by Hope Hart
I roll my eyes. My “superpower” is a party trick I used to pull out to impress guys I liked, usually while playing darts after a few drinks. I can’t catch a ball to save my life, but I have an unerring ability to hit almost everything I aim at. I was pretty good with a crossbow during our battle with the Dokhalls, but I really shine when it comes to throwing things.
“What do we get if we win?”
Sarissa frowns at me. “The knowledge that we won, of course. Who cares about the prize; think about your reputation.”
I roll my eyes. My cousin is the most competitive person I’ve ever met. No one would play board games with her when we were kids, and she still has the uncanny ability to turn almost anything into a competition.
Sarissa is practically vibrating beside me. “Look, I’d do it, but my aim is crap compared to yours. Besides,” she says, lowering her voice, “this is a good way to get to know the locals. Locals who may be able to help us in the future, you know what I mean?”
I sigh. Trust Sarissa to be thinking three steps ahead.
“Fine.”
The purple man misses the target completely, his cheeks darkening as the crowd jeers. He stomps off, not looking back, and I step into the line behind a blue guy with thick horns sticking up from his head.
He hits the very edge of the target, hands over some credits for another shot, and then misses.
My turn.
“Come on, cuz. Don’t let me down.”
I give her a look, but she’s already scanning the crowd. I have no idea what her endgame is. Perhaps it really is about us winning something in front of all these people.
“Tiny female.” A male snorts behind us. “No chance.”
I ignore him, but next to me, Sarissa glances over her shoulder.
“Opinions are like assholes,” she says. “Everyone has one, but they’re mostly full of shit.”
He frowns as he ponders that, and I heft the small bag into my hand. The other guy was right. It is weighted. I shrug, haul my arm back, and throw.
It hits a hair’s breadth from the target, and the crowd gasps. Sarissa shrugs. “A few first-time nerves,” she says, handing over more credits.
She slaps me on the shoulder. “Don’t let me down.”
I can’t help but laugh. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“Yeah, yeah. Hit the bull’s-eye or you’re walking home.”
I roll my eyes but pick up another bag. Now I’m feeling the thrill of competition myself. And I’m having…fun. How long has it been since I did something just for the fun of it?
I let the bag fly, and a grin spreads across my face before I can stop it, satisfaction burning deep in my belly as I hit the center of the target.
Sarissa whoops and throws her arms around me. “I’m so glad your superpower came through and I don’t have to disown you. Let’s see what we won.”
“We?”
“I’m your support system. Without a coach, a competitor is nothing.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Weirdly, Sarissa is right. People who had previously ignored us approach to congratulate me, and Sarissa jokes with them, compliments them, and makes contacts left and right.
I grin as she’s suddenly deep in conversation with a Braxian male.
“Oh, your sister is a metalsmith? We’ve got someone working on our thruster, but if it doesn’t work out, maybe she could help us.”
I keep quiet as the vendor hands me my prize, a smile on her face. “I will need to make this more difficult for you next time, hmm?”
I grin, glancing at Sarissa, who is currently elbowing a guy so large he’s practically a giant. She jokingly challenges him to a wrestling match, and he throws his head back, his laugh booming over the crowd.
It’s then I see the commander, standing on the outskirts of the crowd, staring at my cousin, his face blank. He turns his attention to me, and I give him a tiny wave.
Why is he following us?
The crowd begins to thin as Sarissa sidles up to me. “That guy said his sister is dating a Zinta,” she murmurs as we wander away from the kradi. “I wonder how much the Zinta talks about their plans.”
I raise one eyebrow. “And you say you’re not a spy.”
She simply smiles.
I nod toward the spot where the commander was standing. “Korzyn followed us. I saw him a few minutes ago, although he disappeared when you finished charming the crowd.”
Her smile drops. “That mothertrucker. He’s cruising for a bruising, he is.”
