by Ashley West
He would find who had done this, and they would pay with their lives.
“The child…” He swallowed thickly, “The child is safe?”
“Your son is fine, Kael.” Kaia interjected softly, a small smile rising to her lips as she shared a proud glance with Danielle. “It will be a boy. A prince.”
Even as his own pride rose in his chest at the discovery, he could not indulge it. This news couldn’t have come at a more tumultuous time. They were set to launch their raid on the Remans in a few scant weeks, the humans had just been convinced to concede peacefully to the terms of the repopulation, and now the explosion.
The way things stood, his son would be born into an environment more threatening than welcoming. Turning from the two women, Kael took a deep breath to center himself. There was much to be done. He would have to ensure that the councilors and their families remained safe, and post a guard on members of his own family. Hadric would not be able to roam the palace halls with only his nurse for company any longer. The city would have to be prepared for anything that might happen while they poured their resources into finding the criminals. In that singular moment, he felt the weight of his crown dragging him downward powerfully, and cursed the decisions he must make.
And then, all at once, he felt the warmth of two slender arms slipping about his waist. He stiffened for a moment before Danielle’s soft, fragrant scent enveloped him. “Kael.” When she spoke, her voice was soothing, though he sensed she was just as afraid as he. “It will be OK. Everything will be alright.”
The Prince looked up to see that the doctors had gone. The only occupants of the room were he, his wife, and his sister. Before Danielle had come to this planet – even a few short weeks ago, just after they were wed, Kaia would have cautioned her against such public displays of affection. But now, he couldn’t bring himself to pull from her arms. His own parents had never shown him or his siblings much overt affection. They had understood their station, and the behavior it required.
As he’d grown older, however, Kaia had to embrace him more. With her, unlike with his brothers, he had felt freer to divulge his fears and apprehensions. Behind closed doors, she was the only one he’d ever allowed to comfort him.
Turning in his wife’s arms, Kael allowed himself one small, brief moment of weakness, against all he had sworn. He met Danielle’s clear, bright blue eyes, inhaled the sweet scent of her hair and brushed his lips over her forehead, before placing a hand over her flat belly.
“Our child will be safe, Danielle. I swear to you.”
With that, he forced himself to step away from her, turning from both women present to leave the room, his mind awhirl. He would speak with every scientist, analyst and bomb maker in the city if he had to, but by the morning, he would know who had perpetrated this vile attack.
And he would see them dead.
That night, Kael slept with Danielle firmly encircled in his arms. His thoughts were too tumultuous to have her physically, but he indulged in the warmth of her skin against his own, allowing it to galvanize his need to catch those who had threatened her life.
Three whole days passed before anyone brought forth any information on the bombing, and by that time, Kael’s nerves were dancing upon a razor’s edge. He snapped at any one who spoke to him and the councilors were afraid to call him into a meeting, knowing how his temper could be when he was stretched so thinly.
On the morning of the fifth day of the week, he was eating breakfast with Kaia and Danielle when a group of at least ten soldiers marched into the solar, holding between them a struggling man dressed in rags. Kaia made a sound of alarm, shielding her son as the guards forced the man to his knees before the prince, their expressions grave. Yasin stepped forward, his golden eyes glowing with a mixture of anger and triumph.
“My Prince.” He bowed low in fealty. “We have found the man that placed the bomb in the amphitheater. We believe he might be working in concert with others who sneaked into the city on trade ships.” He reached down to tangle long fingers in the man’s hair, yanking his face upward so that Kael could get a good look at his enemy.
The man’s aquamarine, slanted eyes, vivid violet hair and breathing slits in place of a proper nose immediately pronounced him a Reman. Kael rose from his chair, his eyes narrowing as the realization hit him with the impact of a physical blow.
A Reman.
They had taken their fight from the outer boundaries of the empire and brought it to the capital. It was not enough that they had killed thousands of Garinians in battle, and hundreds more in their rebellion. No…they had come here, to the heart of the city, and tried to kill their princess.
The Reman’s eyes blazed pure fire as they gazed up into his. Not once did they waver or defer. Kael had to swallow the urge to pummel the man into the ground – to beat him until his senses fled and he begged for mercy.
But he could not inflict such brutality before the eyes of his sister, wife, and nephew. He would have to contain his anger until an opportune time. For now, he could merely make sure his enemy understood that there would be no mercy. Kael’s voice was cold when he spoke. “Put him in razor restraints, in the darkest cell of confinement, and tell the council to convene.”
The traitor spat a stream of curses in his own language as he was dragged away, and Yasin bowed deeply before seeing him off. Almost immediately, Kael stood from the table, his appetite gone. Kaia met his gaze, reading the fury there, and said absolutely nothing, merely cradling her son to her.
“That was him, wasn’t it?” The prince turned to face his wife, who was staring in the direction in which the guards had dragged the Reman prisoner. Her face was pale, blue eyes wide in her slim face. Of course, she hadn’t literally understood the exchange between he and Yasin, but she didn’t have to. “The man behind the bombing.”
