline would last long enough for me to make it. Or to even dodge it again. I braced myself for a fight. Maybe I could poke out an eye? Maybe a shot to its nose? I didn’t know. The beast circled and all I could do was tread water. The thought briefly flashed through my mind that maybe I should drown myself instead.

Better than being eaten alive.

But just as quickly, I dismissed that thought. If I had learned anything from the D’Tali, it was that one should always go down like a fighter.

The creature struck out again, and there was nowhere for me to go. I had lost track of Troko and I was on my own. It opened its mouth and I could smell its breath, rancid and sour. Just as it bore down on me, the crocodile-thing was pulled backwards through the water.

“Don’t even think about it,” Troko said.

There he was.

He’d made it to me.

He was pulling the creature back towards him, like he was pulling on a rope. The beast was surprised, probably that the natural strength of the D’Tali was overtaking him.

Troko stuck the knife in the creature’s back and pulled it toward him. Then pulled the knife out and plunged it in again, like he was using it to climb up the monster’s back. Soon, blood was spilling from holes in its flesh, more and more. The creature’s movements became lethargic, its life ebbing away.

Finally, it made gurgling sounds, and Troko didn’t waste any time. He wouldn’t allow for the creature to suffer. He cleanly thrust the blade into the head, and just like that, it was over.

“Thank...” I mumbled. “Thank you...” I tried to turn and swim through the water, but I felt myself slip under. Oh, the irony of it all. I was going to end up drowning anyway. But then I felt Troko’s strong, solid arms under me, pulling me close to him. My naked skin pressed against his, and my heart tightened inside my chest.

I didn’t care.

I was too tired. I was too scared, and my adrenaline was ebbing away. I let him sweep me up and bring me out of the water.

So much for that relaxing little swim under the stars.

Troko strode out of the water, carrying me, then brought me right to where I had left my clothes. He gently laid me down, looking at my face the whole time.

“Are you hurt?” he asked. “Do you need me to get you something?”

I shook my head.

“Just need to catch my breath,” I gasped. “I’m okay, just need a minute.”

He nodded. “Take your time. There aren’t any more of those things around. We’re safe for now.”

He turned around, giving me privacy. It was a gesture of such graciousness that it surprised me. I got to my feet and dressed while Troko waited patiently. I stumbled back to him and touched his shoulder.

“You can turn around now, Troko. It’s alright.”

He did, and I could see that there was a severe bite wound on his left arm.

“Oh no, are you alright?” I asked him. “What’s your pain level?”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. It’s not bad.”

“No, that’s wrong. It is bad. Your adrenaline is acting like a painkiller. Let’s get back to camp and I’ll patch you up.”

He nodded, then reached out and gently touched my face.

“You sure you’re alright?” he asked.

“Yes, I am. Thank you.” I took in a deep breath. “Really, you saved my life.”

“That’s what I’m here for.” He took my hand in his. “Come, let’s get back.”

I nodded, and off we went.

I thought I heard a rustle in the water, but I didn’t look back.

Troko

I didn’t want to admit it, but the wound was throbbing like a son of a bitch. Camilia had been right. My adrenaline was wearing off and the pain was running in full speed, like a drunk into a closed door.

The further we walked from the lake, Camilia’s strength seemed to be growing as she calmed down. Mine was fading with each pump of my heart. Camilia had ripped the bottom of her shirt to make something like a tourniquet. It helped but it wasn’t quite enough to stem the bleeding.

We made it to camp and walked in with Camilia supporting my weight.

There was a general sense of alarm at our appearance from the rest of our group, but we quieted them down. I told the guards on watch to keep their eyes open for the yeriliths. I thought it was unlikely they would attack so large a group so far from water, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“And can someone bring me my kit from my tent?” Camilia asked, and one of the guards ran to fetch it. “And a bowl of hot water, please!”

Camilia walked with me all the way back to my personal tent. She opened the flap and I nearly fell forward onto my bedding. I sighed in relief at finally lying down.

“I have to tell you,” I said, catching my breath, “it’s not easy saving you from murderous water-beasts while swimming. So I hope you took note of how impressive that was.” It seemed like I was losing more than just blood. I was also starting to lose common sense. Why was I saying such things?

She grinned. “The things a guy will do to impress a gal, huh?”

“It seems like you have the right of it.”

My eyelids started to flutter closed. Sleep, that’s what I wanted.

Then I felt a smack across my face.

“Nope, not yet. You have to stay awake until I sew up these wounds,” Camilia said.

“Did you have to slap me?” I asked.

“Absolutely. You looked at me unclothed, without my permission.”

And I did feel guilty about that, even if there was no other way to defend her.

But those glorious glimpses would stay with me, despite the guilt.

“I was saving your life.”

She waved a hand.

“That’s a technicality,” she said, smiling. “No, I need you to stay awake, at least for now. If you pass out from blood loss, you may not wake up again.”

I looked at her quizzically. “Are you sure that’s right?”

She shrugged. “Maybe not. But I’m the only medic you’ve got, so what choice do you have?”

I nodded. I was stuck.

“Go for it, healer. I will stay awake.”

The guard returned with her bag, another carrying a large bowl of steaming water.

“Take off your shirt for me,” she said as they left the tent. “So I can clean and properly dress the wound.”

I did as she asked, struggling to sit up and, with more effort than I would have liked, pulled the shirt over my head. She gasped when she saw the scars on my chest.

“Are you—were those wounds properly seen to?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I’m guessing not.”

“Sit back,” she said. “Elevate your arm.”

I obeyed while Camilia reached inside her bag and laid out rags, bandages, sutures, and a clamp and thread. She soaked the rags and began cleaning the wound out.

“What happened here?”

The flicker of her eyes told me even she was taken aback by the largest scar, running from my left shoulder to right hip. “That’s a wound I wouldn’t expect many to survive. Even D’Tali.”

“It wasn’t as bad as it looks.”

She looked at me quizzically.

“Tell me about it.”

I sighed. I hadn’t told this story for a long while.

“Several years ago, when I was still a young soldier, I was selected to go on a patrol, seeking intelligence on Aetamian movements and plans. I was a member of a squad that included no less than King Dojak.”

“Really? I didn’t realize that he had spent much time in that level of service,” Camilia said, surprised.

“Oh yes. It’s one of the many reasons he’s held in such high respect. In any event, we were on patrol. My friend Quintac and I were on point. We were both headstrong, foolish, wanting to make a name for ourselves. Rise through the ranks, you know? Typical of young warriors, determined to prove ourselves.”

“Quintac. I don’t think I know that name,” Camilia said.

I nodded.

“You wouldn’t. So, we were on patrol, pushing through the jungle, dense foliage around every turn. So much green you could hardly see three feet in front of you. It was a challenge just to hack through it. And the heat…I’d never felt anything like it. The air was thick and heavy. So much humidity, and the insects were snacking on us. Quintac never seemed to get bitten, somehow.”

I flinched slightly as she pulled the first stitch through.

“You alright?” she asked. “I’ve been trying to develop a numbing cream for the pain, but I haven’t had much luck yet.”

“I’m fine,” I answered, but I could feel exhaustion creeping in.

“Go on with your story,” she said.

“We didn’t expect to run into any trouble. We were under the impression that, because the jungle was so thick, it was unlikely that the Aetamians would be using it. More trouble than it was worth to carve a path, you see. That’s what we thought. And we figured, since they wouldn’t use it, it made all the more sense for us to, because we could creep behind their borders with them unawares.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t go according to plan,” said Camilia.

“You guess correctly. It turned out the Aetamian command had had the same idea we had. And there, in that thick and tightly packed jungle, two patrols of enemy soldiers came upon each other, unexpectedly.”

“Oh my God. What happened?”

“In truth, we stood there for a moment, looking at each other, not sure of what to do. It was almost funny. Young soldiers, on either side, all green, all looking for experience, suddenly face to face. There was a moment where it seemed like we may just...pass by each other, pretend it had never happened.”

Camilia pulled another stitch through.

“But...?”

“But the other thing about young soldiers is that they’re nervous. And nervous soldiers make mistakes. Someone shoved someone who fell into someone, then blades were drawn, swords, daggers, all at the ready. Then we fell into it. Falling on top of each other, hacking away, in fear and terror, rage and adrenaline.”

She looked at me. “And joy?”

I nodded. “Yes. Even some joy.”

She pulled another stitch through.

“Almost there.”

“The battle...wasn’t really a battle,” I said, the memory filling me. “It was us falling on top of each other. It was fast and ugly and, honestly, most of it was a blur. And the trees and vines everywhere...you couldn’t really see. But then, somewhere behind me, I heard a cry for help and there was Dojak, fighting off two Aetamians by himself. I, of course, had stuck by Quintac, the two of us back to back.

“Quintac looked at me, grinning like a fool and told me to help Dojak, that he wouldn’t last much longer. I said I wouldn’t leave him, but he told me that he could handle it on his own and he didn’t need to be babysitting me in the process. That was him, to the core.”

“I slapped him on the shoulder, said ‘I’ll be right back’, and rushed off to help Dojak. I tackled one of the Aetamians fighting him, and we fell to the ground together. We tumbled over each other and sprung to our feet. And that Aetamian...he was faster than I was. Maybe one of the few times I can admit that. He slashed hard, from my shoulder to my hip.”

I traced the scar with my fingers, my fingertips running over the grooves of where the blade had met my flesh.

“But he’d leaned too far forward and I was able to strike him on the neck, cutting his artery and the blood flow to his brain. He dropped like a stone in front of me. I ran back to Dojak, who, exhausted from having been fighting both of them, was nearly on his last legs. I pulled his enemy off him and, together, we were able to dispatch him easily.”

Camilia pulled through the final stitch.

“That’s an incredible story. You saved Dojak’s life!”

I nodded. “Yes, I did.”

She shook her head.

“Amazing,” she said. “Okay, I just need to bandage this and you’ll be good to go.”

“Thank you, Camilia.”

“It’s alright. I’m glad to do it. It’s the least I can do.”

She made quick work of the bandage and I was feeling a bit better. But still tired.

“And what about your friend? Quintac? You didn’t finish the story.”

I looked at her plainly. “He died.”

She looked at me with such shock and such sorrow, I was almost taken aback.

“I’m...I’m so sorry.”

I nodded my head in acknowledgment.

“Young soldiers...they die, too. They probably do that better than anything else, I’m sorry to say.”

Then she surprised me. She reached out and put her hand on my face with such tenderness. It sent a ripple through me that was completely unexpected. At her touch, a pleasant warmth settled inside me.

“Troko, I don’t...” she paused, looking at me. “Thank you for saving my life. And I’m sorry you lost your friend.” I was struck by the empathy in her voice and the way energy was crackling between us.

Without thinking, I reached and took her face in both hands, drawing her to me, kissing her. She was surprised, but then quickly settled into it. Soft electricity was passing between us and I could feel it coursing through me.

Then it happened.

I could feel a heat pulsing through me, blooming in my chest like a furnace. It was astounding and terrifying. I blinked as my pupils dilated and the soft glow coming from my eyes shone onto her dimly-lit face.

I broke the kiss suddenly, my chest tight with surprise.

“What?” she whispered. “What is it?”

She didn’t know yet, but…

She was my mate.

Camilia

I don’t know what came over me.

The moment his lips touched mine, I was lost.

I closed my eyes and melted into his embrace, the thunderous pounding of my heart making it hard to hear my own thoughts. Logic and common sense fled, leaving only desire.

Slowly, I brought my hands up and cupped his face, running my fingertips over his rough features. I traced the scar that ran over his brow, the deep lines of someone not used to smiling, and the prominent jaw of a warrior.

I felt all that, then some more.

We kissed deeply, my tongue slipping inside his mouth. His hands ran down the sides of my body and settled firmly on my hips, pulling me against him. I offered no resistance, pressing my body against his.

This is happening, I heard in my head, the only coherent thought my brain was capable of producing. Remnants of adrenaline from the lake battle coursed through my veins, but now it fueled something other than fear. It blended with the unbridled lust that swirled inside me, making my body boil from the inside out.

I’d known there was something between Troko and me, but I’d never truly expected this would happen. We were just too different, and I had never been sure if I would be able to get used to him. Now, though, it was obvious that I had been naive. This kiss, this frantic embrace...it was inevitable.

Breathing hard, I tried to get even closer to him.

My chest pressed against his, my nipples hardening. A kernel of flickering warmth began, finding its way to between my legs. I grew wild with desire, that warmth turning into a violent heat, and my instincts took the steering wheel.

I jumped up on him with catlike movements, my knees on either side of his thighs, and placed both hands on his naked torso. He looked at me, his lips slightly parted, and that’s when I noticed the warm glow of his eyes. That wasn’t an exaggeration—his eyes were actually glowing, his irises replaced by a spark of light, pushing back the shadows.

I couldn’t say why, but that just drew me to him even more.

Leaning forward, I crushed my lips against his, my mouth desperate to feel his touch once more. Our kiss went from tender and gentle to frantic and passionate, his hands pulling at my shirt. I lifted my arms and he yanked it over my head, his eyes immediately drawn to my breasts.

“You’re beautiful,” he breathed out, his deep voice filled with wonder. His right hand trailed up my spine and, once he found the clasp of my bra, he opened it with a quick flick of his fingers. The cups fell from my breasts to reveal my rosy nipples, and Troko didn’t hesitate before moving in.

Tossing the bra aside, he reached for my right breast with his parted lips. He brushed the tip of his tongue against my aching bud, pleasure shooting up my spine as he wrapped his lips around it and suckled.

My eyes rolled back as I felt the warmth of his mouth, his tongue whipping at my nipple in the most perfect ways, and a quivering moan escaped from between my lips before I could do anything about it.

I lost myself in the moment and started grinding against him, my hips swaying as I felt a growing hardness between his legs. I was losing all control, my mind was drowning in an ocean of lust, and I—

“Wait,” I muttered, my whole body trembling as I tried to remain aware of what was happening. “Troko, wait.” I placed one hand on his chest and he pulled back from me. He looked up, that glow in his eyes already starting to dim.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, not at all…” I hesitated, not sure how to put it into words. “It’s just that…” My body craved him, as did my mind, but I wasn’t exactly sure what we were doing here. I knew that I liked Troko, but I couldn’t say that I understood him. In this strange land, could I really surrender fully to someone I couldn’t even really comprehend?

“It’s getting late,” he said softly, a tender smile dawning on his lips. “We’re getting up early, and you’re probably feeling tired.” He paused, looked into my eyes as if to tell me it was okay, and nodded. “I understand, Camilia.”

“I know you do,” I whispered, slowly pushing myself off his half-naked body. It was hard, and my own body protested against the separation. There was something about him that just drew me in, and resisting the call of his body was draining me of whatever willpower I still had left.

Knowing I wouldn’t be able to resist him for long, I put my bra back on, then grabbed my shirt. I moved toward the tent’s entrance, but hesitated before I slipped out. I returned to his side and laid a gentle kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you for saving my life,” I whispered, my heart tightening inside my chest. Before he could say anything, I slipped out into the night. Dazed and confused, I made my way toward my tent.

Once I was inside it, I collapsed on top of my bedding.

I stared at the arrow-shaped ceiling for a long time, just trying to process what had happened in Troko’s tent, and found that I couldn’t come up with a suitable answer. My mind burned as I tried to come up with an explanation, but it was useless. I knew that I wanted him, so why had I hesitated? Why was I denying my body what it craved?

It dawned on me that I liked Troko just a little bit too much. The girls had been right to tease me about it, and they had noticed it even before I had. Still, even though I wanted to surrender to him, I still needed to understand him first. He was quiet and stoic, which made that an almost impossible mission, but I knew that sooner or later I’d learn exactly what lay underneath his outer shell.

Until then, I’d wait.

That was, of course, easier said than done. Lust still coursed through my veins, my heart was still hammering hard, and the fire inside my body demanded more fuel.

Before I could stop myself, I let my right hand slide down my flat stomach, and I moved my fingers under the fabric of my pants. I held my breath as I brushed my fingertips against my wetness, and gasped as I pressed down on my clit.

The moment I felt the pressure of my fingers, a blinding white light exploded behind my shut eyelids. I pressed my thighs together, trapping my hand in place, and my fingers started moving of their own accord.

My mind burst with images of Troko’s body, and it only took a second before I started imagining him fully naked. I pictured his strong shoulders and chiseled torso, then I saw myself pulling his pants down in my mind’s eye. I dragged my teeth over my bottom lip as I thought of his hardness, and my heart tightened into a fist as I wondered about how big he would be.

Then and there, it took all my willpower to restrain myself. I wanted nothing more than to spring to my feet and return to his tent, but I reminded myself that a slow burn was preferable to a quick detonation. If there truly was something here, then time would make sure we’d find ourselves in each other’s arms again.

As my brain ran through a rapid succession of images, all of them involving Troko’s naked body, I felt a growing pressure inside me. Every fiber of my being tensed up at once, and I gritted my teeth to stop myself from screaming. The release finally came, a wave of ecstasy crashing against me.

I lay there, exhausted and completely spent, limbs sprawled on top of the bedding. I was breathing so hard it felt like my lungs were about to burst, and the only thought that remained inside my head was a simple one: if Troko’s this good in my mind, I can’t even begin to imagine how good the real thing must be.

Troko

Images from the previous night kept flashing through my mind’s eye as we rode. Glimpses of Camilia’s eyes fluttering half shut. The feel of her breath on my cheek. The softness of her lips. It was all more than I could ever have expected.

The pressure of her hands lingered on my neck. On the sides of my face. My own hands ached with the memory of her petite body.

Even if nothing like it ever happened between us again, those were memories that would sustain me well into old age. And yet, the possibility that a repeat performance was inevitable tugged at my heart. Among the many perfect revelations of our time together, one was irrefutable fact.

Camilia was fated to be my mate.

The signs of it were undeniable among my people, and I wondered if she had registered them as well. Even if she had, what could it mean? Just because something was destined for me, did that mean that she was bound to it, as well? Were humans held by the same fate as the D’Tali?

As I rode, I had to admit that it was hard to imagine a world in which she would be happy with me, even if it was fated to be. If she was unable to find contentment with me, that would poison any satisfaction I could find in being with a woman like her—fated or not.

All the worst parts of myself flooded in to offer evidence against the match. I was old. At least, too old for her. Years in the field had left me unaccustomed to softer conversation, or even the comforts of finer living. And she deserved both of those things. More than deserved them, such things should be her right.

Camilia was small and fine-boned. Young. Beautiful beyond anything I deserved, with searching, luminous eyes that read through to the hearts of others. What could I offer in return?

Apart from being declined into the vale of years, I was nothing that bore looking at. At least not to a creature like her. My frame might be large and strong, but every inch of it was crossed with scars. Even my face bore the badges of the battles I had fought. Being ugly was a trophy among men, but it was nothing to offer a woman as gorgeous as Camilia.

“What should we do?” Brulic had slowed his numa to trot next to mine.

“Hm?”

“General.” He clicked his tongue, and pointed ahead. “I suppose you haven’t been paying attention?”

“I’m sorry, Brulic” I said. “I was thinking of—”

That’s when I saw it.

Ahead of us lay the border with Aetam. At any other time, a patch of D’Tali grass would have been indistinguishable along it, but there was a hard line at the border now. Nothing you would find on a map. It was a dark wall of mounted soldiers.

“Shit.” I put up a hand and called to our troop, who had already slowed to a crawl. “Prepare to parley.”

“We’ve been prepared since we came over the last ridge,” Oshril grumbled. Krilik drew back a hand to cuff him, but the younger man flinched. That was enough.

“Who are they?” I looked beside me to find Camilia, her gaze fixed on the formidable display of emissaries. They were the first words she had spoken to me all day.

“Our greeting party,” I said. “You have nothing to fear.” All I wanted was to reach over and pat her hand as it rested on her thigh. She was so close. But, for fear of presuming too far upon the hasty promises of the night before, I held back.

“General Troko,” a voice pealed out from the middle of the waiting army. I knew the voice well, and hated every breath it drew.

And he had reasons to hate me, as well.

The years of warfare between our kingdoms had ensured that.

“General Mohad,” I called in return. “You bring quite a party to greet us.”

“Numbers have always been our greatest advantage,” he answered as we drew closer. “Well, one of our greatest advantages.” My numa stopped close enough for me to be able to see his cracked yellow teeth through that hateful sneer he called a smile.

“I thought this was to be a peaceful meeting between us?” Nelkar carried defiance in his voice, as always. “Why have you come armed?”

“You are armed, aren’t you?” Mohad gave a sweep of his arm, calling attention to the fact that we were, indeed, bristling with weapons.

“We had terrain to cross. You are at home.” Evidently, our Statesman had taken it upon himself to act as leader of our modest entourage.

“I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure.” The Aetamian general let true disdain drip from the last word.

“Nelkar. Mox Nelkar of the Council.”

“Mox Nelkar?” Mohad smacked his lips in true satisfaction. “I hadn’t expected Dojak to send someone of your rank amongst these foot soldiers.”

“I am a general,” I bristled. “Like yourself.”

“Like me?” His voice grew even rougher, and those yellow eyes glared into mine. “Do you really think so?”

“I do.” Tension built between us, and for a moment it looked as if the peaceful pretense of our coming would collapse before it even began. But something soft rested on the back of my wrist. I glanced down and saw a delicate white hand. When I met her eyes, Camilia gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

“Another time,” she whispered.

“Forgive me.” The words tasted like shit in my mouth. “We are tired from our long ride. Will you escort us to the king?” My men’s jaws dropped at my stooping to this moment, but Nelkar stepped in as diplomat.

“Yes. We were given to understand that our speed was of the utmost importance. Moffat’s daughter is in need of a healer.”

“Most true.” Mohad dissolved back into smiles. “I suppose you have brought one? King Moffat requested your best.”

“The very best,” I blurted. “There is no other woman like her.”

“Is that so?” The general seemed to read right into me. “And I suppose that thing beside you is your healer?”

“I am.” Camilia kept her voice low, and bowed her head slightly. I resented that she felt the need to show deference to this dirt bag.

“It speaks! Or, shall I say, grunts?” A low chuckle rumbled down the line of opposing soldiers. I knew that Camilia could understand the general and his minions, but her speech remained a mystery to the Aetamians. “I can’t understand a word she’s saying. What is she, exactly? One of those weak, spindly creatures who fell from the sky?”

“They descended in fire,” I corrected. It was getting harder to keep my temper as he goaded her. “I challenge you to do the same then brook being called weak.”

“Enough of this.” Nelkar was fidgeting with a comfortable man’s impatience. “If a young female is in need of our help, then we can boast at each other later, when she is well. Now, are you leading us to King Moffat, or shall we turn back?”

“No need to be so testy, Mox Nelkar.” Mohad spread his arms wide, a smile pasted across his filthy face. “Just a healthy exchange of wits.”

“True,” I said. “If I have said or done anything to give offense, I apologize.” Clapping a fist to my chest, I bent my head. It was the last thing I wanted, but Dojak had sent us on a peaceful mission. I would be damned if I let my pride spoil that from the very beginning.

When I looked up again, General Mohad was watching me with an enigmatic expression on his face. I was almost certain that he was incapable of humility, or honor. It must have rankled him to see what it looked like on the face of a better soldier.

“Come with us.” He tugged on his reins, and his numa reared and turned, then began to gallop across the turf. The dark, barbed line of soldiers peeled off after him, and we galloped across the border and after them. As we left D’Tali land behind, I couldn’t help looking back to see the surety of safety receding into the distance.

I had crossed into this territory in the past, but never willingly into the arms of an Aetamian host. As much as I trusted the good will that had sent us here, a little stone of doubt dropped into my stomach. However, we might be bent for peace, I had never encountered any reason to expect the same from Aetam or its people.

“I’ve never been this close,” Oshril whispered as we rode up to the walls of the city.

“I have.” Brulic’s voice was heavy with unpleasant memories. “Only once.”

“Were you ever inside?” Brulic turned to look into the face of the younger soldier, and considered it deeply before he replied.

“It was the worst day of my life.”

“Well then,” Krilik broke in between them. “Hopefully this should be a change.”

“One can only hope,” Brulic said. “I wonder what the place looks like when it’s not covered in blood?”

I shushed them to keep from drawing too much attention from the Aetamian soldiers who now rode around us in a clump.

Drawing near, our cluster slowed to a canter and the great wooden doors creaked on their hinges. As they swung wide, I looked into the stronghold of our longtime enemies for the first time. The wall that enclosed it was hard and forbidding, but inside, everything was remarkably clean.

The walls were washed with some kind of white paint, a stark contrast to the piled stone of our own. Some of the roofs were even shingled with tiles rather than thatch, and I wondered what sort of structures they had within to keep them from buckling under the weight.

“Impressed?” One of the Aetamian men was eyeing me.

“It’s beautiful.” And it truly was. “I don’t know what I expected.”

With a nod, the soldier galloped ahead to ride beside their general. As much as I wanted to take in every sight, I was cautious to keep Camilia always in the corner of my vision. It would be a bad thing if we were drawn into a fight. But there was no way I would let them claim her from us.

It was hard to admit, even to myself—but she had already been claimed.

Camilia

I looked around the banquet hall at all of the Aetamians and the D’Tali. Everyone was dressed in their best clothes, making it harder to differentiate them. Despite the fact that they called themselves by different names, they still belonged to the same species, only the slightest variance in skull structure giving me a clue to their differences.

The hall was decorated, wood and metal meshed into a magnificent tapestry on the walls, and it looked like every Aetamian was there and having a good time. Beer flowed freely, and the D’Tali accompanying me on this journey looked like they were starting to relax. Their cups were never left empty, with servers walking through the tables and ensuring no one would go thirsty.

Food was passed around each of the tables, more servers carrying empty platters away and bringing full platters back. This would be a feast to be remembered, and I hoped it would mark a turning point between the two kingdoms.

If only I wasn’t busy trying to tame the swarm of butterflies in my stomach.

Troko sat beside me, but I resisted the urge to look at him. I wanted to ask him about the other night, but I couldn’t. I was nervous, and not just about him or our kiss. The daughter of the Aetamian king needed me, and I couldn’t afford to be distracted.

Still, I needed to talk to him. About anything. I leaned in close to his ear so he could hear me above the banquet hall noise.

“I thought there’d be more differences between a D’Tali banquet and an Aetamian one,” I said, staring at a giant platter of meat being passed along the table. Aetamian and D’Tali took slabs of meat off the platter and ate merrily, following it with large swigs of beer.

“I wouldn’t know,” he answered me softly, but I could still hear him over the noise. “I’ve never been to an Aetamian banquet. But you’re right, the D’Tali ones are like this.”

“What’s that?” I pointed at what looked to be a vegetable being passed around with bites being taken out of it as it exchanged hands.

“I have no idea,” Troko said with a small smile. “Must be an Aetamian thing.”

I looked at him and my heart burst. I still couldn’t believe the kiss that we’d shared. Deep, passionate, electrifying, it was something entirely new for me. How could I feel something for this blue and scaly creature beside me?

“That’s the king,” Troko said, gesturing to an old Aetamian sitting a few chairs over from me.

“I thought he’d be tending to his daughter,” I said.

The king laughed at a joke someone told him. He was old and decrepit, but his eyes seemed sharp. I didn’t trust him. He kept sending weird glances my way and it was making me uncomfortable. He also didn’t seem to be grieving for a sick daughter at all. Instead, it looked like he was genuinely enjoying himself.