We head toward the woman who ordered the replacement part for our thruster. She shakes her head at us as we arrive, and I sigh. It was too much to expect that her contact could have arrived already. All we can do is keep checking in and hope he makes his way to this part of the galaxy soon.
After a night with such little sleep, I’m tired, so I persuade Sarissa to come back to the castle with me. She gives in surprisingly easily, and I eye her as we get back in the hydro.
“I would’ve thought you’d want to stay for longer.”
“I do, but not if that grim-faced commander is spying on us. Next time, we’ll lose him first.”
“Uh-huh.”
She tilts her head, gesturing behind us, where the guards Arix assigned us are in their own hydro. “Those guys are bad enough, and you know they’re reporting to Korzyn anyway. So that makes me wonder just why Korzyn is paranoid enough to want to follow us himself. And when I start wondering things like that, I have what some would call a desperate need to get answers. Let’s see how the commander feels when the shoe is on my foot.”
I sigh. “This is definitely going to bite us in the ass,” I mumble.
We settle in for the ride, and I watch the Braxians going about their day as we travel down the river. A flower vendor sells her wares on a corner, handing a small blue flower to an old man, who grins at her as he passes by. A noblewoman stalks down the street, dressed to the nines and flanked by guards. Three boys race each other through an alley, their mother calling after them.
I’m so entranced that Sarissa has to nudge me when we arrive, gesturing for me to get out of the hydro.
“I’m going to go explore,” she says.
“Have fun. I’m going to take a nap.”
But I don’t head straight up to my rooms. Instead, I make my way to the throne room and peek in the door. The guards are silent behind me, and I attempt to ignore them, pretending I’m not inexplicably drawn to their king like a moth to a flame.
I must be watching some kind of meeting because there are a group of people standing in front of the throne, and Arix’s face is serious as he listens to them.
He glances up, and his eyes instantly find mine, the look in them predatory. The hair on the back of my neck rises, my instincts telling me I’m being hunted. Heads begin to turn, his subjects likely wondering what he’s looking at, and I back away, almost ramming into a guard who introduced himself earlier as Zion.
“How do I get back to my rooms?” I ask him, and he turns to lead me toward them.
“Wait.”
I freeze as Arix’s low voice caresses my ears. It feels as if he has a hand wrapped around my throat and he’s squeezing—not hard enough to kill, but enough to let me know in no uncertain terms that he’s in charge.
It pisses me off.
I school my face into boredom and turn, lifting one eyebrow.
He’s so beautiful that a bolt of resentment hits me in the chest. He seems to know it, because he gives me a savage smile.
“Leave,” he orders, and the guards file out of the room.
“That was rude. Why are you having me escorted from place to place like a prisoner anyway?”
“Partly for your own protection. Partly because my commander believes you and your cousin are a threat.”
I snort at that. What kind of threat could we possibly be to these huge men with their swords and their scowls?
“What did you do today?”
I shift on my feet. “You wa
nt to chat? Here?”
“No. I want to eat your cunt for my midday meal, but since that doesn’t seem to be on the table, I decided I would get to know you until you throw away whatever ridiculous excuses are preventing you from tumbling me.”
Heat spreads up my body, traveling from my toes to the top of my head. I have an instant vision of me sitting on his desk in front of him, my legs spread as he grins up at me, that exact hungry look in his eyes.
He smiles as if reading my mind. “What exactly are you thinking about now, lovely?” he asks as he prowls closer.
I clear my throat. “Nothing.” Truthfully, the more time I spend around this guy, and the more the air crackles between us, the more I wonder if I shouldn’t just live in the moment and take what he’s offering.
From the triumphant look on Arix’s face, he’s reading that thought too. Am I that transparent? I force my face to go blank, and this seems to amuse him even more.
“Why the hesitation, Vivian? Are you untried?”
I frown at that. Un— “No!” While I may not be all that experienced, my cherry has indeed been popped. There’s no inconvenient skin tag waiting to get in the way of Arix’s—
No, girl, don’t go there.
