by V. K. Ludwig
One wordless huff later, his eyes dropped to the embroidered crest on my coat. That was when he stepped aside. And not only that, because he also opened the door for us.
“That’s the Eden I know,” Melek said, his voice echoing from the white marble walls of the chamber we found inside.
As chaotic as everything had been outside, in here, everything was so quiet I could count each of Melek’s exhales. There was no scent to this place. Not a single noise. Only an abundance of light raining down from the glass dome above.
“Where are they?”
Melek scratched the back of his head, shifting from one foot to the other as he glanced along the hallway leading around an interior chamber.
“I’ve never been here before, Eden. This stuff is way above me.”
I followed the curved wall, the tapping of Melek’s boots telling me he had fallen into step behind me. Eventually, I reached an archway with a small corridor. At the end of it, tense voices in conversation, the aggression sitting on the tone undeniable.
Torin came and went from my vision, walking from left to right and back again. With his arms clasped behind his back, I could tell he was nervous.
“He’s here,” I whispered, waving Melek to step back. “Go sit on that bench over there, while I check if I can talk to him now. I’ll do my best okay?”
He gleamed, all pity gone from his features.
Slow, quiet steps carried me along the corridor, the marble bleak against my hands, offering neither comfort nor encouragement. But the closer I came to Torin, the less I needed it, because my core warmed me just fine from the inside.
Crack.
My ankle betrayed me at my very next step, making Torin swing around, posture stiff. Not the unmoving kind. No, it was the kind where he bent his knees ever so slightly as if he was straining his muscles, charging them for an attack. Or defense?
“Eden…”
At the sound of my name, I picked up speed and hurried over to him. But the moment the interior chamber came into full view, I knew I had run into something I might not come out of. Not upright.
My palms turned sweaty and my mouth dry at the same time, blood rushing into my extremities. With my skin tingling above the turmoil inside my veins, I barely noticed the way Torin reached around my waist.
He pulled me toward him, ripping my gaze off the other two Wardens who stood across, two massive Vetusian guards standing slightly in front of them, shielding them. That could have counted as usual.
But that guy kneeling at the center of the chamber? With his hands laser-bound behind his back, dark hair stuck to that gushing wound on his temple? That wasn’t normal. That was fucking bad.
Torin wordlessly pushed me behind him, his hand resting on my stomach. As soon as I met him there with mine, a loud scoff resonated from all around me.
“I have waited for over a decade,” one of the Wardens said. “But instead of blowing your brains out or going on a killing spree, Torin da taigh L’naghal, you took a mate. And, considering how you are both clasping her belly, I take it she is already seeded with your heir.”
“She is innocent.”
The Warden let out a sarcastic laugh. “But is not that exactly the problem? Innocent souls are hard to rid. Only in legal ways, of course. Especially if they refuse to do as all the others of his crop and let the problem solve itself. Close the doors.”
The guards scurried off to close the two doors, locking us in.
“Send your guards away, Maris,” Torin said, the way his fingers caressed my stomach doing little to calm my pulse. “They are not supposed to be in here.”
“Neither is he!” Warden Maris pointed at the guy in the center. “Did you really think you could bring him to Earth unnoticed?”
Three steps toward the center, and the Warden stabbed the tip of his boot into the bound Vetusian’s stomach full force. The man rasped and collapsed onto his side, his body crouched, saliva drooling a tinted red from the corner of his mouth.
“Zavis da taigh Broknar,” the Warden snarled, that name bringing things into perspective. “Eleven sun cycles of escaping justice did little to humble that over-inflated ego of yours. Whoring around. Fornicating with just about any species with a halfway suitable hole. You are a disgrace.”
My heart pounded against my chest with such force, I expected my ribs to crack one by one. Torin must have brought Zavis here to swing the vote.
“Not sure why you’re complaining, Maris,” Zavis said, his voice strangled. “I’m the one who’s paying your fucking bills after all. Each time I put my cock inside one of your whores, you get richer.”