Krilik, one of the D’Tali in our group, waved at me from a table in the main hall. I waved back from the head table, trying not to look too awkward. I didn’t like being the center of attention, but sitting at the head table of a massive banquet made it hard to escape the spotlight.

“I thought he’d be tending to her, as well,” Troko said. “But maybe she’s doing better.”

“Then why would we still be invited?” I asked. “Wouldn’t they have sent word to stop our trip if she was healed? I mean, this is quite the feast. It probably took a lot to prepare it. Wouldn’t he want to save his resources if she was doing better?”

Troko shrugged.

“Who knows the ways of the Aetamians? Maybe he just needs a break from the worry?”

I nodded. That made sense. Sometimes people reacted to stress in different ways. The Aetamians were different from the D’Tali, even though they were the same species, and those cultural differences probably meant they’d process their emotions differently.

I picked at some of the food in front of me.

I was still battling my nerves. I knew what I was doing as a healer, but a lot seemed to be riding on my abilities. A peace between nations rested on what I had learned as a nurse…it was a lot to process.

Introducing germ theory to a world that didn’t understand microbes was one thing… but what if this was something I’d never heard of, had no idea how to treat?

Nausea rose a little as the nerves hit again, and I pushed the food around my plate, completely losing my appetite.

Plus, the kiss with Troko kept meandering through my head. I had thoroughly enjoyed it, but I still couldn’t believe it had happened. I was a human, he was a D’Tali. Two totally different species. How could I be so attracted to an alien?

He was older than me, battle worn, and hardened. Yet, it had been him who’d saved me from the monsters in the lake. He had risked his life to save mine. My insides clenched as I remembered his lips on mine. The pressure of the kiss, the parting of lips, the feeling of his rippling muscles underneath my hands. I could almost feel too much. A fire started in my head that flew to my heart.

The last few days had been a lot to process. I wasn’t even sure what had happened between us after the lake. Whatever it was, I found myself hoping that he would do it again. And I hoped that he felt the same about me as I did about him.

Even if I didn’t know exactly what I felt.

I watched the D’Tali mingle with the Aetamians. This seemed like peace could actually be an option. That was, of course, assuming that I could heal the princess. Not for the first time, the thought of her dying wove into my head. What if she died, and they accused me of killing her? This peace mission could very easily turn into a full-blown war.

Nerves proved to be the winner, and the nausea rose, taking over any and all thoughts of Troko.

Nelkar sat beside me on the other side. He must have noticed me playing with my food, and he leaned over to speak to me. His tone was loud, part of his attempt to make himself heard over the rising noise in the banquet hall.

“How are you getting along, healer?” Nelkar asked me.

“Fine,” I answered. “I’m nervous about meeting the king’s daughter.”

“Yes,” he said. “I can see how that would be nerve-racking. You do well with the D’Tali. Trust yourself.”

“Thank you,” I said. The compliment settled my nerves a little bit. “I appreciate you saying that.” I gestured towards the king. “Why do you think he’s here?”

“He probably does not want to show any weakness, especially in our presence,” Nelkar replied. “The Aetamians are a hard people. They don’t show weakness.”

The king burst into laughter.

“I suppose,” I said. “Any idea what is wrong with his daughter?’

“I’ve been keeping my ears peeled for you,” he said. “And I haven’t heard a mention of her at all.”

That didn’t bode well. Maybe she was so far gone that I didn’t stand a chance. Maybe the Aetamians just wanted a reason for war? Whatever it was, there was something that just wasn’t right about this. I leaned into Nelkar, intending to voice my concern, when the king rose from his chair. Immediately, the banquet hall fell silent. Aetamian and D’Tali watched with attentive eyes.

“I want to thank the D’Tali for coming at our request,” he said as he looked down the table. “Them and their curious little healer, of course. It’s a shame she can’t understand us.” The Aetamians didn’t know about the translator, of course. We had kept it as a secret. They had no idea that I could understand what they were saying.

“I don’t have much for the healer to do,” he continued. “However, we are graced by their presence nonetheless.” That was a weird statement. Why would the king request a healer from the D’Tali, yet not have much for me to do?

Something about this was bothering me. I could feel the wrongness of the situation. The Aetamians stared at their king, smiling. The smiles looked genuine, but almost crazy, as if they were gearing up for something.

An Aetamian close to the head table shifted. His clothing shifted with him and I could see the glint of armor underneath his clothes. I focused on another Aetamian, and I saw that his shirt didn’t quite fit properly. He had armor underneath his shirt, as well.

I scanned the room. The D’Tali were still smiling, a little drunk, watching the king. Every Aetamian sat, stone faced. They didn’t sway, each one sober. The D’Tali scattered throughout the hall sat, blissfully unaware of the undercurrents.

“So, I give thanks to our D’Tali brothers,” the king said, his eyes narrowing slightly. Was that a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth?

I looked around the room and noticed that guards had come in and lined the walls of the hall while the D’Tali had been drinking. As the last guard entered the hall, he closed the door behind him and locked it.

Shit.

“I don’t know what we would have done if they hadn’t arrived so gallantly at our request.” The king smiled a big, crazy smile, directly at me. “It warms my heart that we have the most revered D’Tali general, as well as one of its finest statesmen, inside these four walls. What a rare opportunity.”

There was no daughter.

There was no reason for us to be here. My healing wasn’t necessary.

My heart rose until it was in my throat, and my hands began to shake as I stared at the king’s crazy smile. I looked to the side to warn Troko, but his clenched jaw and tense shoulders gave it away: he had already noticed the same things I had.

This was a trap.

And we’d walked right into it.

Troko

“More beer!” Oshril called from beside Krilik, and he stood, swaying slightly from the alcohol. Krilik stood up and whispered something, guiding Oshril back down to his spot on the bench, calming the young soldier down. Oshril looked around sheepishly. He’d obviously thought that the king was done with his speech.

Everyone was so relaxed…and so damn unaware.

Camilia leaned into me, and I could smell her scent. For just a moment, I forgot about the danger that we were in, and the memories of how perfect she looked when bathing in that lake came back to me. And that kiss… I needed this woman. Even if I was hardened and scarred, I needed this woman.

Focus, Troko, focus.

“It’s a trap,” she whispered in my ear.

“I know,” I answered, and the world jumped into focus once more. Time sped up, and my heart started beating faster, as if to match the pace. Camilia’s face was white, her eyes wide with fear. She was trying to compose herself, but I could tell she was battling with a rising terror.

“What do we do?” she said again. She looked towards the door of the banquet hall and nodded with her chin. I followed her gaze.

There were two dozen Aetamian guards lining the walls. The door to the banquet hall was closed and locked with a heavy piece of wood. I looked around quickly at the Aetamians present, and confirmed that most of them were wearing armor underneath their finery. It glinted as they moved. They were all mostly armed, while the D’Tali were not. We never came to a feast with weapons, as it was considered dishonorable.

How could I have not seen this? It was obvious, and I had only realized it after it was too late. It was my job to protect Camilia. To protect everyone here. From Nelkar, to his page, and to the soldiers. And now…

We were all going to die.

“I’d like to thank the D’Tali for coming,” the king said with a wicked smile. I shot up to my feet, ready to shout out a warning for my men, but it was already too late. Before I could say anything, the king finished his speech. “And for dying.”

Arrows rained down on the banquet from the stone balconies above, and the Aetamians unsheathed their weapons and stood on cue. The D’Tali couldn’t even comprehend what was happening as the blades and arrows descended upon them.

Oshril took an arrow to the throat. He hadn’t even stood up yet. Still sitting, another arrow struck him from the side. I saw his eyes go wide as it pierced his skin, then he fell in a pool of blood, gurgling.

“D’TALI!” I yelled. “TO ARMS!”

It was too late. We were caught in the trap.

Thoroughly ensnared.

Krilik was faster than any D’Tali I’d ever met.

As soon as the arrow hit Oshril, he turned and grabbed the sword out of the hand of the Aetamian next to him. He swung at the Aetamian, then kicked out at another one.

Nelkar sat beside Camilia. They still hadn’t moved, frozen in fear at the sudden surge of violence. I needed to get Nelkar and his page to safety. I needed to save my men, just as I needed to protect Camilia at all costs.

I heard Brulic yell from across the banquet hall. It was a yell I’d heard in battle, time and time again. He jumped onto a table and started swinging a sword at any Aetamian that got into his way. Blood spurted around him as he swung. I had no idea where he got the sword from, but I was happy he’d figured it out.

I could always count on Brulic. He’d been my right hand D’Tali for years. I could trust him and Krilik to take care of themselves. As for me, I had to focus on the task at hand: protect Nelkar and Camilia.

I grabbed Camilia, pulled her off her chair, and pushed her underneath the table to shield her from the falling arrows. An arrow twanged as it missed me by an inch. I looked around for a weapon.

Nelkar caught my eye.

“No,” I cried, “Nelkar!”

It was too late. He grabbed a knife from the table in front of him and turned sharply. With a cry, he stabbed downward into the king’s hand, which was resting on the table.

“AGH!” the king screamed.

He looked down at the knife sticking out of his hand, and Nelkar took the opportunity to punch him in the face. Then, trying to find another weapon, he ran his hands over the table. He picked up a fork and swung it at the king’s head. I rushed forward, trying to join Nelkar.

If we took the king as our hostage, then all this would end.

I grabbed a knife as I passed and threw it at the leader of the Aetamian. It missed, and Nelkar swung wildly with the fork again. A king’s guard stepped in and smacked the fork out of Nelkar’s hand. Then, with a quick motion, the guard took a dagger from his belt and slammed it into Nelkar’s chest.

Nelkar gasped. He looked down at the hilt of the dagger embedded in his chest.

“NELKAR!” I screamed.

He looked up at me, one last time. With a trembling hand, he reached inside his pocket and pulled the signet free. He let it fall from his fingers, and the signet rolled across the flagstones and stopped at my feet. Then he fell face first onto the table in front of me.

Nelkar had used his dying breath to make sure the Aetamians wouldn’t be able to use the signet against us. Had they gotten their hands on it, they would’ve been able to forge correspondence and make it seem as if it had come from Dojak.

Thanks to Nelkar, that wasn’t an issue anymore.

“Nelkar,” Camilia gasped from beside me.

Snatching up the signet ring as I spun, I punched the guard in the face. Then, moving fast, I pulled his sword out of his hand and chopped at his head. The blow landed, and the guard fell to the ground, dead.

I looked the king dead in the eye. I was going to make him pay.

“Troko!” Camilia yelled. She pulled my arm down and I ducked, an arrow whizzing over my head. It barely missed me and thudded to a stop in the table. That was the opening the king’s guards needed. They rushed to save their leader, and one of them pulled the knife out of the king’s hand, and he screamed again. They shielded him with their bodies and pulled him away to safety.

I looked around, not knowing what to do. Brulic was surrounded. We both looked to see Krilik surrounded by eight guards. He was fighting gallantly, but it looked like he was injured. Clujean, Nelkar’s page, rose from behind a table and made a run at the Aetamians surrounding Brulic. That kid had more heart than brains.

Brulic saw him. He looked at me and nodded.

“BRULIC!”

It was too late. Brulic jumped over the Aetamians surrounding him and tried to protect the page. Brulic killed two, but Clujean still took a sword to the back and went down. Brulic turned to kill Clujean’s killer.

A sword exploded out of the center of his chest.

“BRULIC!”

My voice was hoarse from screaming, my eyes wide as Brulic dropped hard.

It was just me, Krilik, and Camilia left.

And Krilik was surrounded.

He looked at me.

“Go!” he said. A sword hit him in the arm and he dropped the knife he was using. “GO!”

I looked around in desperation. I couldn’t flee. I couldn’t leave my men to die alone. I heard Camilia gasp as an arrow flew in our direction, and that’s when it hit me: they were already dead. There was nothing I could do for them…but I could still save her. She was my ward as much as any of the D’Tali. She was my mate.

I had to save her.

I pulled her up against me. Holding her tightly, I looked around and saw a window to the left of the head table.

“RUN!”

I hauled her along, swinging the sword I’d stolen along the way. I caught a couple of the Aetamian soldiers off guard and blood spurted as we ran.

I heard Krilik scream something incomprehensible behind me.

I’m sorry, I thought.

We ran to the window, and I jumped, leading with my shoulder, shattering the glass and taking the blow for Camilia. I pulled her through the window and we dropped from the castle toward the icy water below. I held on to Camilia’s delicate body the whole freefall, feeling her heat against me.

We plunged into the cold water.

Camilia tried to surface, but I held her under the water. She looked at me, wide-eyed. I pointed upwards. Arrows littered the water around us as the Aetamians shot at us from above. I took an arrow and drew it across my bicep, causing it to bleed into the water. Camilia looked like she couldn’t hold her breath any longer, so I grabbed her and, in a few strong strokes, pushed her well downriver and away from the fight.

Downriver from my men.

They were dead. They were all dead.

We had walked into a trap.

Camilia

The freezing water had me almost gasping as we plunged into its depths. I wanted to surface immediately, but Troko held me down.

I looked at him and fear rose.

Why wouldn’t he let me go up to catch my breath? The water was clear, and I could see his stern face clearly. I tried to swim to the surface again, but he held my hand, not letting me surface. My lungs were already starting to hurt, pins and needles all over them, and I looked toward him in terror.

After what had happened in that lake, I was terrified of being under water. I tried to swim upward again, and Troko stopped me. He held up one finger, but panic was starting to set in. Suddenly, arrows rained around us in the water, I could see the jets of bubbles as they passed. Troko must have known that the archers would be looking for us out the window.

He let go of my hand, and I stayed submerged.

He clearly had a plan.

Troko grabbed an arrow from the water in front of him and cut his bicep, causing a red stain to bloom around us. I understood. The small part of my brain that was fighting the rising hypoxia and panic tried to calm me down. A diversion. Troko was making himself bleed so that they thought we were dead. He was trying to buy us time.

Troko took my hand and, with a few strong strokes, we were downriver of the castle. My lungs couldn’t take much more. Black was forming around the edges of my vision and small dots swirled in the water. In a few seconds, I would have to inhale, filling my lungs with this cold water, dooming me to death.

I fought the internal urge to breathe. It took everything I had. I started to pass out, the blackness slowly taking hold. My chest hurt and my head was exploding with pain.

This was it.

Troko looked at me and pushed me above the water, surfacing at the same time. I inhaled deeply, and I got a massive head rush. My vision cleared as I desperately sucked the air into my lungs. I looked around and saw that no soldiers had followed us. We had been carried by the fast water a few hundred yards away from the castle.

“We don’t have much time,” Troko said. He ripped a piece of his shirt and tied it around his bicep, using his teeth to tighten it and stop the blood flow. “They will be sending people to look for our bodies. When they don’t find us dead, it will be a madhouse.”

Satisfied with his quick bandage job, we swam towards the opposite bank. We waded the last few feet and exited the cold water of the river. Troko grabbed my hand as we left the bank and ran into the twisting streets of the city.

We ran hard. The city was almost deserted, and we took a meandering path, turning at different intervals, trying to lose anyone if they were following us.

“We need to find a place to hide,” Troko said, gasping a little. We stopped to catch our breath, trying to peg where the soldiers were coming from.

I could hear the clanging of armor echoing throughout the city.

“They’re coming,” Troko said. “Run.”

He grabbed my hand again and we ran. The city was huge, and we didn’t know where we were, the streets were confusing and maze-like. We kept turning to try and shake anyone following us, but eventually we could hear soldiers both ahead of us and behind.

Troko turned to a house, one that was completely silent. A quick scan showed no lights inside at all, and one of the shutters hung off the frame at an odd angle.

Abandoned.

Maybe.

Pausing for just a moment, he kicked in the door next to the lock. The frame splintered just enough for Troko to shoulder it open. He held it open for me and I ran in front of him into the dark house. Moving slowly, his movements restrained, Troko closed the door softly and held a finger to my lips.

I nodded to him and waited, trying to keep my gasping to a minimum. I could feel the pulse in my ears as fear took hold. It was easier to be running than to be waiting, hoping not to be found.

No one came rushing towards us from deep inside the house.

No sounds of life inside at all.

But had it worked?

We crouched, hushed. Eventually our breathing slowed to a normal rhythm. A group of soldiers jogged by, but they didn’t search the building. Instead, they were searching the streets.

“Dredge the river!” One of them called outside our building. “The general wants their bodies found!”

There was clanging of armor again as more soldiers jogged past.

Then it was quiet outside.

“What the fuck was that?” Troko whispered as he turned from the door, distraught. His face held anger and agony mixed together. He started to pace the room, shaking his head, and looked down at his feet. “What the fuck just happened?”

“I don’t know,” I said. I held my hands out to him and tried to stop them from shaking. “I don’t know.” I wanted desperately to comfort him, but I didn’t want him to think I was babying him. I just wanted to make it okay. But I had been there, witnessed the butchery at the so-called feast.

It wasn’t okay. It would never be okay again.

“I should have known it was a trap.” He kicked the table in the center of the room, and it tumbled over with a crash.

“We have to stay quiet,” I said to him. “Troko, please.”

He looked at me and gathered himself.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. You’re right.”

“I’m so sorry, Troko,” I said. My heart broke as I looked at him. He was tormented, I could tell. I knew it had taken everything in his power to run away from that battle to save me.

“It’s not your fault,” he said firmly. “It’s mine. I should have known.”

“You can’t blame yourself,” I said. I sniffled, tears forming in my eyes. “I’m so sorry, Troko. I don’t know what to say.”

He sat heavily on a chair.

“There’s nothing to say,” he said. “It’s done. They’re dead.”

“I know,” I said. The picture of Nelkar taking the dagger in the chest clouded my vision as I sat beside Troko. “Poor Nelkar.” Even though the D’Tali diplomat had acted in a pompous manner, he had used his last breath to show everyone his true mettle.

I cried. The emotion, the grief was overwhelming. I covered my face with my hands and sobbed as quietly as I could manage. Troko placed a hand on my back. We sat in silence for a while, each lost in our own thoughts, in our own grief.

How could this have happened? How could we not have known that this could be a trap? It seemed so obvious now. How could we have been that stupid?

“I’m sorry,” I said after my tears had stopped. “I know that you lost so much more than me.”

“You can’t compare shit piles,” Troko said quietly. “We are both allowed to be sad.”

“Nelkar. He tried. He really did.”

“I know he did,” Troko said. “They all did. They all died heroes’ deaths.” He looked away, lost in thought.

“Thank you for saving me. I don’t know what would have happened to me without you. I know you wish you hadn’t.”

“It’s not that. Never. I will always save you. I will always protect you. It’s just…I didn’t save anyone else.”

“You couldn’t have,” I said, almost pleading. I needed him to see that there had been no other option but to run. “We had no chance. As soon as they locked that door, our fate was sealed.”

“We should never have come here,” he mumbled. “I knew it. In my gut, I knew that it was a bad idea. I knew it as soon as I saw General Mohad. But I just let us walk into that fucking castle. I just let everyone get killed around me while I ran…” He looked away from me. “I don’t deserve a title. Any title. I don’t deserve to be called D’Tali.”

“There was nothing you could have done.” I had to be strong for him at this moment. I had to. I couldn’t bear to see him shattered like this. “You did everything you could.”

“And it wasn’t enough,” he said. He stood and walked to the window of the house facing the street. “This house looks abandoned. We will probably be safe for a while. I’ll keep watch. You rest.”

“How’s your arm?” I asked.

“The bleeding has stopped,” he answered, looking at it in the dying light. “I’ll be fine.”

He said it like fine was a problem. I knew that, in his heart, it was a problem. He’d rather have died with his soldiers.

“We need to stay here until the furor has died down,” he continued. “They will probably kill us on sight, so our best choice is to stay hidden.”

“Okay,” I answered. I didn’t know what else to say. Seeing Troko this shattered was sending shock waves through my system. I didn’t know how I could help him. I didn’t know how I could put him back together…or if anyone could. He looked out the window with hard eyes.

“Thank you,” I said. I lay down beside him on the floor. “Thank you, for saving me.”

He looked down at me as I said it.

“I wouldn’t have gotten out of there without you,” I continued. “I froze. I’m not one to freeze, but as soon as those arrows flew, I froze up. So, thank you. I know what you gave up saving me, to protect me. I appreciate it.”

His face softened.

“I will always protect you,” he said. “Now go to sleep, Camilia. We are going to have a long night.” I nodded, his words echoing through my mind.

I will always protect you.

Troko

When the sun rose, I still hadn’t slept. Keeping watch over Camilia had been far too important. She had managed to rest, but it was fitful, disturbed by dreams. I could sympathize, glad I’d avoided dreams like that myself.

It was bad enough watching it all unfold over and over again as I sat awake. My arm smarted, but more with the shame of being my only injury than with anything else.

Troops marched by several times in the small hours, and I readied myself to go down fighting. But each time, they passed the house without pausing. Even so, with day coming, I knew our luck wouldn’t hold out.

In the night, I had rummaged through what little there was in the place. A couple of thin blankets had helped to keep Camilia from shivering against the cold, but there was precious little I could use in our defense. Besides, trying to hold down here was no strategy. We needed to run.

“Are you alright?”

I jumped slightly at the sound of her voice. Camilia was stirring, and rubbing her eyes.

“I’m fine.”

“Did you sleep at all?” She was sitting up now, and I let my eyes linger over the vision of her waking. Realizing I owed her an answer, I merely shrugged.

“Couldn’t. Someone had to watch over you.” The words held more affection than I had intended, and I saw her soften slightly when she heard them. Rubbing my legs and standing up, I paced around the low space, watching dust motes swirl in the light seeping through the cracks in the windows and door.

“What now?” I turned to find that she wasn’t looking at me. Instead, she was rolled forward, hugging her knees. She looked for all the world like a lost child, and the need to defend her redoubled inside me. Whatever else happened, I needed to get her out of Aetam.

“I have to go out.” It was a definitive decision. Plucking up a disused chair, I turned it over and pried one of the legs free.

“You can’t!” Camilia was on her feet, but faltered slightly at getting up from the floor so quickly.

“What choice do I have?” I tested the chair leg by thumping it into my palm a few times before stuffing it into my belt. “We can’t stay here forever. Eventually, someone is bound to find us.”

Tearing away another leg from the chair, I satisfied myself of its strength, as well. In lieu of other weapons, we were just going to have to make do.

“Here,” I said, handing her the makeshift cudgel. “If anyone comes in while I’m gone, aim for the head and knees.”

“I’m coming with you.” Her insistence brought me to a full stop. Her eyes were determined, but I could see the hint of fear around the edges. The ability to read her was one of the benefits of our fated match.

“You can’t.” Snapping one of the blankets up, I began to fashion it into a kind of cloak. “With luck, I may be able to pass among the Aetamians undetected, but you? What chance do you have?”

I hadn’t meant it to be cruel, but she looked stung. As much as I wanted to hold her in that moment, there was precious little time to be lost. At the far end of the room was an empty cupboard. Keeping it close to the wall, I quietly laid it down on its face, bracing one end on top of what was left of the chair.

“Listen to me,” I said, squaring her to face me. “If it feels like anyone is coming, I want you to get under there and push out the chair. Maybe they’ll miss you.”

“And if they don’t?” She stuck out her jaw, challenging me. I pointed to the jagged broken end of the chair leg I had given her.

“Try and hit their eyes.” With that, I strode to the window and took a furtive glance around. As far as I could see, the street was quiet. At the door, I stopped to look back at the fragile human woman standing in the center of the dusty room.

“I will come back for you.”

“Promise me,” she said.

“I promise.” With that, I ducked out into the street, closing the door as quietly as I could. Heading back the way we had run in the night, I found myself beside that icy river. In the light of morning, it didn’t look nearly as terrifying as it had been the night before. But, as I followed its curve, I could see the ends of arrows sticking up from the shallow areas near the bank.

The streets were narrow, and didn’t seem to have any sense of cohesion or direction. It made me long for the ordered, rational layout of our own kingdom. This place was more like a warren or maze than anything.

After a few dead ends, I opted to head back for the river. Staying that close to the castle might be dangerous, but at least I felt more certain that I would be able to find the main gate. In hindsight, it seemed like the soldiers had surrounded us with the intention of obscuring exactly how we had wound our way to the palace.

Coming around a corner, I saw a quadrant of soldiers picking their way up the path. They looked lazy, tired after what must have been an exhaustive search for us. Under my cloak, my fist tightened around the hilt of my sword. Between that and my baton, I was certain I could dispatch the four of them quickly.

Steady, Troko.

That was no way to get out of here safely. Supposing I was able to subdue them all, a fight was bound to draw attention. Attention meant more soldiers, and more soldiers meant that I would be taken.

If that happened, then Camilia was as good as lost. That was too much to risk.

Glancing down beside me, I saw a broken bucket and a pile of bones from some slaughtered animal. Ducking low, I grabbed the bucket and began to pick through the straw, collecting the bones and mumbling.

As the clump of guards drew nearer, my pulse quickened. Crouched, everything in me coiled tight. If trouble found me, I was going to return more than they bargained for. In my mind, I mapped my way back to our little hovel. Getting back to Camilia would be my only concern.

Coming upon me, they muttered and laughed to each other. Bracing for trouble, I felt a foot plant against the small of my back. Before I could adjust, a solid kick sent me tumbling to the side. A roar of laughter broke out, and I shielded my face to prevent being recognized.

“Stop that shit, Weskat,” one of them said. “We’ve got actual work to do.”

“Oh, fuck him,” the one who’d kicked me grinned back. “Poor folks should know better than to get in our way.”

Laughing louder, they continued down the road away from me, enjoying their half-assed patrol. I shuddered to think that any D’Tali guard would ever stoop so low as to kick a peasant for the sake of an idle laugh.

Still, they were going. For the moment, they were between me and Camilia, but if I found a way out of here, I would make short work of those bastards. It would be a pleasure.

With them well behind me, it was only a few short turns before I was on the main path that lead from the gate of the castle to the walls of the city. Even before I had a clear view, my heart went cold. The gates were closed. As the sun was getting higher, more Aetamians were out and about, starting the business of their day.

Keeping my head low, I stayed on the edges of the road, ducking under eaves as I tried for a better look. A few yards from the gate, I could make out the massive wooden beam laid across it. As much faith as I had in my own strength, there was no way I was lifting that alone. The fortress was well and truly locked.

Getting out of Aetam was going to be hell.

By then, it was pretty much full morning. If I wanted to get back to Camilia without being recognized, I was going to have to lean on more than just the cloak. On every side, stalls were beginning to open up, and butchers and blacksmiths had already set about the day’s work. This was going to take some doing.

Ducking behind the row of low buildings, I stayed close to the wall. It was as good a way as any to search for any gaps or passageways that would allow us to slip free. That might be a slim chance, but it was starting to look like our only hope.

If winding down the streets had been difficult, navigating off the main paths was more so. Any time I felt in danger of straying too far, I closed my eyes and pictured Camilia waiting for me. Failing her wasn’t an option.

Finally, seeing something I recognized, I darted down between a row of stands and found myself on the street where we had taken refuge. Thankfully, it was still relatively empty. Picking my way down to the door of our hiding place, I did my best to sneak inside without drawing too much attention.

“I’m afraid I’ve got bad news,” I began, but my words fell into an empty room. The cupboard I had overturned was heaved up on its side and the blankets I had wrapped her in the night before were bundled into a corner. A cold, numbing chill drowned all of my senses. She was gone.

Just when I thought I couldn’t despair any more, I heard her scream.

