by Ali Vali
Asher Pailter had been Pontos’s protector since he was six, so it had made sense that he’d assume the role of his father so his presence wouldn’t be questioned. “It wasn’t until a few days ago that Francesca informed us that the princess was in this area so they intended to try to take her out. That’s the last we heard from her or her group, sire. Remember, we were under your orders to receive communications only from them and not return any unless it was imperative.”
“So you’re blaming me?” Pontos pushed his hands against the wheel, pressing his back against the seat.
“No, sire, but I believe she kept it to herself to prove she was worthy of your trust. Her failure, though, might have uncovered the rest who have shown favor to you and the king. And she died before she revealed who the princess is.”
Pontos closed his eyes as the reality of the situation hit him like a human bullet to his chest. He should’ve figured it out that first night when that tall bitch put her hand on the fish tank. Very few of the rulers after Nessa’s father actually knew the identity of Nessa’s heirs until they actually ascended to the throne, each more defiant than the rest.
Kai had to be Galen’s child, and she’d been close enough to him so many times that it would’ve been easy to eliminate her if he’d been thinking clearly. He still had some advantage since the Oberons never revealed their children either until it was necessary. They had no idea who he really was or his mission.
“Gather everyone who’s close and tell them to meet at the barracks. I’ll be there in an hour.”
“As you wish, sire,” Asher said.
“Francesca might’ve failed but I certainly will not.”
*
The trip to the doctor was quick, and Vivien was resting with the medication the doctor had prescribed when his prognosis had been a simple stomach virus. As she slept, Kai had talked to Edil and Laud about security since Steve and Tanice had effectively disappeared.
Of all her calls, the one to her mother Hadley had been the most difficult, since she was beyond angry that she’d missed such a lapse in their security. “Mom, we’ve always had dissenters. That’s part of our history. I’m concerned they helped an outsider into our world, but we’ve got a lead on where to start looking. Stop beating yourself up.”
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Hadley said gruffly. “Today, Wilma Yelter and her daughter Bella disappeared as well, after shaking the people I put on them. We’ve looked, so if they’re still here, someone is hiding them.”
“And the others with Francesca’s group?” she asked, rubbing Vivien’s back when she mumbled in her sleep.
“Most of them are detained, along with the families of the women killed with Francesca. They’re all proclaiming their innocence, and only the threat of treason against your mother shut them up about those fairy tales, so we should get the whole story soon. They’re smart enough to know the penalty for treason, which makes for more cooperative prisoners.”
“Is Mama okay?”
“She’s upset, and I can’t convince her this has nothing to do with her reign.”
“No. The Oberons have been planning and scheming since Nessa sat on the throne and possessed the golden triton.” She stilled her hand and sensed what was coming next. “I have to go back, don’t I?”
“Kai, it has nothing to do with your abilities or our faith in you. This situation, though, makes it impossible to truly protect you. There are too many unknowns for Laud and the others to contend with.”
“When?” she asked, her chest achy from the thought of leaving Vivien.
“We’ll give you tonight, tadpole. Your mother and I are proud of the job you’ve done bringing that family back together. Vivien has more to count on now than just her brother.”
“Thanks.” The device went silent so she lay there and watched Vivien sleep. She wanted to promise herself that she’d return, but to prolong what had to be would be cruel to both of them. “I’ll never forget you, and you’ll forever own a part of my heart,” she said softly.
Vivien didn’t move or wake, so she held her and waited for her to open her eyes on her own, getting up for only a moment to prepare for what came next. It didn’t take long before Vivien’s breathing pattern changed and her embrace tightened. Neither of them said anything so it was nice not to break the silence, which only angered her when she heard her phone ring. A limited number of people had the number, so it had to be important.
“Come out or I’m going to blow the house.”
She recognized the voice even if she’d heard it only once on the phone. “Calm down,” she said as she got to her feet and went to the window. Steve stood in the center of the courtyard surrounded by a group of warriors in the crimson uniforms of their home planet. “These people have nothing of importance to you.”
“Don’t give orders, Princess, and move.” Steve nodded to one of the men, who hit Vivien’s truck with a bright-red beam and it burst into flames. “Get out here.”
*
“What’s he doing?” Vivien asked, standing by Kai’s side and staring outside.