“You needn’t worry.” He replied brusquely. “He will be prosecuted to the full extent of our laws…and then…I will deal with him personally.”
“Kael…I want to speak with him.”
For a moment, he believed he hadn’t heard her correctly. She wanted to speak with the man who had tried to kill her and her unborn child? Was she absolutely mad? The prince took a moment to reign in his temper before replying firmly.
“Absolutely not.” Before she could argue with him, he continued. “I refuse to put your safety in jeopardy again, Danielle. This man would kill you without a second thought. You are not to go anywhere near him, do you understand me?”
“He’s a Reman, isn’t he?” Her inquiry was low, almost desperate. “I know he is. Please, Kael, let me speak to him. I know you think the raid is the only way, but if you’ve never attempted negotiation...if we could show that we’d be willing to hear what he has to say-“
Had she not heard a single word he’d just said? He wasn’t letting her anywhere near the holding cells, let alone the murderous man who’d tried to take her life. “No, Danielle. That is my last word on the subject. I know how to deal with these rebels, and it is my duty to keep you and everyone in this empire safe from harm. There will be no negotiations, and no conversation.”
With that, he turned from her pale face to begin making his way to the council chambers. There were decisions to be made, and they had to be made quickly. They would send the Remans a message they would never forget, and he would ensure an attack like the one that had threatened his wife’s life would never occur again.
He would make his stand now, so that by the time he ascended to the throne, no one would dare challenge him. His people would be safe. His family would be safe.
Danielle would be safe.
**
He wasn’t listening to her.
Though the prince had been stubborn before the incident at the amphitheater, ever since she’d been hurt – since he’d found out that Danielle was carrying his child, it was like a switch had been thrown. He became protective to the point of being overbearing, insisting that she couldn’t even walk the palace corridors with a
guard of less than ten – doubling the watch, even, on Kaia and little Hadric, so that when the women walked together down a corridor it was like they commanded their own small army.
Danielle wasn’t idiotic. She knew that the marriage between she and Kael had been a necessary one – that he’d chosen her to show solidarity in bringing her people to Garinia. However, over the past months of watching him – of having him in her bed and a part of her everyday life, duty, obedience and affection had all started to blend together.
Before the bombing, as he’d sat with her helping her to come up with the speech she would use to address her fellow humans, he’d been surprisingly patient. When she traipsed into his study with her hands dirty from the new garden where she now spent most of her time, he overlooked her unkempt appearance in a way that would have mortified Kaia, inviting her into his chair so he could stand over her and check her work. He had leaned close to her, blurring the barrier between work and pleasure, breathing into her ear and driving her out of her mind with desire.
Even when they weren’t together, it was the little gestures from the man that made her feel less and less like a political pawn, and more and more a part of his world. The first step had been the garden, and then there was his allowing her in to watch his many sparring sessions, where she watched the man take on increasing members of soldiers as he showed off his battle prowess. Even though Kaia told Danielle that her brother was a warrior prince, the idea had been solidified in her mind when she’d seen him put ten men flat on their backs in a matter of moments. He enjoyed hand to hand combat – he was good at it; and it made her feel slightly guilty that she enjoyed watching him.
Enjoyed the power in his muscular arms when he held her close, and she could feel him deep within her.
The man’s sexual appetite was voracious; and ever since he’d forgiven her for her first infringement in the council room, he’d sought her out almost every night. Though Garinian nights were long, the prince had absolutely no issue exhausting them – stimulating her body until she quite literally fell into sleep, utterly exhausted.
That, of course, was what accounted for her current condition.
On her knees in the garden just outside their suite of rooms, the young woman placed a hand on her still flat belly. The pregnancy timeline of Garinians, as she understood, was a bit different than that of humans. She would carry for almost a year, with the baby developing slowly, watched closely through every stage. Her child born would be the first Garinian-human hybrid – the first child to have complete immunity to the Ignacious Virus…who would then pass that immunity onto their children, and their grandchildren.
It was a realization that took her breath away. While Danielle hadn’t been able to save her brother, she was now doing her part to ensure that humanity would never face such a debilitating threat ever again. A year ago, she didn’t think she would have been able to fathom that she would be taken to another planet – seeing what she’d seen and doing what she did. She was a princess – soon to be a queen, and there was no level of preparation that would ever be enough.
And she would be a mother.
She would have her own children – not to watch them wither and die helplessly, but to see them grow and thrive. Garinian technology was advanced enough to be able to tell her the sex of her child after only a few weeks of pregnancy, and the fact that she would have a son – that she was married to a king and would bear a king…it was a lot to absorb. She had thousands of questions. How fast would the child grow? When would it be allowed to return to Earth? Would the crown prince be torn between his duties and his family?
….Would he be just like his father?
The notion was enough to rouse both fright and pride in her. There was no doubt in her mind that Kael was a worthy prince, and would be a good king…but he was stubborn. He didn’t explore all of his options. And though it seemed that the more time he spent with her, the more he softened towards her decidedly unqueenly mannerisms – he wasn’t so staunch about etiquette or carriage when they were alone, and, indeed, even seemed amused by her clumsiness at times – she couldn’t truly get him to listen to her on matters of state. She’d been utterly shocked when he’d agreed to her conditions on human grieving…which was perhaps why she’d spoken out on the morning they’d found the man who had tried to kill her.