Camilia

Troko hadn’t returned yet. It hadn’t been that long, but still, I would have preferred it if he had been back sooner.

As a healer, I’d wanted to believe that the Aetamians were willing to act in peace. The thought of a stop to the endless fighting, the wounded, was so seductive…

But now I knew, it was always better to trust your instincts.

There was something about this venture that hadn’t sat right with me from the beginning, and the trip here had started going sideways since that encounter with the crocodile-things.

My nerves were frayed.

I thought back to the near immediate betrayal by Moffat and his soldiers. I wondered if he even had a daughter (I had a hard time imagining anyone willing to mate with that guy). That betrayal had been the icing on the proverbial cake.

I paced the floors, looking at the door the entire time. I didn’t like this. Troko should have been back by now. I didn’t know what his plan was exactly, or what he was hoping to do, but I would have felt a touch better if he had told me. Then I’d have had some sense of what was going on. But as it stood now, a voice inside me was screaming that something was wrong.

I just didn’t know what.

What I did know was that we were hiding in a city we weren’t familiar with, filled with enemies who were looking for us at every turn, and we had no allies to turn to. So, yeah, things were looking a little grim.

I was deep in thought when I heard footsteps outside the door.

I rushed over, thinking it was Troko, but then I took a step back.

I could see the shadows of feet under the door, and there were multiple pairs.

My breath caught in my throat and my lungs screamed for air.

They’d found me.

I stepped back quietly, remembering Troko’s instructions. I started moving toward my hiding place, but it was already too late. With a tremendous crack! the door to the room was kicked in and Aetamian soldiers burst through. They brandished sharp swords, the light glinting off their finely-honed edges.

They hissed at me, and I was reminded of the crocodilians at the lake. This time though, there were more than six. And they were smarter than animals looking for a meal. Maybe not a lot, but enough to make a difference.

“And here you are,” one of them said to me, his tone mocking. “The honor of your presence is requested, at the highest level.”

The others chuckled loudly, and it was one of the worst sounds I had ever heard.

Suddenly, they surrounded me and there was no getting away.

“Get your fucking claws off of me!” I shouted.

They laughed again. I knew they couldn’t understand my words exactly, but they sure as hell got the meaning by my tone. They grabbed me, then tied my arms behind my back and bound my ankles. Two of them picked me up, carrying me on their shoulders like a pig on a spit.

“Stop it! Let me go!” I demanded. Their leader, the one who had talked to me, pulled a rag from somewhere and shoved it into my mouth, gagging me.

I was unceremoniously carried from the building like a prize and brought right out into the street. Commerce was bustling. People going about their lives. The sight of a human, bundled up like livestock, garnered more than one passing glance. Still, most of the city dwellers looked down, not wanting to make eye contact with the soldiers.

I was being bounced along through the streets, desperation welling up inside me. I tried to make note of landmarks and direction, but my vantage was poor and it was hard to concentrate.

Troko couldn’t be that far. If only I could signal to him somehow...

My moment arrived. The guard carrying my front half tripped on a cobblestone, momentarily pitching me down towards the street.

I was able to spit the rag out, gravity helping me.

I didn’t wait for them to notice I had managed to remove it.

“TROKO!” I bellowed with all the breath I could muster. “Troko! Here! They’ve caught me—”

That was as far as I could get before the rag was stuffed back into my mouth, deeper this time. The leader was there, smirking at me with narrow yellow eyes.

“No hero is coming to save you,” he said. “Not today. Not ever.”

With my eyes, I tried to tell him to fuck off. Since he started laughing in my face, I’m guessing he got the message. Or something like it. We started moving again and I fervently hoped that Troko had heard me. But how could I be sure?

The answer came, definitively, a few moments later.

A blur dropped from above, and I hit the ground hard.

Troko.

He was here.

He had jumped from the rooftop of a building lining the right side of the street. The Aetamians were completely caught off guard and Troko snapped one neck and ripped out another’s throat in quick succession.

It was amazing to watch him. As a healer, violence was antithetical to everything I was…but to watch Troko moving like a dancer, with incredible grace and skill, it was hard not to be impressed. And the speed! I hadn’t gotten the full picture before, but now...I could see how he was the warrior he was.

I inch-wormed myself out of the thoroughfare and nestled against a doorway while Troko took out the Aetamian squad one by one. I almost felt sorry for them.

Almost.

Three came at him at once, brandishing their weapons. Troko caught one by the wrist, snapping it down and breaking it. The Aetamian soldier screamed and Troko grabbed his dropped sword and plunged it into the soldier’s chest. The second soldier moved to restrain Troko, who responded with a sharp kick to the midsection, sending him flying back.

As fast as lightning, Troko whipped his sword arm around and caught the third soldier clean through the neck, taking his head off like he was cutting through butter. It was grotesque and fascinating. Even though I had seen the D’Tali and the Aetamians going at it before, I had never seen anything like this.

The only one remaining was the leader.

He was wilier than the others and he kept some distance from Troko at first.

Troko, all focus, never took his eyes from him.

A small crowd had formed, watching this dance of death. Troko had to end it quickly, before reinforcements arrived. Time was tight. Yet, as it turned out, it didn’t take much time at all. The leader grew impatient and anxious, the crowd’s presence putting him on edge. He wanted this over quickly.

That was his first mistake.

He lunged forward, but Troko was easily able to sidestep him.

That was his second mistake.

And his last.

Troko grabbed the leader’s wrist and sliced across his midsection without looking. The Aetamian dropped like a puppet whose strings had been cut, and the crowd all took an intake of breath at once. Then, they all got weirdly quiet and stared at us.

Troko didn’t waste time wondering about it. He ran over to me, cut my bonds, and pulled me to my feet.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

I nodded. “They didn’t hurt me. Just trussed me up like a holiday meal.”

“We have to get out of here,” he said.

“No kidding.”

“No, I mean the city. The gates are locked and there are soldiers stationed at every single one of them. They’re looking for us.”

“What do you propose we do?”

He looked around wildly, then pulled me by the arm. “We have to get off this street, that’s the first thing. Standing here trying to decide what to do amongst a squad of dead Aetamian soldiers isn’t going to help our chances any.”

We ducked down an alley, followed it to the next crossroad, and emerged into a busy market square, full of merchants hawking their wares and people bustling back and forth.

I shook my head.

“This is no good. This is full of witnesses. They’ll report a red-haired human female running around. There aren’t many of us in town, you know?”

Troko nodded. “Agreed. We need to do something else.”

We looked around, trying to find a way out. There were a number of large carts rumbling by, loaded with all kinds of goods, and that put a grin on Troko’s face.

“That’s it,” he said.

“What’s it?” I asked as he ran towards the carts.

He stopped one and exchanged a few hurried words with the driver, who nodded and indicated something with his hands. Troko nodded in agreement, reached inside his pocket, and came up with a heavy-looking purse. He deposited it into the merchant’s hand and they shook hands. He waited until the driver had his back turned to him, then waved at me.

“Come on! Now!” he said.

I ran towards him and he lifted the canvas tarp covering the rear of the cart. Troko lifted me up and tossed me in, hurriedly jumping in besides me. With one quick movement, he pulled the tarp down over us.

He banged his fist on the cart’s side, and we started rolling forward.

“I gave him most of my money,” he explained. “But I didn’t tell him about you. If he sees you, there’s a chance he might betray us, so we’ll have to jump ship as soon as we can.”

“Alright,” I said, and that’s when I noticed the smell.

The cart was full of freshly-caught fish.

“What is this?” I asked.

Troko grinned at me. I could just barely make it out through the sunlight that was filtering through the canvas.

“This cart is leaving the city. And given the smell, would you want to search it?”

I pinched my nose closed and shook my head.

Slowly, we rolled down the street toward the gates.

Troko

Every muscle in my body ached. After fighting our way to safety, sitting up all night, and then rescuing Camilia, I was as sore as I could remember. And this was after years as a hardened war veteran. But as my fingers brushed hers in the bumping cart, all of that faded. An Aetamian merchant had trundled us to freedom and, even if just for a moment, we were safe.

Despite that, we weren’t moving very quickly, and it was only a matter of time before the cart would be overtaken by soldiers. We may have been clear of the city walls, but we were far from safe.

“Camilia,” I whispered. Those radiant eyes turned to find mine. “We’re going to get off soon.” She swallowed hard, then nodded. I peered from our hiding spot to see the merchant’s back. His attention was on driving the numa pulling his cart.

The money I had given him seemed to be enough for him to agree to smuggle me out, but I knew things would change if he noticed the human I had slipped inside the cart. I didn’t want him to risk alerting anyone, so we had to slip out without him noticing us.

If we were going to make the move, the sooner we did, the better. To stay might get us further down the road, but the risk felt too great.

“Ready?” She gripped my fingers in answer and I folded back the corner of the tarp we had tucked ourselves under. Rolling off the cart, I fell into a steady jog behind it and swept her to the ground. That done, we broke into a dead run until we reached the lip of the forest.

Ducking between trees, we wove deeper into the woods. It was imperative to get as clear of the road as we could manage. Several times, I had to remind myself to slow my natural gait in order for her to keep up. Still, whatever we D’Tali might believe about the human women who were now among us, this one had impressive stamina.

“We should be far enough,” I said, slowing to a walk.

“For now.” She put her hands on her hips and breathed hard. It was difficult to keep from watching her breasts rise and fall as she heaved in the air. I centered myself by remembering that she was right. Once they figured out we were no longer in the city, legions of soldiers would be combing the forest.

“Do you have it in you to keep walking?”

Still catching her breath, Camilia nodded. Taking a moment to get my bearings, we began to pick our way through the brush. What little of the sky I could see told me we were headed toward D’Tali lands. Once it got dark, we would have to stop.

“Let’s cover as much ground as we can,” she said. Her determination was made of iron, even if her body lacked the capacity to keep up with it.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” I told her. We would make it as far as we could that day, then rest. The real work would come with the dawn.

“How far is it?” she asked.

“Far. But we’ll need to get there as soon as possible. The sooner Dojak learns of the betrayal, the sooner we can strategize a counterattack.”

The light began to fade as we trudged over rocks and hills. As Camilia began to falter, I thought about carrying her, but knew she would never go for that. If her will was strong, her pride was stronger. That seemed to be a trait among these women.

Just when it looked like she might drop where she stood, we came upon a clearing by a small stream. The promise of fresh water was too good to pass up.

“We’ll stop here for the night.”

“Good idea,” she said, and sank to sit on a large rock. I dipped low to taste the water, and found it clean enough to drink. After all of our hard pushing, that was a welcome gift. I was about to bring a cupped hand to my mouth when I hesitated. I glanced at Camilia, and she pursed her lips.

“I know you insist on us boiling the water,” I said, “but I don’t think we’ll able to do it here.”

Seeing me helping myself, Camilia sighed, then knelt beside me and drank as well.

“It’s funny,” she said, wiping her chin. “After our little swim with those creatures, I thought I would never want to see water again.” It was nice to be able to laugh a bit after all we had been through. Rocking back to sit, I watched everything around us grow indistinct.

I had slept in the open any number of times, but wondered if it was something she was accustomed to. That seemed like a foolish thing to presume. After bathing in the stream to get rid of that horrendous smell from the cart, Camilia sat against a rock and wrapped her arms around herself. She was shivering lightly, and so I pushed up to my feet.

“You’re not leaving?” There was a tremor in her voice, maybe the first crack in her strong-willed resolve that I had seen.

“Just to collect some wood. A small fire should be safe. These rocks would keep the light of the flames hidden, and the night’s too dark for them to see the smoke. If they come searching for us in the dark, we’ll have the advantage on them, anyway.”

“Why?”

“Torches,” I said. “Hunting blind wouldn’t do them any good, would it?” While she sat and got some rest, I collected an armload of branches and scrub. Perhaps not enough to last the entire night, but enough to keep us warm for the worst of it.

I was sorry I hadn’t had the presence of mind to filch one of the tarps we had been hiding under on the merchant’s cart. The sight of her bracing against the chill was enough to make me want to hurry to care for her.

With only a few moments of work, I had a small fire warm enough to beat back the cold for a while. There was no doubt she must be hungry, but there was nothing I could do to assuage that for the time being. The little comforts we had managed would have to do for the night. None of it was perfect, but it was all good enough.

“I should have known it,” I said into the quiet. It was becoming a kind of penance for me to keep saying it.

“You couldn’t have known. The greater sin would have been to ignore the request.”

“Do you really think so?” I asked. She shrugged and looked into the fire.

“Supposing it were true, what would the D’Tali have looked like for refusing? There’s no fault in being too kind.”

I wondered if that were so. All of my years as a fighter had blunted my heart to that kind of charity. The enemy would always be the enemy. They had proven that, and we would be hard pressed to fall for any talk of peace in the future, provided we could get back to warn Dojak.

“Anyway,” I said, nudging some smoldering sticks back into the fire. “What’s important is that we let our people know that it was a trap. If they were seeking to bring me down and rob our army of their general, then it was a failure.”

“Thankfully,” she said. I caught a glimmer of her eyes in the firelight, and looked away. It would be presumptuous of me to think that her concern for the safety of our people was affection for me. In spite of what had happened before we crossed into Aetam, it would have been too much to ask.

“If they were bold enough to lay a trap for me, then they have it in them to strive for more. That being the case…” Camilia let out a yawn, and I fell quiet. “Forgive me. You should rest.”

“No. No, I’m fine.”

“After the shitty night last night, we both need it. Here.” Doing what I could, I gathered as many leaves and soft grasses as I could see in the firelight. The least I could do was soften the ground for her. I was used to sleeping on the ground.

With a light nod, she lay on it, jostling around until she found a position that was comfortable. Well, as comfortable as she was going to be. She fell still, and I gave myself over to the quiet and the darkness.

“Troko?” Her voice was low.

“Yes?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, I’m afraid.”

I rolled up onto my elbow to look at her back. Those thin shoulders huddled against the hard ground. “I’m here.”

“I know.” She shifted to lie on her back. “So many of the women who landed with me are so strong. I miss them.” After a searching look into the dark treetops, she turned to gaze at me. “It feels selfish after everything that you’ve lost, but I’m afraid I’ll never see them again.”

“You will,” I said. A burning in my chest made me eager to promise more, but I knew full well that even that was not a guarantee I could make.

“I keep thinking that if Sofia, or even Isabella, were here, it all might be a little easier.”

“If they had come with us, I can’t say they would have made it this far.”

“You’re right,” she nodded. “I’m just lonesome. I can’t help thinking that I’ve seen them for the last time.”

“You haven’t. I will get you back safe., even at the cost of my own life.”

She looked at me again, her eyes wide and sparkling gently in the light of the fire.

“Troko…”

“I mean that. There are few things in this world that I can swear to, but by the Ancestors, I vow that I would die myself before I let anything happen to you.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but stayed silent. Part of me wanted to call my words back again, but the greater force of my spirit stood behind them. Whether or not I should have spoken so passionately, I had spoken the truth. That was what mattered.

After a beat, Camilia sat up on her elbow to face me. We were mirrors of each other, a mere breath apart. I could feel my desire for her vibrating in every bit of my skin. But it was more than desire, deeper.

She reached up with one hand and ran it along my face, from the temple to the chin. Then, leaning forward, she placed her lips to mine. Gently at first, but then a power within her spoke to the core of me, and she leaned in more.

Camilia

This was it.

The moment our lips touched, all my doubts and hesitation ebbed away. In their place remained only a solid certainty—Troko and I belonged together. Even though no more than two days had passed since our last encounter, it had given me enough time to see the light.

Troko had risked his life to protect mine, and he had done it more than once. He would do it again if he needed to. In his arms I felt protected, and the tenderness and care he showed me...now, it felt silly to know that I’d wanted to take things slow. I should’ve trusted my instincts.

“Take me,” I whispered against his lips, my hands already tugging at his shirt. I pulled it over his head with one swift motion, careful not to let the fabric get tangled on his horns, and I placed both hands on his chest. I felt the hard contours of his pectorals, his hard scales against my soft palms, and I rested my forehead against his. “Make me yours, Troko.”

Gently, he placed one hand on the nape of my neck and threaded his long fingers into my hair. He lowered me down onto the improvised bed he’d created with grass and leaves, and I let out a soft moan as my back hit the ground. Slowly, his tongue slipped past my lips and started dancing with my own, our kiss deepening until we were both lost in an ocean of lust.

“You have no idea how much I need you,” Troko said, both his hands now on my waist. He pulled my shirt over my head and, without pausing, unclasped my bra. He leaned into me the moment its cups dropped away, his hungry mouth taking my right nipple into his mouth.

I arched my back as his tongue danced around my bud, pleasure crackling under my skin. My hands shot up to his horns, gripping their rugged surface, and I pulled him in eagerly. With his lips wrapped tight around my nipple, he flattened his palm between my legs.

“Oh, God,” I breathed out, my eyes fluttering closed. Blue flames of lust danced inside my head, turning all my thoughts into ash, and desire took over. The same seemed to be happening with him.

Quickly turning his hand around, he hooked his fingers on my pants and yanked them down my legs. He pulled my thong off, the fabric brushing against my skin on the way down. I held my breath as the air lapped at my naked wetness, and my whole body burned with desire.

“How can you be this perfect?” Troko muttered under his breath, kneeling between my legs so that his gaze could take in my entire body. He shook his head slightly, almost as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, then he went straight for the kill.

He brought his mouth down to me, his tongue running over my wet inner lips, and I arched my back so fast it’s a miracle my spine didn’t snap. His tongue wandered for a moment as he explored my wetness, but it didn’t take him long to figure out my most sensitive spot. My soft cries of pleasure gave him all the clues he needed, and he honed in on my clit, wrapping his lips around it like he had done with my nipple before, and his tongue danced around it in the most perfect of ways.

More than willing to push the envelope, Troko pushed his mouth against me even harder, then brushed two fingers against my drenched folds. Slowly, he started easing them in, curling them upward as if they were a hook. He continued until his fingers were pressed tight against that hidden trigger inside me, then quickly clamped a hand over my mouth to stop me from screaming out loud.

Sharp needles of pleasure pierced through my mind, and it felt like whatever dam existed inside me had burst. Tiny spasms ran all over my body, and my muscles trembled in place as ecstasy washed all over me.

“I want you,” I breathed out, my voice coming out as a quivering moan. “Now.”

Using my elbows to push myself up, I reached for his pants and started yanking them down. His underpants followed shortly after, and my jaw almost dropped as his hard length sprang free.

He was far larger than a regular human, the size of his cock enough for me to wonder about the mechanics of what we were about to do. I didn’t wonder for long. Reaching for him, I dug my fingers into his backside and pulled him into me. As he lay down on top of my naked body, I laced my legs around his waist and trapped him in place.

I held my breath as I felt the tip of his cock against my entrance and, for a moment, time seemed to halt. The entire world vanished all around us, and our naked bodies seemed to be the only things in existence.

I closed my eyes and he eased himself in.

Bright lights exploded behind my eyelids as his hard member strained against my inner walls, stretching me wide, and I immediately knew that I was in for a treat. He kept on going, taking his time as he slid his long inches in, then held his position for a moment.

We looked into each other’s eyes, not saying a word, then I crushed my mouth against his. I moaned softly as I felt the taste of my wetness on his lips, and that’s when he started rocking his hips against mine. His movements were tender and gentle, but it didn’t take long for the fury of lust to overpower him.

He thrust harder and harder, pushing me one step closer to the edge of exploding. My fingernails dug into his flesh and I urged him to go even faster, my body desperate for that inevitable release.

It happened fast.

Thunder and lightning exploded inside my head and I came so hard that it felt as if I was disintegrating. Spurred by the sudden avalanche of pleasure, I tightened my thighs and rolled them to the side, both my hands on Troko’s chest. Still with his hard member inside of me, we switched positions, a wild grin taking over my lips as I straddled him.

Still in the throes of pleasure, I started swaying my hips at a wicked tempo, beads of sweat popping on my forehead. I ignored the exhaustion that, slowly but surely, was taking over my muscles, riding him as hard as I could.

He started thrusting up after a moment, our two bodies in complete sync, and I forgot to be silent. I let a wild moan escape from my lips, and Troko clamped his hand over my mouth again.

He sat up urgently, and his hands wandered down to my backside. He started guiding my movements as I bucked myself against him, and I threw my arms over his shoulders as we melted into each other. We kissed, surrendering fully to the moment, and that rising pressure inside me reared its head once more.

This time I wasn’t alone.

“Camilia…” he groaned softly, and I felt his cock throb almost too violently against my inner walls. He pulled his mouth from mine, the lines on his face deepening as pleasure took him, and I felt the warmth of his seed as he spilled it all inside me. That was enough for me to come undone.

I gritted my teeth so hard that pain shot up my jaw, but I didn’t stop moving. I kept on riding him as a blanket of ecstasy covered us both, the sweet delirium of a perfect orgasm taking over me. I only stopped once the world stopped spinning, my ragged breathing a clear indicator of the wild ride we had just experienced.

Instead of pulling back from him, I remained sitting right there, his hard length still buried inside me. Gently, I brushed my lips against his. “We should’ve done this sooner,” I whispered softly, and he offered me a smile of his own.

“Things happen when they’re supposed to happen,” he replied, and I noticed that spark of light in his eyes once more.

“What’s that in your eyes?” I asked him, my voice nothing but a faint whisper. It was as if I was afraid that, by speaking too loudly, I’d break the spell. He looked at me but, for what seemed like an eternity, he said absolutely nothing.

“When a D’Tali finds his mate,” he started, the tiniest hint of hesitancy in his voice, “this is what happens. Our bodies react to it.” He ran his hand through my hair, and brought his lips to my forehead. “This is why I’ll always protect you. A D’Tali always looks after his mate.”

I said nothing.

Instead, I just embraced him as tightly as I could.

Troko

Camilia dozed lightly in my arms. A few strands of her hair moved with her breath, wafting as she dreamed on my bicep. Where her lips parted, a small trickle of drool pooled up on my skin. I’m not going to lie – it was perfect.

She was perfect.

The small fire I had built for us had long since died, so I let the faint traces of the moons paint her features for me. From the delicate curve of her jaw, down along the line of her neck, I let my eyes caress every bit of her skin. The smooth round of her shoulder gave way to the flat of her collarbone, and delved down to the cleft between her breasts.

How had this happened? The passion and pleasure of it was unlike anything I could have expected. Not that I was expecting anything. Even if this was the only time I would hold her as a lover, it would be enough to sustain me until the end of my days.

She shifted slightly. The cold made her tremble softly, and she pressed her body against mine to share its warmth. Coiling myself around her, I gave her as much of me as I could manage. I wanted to offer her everything I had.

A lifetime of frequently sleeping on the ground had inured me against the discomfort and the cold, but that couldn’t have been the case with the delicate creature beside me. She may have been strong and independent, but she was still a human woman. She deserved better than what we had come to, and I swore to myself that if we made it back, she would never suffer under these conditions again.

Even if fate had placed her there with me, I knew that for a man like me to keep a dazzling creature like her, I was going to have to earn it. Every day would be an exercise in making sure she felt like the rich treasure she was.

Leaning over her, I let my lips press lightly to her temple. Not enough to wake her, but enough to quench a little bit of the need I felt for her.

Something moved out among the trees. A snap somewhere in the forest put all my senses on high alert. Straining my gaze into the dark, I held my breath and waited.

More rustling.

We needed to move.

Now.

Jostling Camilia as lightly as I could, I waited for her to stir. My instinct was to put my palm over her mouth to keep her from making any noise as she woke, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Besides, that would almost surely have caused her to panic.

Instead, I put my lips to her ear.

“There’s someone out there.”

Her eyelids flew open and her whole body tensed, ready for action. She looked up at me, her brows pursed in a question. Had she heard right? I nodded.

Getting up as quietly as we could, we collected our clothes and dressed ourselves. I ached to steal more glimpses of her body in the low light. To engrave her into my memory—particularly as I feared it might be the last time I would ever see her like this, hold her like I had been holding her. But there were more important things to be done than satisfy my longing for her.

Whoever was stealing up on us had not only closed the distance, but swelled in number. What I’d feared might only be two or three soldiers, quickly became a battalion. We might be able to elude a small troop of weary soldiers, but a small army? Under their scrutiny, we would be done for.

“We have to move,” I hissed to Camilia.

She put a finger to her lips and nodded. Taking a moment to survey the terrain, I pointed out a direction. In a flash, we tucked low and padded our way across the ground. Crossing the stream that ran nearby, we rushed down the hillside, looking for any cover we could find.

“Troko.” She had stopped short, lingering next to an outcropping of rock that cantilevered over the ground to create a low shelf. It wasn’t perfect, but with the insistent feet of our enemy gaining every moment, it would have to do.

Camilia crawled under first, scooting as far back as she could. At the very least, I was going to wedge my body between her and any danger. Exhaling hard, I pressed myself between the rock and the hard soil. The space was tight, but it promised to keep us both obscured under the cover of darkness.

As the tramping feet drew nearer, Camilia’s fingers found mine and held on hard. If the last day together had taught me anything, it was that we were in this as a team. And if we were marked to die, at least we would go down with each other.

I may have expected a small troop of searchers, but I had clearly been mistaken. It was difficult to believe that we were important enough quarry to warrant real numbers, but here was proof to the contrary. This was no rag-tag band of mercenaries. They had come for us in force.

At last, an army of boots passed over the top of our refuge. I squeezed my eyes shut, calling on the names of all the Ancestors that they would leave us undetected. Or at least that we would join the number of the dead quickly.

In a few moments, the sounds which had been growing closer and closer began to drift further and further away. Blinking into the night, I saw the backs of a vast line of men trudging through the forest. Not one of them turned back, or even cast a glance to the side. Their entire focus was forward.

They hadn’t been concerned with finding us at all. I ought to have felt relief, but instead my stomach tightened into a frozen knot.

“Troko,” came a whisper from the crevice behind me. “Are we safe?”

“No,” I said. “No, I’m afraid not.”

We clambered out from the tight nook, and I sat back on it, bracing my hands on my knees. Camilia kept her eyes riveted out into the dark.

“Why didn’t they look for us?”

“Because,” I said, “we aren’t the real prize. They have something bigger in mind.” I turned to meet her face, filled with confusion. “They’re headed for our city. They’re going for Dojak.”

“But, what about us? I thought we were the ones they were after.”

“We may be, but they think we’re ahead of them. After that ambush, they needed to mobilize quickly. Whether they find us or not is immaterial. If they could beat us home, so much the better. If not, they have numbers on their side.”

“What can we do?” Her tone wasn’t pleading, but practical. Ever the problem solver, she was already gearing up to make a plan.

“We need to move,” I said, standing up. “Somehow, I need to get word to Dojak that a siege is on the way.”

“The city will hold without you, won’t it? Why would they send their general if there is no one left to defend the city?”

“Dojak is trusting. He thought it was a peace mission. Having me go to Aetam in case of trouble was more important than leaving me behind. For all the good it did.”

My chest burned afresh at the memory of those we’d lost. I clenched my teeth and did my best to shake the memory and the guilt I carried over it. Just then, Camilia’s cool palms took my face and lifted it until our eyes met.

“You saved our lives. That is what matters. You and I, Troko—we made it, thanks to you.”

She was right. I needed to treat this like a war. The dead were dead, and all that mattered was pushing toward victory. The time to grieve was after the enemy had been defeated.

Scooping her hands into mine, I kissed her palms and set about steadying myself. What we needed was a winning strategy. Some way to get word to Dojak and organize men to meet the assault.