Warden Maris folded his hands in front of his chest and walked over to us but stopped the moment Torin let out a warning grunt. “Such a beautiful creature. She would bring a fortune on Odheim, especially once her stomach is fat with child. Vetusians would give up their fortunes to mate her, hand on her belly, pretending it was their daughter she carried.”
“Do not speak of her like this or I swear —”
“Swear what?” Maris turned on his heel and walked back to stand next to the other, seemingly mute Warden. “Are you going to kill a Warden? What a blessed day that would be, where we would finally have reason to execute the last two true-born Wardens of the Vetusian Empire. Rid ourselves of power handed down through birth. Take him.”
One of the guards grabbed Zavis by his hair and pulled him up. No matter how his body swayed, supported only by the strain on his scalp and the tip of his toes, his laugh shattered against the plain walls.
“This is how this vote will end,” Maris said. “The strati will continue their function because we cannot allow weakness. Any uprising will be dealt with quickly and with bloodshed if needs be. You, Torin, will stand back like you promised for I know you are a male of honor, if little else. After the vote, Zavis will be tried and executed.”
Zavis let out a primal shout, spit glistening from where it clung to his beard. “Remember whom you pledged your fealty to, golden child. I am dead already.”
A crisp silence fell onto the chamber.
Torin turned around to face me, a dark spark coming to life in his eyes. He let them trail down to his chest, where his nano armor formed underneath the black fabric of his collar.
“I love you,” I whispered, knowing full well armor meant shit was about to go down.
He smiled and let one hand intertwine with mine, the scales hard and frigid against my knuckles as the armor formed there. His other hand attached something to the back of my neck, the stickiness bringing back memories of the tranq pad.
He leaned over, bringing his lips against my ears, where he planted a kiss and said, “You shouldn’t have come here.”
Chapter 33
Torin
I let the nano armor interlock its rigid scales underneath my uniform, keeping it out of the guards’ sight to buy myself seconds. A unit of measure that had grown so precious to me ever since I counted them with Eden in my arms.
She shouldn’t have been here, yet the fact that she was made warmth blossom underneath the nanites. My anam ghail loved me. Fate was satisfied. Now, it was time to solidify our future.
A swipe over the pad on her neck activated the armor, quickly spreading down her spine and up her face, covering her shock in gray scales.
I pulled back my arm and rammed my fist full force into her chest. Then I watched her fly across the room and shatter against the stone wall just as the final patch of nanites closed around her ankle, protecting her from my blow.
I half turned, half stepped back, avoiding the blue beam of the guard’s gun by a mere click. Fully armored, I threw myself against him, chest colliding against chest. He let out a grunt and staggered back.
Beside me, Zavis rolled onto all fours. He pushed himself up to stand, only to jump into the air, tuck, and pull his legs through his cuffed arms in one smooth move. By the time his worn boots boomed against the ground, he held his arms in front of his chest.
“Treaso
n!” Maris shouted, his green robes flowing from side to side as he didn’t know which direction to shuffle. “Kill them! Kill them both!”
Warden Odil stumbled back, shoulders riding against the wall, hands clasped over his head as if he expected the dome to collapse on him any moment now. A blink over my shoulder. Eden hugged herself tight. Knees clasped against her chest. Eyes wide with confusion and fear.
A beam hissed along my ear. I jumped to the side and rolled over the ground, leading the guard away from my mate. But when I pushed myself up to stand, the beam ate away on my armor. It tore through the skin on my right calf, muscle searing in pain, and broke through scales on the opposite side but a moment later.
Blood dripped warm down my leg, the heavy taste of iron blending with the sweat filling the chamber. Mixed with the powdery scent of Eden, which I still held in my nostrils, it was a strange combination indeed.
“Torin!” Zavis stabbed his cuffed wrists into my vision.