His smile widens. “Then what is the problem?”
What is the problem?
“I don’t want to get pregnant.”
The words are out of my mouth before I can stop them, and he frowns. This isn’t my only objection, of course, but now that I’ve said it, flying through space with a bun in my oven would definitely be a bummer.
“There are ways around that,” Arix murmurs, stepping even closer. I glance around us, but we’re still alone, and I’m suddenly pressed up against the cool black stone of the wall, the king leaning into my personal space like he owns it.
I clear my throat, hoping he can’t see exactly how much his nearness affects me. “What do you mean?”
“The petals of a specific flower will prevent any inconvenient problems.”
Inconvenient problems? Maybe for him. For me, it would be a life-changing catastrophe.
“I will keep you safe, lovely. You have only to trust me.”
I nibble on my lip, and his eyes drop. And then his mouth is on mine, his hand buried in my hair as he thrusts his tongue between my lips. I groan as he hardens against my stomach, and I suddenly need the thick length of him to be much, much lower.
The kiss is over in moments, and I stare at him, panting. He looks unaffected, his face blank, but his eyes are burning and the thick bulge in his pants shows just how affected he is.
I feel…powerful to be able to make this arrogant king want me so desperately.
“Just a preview,” he smiles, but his eyes are still hungry. “You’ll have to agree to my terms for what you really need.”
He swipes his tongue along his teeth and then turns, stalking away, and I watch him go. What exactly are his terms?
Chapter Four
Arix
I’m sneaking back from the dock, the hood of my cloak hiding my face when I smell it.
Smoke.
It gets thicker in the air the closer I am to the castle, and I break into a run.
There’s no logical reason for the heavy ball of dread in my stomach, but I know with absolute certainty that something is very wrong.
I jolt awake, cursing. The dreams have plagued me since I lost my parents, but the more attacks there are on my guards, the more frequent the dreams.
I’m running out of time.
I need something to distract me just enough that I can get through the nights but not enough to risk my goals.
Someone to distract me.
Enough is enough. I want the lovely human female, and she wants me. The only barrier is her stubbornness.
I get up, thanking the servant who arrives with the first meal of the day. He offers to help me dress, and I wave him away—the same dance we do each morning.
I’m sitting on my balcony, eating and contemplating my schedule for the day, when Korzyn arrives.
“I noticed you were nowhere to be found yesterday morning,” I remark, and he growls and mutters something under his breath as he takes the chair next to me. He’s frowning, his eyes distant, and I tilt my head as I study him.
It’s not often that someone distracts him.
“I followed the human females to the marketplace.”
“I could have sworn I assigned several of my most trustworthy guards to that exact task.”
He scowls at me. “I wanted to handle it myself.”
“Mm-hmm. And did you see them getting up to all kinds of nefarious plots? Perhaps they were gathering an army to take over my kingdom?”
His scowl deepens. “You’re in a good mood.”
I…am. And I have a sneaking suspicion it has something to do with the lush mouth I felt briefly under mine yesterday. It’s only a matter of time before I have more than Vivian’s mouth beneath me, and for the first time in years, a female has given me the thrill of the hunt.
“So tell me, what did the females do that warranted the commander of my forces watching them so closely, even while they were guarded the entire time?”
Korzyn raises one eyebrow. “Do you truly think your enemies won’t use any weaknesses they can find? One look at your face when that female is in the room, and it’s obvious she is a crack where you can least afford to have any weaknesses. They will approach her, likely offering her anything she wants in exchange for her help when they finally decide to move on you.”
I nod, my good mood vanishing. “I’m expecting as much.”
Korzyn’s eyes widen minutely, the most surprise he will allow on his face. “You’re using her as bait.”
“Very pretty bait, but bait just the same. Bait that won’t be taken if you’re so close to Vivian that our enemies can’t approach her.”