“I’m certain if I could beat them to the city walls, we could win this. They will have marched all night, and won’t be in the best condition to receive counter fire.”

“Then we should go. Now.”

I shook my head in frustration.

“Breaching the line would be difficult, even coming from behind them. We might have surprise on our side, but they have numbers. Besides, the immediate fight isn’t the issue. What we need is to get ahead of them. What we need is time.”

“We’re out of that.” She was right.

“I know,” I muttered, nodding my head. I clenched my fists, my fingernails digging into my palms. “It’s impossible to move ahead of them. Even if we managed to get past them unseen, there’s still no way to gain the advantage we need without a mount. Without a numa, the whole thing is a foot race.”

I paced, pressing my fingers to my temples to still the beating in my mind. It was racing in different directions, but every trail was a dead end. I needed to focus and follow one clean line as far as I could. But there were too many variables. It was impossible to steady myself.

“Troko?”

“Hm?”

“Troko.” I looked at Camilia, and she was standing very still. Even in the midst of all this, she radiated calm. Something dangerously close to a smile flirted with her lips.

“I think I might have an idea.”

Camilia

We sped through the forest, Troko trusting me to lead the way. Soon enough the thick vegetation gave way to the rolling hills of the sunbaked desert, and we kept on trudging along. I hadn’t been here for some time, but it was all coming back to me.

Everything had been happening so fast, from our arrival into the city up to this point but, even though we were rushed, I felt my mind easing for the first time.

We were alone, no one was tracking us, and I was able to find some clarity in my thoughts. A little sense of purpose went a long way towards that clarity. Of course, the epic orgasm I’d had with Troko helped too.

The Aetamian army was moving along, but they had supplies and soldiers en masse to move. With a little luck, Troko and I, moving alone without those encumbering things, could outflank them. That’s all we needed to do.

We didn’t need to get ahead of them to win this.

I could feel Troko’s energy as we moved along.

“Almost there,” I said to him over my shoulder.

“I know,” he said, wiping the sweat off his brow. “It’s around here, somewhere.”

We kept on pushing through the sandy dunes, and I found myself pining for the protective cover of the woods. Some shadow, and maybe a little water, would be good right now. I forgot about all that once I saw it: a few hundred yards ahead, there was a glint of sunlight off metal.

There it was.

“We’re here!” I said, and dashed forward.

“Camilia! Wait!” Troko said, trying to keep up with me. I stopped right at the edge of the crater, and looked at the hulking beast that lay at the bottom of it.

The ship.

Troko caught up to me, catching his breath. I was so excited that I didn’t even feel tired.

“I don’t understand,” he said. “What are we doing here? There’s nothing in this shipwreck that’ll help us, Camilia.”

I turned to face him, standing up on my toes to give him a peck on the cheek.

“I’m asking you to trust me again, Troko. I wouldn’t have brought you here without a good reason. You know that, don’t you?”

He paused, looking at me. Then he nodded.

“Yes, of course.”

“Good,” I said. “Come on.”

We marched towards the ship, only a little way ahead of us. I led us around the back side of it, looking for the escape hatch Isabella had told me about using for her trips for materials.

It was difficult to spot, because of the sand that covered most of it, but eventually I was able to locate it.

Troko shook his head.

“Camilia, I know you’ve got a plan, but time is running very short now. You understand that.”

I nodded.

“I know Troko, I know. Help me here. Can you pry this hatch open?”

He looked at me, then shook his head again, this time with resignation.

“I can try,” he said.

He found the edges with his fingers, and bracing one leg against the hull of the ship, he pulled hard.

I could hear the hinges groaning. They didn’t want to give.

He stopped a moment, took a deep breath and heaved with all his strength. For a moment, I didn’t think it would open, but then...it popped free and Troko was sent sprawling onto his backside.

I couldn’t help myself. I started laughing.

“That wasn’t funny,” he said.

“It was a little funny. Come on, in we go!”

I pulled myself up through the hatch into the interior of the ship, with Troko not long behind me. The air inside was cool but stale. Shafts of sunlight filtered through the bow viewports, showing dust floating inside.

I clambered through the craft, trying to find what I was looking for.

“Camilia,” I heard Troko say behind me, “this ship has been unable to fly for who knows how long. Besides, Vokar and Isabella have already been here to ransack the place. Are you sure we can find something here?”

“Trust me, Troko. It’ll be worth it.”

I could feel annoyance creeping up inside me. I needed Troko to shut up for a minute. I found what looked like a workstation and hunted around, finding a couple of old battery packs. I wasn’t sure, but I hoped at least one still held a charge.

We would only need it for a few moments. Moving on through the ship, I started heading for the bridge and the communications array.

“Camilia,” Troko said again, “are you sure that we should—”

I turned to him.

“Troko, you’re an amazing warrior and lover and you’ve saved my life a couple times now, but right now…I really need you to shut the fuck up.”

His mouth dropped open in shock and he looked like he was about to say something. I raised my eyebrows and he thought better of it. He folded his arms across his chest and indicated he would wait.

I scrambled up to the bridge and found the communications station. Most of it was wreckage, but there was a locked cabinet. It was a long shot, but maybe I’d find what I needed there. Isabella had told me the first comms devices she had found had been locked away, so it made sense.

Maybe.

I pushed aside a chair that had been knocked over, and there it was. I muttered a silent prayer, thanking God that I had paid attention to Isabella’s endless explanations about the tech aboard the ship, then turned back to Troko.

“C’mere. Don’t talk! Just do as you’re told.”

He gave me a look that would have melted a polar icecap, but he did it.

“Now, I need you, with you big, brute strength, to rip that cabinet open for me.”

“You’re laying it on a bit thick, aren’t you?” he said.

“What did I say about talking?”

He threw his hands up in an ‘I-give-up’ gesture and promptly ripped the door off. And inside was what I was looking for: three hand-held communicators. One didn’t look so good; it was smashed to bits. The second was a little rough looking but maybe could function. The third, though…

“Third time’s the charm,” I whispered to myself.

“What did you say?” Troko said.

I took one of the battery packs I had found and, with a little finessing, was able to work it into the communicator’s power relay. There was a touch of rust and that made the going a little rough, but I was able to get it in there.

“I don’t understand. What are those?” Troko asked.

“These, my dear, are communicators. The last ones left on the entire planet, I’m guessing.”

“Wait a moment...communicators like those Isabella had?” he asked.

“You got it. Isabella told me her communicators were pinging something aboard the ship, so I figured they had to be tuned to other communicators.” I smiled, knowing Isabella would be proud of me. “Now we need a couple things to break our way.”

“And what are those?”

“We need these battery packs to charge the communicators up to full. Or close to full. But I’m not sure how much juice the packs had to begin with. So that’s the first thing.”

“What’s the second thing?” Troko asked.

“We need Isabella or somebody to be near their communicators and have one turned on. Whatever charge we get, it’s probably not going to be much. And I’m not entirely sure these still work. This one looks undamaged to me, but it’s possible that moisture or mold or insects or something got in the works and fucked it up. So keep your fingers crossed they still function properly to begin with.”

“Why would I cross my fingers?” Troko asked, genuinely curious.

I shook my head and chuckled. “It’s something humans do for good luck. It doesn’t matter, don’t worry about it.”

“Hey,” he said, “I’m for all the luck we can get.”

Then while I watched, he dutifully crossed his fingers. And I have to say, it endeared him to me even more.

I took the communicator in my hand and checked the power indicator. It had been so long since these had been used, I was hoping against hope they would work.

I flicked a switch on the right side of the device, listening for a familiar hum.

Nothing.

“Maybe I didn’t cross my fingers correctly?” Troko said with such sincerity that it made me smile.

“Hold on. Don’t give up the ship yet,” I said.

Another quizzical look.

“We’re on the ship,” he said. “Why would we give it up?”

I ignored him and took the more beaten-up device out of my pocket. I removed the battery pack from the first one and plugged it into the second. It snapped in more easily than the first. I prayed that was a good sign.

“Camilia,” Troko said gently, “time is not with us.”

I nodded.

I knew that. If this didn’t work, we had spent a lot of time and effort for nothing. And we’d never get ahead of the Aetamian army now. The D’Tali’s home, the kingdom of Tahkath, would be in danger.

I flicked the switch on the side and looked to Troko.

“Cross those fingers,” I said. “And anything else you’ve got.”

But then, there was a crackle and hum!

The sound of static!

I looked to Troko excitedly, then back to the communicator.

“This is Camilia! Does anyone copy? Does anyone copy?”

There was a moment of silence, then another crackle of static.

“Camilia?”

It was Isabella.

Troko

I was impressed.

At every turn, Camilia found new ways to make me respect her even more. Finding a way to communicate back to the castle was something I would never have even considered. Truly, she was a remarkable woman. I felt the familiar heat across my chest, signaling to me again the rightness of her as my mate.

“Isabella!” she said through the communicator. “We need you to get Dojak immediately!”

“Camilia, where are you? Where did you find a communicator?”

“Later, Isabella. The city is in danger. We need you to get him! Now! Troko is waiting to talk to him!”

“Hold on,” Isabella said and she was gone.

Moments later, the communicator crackled to life again.

“Troko?” Dojak’s voice asked.

Camilia handed me the communicator, showing me the correct button to press.

“Dojak, listen to me, the Aetamian...it was a betrayal! All of it!”

“What?”

“Shortly after we arrived, they ambushed us. They’re all dead. Only Camilia and I have survived.” I gritted my teeth hard, remembering the slaughter. “But listen to me, there’s no time. The Aetamian army is already marching toward Tahkath! Mohad is leading them personally, I believe. They’re planning on sacking the city and ending the conflict once and for all. There’ll be no quarter, Dojak.”

There was a moment of silence.

“How far away are they, Troko?”

“I would guess they’ll be there before nightfall. But, Dojak, if you can prepare a strike force swiftly, you could ambush them. They would never be ready for that and you could take them unaware!”

There were sounds of people talking to Dojak and movement everywhere.

“We’re planning it now, Troko. We’ll be on the move shortly. Thank you. Get back here, as soon and as safely as you can. We need you in defense of the city.”

“We’ll be back as soon as we can, my King,” I replied.

“See you soon.”

The communicator crackled once more, then was silent.

I handed Camilia the communicator back and she tucked it away, along with the spare battery packs and the extra device.

“What now? she said.

“Now,” I replied, “we have to run like the wind.”

We left the ship and returned to the crater.

“We have to move as fast as we can,” I said to her. “I know that you won’t be able to keep up with me, so I will moderate my speed as best I can. But the city needs us.”

She nodded without hesitation. “Don’t worry about me. I can take care of myself.”

“Alright, here we go,” I whispered. “And good luck to us both.”

She grinned. “Fingers crossed.”

I smiled and took her hand, giving it a squeeze then we climbed out of the crater and into the desert. Camilia moved with grace and kept up with me for a while, my pace only slightly exceeding hers as we went on. We stopped twice to get some water from the tiny flask I kept on my belt, and for her to catch her breath.

“Do you need me to carry you?” I asked her with a smirk.

“Oh, shut up,” she said, smacking me on the arm. “Worry about yourself. I got this.”

That made me want her all the more.

I nodded to her and we forged ahead, going up and down the waves of sand, faster than any army could plod along. I couldn’t be exactly sure how far behind we were, but I thought it was likely that if Dojak moved quickly, the D’Tali forces would come upon the Aetamians and take them by surprise.

We could potentially end up in the rear of a battle.

Time was slipping away from me. All I was aware of was the pounding of my feet on the ground and the thudding of my heart in my chest. I stopped when the desert finally gave way to some vegetation, signaling our approach to the city. I allowed Camilia to catch up to me when I heard something faint. I strained my ears.

Voices. I was sure of it.

Camilia came stumbling up to me.

“I haven’t—I haven’t run—this hard since—well, ever. It’s been forever since I had to run like this...” she said, panting.

I put my finger to my lips, silencing her.

Her eyes grew wide and questioning.

“Danger?” she whispered.

I nodded and indicated we should crouch low to the ground.

We got down to our bellies, using a few shrubs as cover, and just in time. The voices grew louder. They were Aetamian soldiers, and they seemed to be wounded.

Dojak had found them.

I smiled tightly at Camilia and she nodded in return.

From our vantage, we could see the soldiers limping along. I couldn’t make out everything they were saying, but it was clear the D’Tali had indeed caught them by surprise and they had paid the price. Some were still mounted on their numas as they trekked back, and even more were being carried by their fellow soldiers.

Dojak and his attack force had really laid into them.

“Fucking D’Tali,” I heard one grumble as they walked by. “No honor. Attacking like cowards.” I suppressed a grunt of anger. Cowards? This coming from the side that had murdered their rivals under a banner of peace!

Then I heard a voice that made my blood run cold.

“Shut your mouth and keep moving! Move your asses and stop whining!”

It was Mohad, their fucking general. He was here, and he was unguarded. True, there were troops everywhere, but they were looking for home, wounded and tired.

This was a chance.

I turned to Camilia, giving her a “wait-right-here” signal.

She looked at me with alarm.

“What are you going to do?” she mouthed to me.

I shook my head.

“Just wait and be still,” I mouthed back.

The last of the troops stumbled past and I crept out quietly behind them, falling in lock-step. They were too downtrodden and beaten to look back.

There were two soldiers between me and Mohad.

I slid up behind the first and quickly wrapped my hand around his mouth. He gasped in surprise but no sound came out. I slid my blade into his back gently and pulled it up. I could feel his tongue flicking out against my hand in his death throes. I guided his body gently to the ground.

No one heard a sound or turned around.

I followed the exact same maneuver with the next Aetamian. Again, not a sound. Now there was only Mohad on his mount. He was moving at a slow walk, so I didn’t have to worry about keeping up with the speed of a numa. I pulled on the numa’s tail, bringing it to a halt and causing him to snort. I quickly ducked to the side of its flank.

Mohad slid forward slightly in his saddle, confused.

“What’s this?” he said, turning around with his back to me, and seeing nothing but trees and thick shrubs. “Stupid fucking animal, why did you—” he began, turning back towards me. As his face came into view, I threw the mightiest punch that I could, getting him square in the jaw. He fell off the numa, out cold. I checked his pulse. Still beating.

Good.

This was a prize above all others.

The army was slowly moving ahead, the numa patiently staying still after I had grabbed its reins.

“Good girl,” I whispered in her ear while striking her side. I guided her down to her knees and carefully placed Mohad prone on her back. I found rope in the saddle bags and tied him down. All it would take for this to fail would be one soldier turning around before I was ready.

Fingers crossed, I thought.

I mounted the numa and turned her around so that I could head back to Camilia. Numas were strong and I was certain this one could take the weight of all three of us. I had nudged her around when I heard a bolt of laughter from the soldiers a few yards ahead.

“What say you, General? Is mating a human female more like a—”

But I never heard the end of the insult. The soldier turned around fully and saw me.

We locked eyes for a moment.

Then his grew very wide.

“CAPTAIN!” he shouted.

I turned the numa around and hustled back through the vegetation-covered flatlands to where Camilia was waiting. She stood up when she saw me.

“What the fuck did you do?”

I shook my head. “No time for that now. We have to go.”

I put my hand down and pulled her up onto the numa.

“Hang on to me,” I said. “‘Cause we’re gonna have to move.”

The army was barreling toward us, and Camilia turned at the sounds.

“Don’t have to tell me twice!” she said, wrapping her arms around me.

I spurred the numa and off we went, dashing through the growing vegetation, a blend of jungle and desert that surrounded Tahkath’s capital city. Judging from the state of the Aetamian soldiers and the speed at which they were moving, we weren’t that far from the walls of the city.

But there were strong numa still with the Aetamians, and they could soon be heard galloping behind us. I spurred the numa to even greater speed and we hurtled away. Camilia gasped at the pace and gripped my waist even tighter.

The trees thinned out around us again.

The city wasn’t far.

But the army cavalry closed the distance and soon, arrows started whizzing around us. One shot right past my head.

“That was a little close!” Camilia said with alarm.

“Could’ve been closer!” I said to her in return.

We emerged from the tree line and the city was there, rising before us.

We were almost there.

I thought I could see D’Tali guards moving along the walls, but I wasn’t sure.

“We’re going to make it!” Camilia shouted.

I turned to look at her with a grin.

That’s when an arrow plunged into the neck of the numa and we were all sent crashing hard to the ground.

Camilia

“No!” I cried.

The numa was dead, lying in the grass a few hundred yards from the D’Tali city gate. The Aetamian general was still unconscious, which was the only blessing in this entire shit show. His soldiers were charging hard behind us, arrows littered the ground around us, and I knew that soon one was bound to find its mark.

We were going to die.

I looked up at Troko, my eyes seeing through his scars to the D’Tali underneath. He drew his sword and stepped between me and the charging Aetamian army.

“Run,” he said to me over his shoulder. The numas charged us hard. Instead of running, he lowered his stance, preparing to face them.

“I’m not leaving you,” I said. My voice choked up a little and I swallowed hard. “We’re in this together.”

“Camilia,” he said to me. He turned, looked me in the eyes, and my heart melted as he did. “Run. I will keep them at bay until you’re to safety.”

“No,” I said, holding back tears. “No…”

“That’s an order, healer,” he said, not unkindly. He was almost smiling as he faced the charging enemy. My heart was breaking, watching him stand tall and face an enemy he could never defeat.

I took a step back. I needed to give him his last wish.

I needed to follow his last order.

Then I took another step back.

“Troko,” I muttered.

The Aetamians barreled toward us like a sandstorm, threatening to engulf us. I either moved or I was going to die here. I didn’t have much time, or else Troko’s sacrifice would be in vain.

A war horn sounded from within the city.

The gate opened, and I turned to see King Dojak astride his numa, surrounded by other D’Tali in full armor. The war horn sounded again. Dojak raised his sword and yelled something incomprehensible. The soldiers voiced their agreement with cheers and yells. Then they charged. Bows fired at the charging Aetamians, the arrows cutting an arch through the clear skies.

“They came for us!” I cried excitedly. I strode forward to join Troko, who was watching the charge with a smile. Compelled to engage with Dojak’s troops, the Aetamians had been forced to ignore us. Still, we weren’t in the clear.

Not yet.

With a roar, the D’Tali and the Aetamians locked in battle.

Dojak stayed at the front of his army on his numa, swinging at the Aetamians below him. Screams of battle surrounded me as the D’Tali started to fight with their full force.

“Stay with him,” Troko said to me. He leaned over the Aetamian general and stripped him of his weapons, then handed me a dagger. “He wakes up and tries anything, just use this.” He turned to face the raging battle, then hesitated.

When he looked back at me, I could tell he didn’t want to leave me.

“Go,” I said. “They need your help. I’ll be fine.” So, that was a lie. But right now, the truth wouldn’t help either of us. “Just go!”

He gave me a nod, then with a wide smile, he ran into the battle to join the fray. I watched him go, and my heart dropped into my stomach. What if he got hurt? What if he never came back? What if he was killed? Even though I knew he needed to help, that did little to ease my ever-growing worries.

Worry overshadowed my previous elation at seeing Dojak charging with the army. I felt something for Troko, yet I still couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Was it love? Did love even exist when you were light years away from Earth?

I strained to pick Troko out from the melee, and finally found him.

A whirling, darting figure, clearing a path through the enemy.

The battle was finished as fast as it began. The D’Tali cheered as the Aetamian soldiers turned and retreated, their numas kicking up a cloud of dust.

“We won!” I yelled to no one. “We won!”

The D’Tali embraced each other, satisfied to have bested the Aetamians for the second time on the same day. They cried out loudly, holding their bloody swords over their heads, the air electrified with their energy.

Troko walked out of the celebration towards me, a smile lighting his face. My heart jumped, butterflies dancing inside my stomach at seeing him there.

“How’s our general doing?” he asked me when he strode up. There was some blood on his face and I looked at him, concerned. “It’s not mine,” he said, reading my mind.

I placed my hand on his cheek and stared up at him. Gently, he covered my hand with his and rested his cheek in my palm. The D’Tali soldiers started to walk by, heading back to the city. I let go of Troko’s face, knowing that he wouldn’t like the show of tenderness in front of his men.

Troko cleared his throat, and I stepped back from him.

“So,” he said. “How’s the bastard?”

I kicked the unconscious Aetamian in the arm. He didn’t move.

“Still out cold,” I answered.

“Perfect.”

“Troko!” Dojak said from behind us. We turned, and he hopped nimbly from his numa. It roared a little as he did so. “Oh, you’re fine,” he said to his beast. “Hinjal here is mad I didn’t let him kill anyone.”

Dojak gave Troko a big embrace, then he let go and made his way to me.

“We got your message,” he said. “With enough time to raise the alarm. Thank you. Both of you. I feel that we all would have died without your warning.”

“The Aetamians tricked us,” Troko said. “The daughter was a trap. They slaughtered us like animals during a so-called feast.”

“I’m sorry I sent you into that,” King Dojak said soberly. “Nelkar…?”

“He went out like a strong D’Tali,” Troko said. “He stabbed the king in the hand with a knife from the table. Then he tried to kill him with a fork.”

“Then he died like a true D’Tali,” Dojak said sadly.

“He drew the king’s blood,” Troko agreed. “That is the highest honor.” Remembering the signet, he reached inside his pocket and deposited it into Dojak’s hand. “The last thing he did was make sure this didn’t fall into the Aetamians’ hands. He had a valiant and worthy death.”

“His name shall be honored,” Dojak whispered, looking down at the signet. Then he turned to the side to look down at General Mohad. “And what do we have here?”

“He’s unconscious,” Troko said. “We kidnapped him while he retreated. That’s why the Aetamians were charging so hard. They wanted to get this asshole back.”

King Dojak looked down at the general in disgust.

“We should kill him,” he said, his hand already on his sword’s pommel.

“I agree,” Troko said. “A dishonorable creature like him…death will be kindness. I just hope his blood won’t poison this ground.”

King Dojak drew his sword.

“I would like to do it myself,” he said. “For all those that have fallen. But I understand if you would like to do the honors.” He held his sword out to Troko, hilt-first. “You have more history with him.”

Troko took the sword.

“I will gladly chop his head off,” Troko said. “For Nelkar. For Brulic. For Oshril. For Clujean. And for Krilik.”

I watched as Troko raised the sword high.

I couldn’t let him do this.

“Wait!” I said, holding my hands out. “Wait.”

“You have every right to the honor, as well,” Troko said. He lowered the sword and held the hilt towards me. “I’m sorry that I did not offer you the chance.”

“It’s not that,” I said quickly. “I just don’t think we should kill him.”

“That Aetamian invited you into that banquet hall under the ruse of the king’s sick daughter,” King Dojak protested, surprise in his voice. “And you would save his life? He has committed the most heinous of crimes. No D’Tali would fault you for killing him.”

“I know,” I said. “I know. And I would kill him. I want to, more than anything. But he’s unconscious. He can’t even defend himself.”

Troko shrugged.

“If that’s the only problem, then we wait until he wakes up. Better yet, we chop his head off in the center of the city, for everyone to see.”

“No,” I said. “The problem is that we can’t become them.” I gestured toward the retreating Aetamian army. “We can’t stoop to their level. I know you’re angry, I know you grieve. I do, too. But if we do this, without even a proper trial, we’re no better than them.”

“Yes, we are,” King Dojak said simply. “I didn’t invite him on a peace mission then kill him in our banquet hall.”

I knew that this would be a hard-fought battle. I didn’t know why I wanted the general alive. I just knew that I didn’t want Troko to lose a part of himself if he killed Mohad like this.

“Look,” I said. “I know that this is going to be hard. But you need to trust me. He is worth more alive than dead. If you kill him now, then the war with the Aetamians never ends. He is in our city. He is our prisoner. If we stoop to their level, then are we truly better than them? If we kill him, he’s worth nothing. If we keep him alive, then we can use him.”

I looked Dojak in the eye.

“You wanted the war to end,” I continued. “That’s why you sent me to the Aetamian city. Is that still what you want?”

“In my heart, I want vengeance,” Dojak replied. “But I am a king. Sometimes we don’t get to do exactly what we want. And you are right. We need to think on this, not act with our hearts.”

“That’s all I ask,” I said. “If you decide later that it’s better to kill him, then I’ll support that decision.”

“Help me with him,” Dojak said to Troko. They hauled the general up and threw him on the back of the king’s numa. “Oh, you’re fine,” he scolded Hinjal. “He’s not that heavy.” Hinjal roared and pawed the ground. “You’ll be fine,” he said again. “I really don’t care if you get pissy about it.”

The king hopped on Hinjal.

“I will meet you both back in the city,” he said. “And we will go over what to do from here.” He dug his heels into the sides of Hinjal, who roared and ran back toward the city gates.

Troko looked at me.

“You know I’m right,” I said to him. “You know he’s more valuable as a prisoner.”

“I’m also right, Camilia,” he retorted. “You know that he deserves to die for what he did to us.”

“Then we can both be right,” I said. “He lives, even though he deserves to die.”

“For now,” Troko said.

“For now.”

Troko

I looked at her as she leaned over the general, tending to his wounds.

“Not killing him is one thing,” I said to her, not for the first time. “But fixing him was not part of the deal.”

“And yet you are standing there, watching me fix him,” she threw back. She was concentrating hard. Her brow was furrowed; her jaw was set as she focused on the task at hand.

It kept surprising me how my feelings for her were growing. I was annoyed, yes, but she wasn’t wrong about the general. He was worth more alive than dead, especially if we wanted to stop the war with the Aetamians. A bargaining chip was always useful.

But I didn’t need to be the one to tell her that.

“So obviously,” she continued, working on a dressing to cover an open wound, “you don’t have much of a problem with it.”

“Don’t push your luck,” I said. “I’m here so he doesn’t wake up and kill you.”

“You don’t think I can handle myself?”

Trick question. These human women could be crafty.

“I know you can handle yourself,” I said after a second. “But I still don’t want you alone with him.”

She smiled at me.

“I’m touched you’re so concerned,” she said. “Really, I am. But isn’t there something more important you could be doing?” She gestured at the general’s wrists. “He’s restrained. I don’t think he could do anything even if he did wake up.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” I said.

As if on cue, the general’s breathing changed. His eyelids started to twitch as his eyes moved underneath.

“Well, there he is,” Camilia said. “Almost there...”

“I don’t really care,” I answered. I was worried about how close she was to the waking general.

“Look,” Camilia said, “I’m not done. And if this bastard bleeds out, then there was really no point.” She looked at me pointedly. “And I hate wasting my time.”

“Fine,” I said. “But move fast.”

“I’ll do my best.”

I couldn’t believe how kind this woman was. I wouldn’t give a single minute of my time to heal the Aetamian in front of me. Especially after what had happened at the banquet. I think that was what made Camilia so spectacular in my eyes, her undying kindness and willingness to heal, even if she absolutely hated those she had to treat.

She kept working on him and, when something hurt bad, the general blinked his eyes open.

“Ah,” he said. He pulled at his wrist restraints. I stepped forward and touched Camilia’s shoulder, pulling her away from the general.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” General Mohad growled.

Camilia kept her head low. The Aetamians didn’t know about the translation device and we wanted to keep it that way.

“She’s saving your life,” I growled. “Is that a problem?”

“Get that whore away from me,” he spat back at me.

“I wanted to kill you,” I said. “I wanted to chop your head off where you lay. She wouldn’t let me, and she insisted on saving your life. I can always decide otherwise.” I fingered the dagger on my belt.

“I’m about done here,” Camilia said.