“Viv, I need you to get to the back door but don’t go outside,” she said, but Vivien didn’t take her eyes off the group in the yard. “Vivien, you need to get down there and be ready to move.”
“We can all leave together since Steve’s obviously lost his mind.”
“You need to go,” she said, more sternly than she meant, but if he concentrated all those beams on the house they’d all die together.
“Don’t go,” Vivien said, her tears about to fall.
“Keep yourself and your family safe—promise me,” she said, and almost cried herself when Vivien turned to leave. “Are you in position?” she asked Isla, who stood at the corner of the house for cover.
“Yes, and a couple of Edil’s people are waiting out back. They cleared a path out the back garden, so don’t worry. Be careful, Highness. This guy is full of hate and he knows who you are, but from the looks of it we have most of his men in one place.”
Now outside, she took her triton out of her packed bag and drew a deep breath, thinking of Oba. Maybe her course wouldn’t change because of Vivien after all. Her path might end on land right here, but she refused to go down without a fight.
“I see you’re no different in battle than you were at Palmer,” she said as she tightened her grip on the triton. “You need plenty of backup no matter where you are.”
“You think I need anyone to help me kill you?” Steve twirled the metal pole in his hands and started to slowly circle. “My father told me this would be easy, but I don’t think he realized how simple-minded your mother is.”
“Your father?” She didn’t step toward him but only turned to keep him in front of her. Her attention wavered only slightly as she saw her people coming over the wall, and Steve’s men were clueless since they were waiting to see him destroy her.
“King Sol Oberon.” He ran at her and seemed to be trying to knock her down with his momentum. “I’m going to gift him with your head, and my reward will be seeing your mother’s face when I tell her as I take over the city.”
She stood and felt the strain in her thighs as he pushed down on her triton with his weapon, but she wasn’t worried about going down. The power she could hear vibrating through the weapon made her hyperaware to keep him from pointing the end at her. She kept her triton up and waited for a sign that he was about to add more pressure, and when he flexed the muscles in his arms she kicked him in the knee.
Steve stumbled but managed to knock her in the chest with the nonlethal side of his weapon. The men with him moved closer to them when he dropped to his knees as she kicked him again. “I guess you need help killing a woman,” she taunted him.
“Back off,” Steve screamed as he got back to his feet, but he was limping.
Hurting an opponent was always good, but from her training she also knew it made them more dangerous. He blocked her next kick and swung up with his weapon when she was com
mitted and connected with her shoulder. It tore her shirt, but her suit protected her from the crackle of power. She was glad she’d taken the time to put it on while Vivien slept.
She recovered and met his blows as they knocked weapon to weapon. The sparring reminded her of the sessions she’d had with her mother Hadley when she was younger. Hadley’s size and strength had intimidated her at first, but she’d learned quickly that she could defeat both with speed and by keeping her head in the game. The expression of triumph on his face almost made her laugh as one of her undercuts knocked the triton out of her hand.
“Prepare to—” He stopped gloating abruptly when she knocked his head back in rapid succession with her fist; she hit him so hard she felt the impact all the way up her arm to her shoulder. By the fifth blow her fists were bloody, and she reached down for her triton when he shook his head as if to clear it.
Her head rattled in pain as she lowered it for an instant and he came down with his fist. Steve wasn’t as tall as she was, but he was powerful—strong. Her minuscule break in attention had taken her back a few steps. She tightened her grip on the triton and turned fast enough that his next punch glanced off her shoulder. She had time then to move out of his range and clear her head enough to continue.
“It’s time for you and the rest of the women your mother thinks she rules to bow to their true ruler.” The red beam shot from the end of his weapon and made a hole in the Palmers’ driveway.
She trusted her aim and shot a quick pulse that knocked it out of his hand, and as it bounced away from him, his men brought their weapons up and started to point them at her. Talia and Isla moved first, aiming for the heads of the men positioned to strike against her. Steve turned and seemed shocked that half of his warriors lay dead right behind him.
He screamed and ran at her with the dagger he’d unsheathed from his back, which he swung in a wide arch, slicing into her cheek. She had no choice but to drop her triton, which was useless with him this close. Her protectors weren’t of any help now since the rest of Steve’s men had engaged them.
