Ascension Saga, Book 7: Interstellar Brides®: Ascension Saga

by Goodwin, Grace

  “Too small.”

  I held it out to her with my finger over my lips.

  She nodded and then pointed to a place on her desk and I set it down there, gently, in case anyone was listening. Speaking in a normal voice, I stepped away and sat back down in the chair opposite her desk. “I was just curious about the tunnels, Elder. I am new here. I am sorry. I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”

  “And yet, you witnessed the murder of Cleric Crayden.”

  I shook my head. “Oh, no. I didn’t. I didn’t see anything. Just found the body. That’s all. You can ask the guard who brought me here. It was all a big misunderstanding.”

  “You are coated in his blood.”

  “I had to check. You know. Just in case I could help him.” I stared down at the caked blood on my clothes and hands. I wasn’t acting now. The shiver that raced through my body was very real. As was the sadness I felt in my eyes.

  “Check what?”

  “For a pulse. I touched him. I’m sorry. That’s where all the blood came from.”

  “I see.” She swiveled in her chair and stood, motioning for me to follow her to the door. “I will confirm your story with the guard. You are free to go, for now.”

  “Thank you. I’m so sorry. Thank you.”

  She opened the door to her office. Loudly. “Don’t leave the fortress. I may have more questions for you later.”

  “Of course not. I have nowhere to go.”

  That caused her to raise a brow, but she waved me into the hallway and I went. To my surprise, she followed, and made a production of slamming her door closed. “Are there more transmitters out here?” she asked in a quiet voice.

  I closed my eyes. Listened. Nothing. No guards. No buzzing. Nothing. “I don’t hear any.”

  “Good.” She crossed her arms and looked me over like she’d never seen me before. Too damn smart. Reminded me of Trinity. “So, you’re the third princess.”

  I gasped. How the hell did she know that? “I’m no one. Just an initiate.”

  The old woman actually rolled her eyes. “Right. You’ve been here less than two weeks, appearing in my fortress the day after three mysterious females disappeared inside the citadel. There are no records of you from your previous years of life. No birth records. Nothing. And you can hear the microscopic buzzing of a comm transmitter, which means you and your sisters already received your gifts from the citadel.”

  “What?” No one knew about the gifts. No one outside the royal bloodline. That was what Mom had always told us. It was too dangerous for outsiders to know. Then how?

  “Don’t worry. I am loyal to your mother, Queen Celene. I have been protecting her throne for nearly thirty years, waiting for this day.”

  “How did you know she wasn’t dead?” I asked, then groaned. Stupid question. I already knew the answer. So did all of Alera.

  “The spire, of course. It never dimmed.”

  “Right. Sorry. I forgot.” I lifted my hand to rub my face, saw the blood and dropped it. I took a deep breath. Allies. We needed allies. “All right. Look, I know you are loyal. And I know you sent Crayden to find out about the mysterious prisoner in Cell Level C in the Optimus Unit.”

  It was her turn to frown. Ha!

  “How could you possibly know that? Unless you are the one who placed the comm transmitter in my office.”

  “No. I was… well”—I blushed. I couldn’t stop it this time—“I broke into your office last night to look for clues. Heard the two of you talking.”

  “That’s impossible.”

  I shrugged. “Not really. You’ve got a really strong vine outside that window. I highly recommend you cut it.”

  She studied me closely, her lips pursing. “I see. What else did you hear?”

  “Enough to know you aren’t my enemy. Or an enemy of my family.”

  “So, you truly are the third princess?”

  I nodded. “Yes. My name is Destiny. Faith is my twin sister and Trinity is older than both of us, and the only full-blooded Aleran.” I held out my hand, Earth style, and she smiled kindly as she took it, dried blood and all. Squeezing, not shaking up and down, but it wasn’t unpleasant.

  “An honor and a pleasure, Your Highness. Now, tell me why you are hiding here, and how I can help you.”

  “I’m not sure yet. I’m very sorry about Crayden. I think the first thing we need to do is find out who put that bug in your office.”