The man had now been in the holding cells for two weeks while his fate was being decided, but to Danielle, the episode could have happened just yesterday.
The explosion had changed her husband. He’d gone from a man she’d begun to know to an overbearing, overprotective authority figure. When they made love, he held her frantically – tightly – as if he was afraid she’d slip away from him at any moment, and she was almost never allowed time by herself. Even now, in her private garden, she was watched over by five guards.
She supposed she should simply be glad he hadn’t blown up on her like the first time she’d suggested that he be more lenient with the Remans. While, then, he’d been blinded by pride, now it was fear and anger that drove his actions. Danielle knew the man in the cells would die, it was simply a matter of when and where. Kael would no doubt want to make a public display of it – and that was if he didn’t personally kill the man while he waited for his execution.
He wanted her safe, and he was willing to do anything to ensure that safety.
While Danielle was flattered – she knew the prince’s rabid protection of her meant he had to care for both she and her unborn child – she wasn’t convinced that executing the man and then raiding the Reman colony was the best way to go about showing the Remans the power of Garinian authority. Reman culture was one of the only cultures that the empire had a problem absorbing – besides her own, of course – then it stood to reason that perhaps a different approach might yield better results.
But Kael was rooted in tradition – and he was angry. He wanted to crush the Remans. She could see it every time he spoke of them and his face glowed with rage. He understood that he might be restarting a war that might cost hundreds more lives, but he was content with the notion that soldiers would be proud to die for their empire.
That he might die to preserve the notion of Garinian supremacy.
Danielle wasn’t quite clear on how she felt about her husband. She admired him…and the more she learned about him, the more she understood the immense weight he carried on his shoulders. What she didn’t understand is why he didn’t share it…why he couldn’t move away from methodologies that might cost him everything.
She didn’t want him to die. He was the father of her child…and the thought of never seeing him again…it constricted her heart and she couldn’t breathe. She’d tried to express her worries to Kaia, but the elder woman refused to intervene when it came to the Prince’s official decrees. She deferred to him in all matters political ultimately, and for something like this, when he seemed hell bent on sending a message…there was little she could do to sway him.
There was little any one could do to sway him. Though, in Danielle’s mind…it wasn’t as if anyone was trying very hard. As Garinians, the council, the guard, and even Kaia were mired in the way things had been done for thousands of years. Even on the briefest of occasions when the human woman spoke to the Prince’s brothers, Marc and Jalil, they both declined to speak to him on matters of government – things they themselves had elected to avoid when they gave him the right to the crown.
Danielle was afraid. She didn’t know how to be a queen, but she was pretty sure a wife wouldn’t just let her husband walk into his possible death if she felt uneasy about it. He might leave his child fatherless – and she to raise a prince alone.
The notion was intimidating, to say the least.
But what could she do?
The prince had absolutely forbidden her from speaking to their Reman prisoner, and he would listen to nothing she had to say about how to handle the Reman rebels. Though Danielle didn’t know how to govern an empire, she knew that war was never the
best option – especially when nothing else had been tried!
The young woman finished tending to the large green blossoms she know knew were called cree flowers. When their petals began to fall, she could drop them in her bath and they would secrete a skin softening oil that Kaia swore by. Danielle often fell to tending to her garden when she contemplated her husband and her new family. It was good to keep her hands busy with what she loved as she discovered attributes she’d never known plants could have.
On Garinia, there were plants that could heal wounds instantly – that could induce lovesickness in someone for a full week and could regenerate as soon as a blossom was plucked. Her new home was a veritable plethora of botany discoveries, and the moment she had more spare time, she would delve into them more deeply.
For the moment, she was being kept busy with her lessons in culture, history, language and etiquette. Everywhere there were reminders that she would soon be a queen – and Danielle knew she didn’t want to do it alone.
Which was why she had to do something about the situation with the Remans – whether she had support or not.
As the young woman took her bath, she mulled over her options. Kael had expressly forbid her from talking to the prisoner - the question was, how many people knew that? The fact of the matter was that speaking to the man might full well reveal some things about the Remans that had never been considered before. If only she could have an hour with him…but that would require ducking her battalion of guards, her husband, and Kaia…a task that seemed nigh impossible. Then, she would have to rely on her rudimentary knowledge of Garinian and hope that the Reman spoke it, as she didn’t have an omnilingual chip implanted.
She was still lost in thought as she stepped from the bath, taking the towel-like cloth one of her attendants extended to her. When she donned her diaphanous robe, headed back into the main chamber to get ready for bed, she was surprised to see Kael sitting at the edge of the sleeping pad, bare from the waist up. She took in his pensive expression, heat stirring in her belly at the sight of his broad, muscular shoulders and tapered waist. For all the battles he’d been in, both real and contrived, his magnificent body carried not a single scar. The healing factor for pure blood Garinians was high – almost instantaneous, and so Kael would never have to worry about simple injuries.