I deactivated them, only to watch my cropmate jump the guard who came at me from the side. He held him in a two-arm choke, his lips quickly going from red to purple. A full circle kick clanked the gun from the grip of the other. The moment he turned to go after his gun, I wrapped one arm around his neck.
Hand clasped chin.
One strong tuck sideways.
Then back. Crack.
His body collapsed to the ground with a thud. Nothing was more effective in creating fear than the crackling of spinal dislocation. Odil’s face resembled it all, and the way this coward had curled into a ball, his entire body shaking, even more.
I watched how Zavis sat on top of the other guard. He hammered the skull into a pulp with his fists. Blood splattered across his clenched teeth, and pretty much everywhere else.
For a moment, I stood there, fascinated, fury and adrenaline rushing through my veins. The guard was long dead, and yet Zavis kept on grinding his knuckles into a mix of bone chips and brain matter. Yes, we were unpredictable. And yet I knew Zavis would never harm me, or Eden.
“You stay back, Torin, or I swear I’ll choke the life out of her.”
Maris’ voice made me swing around, the rush of blood paralyzed, cooled into thick slush. His fingers clasped tight around Eden’s neck, her armor pad ripped off. My mate was exposed and vulnerable to the harsh realities of the, oh so glorious, Vetusian Empire.
The slippery gargling of Zavis’ pounds stopped. My cropmate walked up beside me, head tilted, the tsk of his tongue making Maris flinch.
“Torin, is he threatening your mate?”
“I believe he is.”
I let my eyes catch with Eden’s. My beautiful, kind, fierce mate held her lips pulled back in a snarl. Maris had no idea that my mate posed more threat to him than anyone else in this chamber at that very moment.
So magnificent. So mine.
Zavis wiped his shredded knuckles on his shirt, each of his slow, deliberate steps making a jolt run through Maris’ kneecaps. “Tell me, Torin, how many times can a Vetusian be executed?”
“Only once.”
“Ah…” He let out a low chuckle. “I should make it count then.”
I could have been at the Warden's side before he managed to issue any pain to my mate’s body. Could have him dangle from my clasp before he managed to suck another breath. Slam his head against the stone until his brain seized all functions.
It wasn’t necessary.
At the very next tsk coming from Zavis’ tongue, Eden slammed her elbow into Maris’ xiphoid. He choked out a breath, his hands releasing her from his clasp. She turned around and shoved her palm up against his nose, the cracking of cartilage against bone music to my ears.
She stumbled back and into my arms, watching on shaky legs how blood rushed from Maris’ nose. How one small female could cause such damage was no longer beyond my understanding. Not if that female was Eden.
“You can have him,” I said, taking Eden into my arms.
And while Zavis clasped Maris’ neck and slammed his body repeatedly against the stone wall, I stroked my bloodied hands over Eden in search of injuries.
“Sorry for sending you away.” She said it over and over again, her eyes wide, her body shaking so hard there was no doubt she was going into shock.
The moment I draped her over my arms could have been a romantic one. If it wasn’t for the way Maris’ groaned, then squealed, then gargled, slowly suffocating as his lungs filled with blood.
I carried her away from the cruel scene, ignoring the way my severed muscle wanted to cave in underneath me. “Don’t look. Don’t listen. Just concentrate on my eyes, anam ghail, and on my words. I wronged you that day by falling back into my old self. The one that knew neither love nor consideration for the suffering of others. You did well by sending me away. I don’t understand everything. But I understand more and more every day. I don’t want anybody to come in four years and take Gabriel from us. Or our daughter shortly after.”
She heaved, her pupils tracking across my face. “It’s a girl?”
“Oh yes, we will have a daughter. And she will grow underneath your heartbeat, and blossom in your care. She will be resilient and kind, and all those things I love about her mother.”
“Torin.” Zavis leaned over beside me, one hand on his knee in support, the other pulling a thumb across the room. “What about that one?”