  “Agreed. I will give it to my people.”

  That worked for me. It wasn’t something I could tackle, and since she didn’t seem too surprised her office had been bugged, had evidently been through this before.

  “And I will keep your identity a secret. It is the only way you will remain safe within the fortress.”

  “Thank you. I’m going to contact Trinity and catch her up to speed on things. Then, once we know who set that bug, we can make a plan. Someone kidnapped our mother, and we’ve tracked the traitors to the clerics, and the Optimus Unit. I believe the mystery prisoner you mentioned is the queen.”

  She stared at me wide-eyed. It was one thing to have the queen missing for twenty-seven years, another that she was in one specific place and could be saved. “Do you have proof?”

  “No. Just gut instinct.”

  She smiled at me. “My gut agrees.” She chuckled, as if this was incredible fun, an adventure, not life and death.

  “This is serious.”

  “Of course it is. Life is always serious for people with power and responsibilities. But that does not mean you can’t take moments and make them more, even after what happened with Crayden. Life is too short to pass by an opportunity to laugh. You are young, but you will learn. Steal laughter. Steal joy. Steal love. If you don’t, you’ll never have it.”

  How did this go from a cool spy mission to a lecture? Sheesh. I didn’t need more of that. Between Nix and Trinity, I’d heard enough for a while.

  “I’ll contact my sister. With your permission, I would like you to meet me back here in the morning.”

  She nodded, even patted my arm. “Go. Get cleaned up. I will discover what I can while you rest and recover.”

  “Thank you.” I didn’t mean to run, but I was suddenly in a hurry to get back to my room. The blood was gross. The memory was disturbing. And now that I had the most powerful female in the clerical order on our side, I felt just safe enough to let my guard down and drown in the shower for a solid hour and wash off the smell of death clinging to me.

  5

  Destiny

  Once securely in my room, I pulled a stolen comm unit out from the hiding place I’d made and called my sister. The bossy one. I’d had the comm since coming here, but this was the first time I’d used it. She’d reached out to me twice through my NPU, which had seemed completely unnecessary for translating since Mom had taught the three of us Aleran and we were all fluent, but the connection had been useful, and reassuring. It had also come in handy when Warden Egara had been talking to that giant Prillon warrior on the comm screen when we’d still been on Earth. So, the warden had been right to jab all three of us with that giant needle. Hearing Trinity’s voice, and then later, Faith’s as well, had been so nice.

  Trinity answered immediately, the frown on her face and the worry in her eyes a bit annoying. I loved her, but she was way too overprotective. Kind of like someone else I knew and had recently left behind. “Destiny, are you okay? Why are you calling? What’s going on?”

  I shrugged. “Oh, you know, just a murder here and there.”

  “Is that your blood?” She was holding in a scream, I could see it in her eyes and the stiffness of her shoulders.

  I didn’t mind getting her riled up, that was definitely a sister’s job, but not like this. “No. It’s not.”

  She slumped and put a hand to her chest. “Thank god. Now tell me what the hell is going on?”

  “I sneaked into the elder cleric’s office last night.”

  “That’s why you’re covered in blood?”<
br />
  I shrugged. “Not exactly.” I explained what I overheard, leaving out the fact that I’d been nicely impaled on Nix’s cock at the time.

  “God, that poor man,” she replied, looking down, probably at her lap or the floor or something. “He died, you think, because he’d been tasked with looking into Mom? Because this… this triad wanted answers?”

  I just stared at her because… duh. I didn’t want to feel like a wimp, but seeing Crayden’s head nearly cut free from his body had been a bit much. I was tough, but apparently, a still bleeding decapitation was near the edge of my mental limits.

  “Okay, sorry. Of course he was killed because of that. So we look into this triad, these three clerics… Marna, Forge and Severil?”

  “Elder Amandine says they want answers, not that they were the masterminds. They’re just higher ups or something,” I replied. “Have Nix look into them.”

  She laughed. “Yeah, right. You might have ditched him, but I’m sure he’s not far.”