She kept her head down, gathered her equipment, and moved to the side.

“That’s right, you pathetic creature,” the general said. “Walk away.”

“You watch your tongue, Mohad,” I said, trying to quench the rising anger. “Or I’ll cut it out.”

The general huffed, but didn’t say anything else. Camilia walked to the door and I turned to follow her. Still, I could feel Mohad’s eyes on me.

“Go fuck your whore,” the general said under his breath.

I ignored it. He wanted a rise out of me. He wanted me to attack him, to make a mistake. I would not stoop to that level. I strode away.

“Watch him carefully,” I said to the guard at the door. “No one goes in or out.”

The guard nodded and I strode after the waiting Camilia.

“Thank you,” she said to me after I caught up. “I appreciate you coming to my defense like that.”

“It’s not a problem,” I said, doing my best to tame my anger. “He shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.”

“He didn’t know that I could understand,” she said softly. “And I don’t mind.”

I shook my head.

“I don’t know how you can be that kind to someone who hates you so,” I said. We walked through the palace with our heads down. I could feel how close she was to me. My heart thundered in my chest, but I tried to calm myself.

“He hates everyone,” Camilia said. “Even himself. It’s not kindness to him. It’s kindness to you.”

I looked at her, surprised.

“He isn’t worth any time,” she continued. “But you are. I saved him so he doesn’t haunt you. I thought he might, if you killed him while he was unconscious and unarmed.”

Shock wove its way through my system.

“You are full of surprises, Camilia,” I said to her.

She blushed and smiled at me.

“It’s what I do,” she shrugged. “I heal people. Once I decide I’m going to heal something, I do everything in my power to make them better.”

“Even if they are an asshole?”

“Even if they are an asshole,” she agreed. “It’s not up to me to decide who is deserving of life or death. It’s up to me to do what I can for everyone I encounter. I have to treat everyone the same. Or I risk becoming like the thing I hate.”

I didn’t know what to say. Her argument made sense to me, and I had to reflect. Did I think that I was deserving of determining life or death? Was I incapable of kindness? Or was Camilia just that special?

“Thank you,” she said after a time. “For standing between me and the Aetamian army.”

I snorted.

“Probably wouldn’t have done much good. They were coming fast. I doubt I could have slowed them enough to get you the time to get back to the city.”

“I still appreciate the sentiment,” she said.

She grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. I wanted to touch her all over. I wanted to kiss every single inch of her beautiful body. My heart continued its thunderous rhythm as I felt her hand in mine. After a lingering moment, she pulled it away.

I knew that this human was my mate, but the question remained…would I be good enough for her? She was far kinder than I could ever hope to be. I was simply a warrior. I was scarred and ruthless, with a past I’d like to forget. She was everything else that I could never be. How could she ever feel the same way that I did? And if she did, how could I allow her to pursue the relationship?

“Do you ever wonder why?” Camilia asked.

“Sorry,” I said, pulling myself to the present. “What was that?”

“Never mind,” she said quickly.

“No, please, I want to hear it.”

“It’s stupid.”

“Not to me,” I said vehemently. “To me it’s everything.”

She blushed.

“I asked if you ever wondered why?”

“Why about what, Camilia?” I said her name just to say it. I loved the way it sounded coming out of my mouth. We were through the courtyard now, and I could see the tower where Camilia resided rising in the near distance. I stopped as the hallway in front of us bifurcated, my quarters just a few yards away.

“About why we crashed here, why we are stuck,” she said. “Sometimes I wonder if there’s any meaning to those things. Do you ever wonder about it?”

I shrugged.

“No,” I said. “I don’t ask those questions. I don’t think about those things, to be honest. I live each moment, from one to the next. Things always happen the way they should, I suppose.”

“See, I wonder sometimes, why I was brought here.”

She looked up at me. We locked eyes. She really was beautiful. I found myself looking at her, wanting her, that unbridled desire rising inside me.

“I think maybe this was meant to happen,” she continued, then grabbed my hand and stared at me. I stared back, completely lost in the moment and in her eyes.

“I’m not good for you,” I said softly. “This isn’t good for you.”

“I get to decide what’s good for me and what isn’t.” She leaned in toward me. The smell of her hair wafted over to me, and it drove me wild. I could feel a fire start between my legs and I had to fight not to get hard. I didn’t want to scare her away.

“I don’t know what this is,” I said.

She grabbed both my hands. We stared at each other for a while and I lost track of time. I could die happy right here, right now.

My heart told me to go forward, and my brain told me to pull away, to save her from me. She was everything I wasn’t, and I couldn’t drag her down with me.

“I will protect you,” I said softly. She leaned in, and was only an inch away. My heart thundered in my chest. By the Ancestors, I wanted her. I wanted to take her every way I could.

I wanted to push my body into hers and feel every inch of her.

But I stayed still, exactly where I was. Every cell in my body fought to keep myself under control.

“I know,” she said, slowly going up on her tiptoes, her eyelids gently fluttering. Unable to resist her, I leaned in the rest of the way.

I couldn’t deny it any more.

We belonged together.

Camilia

We stood in front of the door to his living quarters and I held Troko’s hands in mine. His skin was scaly, reptilian, but it seemed soft as we looked at each other.

This was right.

No matter what he said, this was right.

He stared at me and I stared back, losing myself in his eyes. The sounds of the bustling palace noise drowned out the beating of my heart, but I could feel it in my chest.

I moved towards him.

He covered the rest of the distance and we kissed deeply in the doorway. My heart thundered in my chest. His lips were soft, the opposite of his calloused hands. He parted my lips with his tongue, and our tongues met, my heart leaping as butterflies flew in my stomach.

He pulled me closer into him and I touched his chest gently. His muscular body under my fingertips sent shivers down my spine.

“Wait,” I said, breaking off the kiss.

“I’m sorry,” he exclaimed. “I’m sorry. That was presumptuous of me.”

“No,” I said. I fumbled for the key that hung from his belt, and tilted my head toward the door. “No. It’s just that I want to take it inside.”

Smiling, he took the key from my hand, unlocked the door, and opened it. I laughed, grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him inside.

“That’s better,” I said.

He laughed and pulled me into him, his hand on my lower back. I walked forward and pressed my hands against his chest, feeling the chiseled muscles. Alien or not, scales or not, he had the hardest body I’d ever felt in my life.

We kissed passionately and I felt a fire grow between my legs. I backed through the living area to where the bed was, and Troko smiled beneath his kiss.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

I didn’t need to think about it.

“As sure as I was the last time.”

Troko pulled my shirt over my head. I did the same to him, marveling at his honed physique. We backed against the bed and tumbled onto it, the mattress shifting under our weight.

He flipped me onto my back and I reached up for him, pulling his head into mine, deepening the kiss. Lightly, gently, he ran his fingers up and down my body. I arched into him, aching for his touch.

He straightened a little bit and worked his hand around my back. With a deft hand, he unclasped my bra and I rubbed my hands over his muscles, wanting to touch every inch of him. He pressed his palms into my breasts and I arched my back towards him, electricity firing through me as I did.

He rubbed his hands gently on my breasts, and my breath hitched in my throat.

His eyes glowed silver as he looked me up and down. With a quick hand, he unbuttoned my pants and pulled them off me. I reached for his pants, and he smiled, pushing my hand away.

“No,” he said. “Not yet.”

I could feel how hard he was through his pants.

God, I wanted him.

I needed him.

He kissed my throat, and a shiver went down my spine. Then his mouth wandered down to my chest and my breasts. My whole body vibrated. He worked his way down my stomach. At my lower abs, he stopped and caressed me with his tongue.

This time my whole body shivered.

“Please, don’t stop,” I said. “I can’t handle it if you stop.”

He smiled, that bright glow still in his eyes. My underwear was still on and he pulled it off. Gently, he parted my legs and kissed my clit. Electricity fired through my body and up to my brain, his perfect touch enough for me to start moaning.

Gently, ever so gently, he parted his lips and used his tongue against my clit. He circled my clit with it, over and over again. I moaned louder, but he kept his pace slow and steady. I arched my back.

He drove me over the edge. I gasped as the orgasm engulfed me. Without a moment’s hesitation, he moved his fingers and parted my outer lips. As soon as my orgasm stopped, he pushed his fingers into me.

“Yes,” I said, louder than I meant to. He moved his fingers back and forth slowly, matching their pace with the gentle circles of his tongue. “Yes!”

He bent his fingers just enough to hit my sweet spot at the front of my wall. He moved his fingers in and out, gently driving me closer and closer to the edge. Then, when I didn’t think I could take any more, he drove me to my finish.

I clamped my legs around his head as another orgasm rushed through me. This time, spots formed in my vision and I closed my eyes. I held him in place as I succumbed to pleasure, my fingers tight around his horns as if they were handles.

“I need you in me,” I said to him. “Now.”

He stood and unbuckled his belt, and I helped him pull off his pants. I took a moment to appreciate his naked body, my fingertips tracing the deep scars that crisscrossed all over his chest.

“How can you like a D’Tali like me?” he asked. “You are so beautiful, Camilia, and I’m a monster.”

I beckoned him with my finger.

“I need you inside me,” I said again. “Now.”

He nodded and crawled on the bed towards me, kissing me as he worked his way up my body. He guided himself to the fire between my legs, and I opened my legs wider. Locking gazes, his eyes flashed as he gently slid himself into me.

I moaned. He touched all my walls at once, and I could feel him moving inside me.

I gasped with pleasure, my nerve endings popping like firecrackers.

“Oh, fuck yes,” I said, tipping my head back. I pulled his strong back toward me and lifted my hips to meet him. Gently, at least for a D’Tali that large, he started moving in and out. I moved my hips up and he looked at my face as he thrusted.

My heart nearly burst as we slowly matched our pace, and I stared at him and stroked his back. He pulled back and thrusted faster and faster, his movements becoming more furious with each passing second. I met him, and my breath hitched as he looked me up and down.

“Yes,” I said to him.

“Yes,” he repeated, his voice brimming with lust.

He rubbed his hand up and down my body. He lifted my knee up to change the angle, and I gasped with pleasure.

“Harder,” I said to him. “Please, Troko.”

He pulled back slowly and drove forward, filling me entirely. I could feel all of him, even his soul. I looked at his scars, at his reptilian scales, at how his eyes glowed. But mostly I saw how he looked at me. He watched me so attentively, so lovingly, that I couldn’t believe anyone could look at me like that.

My heart thundered in my head and electricity fired through my brain. I arched up to meet him one more time and we moved as one, our breaths joining in gasps. He took my hand and placed it in the center of his chest, over his heart. He moved in me, shifting to a gentle pace, back and forth, and kept my hand over his heart as he did so.

I watched him.

His gentle hand holding mine, his attentive nature. How could someone so scarred be so gentle? I felt a scar running down through the center of his chest while he held my hand. My breath hitched again.

“I’m going to come,” I said. There was no pushing it back. There was no holding on. I stared at him, and he stared back. “Come with me.”

He nodded, breathing fast. We moved faster and faster, and I felt him against all my walls, all of him filling me.

Over the edge we went.

“Troko,” I gasped as I came. My walls clamped down around him, over and over again. My vision went dark and I made a fist against his chest. He looked at me, then I felt him pulsate inside me, his warm seed filling me up. He collapsed on top of me, breathing into my neck as he finished.

“Camilia,” he whispered, and my heart burst at the way my name rolled off his tongue. We lay there for a moment in complete silence. Or for an hour. I was so dazed it was hard to tell. Eventually, he pulled himself out of me and rolled gently to the side.

I looked at him, and rubbed my fingers lightly over the scars on his face. He grasped my hand in his, glancing back at me.

There was nothing to say.

Our bodies had done all the talking.

After a while, I closed my eyes. Listening to his gentle breathing beside me, I gradually slipped into sleep.

His hand never left mine.

Troko

I listened to the report of one of my lieutenants. I sat in my work quarters at the edge of the city. I could see the front gate from my window, and it was lying open in the bright daylight. Scouts had reported that the Aetamians had fallen back sufficiently that there was no immediate threat to the city.

“So, we didn’t suffer major casualties,” he said in closing. “We are actually close to our starting numbers, both in foot soldiers and numa riders. Our recruiting efforts have paid off. There are a few injuries that are being treated, but with our reserves, we will be back to full force soon.”

“Good,” I said. I jotted down some notes, then waved him away. “You’re dismissed.”

He bowed and left my work quarters. I sat and thought about what the lieutenant had said. The battle with the Aetamians had barely touched our numbers, thanks to the message that we were able to send to Dojak.

That, of course, reminded me of Camilia. I couldn’t have a moment without remembering the night with her. The moans, her gentle caresses, the feeling of her finishing…I hadn’t slept so well in years.

And I knew it was because the turmoil in my soul had had a semblance of peace, if only for a few hours.

I couldn’t wait for it to happen again, but my duties had kept me away from her for three days now.

With each passing hour, I was becoming more and more desperate for her embrace.

A knock on my door scattered my thoughts.

“Come,” I called, focusing on the present. I had things to do. I couldn’t keep thinking about that night. It was probably just a lucky coincidence that Camilia had even stepped into my quarters. No matter what she said, there was a chasm between us. I wanted to close that chasm but…could I really do it?

The door opened, and Vokar poked his head through.

“Come with me,” he said.

I rose and walked out of the room. This would be good for me. I needed to talk war strategy, and Vokar was the perfect D’Tali to strategize with.

I followed him outside, into the sunlight.

“There’s something off with you,” he said simply. We walked to the outside gate and started on the path around the city. “I can tell.”

I sighed.

There was really no denying it. A flash of how Camilia had looked under me went through my head.

“See?” he said, arching one eyebrow. A smile tugged at the corner of his lips. “I just saw it again. What distracts the mighty General Troko?”

I looked at him for a while.

“Nothing,” I said finally. I was sure the rumors about me and Camilia had been spreading for a while now, but I didn’t want to confirm or deny anything. Let the men keep their rumors. This was between me and Camilia.

This was far more than lust. A true mating, it shook me to my core, nearly buckled me to my knees.

“I don’t believe you,” he said. He looked at my face. “Human women can be quite a hassle.”

“Why do you even ask questions if you already know what the answer is?” I asked, annoyed by his games.

“Because sometimes I don’t know for sure. See? By your answer, now I know for sure.” He glanced at me again as we walked. “The healer is a strong woman. She is good for you, my friend.”

“Agh,” I said, brushing him off. “But that is the problem. I’m no good for her.”

“Has she told you that?”

I paused.

“No.”

“So how do you know what’s good for her?”

“Look at me, Vokar,” I said.

“I see you.”

“Then you see my scars. You see how…damaged I am. You see how I am not regal, like Dojak, or smooth-tongued like yourself. What could she possibly see in me?”

Vokar didn’t answer.

I thought I had convinced him, as I’d convinced myself.

“Has she slept with Dojak?”

“No, not that I know of,” I mumbled.

“She hasn’t had sex with me, either,” Vokar said with a smile. “I can assure you of that. But she has slept with you.”

“Yes, but—”

Vokar shrugged. “Then I guess she sees more in you than she sees in Dojak or me. Would you deny the woman what she wants?”

“I’d give her anything in my power to give,” I admitted.

“Well, apparently all she wants is you,” he shrugged again, then grinned. “Even if you are ugly and scarred. I wouldn’t want you, but that doesn’t seem to be the issue at hand.”

I shoved him in the shoulder and Vokar laughed. I still wasn’t sold on the idea. I knew I was no good for Camilia. She was soft, delicate, kind, everything I wasn’t. How could I possibly be good for her?

“I’ve heard that you’re pretty close with Isabella,” I said, trying to shift the topic to Vokar. “Care to offer any words about that?”

“Hey,” he said, shirking the question. “We’re not talking about me right now, are we? This is your issue we’re trying to hash out.”

I smiled. “So, the rumors are true?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. So, how many times have you been with Camilia?”

“Nice deflection,” I answered. “How many times have you been with Isabella?”

“So, our numbers overall should be good,” Vokar said, completely ignoring me. That was typical of him. “I don’t think we even lost a numa in the attack by the Aetamians.”

I laughed. It felt good to laugh, to be walking the perimeter of the city and simply chatting with a soldier like me. It felt normal.

“So, you still don’t think I’m right?” he said. “I can tell in your eyes, old friend. I always know when you have reservations.”

“She’s my mate,” I admitted. “I don’t know if she feels the same way about me as I do about her.”

“So ask her. It’s simple.”

“That seems like it isn’t simple,” I muttered.

“I have seen the mighty General Troko fight five Aetamians at once. I’ve seen him charge into battle, leading troops against all odds into almost certain death, only to come out as victorious. I have seen him throw himself in front of arrows and swords to save a friend’s life. Now, you’re telling me that the mighty General Troko is scared to tell his own mate that he wants to be with her?”

I let that sink in. I was afraid. Vokar had hit the problem dead on. I was scared shitless, actually.

“What if she says no?” I asked. “What if she says that she doesn’t feel the same, or that it was only a fling? Or that she is in love with someone else?”

“What if the Aetamians attack us tonight when we’re unprepared? What if your numa falls on you in battle, crushing you? What if an arrow is fired in the practice range and misses its target, instead embedding itself into your neck?” He stopped walking and looked at me. “Our lives are full of what ifs. We can’t be trapped by them.”

We’d almost made an entire loop of the city. Vokar was right. I was letting my fear get in the way of action, something I hadn’t done since I was young. I was a hardened general with countless battles and victories under my belt.

Plus, Camilia had acted like she felt the same about me as I did about her.

Maybe Vokar had a point? Maybe I was the right D’Tali for her? And if not, it didn’t matter. I knew that. I would be there for her no matter what. After all, any future without Camilia was no future at all.

“Ah,” Vokar said. “That’s the General Troko I’m used to seeing.”

“Nothing has changed.”

“Everything has changed, my friend. You have made a decision. A wise one, if I do say so myself.”

My heart raced in my chest as I thought about what I wanted to do. I wanted Camilia. I wanted her in all ways and for always. I knew that she was my mate and that we belonged together.

And I had to tell her how much I needed her to be a part of my life, because the loss was too great if I didn’t. As hard as the rejection would be, it would never compare to the regret of never telling her at all.

“Thank you, old friend,” I said to Vokar. “I needed that.”

“Of course. I always have sage advice.”

I snorted. “Sure. And it has nothing to do with simply enjoying telling your general what to do.”

“Nothing at all. You should go now, while you have resolve.”

“I always have resolve,” I replied firmly.

“Then you should go now while you have the balls,” he said, examining his nails.

I shoved him again and he laughed.

“I will tell her the next time I see her alone,” I said. “If it’s not by the end of the day, I will search her out and tell her. Is that an appropriate plan?”

“I suppose that will be acceptable,” Vokar said with a smile. “If it’s what my general wishes.” He gave me a mock bow, a devilish grin on his face.

Still, I knew that Vokar was right. I had to tell Camilia that I wanted for the bond that existed between us to become official. I had to do it while I still had the fortitude to do so. But how would I say it? I didn’t want to scare her away, that could be disastrous.

Stop it, Troko, I said to myself. Just go find her.

And so I did.

Camilia

“Are you sure about that?”

Trailing behind me, Isabella pursed her lips as I grabbed some fruit and bread from the kitchen. I stuffed it all inside a burlap sack and tied a knot at the end of it. I glanced at Isabella over my shoulder and smiled.

“I know this sounds crazy,” I replied, “but I can’t let the guy starve to death. The guards made it a point not to feed him. Look, I know that he’s a monster, but...we’re better than the Aetamians, right?”

“I like to think so,” Isabella agreed, tugging at the sleeve of my shirt as some servants strolled into the kitchen. We slipped through the backdoor unseen, and I walked with Isabella as she made her way back to the tower.

It rose above the rest of the castle, proud and tall, and most of the women now saw it as their ‘home’. It had been odd at first, but now I counted myself among those who thought of the tower as home. In a way, it was funny. At first, I didn’t even think that the city would ever feel like home, let alone a single tower.

Now, though, as I wandered down the same hallways that Troko did…

Yeah, this entire place felt like home.

Troko had played a big part in that. Despite his reluctance in accepting the bond between us, my true home was in his arms. Wherever he was, that was where I needed to be. I thought back to the night we’d shared together and smiled.

God, how I could have fallen this hard for a D’Tali?

“The D’Tali have a point, though,” Isabella continued, “that man would have us all put to the sword if he could.” She shuddered at that thought, and tightened her lips. “I have to be honest, Cam, I don’t like having him around.”

“I don’t like it either,” I said, perhaps more sternly that I should have, “but it’s not like we have a choice. If the D’Tali follow their own laws and decide to cut off that asshole’s head, then I’m fine with it. But I don’t want us to stoop down to his level just because we want some payback. If he’s here, he should be treated in a humane way.”

“The D’Tali are not human,” she offered, and I said nothing at that. I just looked at her and narrowed my eyes. “Hey, just saying.” She stopped at the end of the hallway that would lead into the courtyard. “Do you want me to go with you? I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go there alone, Camilia. God knows what someone like him might—”

“I’m fine,” I cut her short, doing my best to put on a smile. Truth be told, I would’ve appreciated the company, but I knew that Isabella was terrified of the Aetamian general. She wasn’t even comfortable with him being in the dungeon, and I figured she would just faint if she found herself in the same room as him. “I’ll take it from here. Just head back to the tower. I’ll be there in a few.”

She gave me a nod, visibly relieved, then turned on her heels and marched across the courtyard. I watched her go for a few moments, the burlap sack nestled in my arms, and gave myself what I hoped to be an encouraging nod. I turned back and headed toward the dungeon.

None of the D’Tali paid me any heed, and the only ones that actually acknowledged me were the guards responsible for the dungeon. They exchanged a knowing glance, and one of them sighed as he looked down at the sack.

“We’ve been over this,” he started, pointing his finger at me. “That piece of shit doesn’t deserve any food. Why do you insist on bringing him that? Wouldn’t it better to let him starve? The Ancestors know he deserves it, that’s for sure.”

“We are not monsters.” I must’ve sounded like a broken record. This was the third day in a row that I was visiting the dungeon, and my conversation with the guards was always the same. They would bristle at my approach but, after some convincing, they would inevitably let me through. “Just let me through, okay? I’ll be in and out before you even know I was here.”

They shook their heads at the same time but, just like I had predicted, they stepped aside to let me through. I marched straight into the cramped stone corridor, the torches on the walls lighting the way. My shadow danced in front of me, and I felt a cold shiver run up my spine. Even though I knew this was the right thing to do, that didn’t mean I liked coming down here.

Another guard stood in front of the captured general’s cell, but this one didn’t bother speaking. He shook his head and shrugged, producing a large key from his belt. He slid it into the lock and, with a hit from his shoulder, pushed it open for me.

“I hope he chokes on it,” the guard muttered under his breath, following me with his gaze as I walked past him.

The general was chained to the wall, heavy manacles fastened around his wrists. His eyes were closed, his entire body limp, but he seemed to come alive as he heard the door swing on its rusty hinges.

“Here comes the D’Tali’s pet,” he snorted, his expression one of disgust. “Don’t pretend you don’t understand me. You might like playing dumb, but I know that you can talk with your masters.”

“They’re not my masters,” I said, and the general arched one eyebrow.

Somehow, he had realized that I could understand both the D’Tali and the Aetamian languages, but he didn’t seem to understand why I couldn’t speak in their tongue.

That, of course, was because I didn’t speak their tongue—the translator device didn’t make anyone capable of speaking a foreign language. Instead, it gave our brains the capacity to decode it. In order for a conversation to take place, anyone involved in it needed to have his brain zapped by the device.

“Here,” I said, grabbing a small pitcher with water and holding it up in front of him. He pressed his parched lips against the rough ceramic and drank with long gulps, beads of water trickling down his chin. He let out a satisfied sigh, and eyed the burlap sack I had brought with greedy eyes.

“Go on, bitch,” he spat out, a gleeful expression washing over his face. “What’s taking so long?” He grinned viciously as I held the bread in front of his face, and I shuddered as his yellowed teeth tore into it. “No wonder that idiot Troko has set his eyes on you,” he continued after swallowing down the bread. “You’re a pretty little thing...but you’re not exactly that bright in the smarts department, are you?”

I gritted my teeth.

What the hell was he talking about?

“Yes, you know what I’m talking about,” he continued. “I mean, why would a smart woman want to be with a beast like Troko? The man is hideous. Even a numa wouldn’t want him for a—”

Before I even knew what I was doing, I cocked my arm back and let my hand fly. My palm crashed against his face, hard enough for the sound of it to fill the entire cell. Mohad merely grinned.

“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?” he whispered, then the impossible happened. He turned his wrists around, pushing them against the manacles, and they snapped open. The guard rushed into the cell, his eyes wide and brimming with fear, but Mohad sprang to his feet and slammed his fist against the D’Tali’s jaw, knocking him out.

“What the…?” I muttered, digging my heels into the dirty floor and pushing myself away from Mohad. “How did you…?”

“Stop grunting, you stupid mammal,” he snarled, and he slapped me so hard that bright lights exploded behind my eyes. Grabbing me by the arm, he pulled me up to my feet. “What? Did you think this was enough to hold me?” He waved his hand at the cell. “I’ve been turning the damn bolts on those manacles, pushing them against the rock, for three days straight. It was only a matter of time.”

“Let go of me,” I cried out, but his grip was far too strong. He leaned over me, his savage grin making my heart beat faster. His breath was rancid, and his yellowed teeth gave him a nauseating appearance.

“It’s a shame I’m on a tight schedule here,” he whispered, brushing a lock of hair away from my face. “I’d sure love to make a fine beast like you scream out.” Snorting, he bent over to grab the sword from the unconscious guard. He kicked his midsection hard, forcing the guard onto his back, then dragged me out of the cell.

Without missing a beat, he led the way toward the cell where the prisoners’ belongings were kept. He kicked the door open, took in his surroundings, then threw me into the wall.

While I shook the ringing from my ears, he grabbed his crossbow from a small wooden stand.

“I thought I’d ride into this stupid city ahead of an army,” he said, carefully placing a bolt on his crossbow then yanking me up from the floor, “but it doesn’t matter. Before the day’s over, this entire palace will smell of blood.” It didn’t sound like a threat.

It sounded like a promise.

Troko

I stood on the battlements, looking out over the landscape rolling away from our fortress walls. I took a deep breath and turned, ready to go look after Camilia, when the alarm bell in the tower to my right began to clang wildly. For a brief moment, I was startled, but adrenaline flooded my system and I sprang into action. Considering that I had the best vantage of the surrounding fields, there was only one place the danger could be coming from—within.

Vaulting down the stairs towards the palace, then straight to the main courtyard, my body was ahead of my brain. It already seemed to know where the trouble lay.

General Mohad.

When I came around the corner to the dungeon door, a tingle shot up along my spine. The door was ajar. Barging through it, I clambered down the stairs, drawing my sword along the way. Reaching the lowest level, I saw a D’Tali guard lying on the floor in a heap. Drawing closer, I saw that he lay in a pool of blood.

Readying my blade, I edged forward until I faced the inevitable. The door to Mohad’s cell was open, and a pair of empty manacles hung against the stone wall. The cunning fucker was trying to escape.

As I tore back into the open square, teams of armed men were already assembling. Commands began to tumble from my lungs before I even reached them.

“Shut the city down. Secure the main gate, and the portals to the east and west.” Looking around, I saw civilians standing, frozen with inaction.