My eyes fell onto Odil, the Warden who still trembled but now sat in a puddle of urine. “He’s weak.”
“I w-will not s-say anything,” Odil stammered. “He blackmailed me. I swear I never wanted to —”
“Shut the fuck up!” Zavis rose and planted his arms on his hips. “Not much longer, and the guards will overrun this place. If he talks, you risk being executed for treason and murder.”
I took a deep breath and handed him Eden. “Hold her and turn her around.”
I walked over to Odil. I yanked him up by his hair, his robes dripping. It took surprisingly little force to break his neck. What a mess we’d made.
The moment I turned around, I found Zavis with his hand on her stomach, saying, “I only wanted to feel. Not harm her. She lost consciousness.”
“Sert.” I took Eden back into my arms, pressing her head against my chest. “She needs —”
“Shh! You hear that?”
Fast approaching footsteps.
Before I could say a word, Zavis fell onto his knees, wrists crossed behind his back. “Don’t let them execute me, Torin. You need to find proof that this was a setup.”
“My stargazer is —”
“There’s no time for that,” he snarled. “We all have our roles to play, brother. Mine is to take the blame. Yours is so stay out of trouble and make sure my trial is a fair one.”
I hurried over to the wall and lowered Eden’s limp body onto the ground, then took my jacket off and shoved it underneath her head. Then I ran behind Zavis and activated his laser cuffs.
A kick against his shoulder blades, and his face slammed against the ground. “I will do whatever I can to get you out.”
It was impossible to hear the doors open with the way boots thudded over the ground, interrupted only by shouts and mumbles.
“Zavis da taigh Broknar,” I shouted. “You are under arrest for the murder of five Vetusians, including Warden Maris and Warden Odil. The guards will take you into custody, where you will remain until such a time a fair trial can be conducted for the Vetusian Empire to pay witness. Take him into confinement.”
“Yes, Commander,” two guards shouted.
They shoved one arm underneath Zavis’ armpits each, dragging my cropmate behind them and out of the room. I watched him disappear around the corner, not knowing if I would be able to keep him alive long enough until I found proof of his innocence. Or at least enough of it to spare him execution.
“My mate needs medical attention right now!” I shouted, running back to Eden.
“How long has she been like this?” A healer asked, squatting down beside her.
<
br /> “Fifteen Earth minutes perhaps,” I said. “She is with child.”
He hovered the vital scanner over her, his nod giving me the assurance that this was merely a reaction of shock. “Rest will be all she needs unless you would like me to give her a light sedative for when she regains consciousness.”
“No,” I said with a low chuckle, sitting down beside her and pulling her against my body. “My mate does not take well to sedation.”
I ignored the surrounding chaos. The healers who tended to the dead bodies. The scholars discussing the best time for the election of new Wardens. The warriors of my brigade who eyed the blood seeping from my calf.
This could just as well have been the area behind the intake module the day I captured her. We both weren’t ready back then. But we were ready for each other now. She was my anam ghail. My fated one.
Chapter 34
Eden
“He’s doing it again!”
Everyone at the table held their breaths, watching in awe how Gabriel dragged his bionic hand over his swaddle blanket. His head bobbed slightly, tilting forward before he pulled it back. Then, soft fabric bunched between metal fingers.
As slow as Nifal laughed, his claps came with rushed excitement. “Oh, how I thank the Three Suns that I could witness this day. This child has great things ahead of him.”
My chest tingled around my lungs, and I shoved my nose over Gabriel’s hair to take in the scent of cookies and baby powder. He smelled like home. And this moment felt like family. Every cell in my body soaked it up, telling me that this was where I was supposed to be.
“You wanna hold him?” I asked Nifal.
He shook his head and placed his napkin onto the leftovers of his pot roast, pushing the plate away from the edge. “No, child. My hands are no longer as reliable, and I would not forgive myself if I dropped him.”
The old male rose and walked over to the window beside the kitchen, lowering himself into the armchair.