  I hadn’t seen anything of him since last night, but I wanted him. Now. I wanted his big body and his heat and I wanted him to wrap me up and make me forget everything but him. And his kiss. And his cock. My pussy clenched at the reminder. I was sure there was a big wet spot on my pants again, just from thinking about him. We’d both come, what, three times last night?

  And now? I wasn’t covered in his scent or his seed. I’d washed all that off this morning. Now I was covered in death and pain and secrets. Blood.

  Elder Amandine had turned into my ally. She would do her thing while I did mine, which was talking to Trinity.

  I really needed another shower, but she needed to know what the hell was going on first. Crayden hadn’t survived twelve hours after his orders to look into Mom’s kidnapping. Which meant whoever had killed him had people on the inside, who knew where she was. Perhaps even knew who and where I was, especially after talking with Elder Amandine for so long. Some asshole could be stalking me right now, waiting for his chance to slit my throat, too.

  Why I assumed the killer was a man, I wasn’t sure. But it seemed the violence and strength needed to cut someone’s neck that deep, with such raw rage? Just felt male to me. Pissed off, vengeful, hate-fueled male.

  “Destiny?” Trinity prompted.

  “I’m fine,” I replied.

  “You don’t look fine.”

  “If not Nix, then have someone else look into this. I can do some of it from here, especially now that I’ve got an ally in Elder Amandine, but things just went from meditating to murder around here.”

  The way she pursed her lips, Trinity didn’t look happy about that.

  “Did you send that Neanderthal here?” I asked, then cursed myself for a fool. With everything that had just happened, I had to ask about Nix? Really? I was pathetic.

  “You know I didn’t,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “You were the one who said you were in danger. That Neanderthal just decided he’d go after you.” That was my big sister. She didn’t back down and she gave as good as she got. Damn lawyers. Her and Dad. I could never argue my way around either one of them. “And what did you do to your hair?”

  I reached up, touched the long strands. I’d forgotten I’d dyed it black before I joined the clerics. “I had to color it. It’s not like a purple-haired woman wouldn’t stand out around here.” I hadn’t seen anyone with colored hair since we’d transported to Alera. Not a one. And purple? Not happening. But black? So boring. I hated boring hair.

  “Trin, forget my hair. That conversation was so two days ago. I’m sorry I scared you, but I’m fine. I just wanted to give you a heads up… and to see your ugly face.”

  “Ha ha,” she said, waving her finger at me.

  “As for Nix, I don’t need him lurking around like an overly protective caveman. He’s just going to get in my way. Again.”

  Or get me naked and riding his cock. That would probably be an even more dangerous problem.

  “How did he get in your way before?” Trinity asked, the question slyly. Her grin contained the question I refused to answer.

  “He followed me, then cornered me,” I said evenly, leaving out everything after he climbed through the window. Hell, I even left that out and how exactly he cornered me. “And now he’s gone. Don’t let him come back here. Don’t do that to me again.”

  “Gone? He just left you?” she asked, sounding stunned. “Is he dead?”

  “Dead?” I laughed. “Of course not.” I shook my head. “I’m not that bad.”

  “Destiny Jones, what did you do with Nix?”

  She knew me too well.

  “Nothing. I didn’t do anything to him.” Except fuck his brains out. “I only left him locked in the admin building. I’m sure he’s fine.”

  “Fine? You think he’s fine you ditched him? He’s a queen’s guard. You just waved a red cape at a bull.”

  Bull, definitely. Oh, his cock had been huge and with all the cum still seeping from me, huge balls. I squirmed at the thought. I needed to change the subject. Nix was not my problem. “Whatever.”

  The once-locked door to my room opened and Nix walked in, closing it—and locking it again—behind him. “Yes. I want to hear all about this bull.”

  My jaw dropped and I tucked my hands between my legs to hide the blood.

  I’d only seen him in the dark. In heat. Inside my room, with anger simmering in his gaze and the lights on his high cheekbones and cut jawline, I went from annoyed to horny in about two seconds flat. Shit. My body roared like I hadn’t had sex in years instead of the night before. Like I was going to die if I didn’t get more. Now. Right now.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked him.