“Go to your homes,” I bellowed. “Lock your doors and shutters. Brace against strangers, and wait for the all clear. No force is too extreme.” On my words, people scattered in every direction.

“I want everyone here to divide into groups of five. Two will search the streets, and all empty buildings.” Memories of my own refuge back in Aetam let me know that we wouldn’t make the same mistake in missing our prey. “The rest of you, split up and search the palace. I want every room combed.”

With cries of assent, they fanned out and took to their tasks. At any other time in my life, I would have stormed the streets myself, unsatisfied until I found him. But there was someone else to care for now.

“Where is Camilia,” I demanded as I burst into the infirmary. Blank stares greeted me.

“In her chamber?” Isabella looked untroubled. Clearly the clanging of the alarm hadn’t reached them.

Striding down the hallway to her door, I did my best to keep my breath even. My heart thumped against my ribs, and I could feel my pulse surging in my neck.

“Camilia?” I gave her door a few light raps. No reply. Trying the door, I found it unlocked and I stepped into her darkened room. “Camilia?” She was gone.

Back out on the street, bloodlust sparked around the edges of my eyes. Every part of me tingled with the desire to chop Mohad into a bloody pulp. He had her. I could feel it.

Through years of ongoing conflict, I’d become his greatest enemy, and he knew what he would need to bargain his way to freedom.

“Sir!” One of the groups I had sent to search the streets came trotting up to me.

“Have you found them?”

“Them?” the leader of the team asked. “Are there more with the general?”

“He’s taken Camilia. One of the human women. We must bring her back alive at any cost.”

For what felt like hours, I trolled the streets, overturning anything that Mohad could use as a hiding place. My entire body quaked with the desire to capture him and rescue Camilia. If she had been safe, word of my search would surely have reached her by now. Her absence only confirmed the fears raging inside me.

As impossible as it was, they had vanished. He must have stolen her away through the gate before we had the foresight to close it. That left only one option.

“I need men.” My hands pressed hard onto Dojak’s council table, and I leaned across it to fix his eyes to mine. “We’re going to levy a force and ride for Aetam. I’m going to need all the best men we have.”

“Troko…” Vokar sat perched on the edge of Dojak’s table with his arms folded.

“You, too,” I said, darting a finger at him. “In fact, you should ride ahead and scout. Any intelligence you gather about them would be invaluable.”

“This is not the way.” Dojak’s voice was even, and he smoothed his hands across the table in front of him.

“Bullshit,” I grunted. “We had managed to capture the greatest warrior of our enemy, and he’s managed to escape. Our best way is to take him, and to take him now.”

“He is just one man,” Dojak said.

“He is the only man!” I brought my fist down hard, and Vokar leaped up from his spot.

“That may be true,” the spy said, “but it’s not the man you’re interested in.” I pushed up from the table and squared off to face him.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“Troko.” Dojak rose from his seat and came around to put a hand on my shoulder. “What we need now is strategy and patience. Not a suicide mission.”

“What if it was Sofia? Or Isabella?” They were both still. “Are you saying that you would let him steal her across the Aetamian border?”

“I have said already, this is not the way.” Dojak kept his unblinking eyes locked on my face. “It’s clear that you are spoiling for a fight, but that makes you vulnerable. An angry man is easy to defeat.”

“So, what do you propose?”

“We wait,” he said. “We form an actual plan and ride out when we stand a chance of winning.”

“Give me our best men, and we can’t lose.”

“Some of our best are already lying dead back in Aetam.” The accusation behind Vokar’s words stung, and I whirled to face him.

“Say that again.”

“I’m not saying it was your fault,” he protested, raising his palms. “Far from it. But we went in unprepared once before. We can’t afford to make the same mistake twice. Isn’t that so?”

“It is,” Dojak agreed. “Do I hold the Sword of Law?”

“You do,” I said through gritted teeth. How could the two of them be so calm about this?

“Then I have the final say. And I say we wait.”

“Fuck.” Turning my back on them, I stormed out into the hallway, flinging the door closed behind me. There was no way I was waiting a second longer. Even if it meant that I had to ride out alone, there was no way I was leaving Camilia in his clutches.

I had promised her that I would never let her come to harm, and that was a vow I intended to keep.

Banging into my own chamber, I snatched up my pack beside the door. Any other time in my life, I would have stuffed it with provisions. Food, water, and other necessities. But now? All I collected were weapons.

To go down to the arsenal would arouse suspicion, so I could only take the weapons that were mine. Fortunately, I had more than enough at my disposal to take care of a craven, hateful bastard like Mohad. All I needed was to find him.

There was a lot of ground to cover, but I was willing to ride all the way into Aetam, if necessary. If bringing Camilia safely back meant that I had to fight every single Aetamian soldier bare handed, then so fucking be it. I’d welcome the challenge.

Something moved in the corner of my eye. Maybe it’s because all my senses were on high alert, but the tiny rustle seemed seismic.

I turned to see the curtain moving slightly. Drawing one of the knives I had tucked into my belt, I took a quiet step toward the fluttering. It was as if the riot in my skull had gone still, and all my attention zeroed in on the shifting curtain.

My arm locked back. May the Ancestors help whoever was fool enough to hide in my quarters.

The curtain shifted, and Camilia stepped from behind it. My heart dropped and I ran cold all over. Her face was tight. Red and wet from crying. All I wanted was to scoop her up, to make her feel safe again.

“It’s alright,” I said. “I promise.”

“Troko…” As she said my name, I registered the fear in her eyes.

The curtain moved again, and a blinding pain bloomed in my side. All my breath ran out at once, and the knife in my hand clattered to the stones at my feet. Instinctively, I reached up and felt the shaft of a bolt jutting out from my ribs.

My hand was slick with blood. Staggering back, I tripped and thumped clumsily across the edge of my bed. I could see Camilia’s lips moving, but my ears were ringing so loudly, I couldn’t hear her. Those beautiful lips kept forming my name.

She tugged hard, and I saw a knotty fist emerge from behind the curtain, clutching her wrist. General Mohad stepped into the open, a terrible grin cutting across his face. In his other hand, he held a crossbow.

Looking down at my side again, I saw the thick blood bubbling up through my fingers. This was bad. All I wanted was to save her, even at the cost of my own life. But here I was dying, and saving her was impossible.

Camilia

There are moments in time you experience which are hard to explain to other people after they’ve happened. For example, they will ask you how you could possibly recall something with such utter clarity? How could you possibly have such detail readily available at your command? There’s no way you could have seen things as clearly as you say.

But those things do happen.

The recall, the detail, the memory.

I had just experienced one of those moments.

Mohad had me pulled with him behind a light curtain in the corner of the room. We waited, him like a mantis waiting for a hapless little bug to lazily flit by, me like a mother waiting for word about her son coming home from war.

Troko opened the door with force, muttering to himself. I thought I had heard him say my name. He had been looking for me, that much I knew.

I stood there, Mohad’s hand over my mouth stifling any sound I might have made. My body was straining to be free, to warn Troko what was about to happen, to do something.

But I couldn’t.

He was hurriedly throwing things into a pack.

He’s going out of the city to find me, I thought. This is all my fault.

I felt tears start to well up in my eyes, but I choked them back. I wasn’t going to give this bastard the satisfaction of feeling my tears on his skin. Never would I allow that.

Mohad held the crossbow in his right hand, cocked up waiting for the right moment to inflict the most damage. I struggled in his grip, but he was too strong for me. All I could do was watch helplessly as he lowered the bow and took aim.

Troko had his back to us.

The height of the bow was right in my eye line, like someone drawing a line across a map.

A pinprick of light glinted off the wicked point of the bolt head, sharp and hungry. Mohad’s hand tensed in preparation to squeeze the trigger, and his joints creaked like old floorboards.

I could sense the coldness of the smile that crossed Mohad’s mouth. I wasn’t able to turn my head far enough to see it, but I knew it was there with utter certainty. The same light that glinted off the arrow point glinted cruelly off his yellowed teeth.

He was a general who had been humiliated in front of his men. Mohad would never forgive that, never let it go. He wanted his debt paid, in blood.

Troko was still unaware, instincts muffled by frustration and anger and the illusion of safety in one’s own home. He forgot for the moment that nowhere is truly secure, truly safe. All of this was happening in mere seconds.

For me, at the moment, it was a complete lifetime.

He paused, hand reaching towards his belt, drawing a knife.

Did he know we were there?

“Wait,” Mohad breathed in my ear. “Get his attention. I want to look him in the eye.”

He removed his hand from my mouth and I stood there, frozen, uncertain what the new game was. Did I scream and alert Troko, or try to grab the bow?

I wasn’t a warrior, and I knew how the latter would go. I also knew as soon as I spoke and Troko turned around, Mohad would shoot. But what other choice was there? Maybe if Troko was fast enough, he could evade.

I stepped forward, taking a deep breath, and called his name. “Troko!”

His head snapped towards me and he stilled, gaze immediately arrowing in on the person behind me.

“It’s alright,” he said, voice utterly calm. “I promise.”

My nerves screamed as a tear rolled down my face. But fear took over and my mind blanked. “Troko…”

The crossbow snapped.

I heard every nuance of the crossbow’s action: the click of the trigger, the release of the bow, the whistling sound of the bolt cutting through the air.

I watched that evil glint of hungry light dance along the edge of the bolt, from the head to the tail, moving almost lazily along the shaft. I could trace every moment of its flight with my eyes, open wide in fear and horror.

Troko was going to be hit. And there was absolutely nothing I could do but watch. And burn it into my memory.

Right before the shaft pierced his flesh, time snapped back like a rubber band to full speed.

There was the sound of a wet “thunk” as it struck him in the ribs. The echoing “twang” of the bow after its release. The thud of Troko’s pack as it hit the floor. The sudden sharp groan from his lips. The slam of his body as it collapsed in pain and reflexive backward motion.

A scream was building up in my throat, and it threatened to drown me in its wake.

Then suddenly, my voice filled the room with wailing. I ran over to Troko’s fallen form, the distance from me to him seeming to be akin to the distance to the moon.

I fell to my knees, trying to find my focus as a healer, but only feeling the panic of a lover.

Then I heard the metal-grating sound of Mohad’s laughter.

I turned and looked at him, eyes blazing with fury. “You son of a bitch.”

He shrugged, all arrogance and disdain.

“Your incomprehensible grunts mean little to me, human. Check on your mate. See if your vaunted healing can do anything for him this time. I suspect the odds are not in your favor,” he said with a sneer.

The bolt was deep in Troko’s side, nearly half way up the shaft. The internal damage would be serious, and if it had struck any major organs, time would be running short indeed.

I couldn’t pull it out, not now. The bolt tip and the shaft were preventing him from bleeding out. The flip side of that, however, was that Troko was bleeding in. Blood still wasn’t going where it was supposed to, but it wasn’t spilling out of him like a fountain.

He groaned with pain and turned to look at me.

He smiled and there was something sad in it.

“Fingers crossed,” he said.

I nodded, tears running down my face.

“Fingers crossed.”

He grimaced as I examined the wound. He would need some kind of surgery to survive this attack and I didn’t have the tools necessary for it. Not that Mohad would allow me that kind of time and that kind of grace.

“A coward...till the end, eh, Mohad?” Troko said through gritted teeth.

Mohad chuckled. “Brave words, coming from a D’Tali weakling that struck me from behind to take advantage.”

Troko smiled again, but this time, his teeth were stained red with his own blood.

“You do what the moment requires, Mohad. Isn’t that true for all soldiers?”

Mohad said nothing, just glared at us with such hatred I could feel it in the room like heat.

“Too—too bad that you chose not to be a soldier...b—but a breaker of oaths. A b-b-betrayer of trust,” Troko sputtered out.

“I don’t understand you, Troko. Is that supposed to offend me? Offend my honor? Enrage me? To somehow trick me into making a mistake that allows you to have the upper hand? There is no upper hand here. I’ve won, you see. It’s finished. You’re dying. And that is all that matters to me at this moment. And sometimes, moments are all a warrior receives,” Mohad said.

Troko nodded at that, wearily. “I can concede that point to you, Mohad. I will give you that.”

Mohad gave a slight, mocking bow.

Troko winced in agony and almost cried out, before biting it back.

I felt his forehead with my hand. He was warm, but sweating. His body would be shutting down soon unless there was something I could do. His eyelids started fluttering as consciousness danced around him.

“Troko,” I said softly. “Look at me. Look at me.”

He slowly (too slowly, I thought) focused his eyes on mine.

“You’re D’Tali,” I said. “I need you to fight for me, alright? I need you to stay strong. This isn’t over until I say it is, do you hear me, soldier?”

He nodded weakly.

“I’m -t-t-trying...but it hurts....”

“I don’t give a fuck if it hurts! You understand me? You’re a fighter! So fight, damn it! Fucking fight!”

I reached out and took his hand in mine and squeezed it hard. He returned the squeeze, but with a tenth of the strength he should have had.

“Troko, you need to hear me,” I said. “I need you to stay. I feel it too, you know? I feel it. In my chest. The warmth. The way it spreads through me when I see you. When I’m near you. When you touch me. This is real. I know it now. Mates. Yes? Mates. Don’t you dare...don’t you dare fucking leave me!”

His eyes focused on mine and in them was a depth of feeling, of connection. He had to live. He had to.

But then they started closing again. I slapped him.

“Stay awake, Troko! Just like the wounds in your arm, remember? Stay awake. Don’t let it pull you under!”

Mohad sighed heavily behind us and stepped forward.

“Really,” he said with faux sincerity. “This has been incredibly touching. A final moment worthy of the poets. But now it’s just getting embarrassing, for all of us, I think. So best to end it now.”

He pulled out another bolt for the crossbow and made a show of loading it.

“This one, Troko, will go right between your eyes. So you see, I am someone of conscience. I grant you the mercy of a quick death. No need to linger. No matter how much I’d enjoy it,” he said.

I positioned myself between the crossbow and Troko.

“No,” I said simply.

Mohad chuckled.

“How brave! How noble, you little creature. But futile nonetheless. If you think that’s going to stop me—”

“Shoot me if you want!” I shouted, even though I knew he couldn’t understand a word of what I was saying. “Just leave him alone!”

Mohad shook his head.

“You pathetic little creature,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t know what kind of idiocy you’re spouting, but let me be clear: I’m going to kill the both of you. right now. That way at least, the two of you mates can ascend to the afterlife and reflect on the follies of your pitiful lives for all eternity, together.”

He pulled back the bow.

And it was going to be over soon.

Troko

I was...where...? Adrift?

It felt like the ebbs and flows of the oceans. There was something gentle about it. A rise. A fall. Nothing sharp or pointed. It was smooth and graceful.

And it was dark out. So dark. I thought maybe...I could see the moons over the water...but it was distant and the shine was a soft luminous glow that danced out of my sight. I couldn’t tell if I was in the water or on a boat or raft...but I was bobbing gently. And it felt warm and it felt safe.

It was said that a long, long time ago, D’Tali and Aetamian ancestors...came from the water. Despite the few differences that now exist between us, we used to be one and the same. We were creatures that lived in the seas, flowing with tides and the pull of the moons. Unlike the lesser reptiles we shared the world with, we were borne in the fluid of our mothers’ wombs and were born into the warm waters of the ocean. Always enveloped, always held close.

Why we ever left that life, however millions of years ago, was a mystery to me. At this moment, as I was being carried along the dark surface of the waves, it seemed especially foolish. Why leave this beautiful, dark world to inhabit one with sharp, jagged edges and bright, harsh lights? One where if you closed your eyes, you fell on something hard and unforgiving.

But in this world, when you fell...you slowly, gently sank. No violence. No pointed blows. Just...sinking. Down and down into the dark. Forever.

For some, that seemed terrible. To me, it seemed comforting and warm.

We never should have left the ocean, I thought. What a terrible mistake. I shall tell them...whoever they were...when I saw them, when I got there, when I touched bottom, that this land life...it was a terrible mistake.

I could feel it beckoning me now, ever more so every passing moment. And I relished how it felt.

But there, far off in the distance, I could hear something. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear it.

A voice? Was that what it was? A voice so very far away.

It echoed to me through the black water. It was...familiar. Urgent. And yet, somehow soothing at the same time. I could feel a part of myself reaching out for it, that voice, like a lifeline in the water.

But you don’t want the lifeline! I said to myself. What about the softness? The sinking? The deserved rest? Finally, to be able to truly rest.

I could see myself. Shaking my head. No. I couldn’t rest.

Not yet.

Now is the time to stand up! My own voice echoed inside my head. Now is the time to find your feet! Now is not for resting, for the day isn’t done. The struggle continues!

And there it was again, that voice through the water. It was louder. Insistent.

And it was saying...my name.

“Troko,” I heard.

Then...something terrible. A cold laughter. What was this? Who was laughing? Something shook me, pulling me back from the water. The soft darkness was slipping away and part of me tried to fight, to stay in it. To stay there and sink.

But another part of me fought that. Fought like the devil himself.

I could see a light, ahead of me...maybe on a shoreline far away...

I started kicking my legs towards that shore. The voice was there. I knew it and wanted it. I felt that. I wanted that voice.

I started kicking stronger, each time I heard the voice spurring me towards the shore.

I looked back once, to that endless soft darkness, with longing. But only once.

It would wait. It would wait for all eternity if it had to. It had nothing but time.

But there was someplace else I needed to be. And the voice calling me...it was more familiar...it was...

“TROKO!”

It was close. It was...

“PLEASE!”

My mate. Camilia. That’s the voice. It was Camilia. And she needed me.

She needed me now.

I kicked with everything I had to reach the shore shrouded in fog and half-light. I could hear the surf crashing on the beach and I knew I was close.

Then the cold laughter again. Cruel. Ugly. Louder.

Something was happening. Something terrible.

“...mate...” I heard, my head dipping under the water.

“...mercy...” I heard, my arms stroking through the waves.

“...afterlife...” I heard, my feet nearly touching the bottom.

“...together...” I heard, and I knew what was happening.

Camilia wasn’t ready for the dark waters. Not yet. And I wouldn’t allow it. I couldn’t allow it.

I swam for the shore with all I had, summoning strength I didn’t know I possessed. I was getting tired, my limbs heavy, but I was almost there.

It felt for a moment like something was wrapping me around the waist, a rope, a line...and it was helping pull me through the water.

It was close.

My arms cut above my head and when they came down, my hands slapped on wet, black sand. My knees were pressed against stones and pebbles worn smooth by the ebbing of the water.

To your feet, soldier. Now.

I climbed up, hands on knees, catching my breath.

I felt the sand shift underneath me and I nearly lost my balance for a moment. I could feel the water behind me, wanting me back.

But I shook my head ‘no.”

I steadied myself.

I took a step forward.

My eyes opened and I was in my quarters.

I was on the floor.

Camilia was in front of me and something hurt like a bastard in my side.

I looked up and there was Mohad, crossbow in his hand. He was pointing it at Camilia. Fire and rage flowed through me, and all the pain that engulfed me was burned out of existence.

I lunged forward, knocking her to the side and leaped at Mohad.

To say he was stunned would be putting it mildly.

He managed to croak a weak “what?” before I tackled him in his midsection, knocking him to the floor, the crossbow skittering across the room. We tumbled over each other, tangled up like lovers. His fists were striking me in my neck, my head. I felt none of it.

Stopping him was all that mattered.

I couldn’t help myself. I started laughing now, with the joy of a true warrior. Fighting for the most just of causes: to sacrifice yourself for one you loved. There was no greater honor.

“You’re...insane,” Mohad said to me, and I responded by spitting my blood into his eyes.

“Ah!” he yelped, trying to blink it away.

He reached down my side, grabbed the shaft of the bolt, and gave it a twist.

Fire raced through me and it felt like I was being torn apart.

I ignored it.

His eyes grew wide with fear and he squirmed like a worm on a hook, trying to get away from me. I threw him against the floor, knocking the wind out of him, then, straddling him, I clamped my hands around his throat and squeezed.

He sputtered and gasped, weakly punching at my wrists to get me to let go. But that, as the humans say, was not in the cards.

I leaned in close, our noses nearly touching, his eyes bulging from the pressure I was applying.

“Enjoy the darkness, Mohad,” I whispered to him, tightening my grip like a vise. “I will find you there one day, and do this again. Live with that fear for all your pathetic eternity.”

His tongue rolled out of his mouth and he looked at me with utter wonder and terror.

Then...it stopped. It was over.

All energy left him and his body slumped, motionless, blank eyes staring at nothing.

He was dead.

I let go, and fell back off him.

Everything hurt and everything ached in deep places of my body I didn’t know I had.

Camilia rushed over to me, easing me back.

“Ah...this…” I brushed my fingers against the bolt. “It hurts, Camilia.”

She nodded. “I know, I know it does, love. I’m so sorry, this is all my fault. I’m going to get help. Just hang on for me, alright? I’m getting help,” she said and moved to leave, but I took her by the wrist.

I shook my head.

“No. Please don’t...stay...stay with me.”

“Troko, don’t be like this. I can fix it, but I can’t move you on my own, I can’t—”

I reached up and touched her face, her hair.

“Camilia,” I said, smiling. “I’ve never known beauty like yours. I count myself the luckiest D’Tali to ever have breathed. To be partnered with such a magnificent...brave...warrior...as you...I thank you. I thank you for spending your time with me. I’m unworthy of it.”

“Stop it, Troko, don’t talk. You need to rest while I get help, I’m so sorry for this. Please, love.”

I brought her hand to my mouth, kissing it softly, gently.

I inhaled the scent of her skin and it was as intoxicating as it had been from the first. Oh, how I loved it.

“Camilia,” I said, hearing the sound of distant surf far off, but getting closer. “I love you. With all that I have. Please know that. Now and always.”

She put her hand on my face, the coolness of it like a spring rain.

“I know it, Troko. And I love you, with all that I have. But I need you to stay with me now. Stay with me. Troko? Stay with me!”

But her voice was getting fainter. And I could hear the ocean closer and closer.

“Troko?”

The crash of surf.

“Troko?”

I drifted out to meet it.

“Troko?!”

The voice was miles away.

And the warm darkness of the sea was calling me with a siren’s song.

Camilia

The last several days had been a whirlwind.

Troko had slipped away from consciousness, saying something about the ocean, about sinking. I couldn’t quite catch it.

I raced down the hall, screaming for help. Several D’Tali soldiers swiftly and with surprising gentleness carried Troko to the infirmary, where I immediately began work on saving him.

This was my battlefield.

And I wasn’t going to lose.

His pulse was weak and his breathing was shallow. Time was running very short. I extracted the crossbow bolt with a little effort and determined that no major organs had been wounded in the process. But he had bled internally, and that was the major concern.

I cleaned the wound as well as I could, then did my best to stop the blood loss. Through it all, Troko never awakened, never opened his eyes, never said another word.

His heart rhythm remained solid, if weak. And his breathing was regular, if shallower than I would have liked.

I was winning…but guilt plagued my every breath.

I took to talking to him while he slept. I told him about my childhood, about the stories I’d made up when I was a little girl to keep myself company. I told him about heroes and knights and dragons and queens.

And I told him how sorry I was that this had happened. I should have listened to him, shouldn’t have tried to help a madman.

I dressed his wounds and wiped his brow. I gently gave him water, thankful that his reflexes allowed him to swallow. I rarely left his room, just to change clothes and to see to other patients that came through the infirmary.

Sofia and Isabella brought me food and stayed with me for a time. We sat together as old friends, and even in the midst of such uncertainty and fear, we found ways to make each other laugh. It was a wonderful sound and it would fill the room. Some of the other girls showed up as well, to lend their support.

I hoped that Troko could hear the laughter, on whatever far-off ocean he was drifting on. I hoped that it would be a beacon to help guide him home.

I whispered sweet things to him, about his kindness, his nobility, his grace. I spoke to him of his courage, his strength, and his prowess. How he inspired the D’Tali soldiers. How they spoke of him in hushed whispers, full of respect and awe.

I told him how much I loved him, how much I missed his hands on my body, how much I longed to take him in my arms again, to take him inside me, to feel the pulse and power of him.

I kissed his forehead and slept beside him.

And prayed for him to wake one day and smile at me.

But I knew that he sailed far away, on a beautiful, dark sea. He had to find his way back on his own.

I could see him in my mind’s eye, with such clarity it was almost shocking. I don’t know how I knew it, but I did. The connection of mates, I supposed.

As I lay beside him in the quiet of the night, I closed my eyes, my hand on his chest, feeling it rise and fall as he breathed.

And there was an ocean there, safe, calm. Troko was standing on the bow of a small but proud ship, navigating by the light of a hazy yellow moon, its light dancing on the water.

No storms. No danger. Just the sailing on an open sea with nothing but the horizon.

I woke with a start from those images. They weren’t frightening, they were sad. But they were also...peaceful.

And I couldn’t think of anything more fitting for a warrior than the peaceful rhythm of the waves.

Dojak regularly came to visit and receive updates on his progress.

I smiled and said the same thing. “No change. But that’s not a bad thing.”

Dojak nodded and gave the same reply as always. “Anything you need, just let me know.”

I nodded, and he put his hand on my shoulder with a gentleness I didn’t know he was capable of, then left the room.

At the end of the week, I had to deal with some minor injuries a group of soldiers had received in a few skirmishes with the Aetamians. Despite having been defeated in battle, groups of raiders sponsored by the Aetamian king were back harassing the farmers at the border.

A couple of those injuries, however, proved more complicated than I’d thought and it put an unexpected strain on me.

By the time I made it back to Troko’s room, it was late and I was exhausted. Days before, I’d had a cot brought in so I could be near him in the night should he need anything.

I collapsed on it and fell asleep in moments, dead to the world.

I dreamed of that dark, wide sea again, vast and endless. I saw a small light on the horizon. While I watched, a sun peeked its head out over the water and soon, dazzling gold spilled out on the surface.

Soft white light filled the sky and the dawn broke, burning away the mist and fog. It wasn’t better than the dark ocean. It was just different. And just as beautiful. Warm and enveloping.

I could feel light on my eyelids and I fluttered them open.

Morning sun filtered through the window of the room. I felt groggy, but not unpleasantly so.

I pushed myself up on my elbows swung my feet to the side, and sat up.

“About time you woke up. You’re wasting the day away,” I heard a familiar voice say.

I turned and saw Troko, sitting up, looking at me with love and kindness in his eyes.

Leaping from the cot, I embraced him tightly.

“Easy,” he said chuckling. “I’m still fragile.”

I pulled back, smiling. “How long have you been awake?”

“I’m not sure. A couple of hours?”

“And how do you feel?”

He looked away from a moment, scanning himself. Finally, he turned back to me. “Hungry, very hungry. And somehow...empty. But in a good way. Does that make sense?”

I nodded. “Yes, that makes perfect sense, actually, given the severity of the wound and the time it took you to recover. What can you tell me about your wound? Is there much pain?”

He thought again and his hand went to his side where the bolt had struck him.

“It’s tender, and I can tell that I shouldn’t be moving aggressively for a while—”

“—a long while,” I chimed in.

“But I think, over all, it’s not too bad.”

“Good, that’s good,” I said. “But you have to listen to your body, alright? Don’t push farther than you can go. If you do, you could reopen the wound and we’ll be right back where we started. And I don’t want that. And neither do you.”

He nodded.

“I hear you. And I give you my word, I won’t push.”

“Alright,” I said.

He looked at me with something behind it. I couldn’t quite tell what it was. “What were you dreaming of?” he asked.

“Just now?”

“Yes.”