He frowns but considers my words. “And the other female?”
I wave my hand dismissively. “Stay as close to her as you like if you truly believe she is a threat. I yield to your paranoia.”
“Paranoia saves lives. It has saved your life more than once.”
I match his frown. “Indeed.”
Vivian
I barge into Sarissa’s rooms, not at all surprised to find that she’s also still in her nightclothes. After another night of tossing and turning, I gave up on sleep, sneaking out of my rooms when I heard Cauri arrive.
I pad through her sitting room but hesitate as my eyes are drawn to English writing on a pile of papers sitting on her table.
I don’t want to pry, but I lean over anyway. Sarissa isn’t exactly being herself lately.
The top page is a list of everything she knows about the Grivath, including their planet, their war against the Arcav, and their alliances. My hands itch to read the rest, but I force myself to back away. She’ll talk to me about it when she’s ready.
Sarissa looks like she had as much sleep as I did, and she frowns at me as I walk into her bedroom.
“What happened to you yesterday? I looked for you in your rooms, but the guard on the door said you were near the throne room.”
I have a sudden vision of the bulge in Arix’s pants, and my body heats.
A slow grin spreads over her face. “Something happened. Gimme.”
“Arix kissed me.”
“Oooh. Was it good?”
I blush as I get a sudden flashback.
His lips, hard on mine. His tongue, pressing into my mouth like he owns it. The heat of him against me, so close to where I want him.
Sarissa’s grin widens. “Whoa. It was that good, huh?”
I fan my face with one hand. “The man has moves, that’s for sure.”
The strange thing is, while he was laying on the charm before he kissed me, after he pulled away, there was no hiding the fact he was just as affected as I was.
Sarissa nudges me with her foot. “So the king wants to bone you. Are you going to do it?”
“
Maybe. I’ve never had this kind of chemistry with anyone, you know?”
“Oh, I know.” Her tone is wry, and I groan. Sarissa knows all about my lack of experience. She’s one of the few people who I could trust with the gory details of how my ex-boyfriend Mike came before he even got inside my vagina. And then again when my crush Joe literally lasted for ten seconds the first time I had sex. It’s mortifying.
“He said it would be no-strings,” I say.
She grins. “My favorite kind of relationship. Well, if you’re up for it, I think you should do it. Your poor coochie is probably crying out for some D.”
I groan again. “I hate you.”
Sarissa laughs, and I pick up the pillow by my side.
Then I slam it into her face.
She narrows her eyes at me. “Oh, this is war.”
I shriek, taking the pillow and running into her sitting room as she sprints after me. My cousin is still a bully, and I’m still poking the bear, only to end up eaten when the bear wakes up.
I dodge around the couch, but she swings her pillow, hitting me in the side of the head, and I stumble.
“Bitch.”
I’m out of breath—from both the laughing and the running—and Sarissa giggles as I aim my pillow and miss.
I laugh harder as she steps back, her heel catching the edge of her long nightgown. She stumbles, almost falling on her ass. None of the other women would recognize my cousin right now, that’s for sure. She bares her teeth at me, swinging her pillow again, but I’m ready for it—thanks to Nevada’s insistence that I train with the other women during their morning classes.
I duck, swinging my pillow at the same time and slamming it into her stomach.
Sarissa howls, her eyes lighting up with vengeance, and I swallow as she steps toward me. Uh-oh. I turn to run again, freezing as I come face-to-face with Arix and Korzyn.
They’re standing in the doorway staring at us, their eyes wide. Behind them, Cauri has her hands on her hips, her face twisted in disapproval.
Oh shit.
Sarissa stumbles into me, and we both reach for each other, barely managing to keep on our feet. We must look like a couple of clowns, and Arix stares at us, the corner of his mouth twitching. Korzyn’s gaze is glued to my cousin, who looks wild, her hair tumbling around her shoulders, face flushed, aqua eyes glowing.