  He crossed his arms over his formidable chest. “A locked door won’t stop me, Princess.” It was a statement, but also a warning. He wasn’t going to be deterred from his own mission. I glanced down at the front of his pants, saw the thick—huge—bulge of his cock.

  “Destiny?” Trinity’s voice broke the hypnotic pull of him and I tore my gaze away, looked at the small screen where my sister was eyeing me like a worried mother hen.

  “See, he’s not dead,” I told her, and swung the screen to Nix so Trinity could see him.

  He bowed low. “Princess Trinity,” he said to my comms unit. “I am here and your sister is safe.”

  “Oh, thank god,” she replied. “Thank you, Nix. Don’t let her do anything too dangerous.”

  Now she sounded like my mother and not my sister.

  He grinned at the order, his smile diabolical, and I knew I was screwed. Anything I said now, he would ignore. Pull rank. He had orders from Trinity. The future queen. I was two steps down the royal ladder and she’d just handed me to him on a silver platter.

  I turned the screen back and glared at her. “You take that back, Trin. Right now.”

  “Nope. He’s going to keep you safe. You’re the one that did that tap-tap thing and said you were in danger. Which reminds me, why didn’t I ever get to know about that secret twin stuff? Totally not cool.”

  “Really, Trin? You ask that now? We were kids.”

  “Fine. But enough of you being all alone.” She shook her head. “About what you told me. I’ll send Leo and the queen’s guard to check it out.”

  “I can take care of it myself,” I countered. Leo and the queen’s guard? They’d be too obvious, make too much noise. One hint that I was on to them and they’d move Mom somewhere else. I would do it.

  Nix stirred and took a step toward me. I wanted to stay angry, but he knelt in front of me. Knelt. As in On. His. Knees. Like I mattered. God, he was dangerous. “Tell her, Destiny, or I will. I heard the conversation as well.”

  He was right. He had. Thankfully, he’d left off the part that he’d been buried deep inside me at the time.

  He grabbed my wrists and lifted them up. “Are you hurt? Why the fuck are you covered in blood?” His gaze raked over me as if he expected to find a spurting artery.

  “It’s not m
ine. It’s that guy’s. Crayden’s.”

  His dark brows winged up. “From the office last night?”

  I nodded.

  “Speak,” he commanded.

  “Fine.” I sighed. “Elder Cleric Amandine is not involved, as you heard last night, Nix.” I turned from him to the comm unit and Trinity. “She’s pissed someone went after you and Faith. She sent Crayden to find out about Optimus Cell Level C. He’s now dead, which makes his searching, well, a dead end. I have no idea where that is, but that’s pretty darn specific. She said they’re keeping an unauthorized prisoner there. A high priority, top-secret prisoner and she sent someone to find out what the hell is going on. She’s an ally.”

  Trinity sucked in a breath. “I’ve heard of that place before. That’s where Wyse tried to send Faith. You think it could be Mom?”

  “Based on the fact that I’m now wearing that guard’s blood, yeah, I think that’s a safe bet. Elder Amandine does, too.”

  “Shit.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “Get back to the palace,” she ordered. “Now. Let Leo and his dad handle this. Get the hell out of there.”

  “I don’t think so, Trin,” I replied. “Someone here killed Crayden. Someone here knew he was asking questions. We have enemies here, and I intend to find them. I said I would meet with Elder Amandine in the morning.” It felt a little odd talking with Nix kneeling before me, staring at me like I was a work of art. A fascinating, sexy, goddess. No one looked at me like that. Ever. I had to clear my throat and tear my gaze from his face. “If it’s not Mom in that cell, I’m betting someone here still knows something about her disappearance.” I had a gut feeling about this one. It was Mom locked up. I knew it. But I didn’t want to get Trinity’s hopes up. Or mine, for that matter. Somehow, not saying it made it easier to keep moving.

  “Okay. I’m on it,” she replied.

  “No.”