I hesitated. I didn’t want to sound crazy. But then, I thought, if I couldn’t trust him with this, then what could I trust him with?

“I saw you. On a dark ocean. It was beautiful and sad. And I wasn’t sure that you would come back. You looked peaceful and ready for another journey.”

He nodded.

“I was. I felt a safety and warmth that was welcoming me to a place that felt like home,” he said.

I felt sad at that, and I wasn’t sure why. But he noticed it.

“I said it felt like home. But it wasn’t. I knew there was more to do. And that journey could wait for me. There was another home calling to me. Stronger than that one. Do you know what that call was?”

I shook my head. “Tell me,” I said.

He reached forward and took my hands. “It was you. You called me back. You, Camilia, you are my home.”

I felt tears of joy well up in my eyes. I didn’t wipe them away.

“Troko, if you had, if you had passed… It was all my fault, and I don’t know what I’d have—”

He stopped me.

“I didn’t. You saved me. You are a hero, Camilia. You couldn’t have done anything other than what you did. And I love you with all I have.”

I brought his hands to my mouth and kissed them.

“I love you, Troko. I want to spend my life with you. And I never want to leave your side again.”

He nodded and leaned into me.

“Then let it be so. We shall arrange our union immediately, and it shall be the most magnificent this city has ever seen!” he roared, then started coughing.

I handed him some water and told him to sip it slowly.

“Easy, mighty warrior,” I said smiling. “We can wait. I’m not going anywhere.”

“And neither am I,” he said.

I nestled myself against him on the bed, making sure to be on the side that hadn’t been wounded.

“What shall we dream about?” I asked.

He sighed and used his good arm to hold me close.

“Let us dream of tall, sweet grasses, forests deep and green, lush fields of crops, rolling hillsides, and mountains capped with snow.”

I nodded.

“Yes. And a far-off sea, whose waves we can just hear crashing against the shore.”

Troko squeezed me tightly and soon he was asleep.

But I lay awake for a while, listening to the deep, easy rhythm of his breathing, assured in the knowledge that he would wake up in the morning.

Troko

“Are you sure you’re up for this?” Camilia asked, peering into my face and holding onto my hands.

“Do you want to know the truth?” I asked.

“Always.”

“Waiting three days has already been hard. I refuse to wait any more.” She laughed at my vehemence, and I leaned forward to kiss her fingertips. The fact that this dazzling, patient creature had consented to share my life was almost too much for me to believe. Some dark corner of me felt that if I waited any longer, she might just slip away.

We stepped from the waiting chamber into the courtyard. It’s true, I was still a bit unsteady on my feet, and I didn’t let my pride keep me from wincing now and again. To be able to show weakness to one’s friends may be counted as a strength.

As we walked, clanging rang out on every side. Camilia clung to my arm for a moment, until she saw the beaming faces awaiting us. Each adult D’Tali in attendance was rapping the hilt of his sword against his shield.

“What are they doing?”

“Honoring us. We saved the city.” The sight of so many men offering a military reverence put me in great danger of tearing up. I had to steel myself—there were still many emotions ahead of us.

We came to our positions, and the martial clamor stopped at a single stroke. Stealing one final glance at the radiant woman beside me, I placed my palm parallel to my chest and offered my bow before I even heard the shifting steps of our revered woman. A sharp pain cinched into my side, but I refused to show her any sign of discomfort.

“General.” The voice was low, warm and soothing.

“Kalethe.” I gave my head an extra dip, as if to make up for any deficiency my injury laced into my bow. The old woman shifted to face Camilia, then raised her chin to gaze into her face.

“Another of the newcomers.”

“She is.”

“Such fine features these women have. You are fortunate, General. There is strength in her face.”

“There is, and I feel my fortunes every time I look at her.” It was true, but it felt as though someone else were speaking through me. A formality was creeping into my mind, and I could feel the spirits of the Ancestors expanding within me.

When Kalethe’s fingers came to my chin, the feeling grew. Whatever pain I had carried into the ceremony melted away, and I was filled with a shining golden light. When I came stood upright, the glittering blue eyes of the Kalethe = greeted me. It had been a very long time since I had been this close to one of them and the sensation was unmistakably holy.

“Is she brave?”

“She is.”

“Is she wise?”

“I believe so.”

“And does she love you?”

“I do,” Camilia’s voice rose before mine could. “With everything I have.”

Kalethe turned slightly toward the woman I loved, and a faint, maternal smile spread across her face.

“Child?” Camilia turned to look at her. “He will be yours. And you will be his. Come.”

Stepping back from us, she aligned herself under the eyes of all our Ancestors, and beckoned us to join her. When I stepped into the spot she indicated, the light within me radiated into something deeper. Richer. I was at harmony with the past and the future.

“I understand that there are further honors for you both,” she said. “And that they have been earned with honest trial.” She raised her hands, and the assembled company formed a circle around us. Again, as each member of the company came into place, the thrumming inside me sharpened.

As one, the party knelt and placed their swords so that each point stopped just shy of where we stood. Like a prism, it focused all my senses, and I could feel the blood of every fallen soldier coursing in my veins. Looking into Camilia’s face, I could see her wonder at the majesty of it.

There was no doubt. She felt it as strongly as I.

“Your Majesty?” Kalethe put out her hand in invitation, and Dojak stepped into our charmed circle. Reaching out, he held a newly forged sword between us. Kalethe took my hands, and placed them on the pommel. Then, taking Camilia’s hands, she laced our fingers together until we were touching equal parts steel and each other.

Dojak stepped back and knelt with the rest. In all my life, it was the first time I could ever remember being offered that level of reverence from our king.

“This blade,” Kalethe began, “was forged for you. It is the perfect symbol of your love, made stronger by adversity. The steel was folded and beaten, just as you melded and were tested. It has two edges, each sharp and true. But these two sides meet at the point, and that is the place of greatest action. So of your minds. Each is keen and strong, but where they join is the greatest power.”

Camilia squeezed my fingers hard, and the rhythm of her breath resonated in my own chest. The sword was us in every way. Bonded into a unit stronger than either of us could ever have been alone.

“Bring the waters.”

As I had seen before, two of our oldest men paced into the hallowed circle. Their horns were yellow and cracked. They kept their heads bowed, and offered Kalethe their bowls with full respect.

Dipping her fingers into one bowl, she wiped the sacred waters across my forehead. Its shine cut straight to the center of my mind, and I felt whole in a way that was entirely fresh.

“I wash away all that you have been. In this moment, you are new.” It was true. For an instant, it was as if I could feel all the scars I had borne fading away. Kalethe raised the bowl to my lips, and I felt the celestial waters trickle into the center of my being.

She spilled the water at our feet, and in it I saw the constellations that connected the past to the future. While I was lost in the wonder of it, she anointed Camilia. She repeated the words of rejuvenation, and spilled those waters to mingle with mine. For me, that was the moment that bound us.

My water had been my own, and Camilia’s had been hers. But when they came together at our feet, it was one single water. They had blended and could never be separate again.

With the guidance of Kalethe’s gentle hands, Camilia and I stepped to join at the three points. The point of the sword rested where our toes met, and our foreheads touched to complete the circle. I heard my love draw in a small breath of wonder, and I knew she could feel the power radiating through us. It was a completeness, a oneness that rivaled the perfection I felt when we were making love.

That low hum rose up from all sides, and I could hear the voices of my friends individually, and blended as one. It seemed as though the vibrations echoed in the steel on the ground and in our hands. We were surrounded on every side by a pulsing, ethereal music.

“Now.”

Even as she said the word, the oaths came to me as if from another place. My own voice sounded strange in my ears, until I recognized it as the voice of my father. And my grandfather.

“By those who came before, by all who are, and by those who have yet to be, I ask that you bind your life to mine. That our journey will be a shared one. That your joy shall be my joy, your pain shall be my pain, and the wealth of your heart shall be the riches of mine.”

“I will.” The sound of the tears in Camilia’s voice brought a jagged lump into my throat. Everything closed up, and I bit down in an effort to try and maintain my composure. Small chance of that. As Camilia repeated the oath of bonding, a few tears broke free and peppered the back of my hand.

They were the first tears I could remember shedding since I was a child. But these were not from sorrow or pain. There was no weakness in these tears. They were the overflow of love and joy that my spirit was too narrow to hold.

“I will.” The words broke from me in a narrow croak, and drew a murmuring chuckle from all sides. When Kalethe’s fingers tucked under my chin, I kept my eyes clenched shut. I knew that Camilia would find my lips, but if I saw her, it might all be too much.

I had faced adversaries in the field more times than I could count. I had lain bleeding in ditches, whispering into the ears of my friends as they went off to join all those who had gone before. Just days before, I had lain in the gray zone between this life and the next. But I had never felt closer to death than I did in that moment.

The perfection of it all was enough to bring me to the door of my Ancestors. We did kiss. And I did open my eyes again. When I did, the world was different. Anything that had ever felt like danger melted away. Looking into Camilia’s face, all I could find was beauty.

From the way she looked at me, I almost wondered if the waters had actually washed my scars away.

Camilia

“To General Troko!” a D’Tali yelled. Everyone at the banquet cheered and laughed.

“To Camilia!” another D’Tali yelled. The cheers continued and the laughter carried far and wide.

I was married.

As I looked at the D’Tali sitting beside me at the head table, I couldn’t help but smile. The party was outside today at the request of Troko, and I knew that it was because of the last banquet that we’d attended together. D’Tali soldiers patrolled the perimeter of the party in full armor.

This wedding would not be like the banquet at the Aetamian city, that was for sure. Leave it to Troko to make sure that I felt absolutely and unequivocally safe. He understood what having a sober and armed perimeter guard would mean to me.

It would give me the ability to laugh, to forget the past and enjoy the day.

I took a swig of beer and looked at Troko. He looked back at me, eyes twinkling.

“I love you,” I breathed. I was still giddy at the thought. My heart pounded every time I looked at him. I couldn’t believe how much I loved this D’Tali with the scars.

“And I love you,” he said back. Then in front of humans and D’Tali alike, he leaned into me and kissed me deeply.

Cheers erupted from the tables and I broke the kiss off, blushing. I was never one to like being the center of attention. But, as far as reasons go, I suppose that this was the best one. I turned back to him and kissed him again, this time letting it linger.

“Troko!”

“Camilia!”

“Troko!”

“Camilia!”

I had just pledged to spend my entire life with Troko. An alien with horns and blue reptilian skin. Then again, that didn’t matter in the slightest. As I looked at him, his eyes glowed a soft blue. He was in love with me too. His body couldn’t lie about that.

Another platter of meat was passed up to the head table. I couldn’t resist. I scooped a few morsels onto my plate. It was delicious and I scooped more helpings. As far as weddings went, I had definitely been to worse.

Troko watched me attentively. It wasn’t awkward, he was just making sure that I was as happy as possible. That was his entire goal in life.

And the thought made me swoon all over again.

“More beer!” Troko yelled, slamming his mug onto the table. The D’Tali cheered his command, and they started to beat their mugs on the tables together.

This was a damn good party.

I caught Isabella’s eyes, who waved at me. I smiled and waved back. She was sitting across from Vokar and she looked away from me to laugh at one of his jokes.

“Those two,” Troko said in my ear. “There’s something there, right?”

I looked and saw that Vokar’s eyes glowed softly. It was so low that no one else would see it, especially since the beer was flowing freely.

“I knew it!” Troko exclaimed, watching Vokar closely.

“Knew what?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “We will talk about it later.”

I smiled at him. He smiled back and my heart melted. I took a swig of the beer, enjoying the bubbles and how it set my tongue buzzing.

“I can’t believe you love me,” Troko said, staring at me. “I can’t believe you said yes.”

“Of course I said yes,” I told him. “I have loved you since we kissed for the first time.”

He smiled at me, and it went to his eyes.

“I have loved you since then, as well,” he said. “Even if I didn’t want to admit it.”

I smiled back. Butterflies circled in my stomach and I took another hit of beer. It was a wedding, after all. My wedding. I was allowed to drink as much as I wanted, and no one could say shit.

“You make me the happiest woman on this planet,” I said to him, looking at his glowing eyes. “Actually, the happiest female on this planet. I could not imagine life without you.”

I couldn’t help myself. I leaned in and kissed him deeply again.

Cheers erupted around the tables. I laughed under the kiss and he smiled.

Today was a good day for the D’Tali.

“You did it!” Isabella said to me, walking up to the head table. She wasn’t quite walking straight, and I could tell that the beer was going to her head. “I’m so proud of you.” She hiccupped, and Troko looked at her, intrigued. “And you,” she said, pushing Troko’s shoulder. “You better take care of my friend here. Or else…” She hiccupped again and looked around. “I need to go throw up,” she mumbled.

Off she staggered to just outside the patrol line. Troko gave a nod to a foot soldier, who nodded back and followed the drunk woman.

“He will take care of her,” he said.

My heart leaped. Of course, Troko would ensure that my friend would be okay. It was things like that that made me fall in love. I wouldn’t have even thought about it, but Troko already had a plan and had followed it through.

Vokar weaved his way over. “Have you seen—”

Troko pointed in Isabella’s direction. Vokar smiled and patted his arm, then zigzagged away.

The noise grew louder as the beer flowed freely throughout the banquet.

“Let’s get out of here,” Troko said in my ear.

My heart leaped and I nodded. He took me by the hand and led me discretely away from the banquet before anyone else saw.

He took my arm in his and clasped my hand.

“I hope you’re happy,” he said to me as we walked. “Because I am the happiest D’Tali.”

“I’m so happy,” I assured him. I rubbed my fingers delicately along a scar that ran down his forearm. “I couldn’t imagine a better mate.”

We walked away from the banquet. Sounds carried over to us. We passed by Vokar, who waved enthusiastically while he held Isabella’s hair away from her face.

I laughed out loud.

As we walked and I held Troko’s muscular forearm, I couldn’t believe how lucky I truly was. No human man could illicit these emotions in me like Troko did. I had never really been interested in men before, and I certainly had never wanted to be tied down for the rest of my life. But for Troko, I would be. For him, I looked forward to the rest of my life.

I squeezed his hand. He guided me through the empty palace corridors.

“I’m so happy,” I said again for the hundredth time that day. “I’m so lucky I’m your mate.”

“I’m the lucky one,” Troko answered. “I can’t believe a woman like you would love someone like me.”

“You mean love someone who is brave, who is selfless, who would give his life for a soldier he had never met? You mean love someone like that?” I grasped his arm and turned him so that he was facing me. “You’re easy to love, Troko, even if you don’t see it.”

He kissed me deeply, pulling me into his body by my lower back. We explored each other’s mouths passionately, and I rubbed my fingertips up and down his arm while he held me close.

“We’re almost at my quarters,” he said gently. “Let’s hurry.”

Fire burned between my legs and my breath was shallow in my chest. “I totally agree.”

He pulled me along with him while I giggled. We made the door of his quarters and he pressed me into the wall beside it.

His body covered mine, and the pressure felt so good. We locked lips again, and my heart thundered in my chest.

“I need you,” I mumbled. He moved a knee up between my legs and my eyes rolled. “Now.”

“Whatever you say,” he said. He opened the door of his quarters and we tumbled inside. He pushed me back against the door and kissed me again. This time, his fingers worked on my shirt. In no time, he pulled it up and over my head.

He lightly caressed my body, up and down with his fingertips. It sent me shivering. Then, a little harder, he placed a hand on my breast. I arched towards him, aching for his body. I moaned, and he smiled at me in the darkness.

I managed to find the bottom of his shirt and pull it off over his head. I couldn’t believe how ripped he was. I ran my fingertips along his muscles slowly, savoring every edge, every sculpted muscle. He had abs for days, and I could feel the ridge where they met his chest. I caressed him and ran my fingers down one of his scars.

His eyes glowed as we kissed. I pulled him in closer to me. I needed him to be close to me today. I needed the connection. I craved it.

“My love,” he said, removing his hand from my breast and laying it gently on my face. “My one and only. My mate.”

I pulled him in close, breathing fast. I looked up at him. “My mate,” I said back to him. “My one and only. My love.”

Camilia

Troko smiled at me as I said it.

“My mate. My one and only. My love.”

He kissed me with a vigor I’d never felt before. My breath hitched and my heart thundered. This was love. True love. I knew it to the depths of my soul. I placed my hand on his horns and pulled him deeper into the kiss.

He broke off the kiss and started working his way down my body, kissing me gently as he went. His fingers brushed me lightly, and it drove me wild. I shivered, and a smile dawned on his lips. He ran his tongue down my lower stomach and I shuddered.

Gently, he pushed my skirt up and pulled my underwear off, leaving me in just my bra. I kicked them away. We’d find them later.

This was the best I’d ever had. And we still hadn’t left the doorway.

He kissed me across the front, then gently pulled my leg up and placed my knee on his shoulder. I opened myself to him, body and soul. He kissed me softly on the inner thigh and ran his hand gently across my pussy. He kissed my clit and electricity fired through my brain. After a few kisses, he started to lick my clit.

I grabbed one of his horns and moaned softly. My chest arched and my eyes rolled into the back of my head. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. Slowly, gently, he ran his tongue over my wetness, back to front in the same gentle motion. My heart was in my throat. I couldn’t breathe right.

“Troko,” I mumbled. “Yes. Please. Yes.”

He kept licking slowly. He parted my outer lips with his tongue and made slow circles along my inner lips, tasting every inch of me.

“Shit,” I breathed as the fire grew between my legs. My bones were soft. I was his completely. “Oh, yes.”

He took his thumb and placed it on my clit. Then he worked his tongue in gentle circles around my pussy. The fire grew and I moaned louder and louder.

“Yes,” I cried. “Fuck, yes.”

He pressed in and started rubbing back and forth.

I yelled something incomprehensible.

He moved his thumb faster and faster, increasing the pressure on my clit while his tongue circled my pussy. I grabbed both his horns and started using them to set the pace. He gave in to it, and I guided his head as he rubbed me with his thumb.

I couldn’t believe that I could feel this way. All of my nerves were firing at once. Pure pleasure rolled over my body, chased by pure love.

Faster and faster we went, until finally I couldn’t take anymore. He licked me and I cried out. Over I went into the bliss of orgasm and darkness. It fired through my lower abdomen and I contracted. My hands tightened on his horns and I moaned softly as the rushing tide was subdued.

My legs shook and the only thing that stopped me from falling over was Troko’s strong arms. He picked me up and carried me to the bed. I snuggled my head against his chest while he walked, listening to his strong heartbeat and his deep breaths.

We were one. We were the same. Joined together, for always.

That four seconds of recovery was all I needed. He dumped me on the bed and lay down beside me, clearly thinking that I was done.

“Not yet,” I said with a laugh. Nimbly, I switched positions so that I was on top of him, straddling his lower stomach.

“Hello, beautiful,” he said to me, running his fingers up and down my body. He sat up and unclasped my bra, exposing my breasts. “That’s better.” He started rubbing my nipples and I moaned. I needed him. Now.

“Pants off,” were the only words I could muster at that moment. It had been a pretty spectacular orgasm. “Now.”

He laughed. I swung my leg over to kneel beside him and kissed him deeply. He managed to squirm out of his pants. His cock sprang free and I looked at it hungrily.

I didn’t give him time to say anything.

I took him in my mouth. He was large, but I opened my jaw wide and slowly started bouncing my head up and down. I was beside him, kneeling on the bed, and I snaked my hand down to his balls.

“Oh, shit,” he said as I started to gently rub him, taking his hard length deeply in my mouth. He gently laced a hand through my hair, letting me set the pace.

He got a hand around my ass, then he pushed a finger into me. Stars exploded as he did, and I moaned in pleasure. Slowly, he worked his finger back and forth while I devoured him.

“Mmm,” was all I could manage.

“Yes,” he said. “This is…perfect.”

He started to finger me faster and faster. I rocked my body in time with his strokes. Suddenly, an orgasm took me by surprise. I let go of his cock and came around his finger, contracting over and over.

Driven mad by lust, I swung my leg across him. Then, staring at his face with my hands on his chest, I lowered myself onto him. His cock slid past my inner lips right away, filling me up entirely. I could feel him pulsing against my walls and I let out a satisfied sigh. My heart thudded and my breath came fast.

I put my hands behind me on his knees and started to ride him, up and down.

“You’re so tight,” he breathed.

He rubbed my body with his hands as I rode him. I did it gently for a bit, then I took all of him inside until our hips were touching. His eyes glowed as I did, and a violent moan erupted from my mouth. Then, before I could move back up, he held me down on his cock and started working my clit with his thumb.

Sparks flew. My vision blurred. Pure pleasure pummeled me, a wave of sensation that threatened to drown me.

“Oh, God,” I said. “I’m going to come.”

“Yes,” he said. He started to move his hips back and forth a little, while keeping all of him inside me. “Come for me.”

It was too much.

This time it wasn’t a gentle nudge over a cliff. It was a solid push. The orgasm rolled through me and I clenched around him, over and over. I collapsed onto his chest, not able to breathe. He stroked my hair.

“Ride it out, love,” he said in my ear.

When the contractions had finished, he pulled out and flipped us over so he was on top.

“You’re so fucking wet,” he said softly.

He pushed himself into me, and I gasped and moaned with pleasure. He looked me in the eye and we matched speeds. He drove his hips into me, faster and faster, and I rose my hips up to meet him. Our paces matched, the same as our souls.

He was mine, and I was his. My heart couldn’t beat harder.

I wrapped my legs around his hips and opened myself completely to him.

“My love,” I gasped between thrusts.

“My mate,” he answered. He drove into me, over and over, long steady strokes. I matched his pace. Our hips met at the base every time, and I thought that I would go blind. I grabbed the blankets above my head.

I closed my eyes.

“No,” he said. “Look at me.”

I listened. I opened my eyes and met his glowing eyes. We went harder and harder. My moans turned into screams, which turned into silent gasps of pure pleasure. I placed a hand gently on the side of his face.

“Come with me,” he said. He was focused, and his brow was furrowed with concentration. I knew we couldn’t hold on any longer.

“Together,” I said to him. “Together.”

I screamed and came, clamping down around him. I felt him pulsate inside me as he emptied himself. He sighed and lowered his head into the crook of my neck. I was blind for a few moments. Gradually, I opened my legs and he pulled out of me. I missed him when he was gone.

He shifted over and lay beside me, breathing hard. I put my head on his chest and brushed my fingers lightly over his scars. We stayed like that for a while. I may have fallen asleep, I wasn’t sure. Our hearts slowed and our breathing returned to normal.

“My mate,” he said to me under his breath after a while.

“My mate,” I answered.

We were one.

I couldn’t believe that I got to spend the rest of my life like this, with him, but this was real. As I drifted into a dreamless sleep, butterflies swirled in my stomach.

I got to be with him for the rest of my life.

Me and him.

Always.

Epilogue: Troko

Another cartload of supplies rolled through the gates, and I immediately put a team on picking it over. It wasn’t enough to ensure that no spies had snuck in among the cargo, but they were going to have to inspect each item for traps. Only our most trusted allies were allowed to drive supply trains.

“Secure the port,” I called, and the huge wooden gates were shut and barred. The last thing we needed was a brigade of Aetamian fighters to rush us. Over the last months, I had even decided that a single brace wasn’t enough to secure against attack. A series of additional supports were hammered into place any time we locked up.

“General?”

One of my men was standing on the edge of the wagon, holding out a small crate. I trotted over to look inside. There were a series of small bottles packed in straw, and I warmed to look at them.

“Could these be some kind of Aetamian potions?”

“Not likely,” I chuckled. “They’re ointments we requested. I’ll take them.” Lifting the box down, I gently set it to the side. It wasn’t as if I needed an excuse to go see Camilia at the infirmary, but I did like to be the one who came bearing gifts.

“Are we clear?” A series of affirmatives came my way.

“General Troko—a moment?” The driver had hopped down and beckoned me to the side.

“Drilar,” I called to a soldier standing on the cart. “Drive this around to the square and see that everything gets distributed.” He offered me a salute, and I stepped over to the driver. He pushed back his hood, and I was relieved to see a familiar face from my training days.

“Zukar,” I greeted him. “What’s the news?”

“Not good,” he said. “I kept well clear of the border lines, but even at my distance I was able to see preparations afoot. They’re preparing something.”

“Any idea what it might be?”

He shook his head. “What is it always? A trap. A siege. What they have in weaponry they lack in imagination.”

“True.” The Aetamians were unsubtle strategists. With the death of Mohad, they were at even more of a loss. And all the more eager to exact vengeance for it.

“Who else is out on supply runs?”

If it hadn’t been Zukar asking, I would have been suspicious of the question. The number of our people outside the walls, and their identities, had become a closely guarded secret. Nothing was left to chance anymore.

“We’ve got three teams out,” I said. “Each one led by a trusted man. Don’t worry, my friend.” I put a hand on his shoulder. “When will you be ready to go out again?”

“Say the word,” Zukar replied. “I’m always ready to be of service.” He turned and trudged away, and I watched him as he limped along. He’d lost his hand and was lamed years ago, but soldiers like him were rare.

“General.”

My rank was becoming so common in my ears, I sometimes wondered if I had a name anymore. Looking back to the clutch of soldiers who had inspected the cart, I saw my favorite kind of sight. They stood around an open crate, beaming at me.

“Crossbows,” one of them said. My side smarted at the mere mention of the word, but I strode over to grab one up. They had been specially made to the specifications of the one we had taken from the now-dead Aetamian general.

“Heavy,” I said, giving it an approving heft with my arm. “Are there bolts?”

Another soldier gave a kick to a small wooden box and I flipped it open. It was packed with neat rows of sharp darts.

“How many boxes of these do we have?”

“A dozen.”

“Perfect,” I said.

Tossing the weapon to the head of the team, I sent him off to find my lieutenant. We needed to start training our men on these as quickly as we could. Even if a battle wasn’t imminent, I wanted to be ready.

Since Aetam had declared open war, preparation was our best defense. Perhaps it had been bravado on my part to send Mohad’s head back to his kingdom, but I wanted a clear message to be sent. Not only had we conquered, but we were unafraid.

Hoisting up the box of medical supplies, I made my way toward the castle. On every side, there was the bustle of military activity. There was a martial organization to it all that swelled my chest. The D’Tali forces were as tight, armed, and organized as they had ever been. And I sat at the head.

“I hear that Aetam is in high preparation,” Vokar glided up next to me.

“Everyone knows that,” I grinned. “I thought you were supposed to be at the forefront of these things. When are you going back out to scout?”

“Are you kidding?” We walked in silence for a moment. He wasn’t in such a hurry to risk his life in the field these days, and we both knew why. There’s nothing like infatuation to suddenly make one conscious of mortality. After Dojak and I were bound to our mates, you could almost hear the wheels turning in Vokar’s head.

It was easy to see why he had goaded me so much about Camilia. Seeing him on the rack about what to do with his own human woman positively made me itch to stick my thumb in the wound. There’s a glee in watching someone squirm over love.

“Coming to the infirmary with me?” I asked as we made our way down the corridor. “I’m sure Isabella will be there helping out…”

“Oh, get fucked.” With a little scowl, he broke off down another hallway and stalked off. I let myself chuckle a bit as I watched him go.

Pushing through into the infirmary, I found it alive with activity. Not only was Isabella there helping my mate, but a whole host of human women were busy at work. It wasn’t enough to fortify with weapons and grain—nearly every cart that returned had been laden with medical supplies.

“Hello, love,” Camilia called. That drew some stifled giggles from the other women, but they no longer bothered me. Anyone could poke fun if they wanted to—I had the last laugh. Every night, I got to lie down beside this perfect woman.

“I come bearing gifts,” I said, and placed my armload among all the other boxes.

“Oh, wonderful.” Camilia was by me in an instant. Her aroma flooded into my lungs as I hovered and watched her turn over the bottles. “This is excellent.” She looked up to my face. “Thanks to you, we have as well-prepared an infirmary as I’ve ever seen.”

“We may need it, I’m afraid.” While I never wanted to let clouds pass in front of the men, it was safe to share them with her. She was my equal partner in everything, and it would be wrong to keep her from my fears as well as my joys.

“Would you like some good news?”

“Always,” I said.

“Come with me.” Making her excuses, she led me out into the hallway and shut the door behind us. “What if I told you that I was late?”

“Nonsense.” I shook my head. “The supply chains have been coming in regularly, and you have more help than anyone could ask. If anything, I’d say you were ahead.”

She smiled at me and let out a laughing breath through her nose. Clearly, I had missed something.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m late.”

“For what?” This had to be some kind of riddle.

“For my…monthly.” At the last word, she lowered her voice to a whisper and shifted her eyes from side to side. This was only getting more confusing. When she sensed I still wasn’t following her lead, she let out an amused sigh and clapped her hands against her hips.

“Of course,” she said, slowly shaking her head. “How would you know about that? Even the men on Earth don’t always get it.”

“You’re speaking in code,” I fired back. “I am, and always have been, a soldier. I speak plainly. If you want to play games, you can speak to Vokar.”

“Vokar isn’t the one who got me pregnant.”

My chest went tight. If she had come out here for privacy, then raising her voice wasn’t going to help. The whole castle must have heard. But, in that moment, we were the only two people under the stars who mattered.

“Camilia.” I was barely able to find my voice. “Is it true?” My hands had drifted up to cradle her jaw, and she reached up to place her own cool fingertips over mine.

“It is.” The look in her eyes was somewhere between joy and fear.

“I have only one question,” I said. “If I pick you up, will it endanger the baby?”

She shook her head, breaking into a broad smile, and I scooped her up. Her arms wreathed around my neck as I spun her there in the torchlight.

Shielded in my embrace, I never wanted to put her down, never wanted to let her feet touch the uncertain soil again. If I could just keep her wrapped up like that, then nothing could ever harm her. And if she was unharmed, then I would always be well.

Feeling her breath against me, I thought about the world outside. The impending war with Aetam, and all the preparations we were making every day to meet it. Anything outside these walls might be dangerous, but I knew one truth. One thing that I could cling to.

As long as Camilia and I were together, then there was nothing we couldn’t face. Under the eyes of all the Ancestors, I swore to protect that above everything.

For all time.

* * *

I hope you had fun with the warriors of the D’tali!

Next up… anyone for spending some time with a rough edged assassin?

He's deadly. The court assassin. And an alien.

So why can't I resist stealing glances at him?

And why does the idea that he wants more than stolen glances make my breath catch in my throat?

Shadowed by her Alien Mate is the third book of the Warriors of the D'Tali science fiction romance series. Each book contains a complete HEA for our couple, and lots of steamy SFR fun!

Read on for a sneak peek, or click here to get Shadowed by her Alien Mate on Amazon now!

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Shadowed by her Alien Mate: Sneak Peek

Isabella

The ship was dark.

Long shadows spilled across the corridors, and the only light we had came from the torch that Vokar carried. He walked a few steps ahead of me, but his footsteps were so silent it was almost as if he wasn’t there. That shouldn’t have surprised me—he was an assassin, after all.

“I think we should be close,” I muttered, looking down at the piece of paper in my hands. The map was crude, but it was enough for us to have an idea of where we should go. Camilia and I had drawn it together after many trips to the shipwreck, but now it was my duty to find the ship’s medbay and see if I could find some salvageable equipment.

I would’ve preferred to have Camilia here with me, obviously, since hopefully even with alien medical technology, she’d have the best chance of recognizing things.

Unfortunately, that hadn’t been possible. She was completely swamped.

She’d been working impossible hours for weeks, training the D’Tali healers in Tahkath, the D’Tali capital, about the importance of sterilization, and the details about germ theory.

It didn’t help that without microscopes, she had to try to convince the older, more stubborn of the healers to take what she said on faith.

Luckily, her successful results with the wounded in the last skirmish with Aetamians had backed up her claims, so more and more of the younger healers were coming to her for training.

That would have kept her busy enough, and to top it off, her protective mate, General Trokol, didn’t feel comfortable with sending her on a dangerous expedition.

“There’s a door here,” Vokar whispered, the bass of his voice enough for the hairs on the back of my neck to stand up on end. I didn’t know what it was, but there was something about Vokar that made my body react in a visceral way. All he had to do was glance at me, and my insides clenched up almost immediately. “Hold this.”

Turning on his heels, Vokar handed me the torch and then focused on the block of metal in front of us. The door didn’t seem damaged, but I figured that the locking mechanism could have become jammed during the crash. Our landing on this planet had been violent enough for that.

I smiled as I thought of those crazy first days.

A little less than a year had passed since we found ourselves stranded on this strange planet, but it felt like it had happened a lifetime ago. Everytime I thought about it, I could scarcely believe that I had been a young engineer trying to make a career happen in San Francisco. I had gone jogging one night after a complicated shift, a blinding white light appeared out of nowhere, and then…

My life changed forever.

I woke up in the cargo hold of this ship I now stood in, surrounded by women of the same age as I was, and there were alien creatures all around. Eventually, after these ape-like creatures—the Skarg—used their translation tech on us, we figured out they intended to sell us into slavery...but that never came to pass. They were ambushed and shot at, and so they were forced to crash land on this strange and mysterious planet.

We were rescued by the D’Tali, a race of lizard-like warriors, and we had been with them ever since. And thank heavens for that—I didn’t want to think about what could’ve happened to us without the D’Tali.

Despite their primitive tech, they did their best to make sure we had a place to call home. In fact, they did more than just help us. They became our friends and, in a couple of cases, they even turned into...lovers.

Sofia ended up marrying Dojak, the D’Tali king, and Camilia fell in love with General Trokol. Believe it or not, Sofia had even become pregnant. That, of course, was part of the reason I was back at the ship. As interspecies marriage was a new concept, nobody really knew what to expect when it came to a pregnancy like this.

My thinking was that there had to be some medical devices we could retrieve from the ship’s medbay. Camilia agreed with that assessment and, since she couldn’t leave the city because of her new duties, I had been put in charge of this expedition. To be honest, leading an expedition like this was something I couldn’t say I was exactly comfortable with, and that despite having some experience as a lead engineer back on Earth.

Thankfully, Vokar was here with me.

Even though he didn’t have an official title, everyone knew he had the King’s ear, and so the D’Tali warriors who served as my escort knew to obey him. That ensured that I had the ship as my sole concern.

Of course, Vokar’s presence could also be a distraction.

Whenever he stood just a little closer to me, it felt as if my body started boiling from the inside out. My insides clenched up, and it became almost impossible to think straight. As a result, I tended to become an awkward and bumbling idiot whenever I was around him.

“I think I got it,” Vokar said, his voice snapping me out of my reverie. Narrowing my eyes, I watched as he pried the door open to reveal a mid-sized room with sterile walls. I squeezed myself past him and held the torch up, the flames bathing the room with their warm light.

“This is it,” I said with a squeal, a smile spreading across my lips as I noticed all the medical equipment that littered the room. At least I thought it was medical equipment. Since I was an engineer, I had become the one in charge of analyzing everything we retrieved from the shipwreck, and I thought I was familiar enough with the Skarg tech to know what their medical equipment would look like.

“Seems like some of it has been bolted down.” Kneeling beside what seemed like a futurist CT scan device, Vokar tapped the bolts that kept the machine in place. “I think we can cut it down, though.”

He looked up at me, his eyes found mine, and that familiar heat returned to assault my body. I had to make a very conscious effort to focus on what he was saying.

“Do you think you’ll be able to power all this up?”

Nervously, I ran my tongue over my lips and nodded.

“I think so,” I replied. “Judging by how their tech functions, I’m assuming there’s a power core somewhere deeper in the ship. It’s only a matter of finding it and getting it back to the city.” I looked at the map I still held in my hands. “It’s probably not that far from here. It should be in the engine room or nearby. Judging by what we’ve drawn from the ship’s layout, we’re close to it.”

“Then lead the way.”

Together, we walked out of the medbay and kept on walking down that dark corridor. Despite the mazelike appearance of the ship’s innards, it was fairly easy not to get lost, and it took us less than twenty minutes to find what I thought to be the engine room. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other as Vokar pried the door open, and then we both slipped inside the room.

The moment we were inside, I immediately noticed something bright on the corner. Ignoring all the pieces of machinery that filled the large room, I made a straight line toward it.

It was some sort of spherical crystal, and it wasn’t bigger than a closed fist.

“Well, that’s interesting,” I muttered. Carefully, I tossed a tiny scrap of wire towards it, to see if it gave of any sort of tell-tell electrical crackle.

Nothing.

Quickly I poked it.

Still nothing.

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered, and picked it up from the floor.

Despite the glow, it was cold to the touch. Turning on my heels, I headed toward the main engine block and immediately noticed a hook which seemed to have been designed with the crystal’s shape in mind. Turning it slightly, I pushed the crystal into it.

“Oh my.”

The moment the sphere touched the plate behind the hook, the lights mounted on the ceiling flickered and came alive, flooding the room with light. Even the engine started humming, power surging through the entire ship like fresh blood coursing through a newly awakened giant.

“It works,” I shouted, pumping one fist up into the air. “It works!”

I jumped up with joy and, before I even knew what I was doing, I launched myself into Vokar’s arms and hugged him as tightly as I could.

Even if just for a moment, all my shyness was gone.

Vokar

At first, I didn’t know what to do.

Physical contact had never been something I was terribly accustomed to – especially of the affectionate variety. There was a kind of camaraderie among soldiers that allowed for some liberty, but to be embraced by a woman was something else entirely.

I looked down at this usually shy, petite creature and tried to figure out exactly what I should do. No matter how I reacted, I might betray how much I actually enjoyed Isabella’s touch.

That wasn’t a good thing, was it?

Finally, I settled for a few pats on her back.

As quickly as she had flung her arms around me, she stepped away. The instant she released me, I realized how much I was relishing being held. It felt like dangerous territory, so I did my best to avoid it for the time being.

“We should head back to the medbay,” she said without looking at me. “There is some equipment back there I think we’ll need.” As she ducked through the doorway, I thought I could see her cheeks flushed a reddish pink. My stomach flooded with an unaccountable feeling.

I hustled out after her, suddenly unwilling to let her out of my sight. How was it that this slender human female had come to occupy such a large place in my thoughts? It seemed like I was always seeking her out. Every time I was around her, I felt refreshed.

It was terrible.

After giving Trokol so much shit over Camilia, I hated to think what was coming my way.

But Camilia was Trokol’s mate, so it was completely different – wasn’t it? It couldn’t be possible that Isabella was mine. Even as I thought that, I caught myself watching the gentle sway of her ass as she strode up the corridor ahead of me. Okay, this could actually be trouble.

“How much of this do you think we’ll need?” I asked as we came back into the medbay, a few of the D’Tali soldiers we had brought with us already there.

“Hard to say.” The color had gone from her cheeks, and I found myself wishing it were back. “With Sofia’s baby on the way, a fair amount of this could be really useful.”

“Just point out what you want, and I’ll see to it that our men bring it back with us.”

“Really?” It seemed like such a small offer, but she turned a radiant face to me, her eyes shimmering. My chest tightened at it.

“Of course.” I sketched a small bow. It felt unbelievably awkward, but I had to do something to keep from staring into her eyes. One or two of the D’Tali close at hand chuckled lightly, and I made a mental note that they would pay for it later.

As I watched, she made her way around the bay, pointing out the things she thought we would need back at Tahkath. I made note of everything, but the men were already setting themselves to work hauling things out. She had an unusual power over men that way, and my stomach burned at the thought that any of the other D’Tali might be harboring thoughts over her.

“What else?” I asked after she had finished her inventory.

“The weapons, of course. If we can activate them, they would be invaluable.”

“Naturally.”

“Oh,” she stopped in place and flashed those large blue eyes up at me. “We’ll need the sphere. To power everything.”

Without answering, I darted back out into the hallway. A cold feeling threaded up through me at the thought that I might get back to the center of this ship and find the sphere missing. I kicked myself for the oversight in leaving it behind us in the first place.

Reaching the control center, I breathed easier to see the crystal sphere still in place. While I couldn’t fathom how this all worked, the sphere was obviously invaluable. Whatever magic it possessed was the nerve center of everything, and could be profoundly dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands.

I had been hearing rumblings through my intelligence contacts that some strange creatures had been spotted out in the forests and in the desert. What little description there was sounded unlike anything known to exist. The notion that these beasts could be the same creatures that stole the women from their home planet wasn’t lost on me.

It put me even further on my guard. If my suspicions were correct, then they knew their way around this ship better than anyone. Our mission felt all the more imperative, and I was determined to get anything useful out of the wreckage on this visit.

“Here you are,” I presented Isabella with the sphere, as if it were a precious fruit. She took it in both hands, and folded it carefully in a cloth she pulled from her belt.

“Thank you,” she said meekly. “You’re always the first to move if I need anything.”

“Well, I…” my mouth hung open, but no words came forward to fill it. For one terrible moment, my guard was completely down. Fortunately, if the other D’Tali noticed, they were too busy lugging equipment around to show it.

“I’ve just noticed, is all.” Isabella tucked the sphere into the satchel slung across her shoulders. “Rescuing this has been incredibly important. Without it, there’s no way to power the ship, or anything on it other than the battery packs we used recently, but that’s a finite resource that could run down anytime.”

“Then we got it just in time.”

“Why?” She looked up at me, a mixture of fear and suspicion flickering across her face. “What’s going on?”

I had spoken too quickly. After having been caught out, my defenses were down. It felt wrong to tell her of my misgivings over those monsters that brought her here. I was never one to speak on faulty intelligence, and it was far too soon to say anything for certain.

“Nothing,” I said at last. “If it can activate these things you need to aid in the birth of our King’s child, that’s what’s important.” That seemed plausible enough. It was true, but didn’t touch on the deeper reasons for my relief.

We wound our way back out of the center of the iron beast and out into the clearing. The men had been working diligently, and a fair amount of cargo was already being hoisted onto our wagons.

“Don’t forget to clear out the arsenal,” I called out. “Pull out everything you can.” A couple of numa were brought around, and I helped Isabella onto hers before mounting my own. With a couple of the other D’Tali, we set out for Tahkath.

With all of the equipment we’d removed, it was tempting to go in a straight line back to the capital.

It’d be considerably shorter, but directly between the crash site and the capital were the wild deserts.

The roundabout way was safest. For Isabella, and for the wagon wheels.

I prefer to travel alone, but there’s no way I was letting Isabella out of my sight to make the journey.

After we were well clear of the ship, I rode ahead to scout out the path. If there was danger ahead, I wanted to know about it before anyone else came under fire. Especially Isabella.

In this world of combat, the human women seemed to need protecting. Everything about our way of life was so removed from their own experience, and I found myself increasingly aware of that. Especially where Isabella was concerned. Let the men snicker if they wanted – my job was to gather intelligence and defend.

“Vokar!” Her voice overtook me, and I slowed my numa to a trot so she could ride up alongside me.

“It’s more than you said back there,” she said knowingly. I was at a loss. So much of my time was spent speaking in riddles, that I wondered which half-truth she had caught me in.

“About what?” My nature made me guarded.

“The sphere. You said we had gotten it just in time.”

“With Sofia…” I was in the midst of falling back on the lie, when she waved me off.

“It’s not that. At least, not entirely that.” Given how shy she normally was, I opted to drop the pretense. If she was willing to venture outside of her comfort zone, then I owed it to her to meet her there.

“No, it’s not.” She nodded for a moment.

“Can you tell me what the danger is?”

“I don’t know what it is,” I said plainly. “It’s not my way to speak before I’m certain.”

“Me too,” she said. After a brief silence, she spoke up. “The last thing we need is this kind of power falling into Aetamian hands. I’ve seen firsthand what adversaries they can be, and we can’t afford to give them any advantages.”

I was stunned. This beautiful creature who rode beside me noticed everything. More than that, she weighed it all out and came to her own conclusions. It didn’t take a master strategist to know that the Aetamians would leap at the kind of power the sphere offered, but it seemed that few put their minds to it.

“We can’t,” I said at last, then pointed to her satchel. “What you have there, is unlike anything our world has seen. If we can use it to heal, that will be enough.”

“And if we can use it against our enemies?” she asked. I looked over into her serious face and smiled.

“Then, I think that would be more than enough. Don’t you?”

She smiled, and we rode together in silence. The sun was dropping, and the sky lit up over us in an array of deep, rich colors. For a moment, I tried to see it all through her eyes. The wizardry I had seen on that metal beast they arrived in was completely foreign to me. And yet, that was the world she had come from.

A woman who could control that kind of machinery, who could master it, was singular in this world. It made her an incredibly valuable asset. Still, while her value was increasing all the time, I was slowly coming to realize that she was far more than a mere ‘asset.’

Isabella

I walked quickly through the palace, excited to share my news with Sophia. That medical equipment will be very helpful to her, especially since no one was really sure what was going to happen with a half human, half D’Tali baby.

The King, Dojak, was justifiably worried. Actually, we all were. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to Sofia or her baby. The D'tali and Aetam were the rare sort of reptiles that had live births, making them different than the rest of their distant cousins. It was a wonderful thing that they were even able to conceive between species.

Now, it was mine and Camilia’s job to make sure that everything ran smoothly.

Camilia would handle the medical stuff a lot easier if I could fix it up for her. It was really a top priority.

There were only twelve women in our ship when it crashed, and we couldn’t lose any of us. There was no way I was going to let that happen.

Sofia was like a mother to all of us. And now she was the Queen. The increased pressure of that made the anxiety rise, but I breathed a little bit and walked faster, trying to burn the extra energy off.

Look forward, fix the problem, don’t look back.

That’s what I was good at.

I climbed the stairs to the tower that I shared with the other women. Well, most of the other women. Both Camilia and Sofia now lived with their D’Tali husbands. I reached the door of my quarters in the tower that I shared with the other women, and I could already hear laughter coming from the other side. I smiled as I recognized Sofia’s voice.

I strode inside to see Camilia, Sofia, Riley, Hannah and Celeste. The other women were probably out somewhere. When I walked in, they all looked at me and smiled. Sofia was lounging on a chair and she looked big.

I was running out of time to get this medical equipment up and running.

“Isabella!” Riley said, standing and coming over to give me a hug, “How did it go?”

“Good!” I said. I pulled a chair into the circle and Camilia rose and got me a glass of water. “I got the medical equipment we needed. Vokar is getting some D’Tali to haul it back here.”

Sofia raised an eyebrow at the D’Tali’s name but didn’t say anything.

“How are you feeling?” I asked her.

“Oh, it’s almost time,” she said, rubbing her belly. “So, I can definitely feel that…”

“That’s understandable,” I said, taking a sip of water. Sitting looked hard, let alone standing or walking and having to be queen. As I looked at her pregnant belly, I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy. Pregnancy didn’t look like it was all of that fun.

“Camilia has news,” Riley said, shooting the nurse a look.

“Oh?”

“Well…” Camilia took a deep breath, then smiled. “I’m pregnant.”

The shock almost had me dropping my glass of water. I gaped at her, unable to really speak. She looked at me nervously.

“Holy shit,” I breathed. Then I broke into a smile. “Congratulations!” I stood up and hugged her. “Now I feel bad for making you get me a glass of water!”

“You didn’t make me,” Camilia said, laughing. “I offered. Plus, I’m not an invalid.”

“Speak for yourself,” Sofia grumbled from her chair. “I’m not getting up to get anyone anything. I’m barely getting up to go to the bathroom.”

“Wow,” I breathed, staring at the two women. “Pregnant. Both of you. Does anyone have an idea about how this is going to work?”

“Well, as I'm on a trial run, we will see with me,” Sofia said, stroking her belly. “This kid is active though. Kicking and squirming all night, I can barely get any sleep.”

“Well that’s a good sign.”

“Sure is,” Camilia said, smiling warmly. She definitely had the pregnancy glow. Either that or she was running a fever.

I honestly wasn’t sure which one was worse.

“I just really hope he isn’t ugly…” Sofia breathed. “There’s a lot of different ways a half-human, half-D’tali can come out.”

Riley and I looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“I promise that, if he is ugly, we will lie to you about it,” Riley said. “On my honor.”

Sofia burst out laughing.

“Good,” she said. “At least I won’t know he’s ugly until later.”

“He?” I said playfully, “Do you know something we don’t?”

“Mother’s intuition. And I was tired of Dojak calling him “it” to piss me off,” Sofia grumbled.

It was hard not to laugh at her. It really was. I tried, but Riley burst into giggles and I had to follow.

“Glad you guys enjoyed that,” Sofia said grumpily. “You know I can have you kicked out of here like that?” She snapped her fingers.

Riley and I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Seems like an empty threat,” Riley laughed. “I think you’d have to catch us first to kick us out, and that seems like it will be a problem.”

It was Sofia’s turn to laugh.

“Don’t make me pee myself,” she said with a giggle.

“She’s really selling pregnancy,” I said to Camilia. “How can you not be excited?”

Camilia shrugged with a wide smile.

“How are you feeling?” I asked. “Any nausea or anything?”

“A little, if I don’t eat early enough,” Camilia answered. “I feel good, though. I’ve heard horror stories of pregnancies and I seem to be feeling really well. I hate the smell of food cooking, but I love food, so Trokol has been busy.”

“How’s that going?”

Riley laughed.

“She’s knocked up, so probably pretty well.”

Camilia blushed.

“You’re not wrong,” she said. “He’s pretty amazing. I’m lucky to have him.”

“You say that now,” Sofia said, “Then you’ll be nine months and the sound of him snoring will make you want to smother him in his sleep.”

We laughed again, and Sofia smiled at us while we did.

“You’re not fooling anyone,” Riley said. “I saw you two together yesterday. Madly in love is the term I would use to describe you two.”

Sofia smiled, but didn’t say anything.

“What about you?” Camilia asked, sagely changing the subject. “What’s new?”

“Oh, not much,” I said. “I’m pretty excited that I got that med equipment to turn on. I figured out how the ship was being powered, and I brought with me the crystal the Skarg were using to do it, so I’m pretty sure I can tinker with it until it works. I’ll have the equipment up and running soon enough.”

“What about Vokar?” Sofia asked.

I turned and stared at her.

“That’s what Camilia is getting at,” Riley chimed in. “We really just want to know about Vokar.”

“What about him?”

I felt my cheeks rush to bright red. I could feel the heat radiating off of me. I liked being around Vokar, but he was pretty broody. He followed me everywhere and always made sure I was safe, but I had assumed that he was just bored with no one to assassinate right now. Anxiety rose as I thought about other people noticing something I didn’t.

“He’s been going with you lots,” Sofia said. “I was just wondering if there was anything going on there?”

“Not that I know of,” I said a little too quickly.

I didn’t want to talk about this anymore. It was causing me too much anxiety. As if sensing this, Sofia changed the subject, pulling Hannah and Celeste into the conversation, leaving me to think while I ignored them.

What did they see that I didn’t?

Sure, the more I saw Vokar the more attractive I found him. He was an assassin, after all. I knew he’d protect me, and I felt safe with him...but I’d feel safe with any assassin who was on my side, wouldn’t I?

His green scaly skin should be a turn off, but his muscular arms were accentuated by his skin tone. He had a stronger jawline than I’d seen in any other D’Tali, and I was starting to notice how he moved and talked more.

Maybe I was just into him because I couldn’t have him. He was a bad boy, so he definitely wouldn’t be interested in someone like me. Besides, his job was to sneak up in the shadows and kill people. That didn’t really make for a stable partner.

I caught Sofia rubbing her belly contently, and I felt the envy start in my stomach. The envy was soon replaced by nausea and nerves. I didn’t want a baby. I’d told myself that for years. I was an engineer, smart and capable; a baby just slowed you down and stopped you from reaching your goals.

But Sofia looked so happy, and Camilia was damn near glowing. And there was something inside me that wanted the same thing as them. The same thing they had.

A partner in life. A mate to look after them, to care for them.

The picture of me hugging Vokar worked its way into my head. No, he couldn’t be the one for me. He was attractive, sure, but that was just because he was a badass. That was it. It’s not like he could actually care for me, nor could he give me the support that I needed...or the love and stability that I craved.

He just couldn’t.

No, I could never be with someone like that. Plus, I had too much work to do. I didn’t have time to pursue a relationship with anyone, especially Vokar. With Sofia so close to term and Camilia now pregnant, I needed to get this medical equipment up and running.

Soon, Camilia’s pregnancy would force her to slow down, and she needed to train one of the other healers how to do everything for when she had her baby. Even with the D’tali healers on hand, that meant that the next month was going to be busy caring for Sofia and learning all I could so I could help care for Camilia, too.

That was a good thing. If we spent some time apart, I knew I would lose the lust I had for Vokar. And that was really what was best. After all, I was far too busy for a relationship right now...and probably ever.

Yeah, it was for the best.

Click to get Shadowed now!

Rekker

Rekker wasn't expecting to be matched.

On the eve of being sent to retrieve a mysterious artifact, he's sent something just as enigmatic.

A human woman, lush and curved.

His mate.

Even worse, she wants nothing to do with him.

His blood burns for her, but the need to make her happy overrides everything.

He'll find a way to set her free, even if it means he'll be alone. Forever.

But when danger comes from an unexpected source, they're thrown together. And when his mate turns to him, he'll protect her.

Keep her.

Claim her.

Lila Kanes never wanted any thing but a quiet life on her family farm. She certainly didn't want to be claimed by a massive alien mate.

Thrown into the stars, she'll do whatever it takes to find a way home.

Back to Earth.

Back to her family.

She couldn't possibly want to stay with the hot, horned alien with the amazing body, who made her feel like the most precious thing in the universe, could she?

Right?

Rekker is the first book of the Warriors of Vaznik, a stand alone series in the Warlord Brides universe. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each couple!

Click here to keep reading Rekker, book one of the Vaznik Warrior Mates!

Kazan

An alien warrior resolved to return to battle. A woman determined to get back to her life.

They'll fight the match, but can they fight fate?

A mate is the last thing on my mind.

Especially one as sassy as the human female they say is my match.

Even if her lush curves call for my touch, and her fiery spirit is equal to my own.

I will endure the thirty days demanded by the Protocol.

But with every look, every word, I can feel us bound closer together.

Will I be able to leave her, even for her own safety?

Kazan is the first book of the Jorkan Protocol Mates. Spend the night with this perfect steamy, funny science fiction romance escape. There's no cheating, and a guaranteed HEA for each alien warrior and his mate! Hot, steamy alien yumminess!

Click to get it now!

Rogue Mate

Science fiction romance is the destination of the Rogue Star…. Hop on board!

Our rescuers are a group of pirates. Or smugglers. They're not exactly answering questions, either.

More importantly, they're giant, golden skinned aliens...

And their rogue of a captain seems very interested in the little human commander.

Me.

Rogue Mate is the first in the Rogue Star science fiction alien romance series. Click now to start the adventure!

Copyright © 2020 by Ava York

All rights reserved. These books or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the Author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and co-incidental.