“I’ve worked too long to lose to you, bitch,” he said as he knocked her to the ground and straddled her hips. He gripped the dagger with both hands and used his position to push it down toward her throat.
She strained in an effort to keep it from coming down any farther, but he had the advantage so her mind frantically worked to come up with a counter before the bastard pinned her head to the ground. Just then Vivien screamed her name from the corner of the house. The split-second distraction was all she needed as she pushed against Steve so the tip came down on her chest, allowing her to punch him directly in the nose.
Kai momentarily closed her eyes to keep the spray of blood from Steve’s nose from blinding her. It was one of those wounds that made you instinctively cover the area with your hands, and Steve was no different, despite his opinion of superior birth.
She rolled, knocking him off her, and moved to retrieve her triton. Isla’s yell of warning came as she began to stand up, and she immediately turned to put her back toward the house since all the hostiles were in the driveway. Even though Steve was injured and still bleeding, he easily caught the weapon Tanice had thrown him, and this time he didn’t hesitate to fire. She had no time to fire off a shot so she did the only thing she could think to survive. The blast to her chest came instantly as she acted.
Then there was only darkness.
Chapter Thirty-one
“No,” Vivien screamed, echoed by Tanice’s similar anguish. The two adversaries lay dead so the tie didn’t seem fair. Steve had the weapon Kai had thrown like a javelin sticking out of his throat, and Kai had a large burn mark that encompassed her entire chest. “Let me go,” she said to the strange woman who held her back.
“Please, Miss Palmer, it’s not safe.” Those were the last words Vivien heard.
Edil gently laid her down like she had Franklin, while her backup took care of the parents. An induced sleep would at least keep them out of harm’s way, so she ran to join the fight against the few men left around Tanice. Isla and Talia were on their knees leaning over Kai, and their expression of sadness made her choke back the tears.
“Put down your weapons or you’ll die where you stand,” she said loudly, killing one of them to make her point when he tried to fire on her. The act did nothing to calm her anger, but it did take the fight out of them.
“Edil, you know where to take them,” Isla said, not moving from Kai’s side. “We’ll carry the princess home.”
Edil’s unit bound the prisoners with their best restraints, then sedated them once they were loaded in their vehicles. The others drove Steve’s car away from the house and made the best repairs they could to clean up any sign of their fight. Steve’s men would be transported to one of their bases under the arctic tundra, where their most talented interrogators were located.
“Do you want me to try to erase this from their memories?” she asked Talia about the Palmers.
“Leave them to us and go. You and your warriors did a good job today. You should be proud of yourself and them.”
“Thank you, but I still feel like we failed,” she said as she glanced at Kai.
“That’s not what we’ll report to our queen, so go, and we’ll take care of the rest,” Talia said, putting her hand on Edil’s shoulder and squeezing. “I’m serious about the pride you should take away from this.”
Edil nodded and turned to join her group. When the vehicles pulled away, Talia’s heart rate went down since they didn’t have any human authorities to deal with to complicate the situation. “Did you make contact with Laud?” she asked Isla.
“It’s all taken care of, and the known resistance members are all in custody except for Wilma and Bella, but Laud said they were close to finding them. The rest, I’m sure, will come once those idiots go through questioning, but let’s finish up here before we have to face the queen and her consort.”
They worked together to gently wrap Kai up for transport and take the Palmers inside. When they came to in an induced state, Talia gave them a choice as to what to believe since she didn’t think it possible to wipe Kai and what had happened completely from their minds without impairing their complete mental health. She wasn’t that talented. Some people, though, had trouble believing things so out of their norm, so at times they needed another explanation to help them hang on to their safe reality.
The Salacia was moored at the shipyard, but they waited until the place was fairly deserted to leave, wanting the cover of night to make it to the Gulf. It wasn’t from fear but so they could submerge without too many witnesses if they were followed.
“Do you think we’ll ever come back here?” Isla asked as she put out a call to Ivan and Ram. It was time to go home.
“Kai has left enough of a mark here that I think we will. The work is important so it has to continue.” Talia put her arm around Isla’s waist and held her. Sometimes only the closeness of a friend you loved could conquer pain.
“We’ll make sure it does, no matter what.”
Chapter Thirty-two
Vivien sat between her father and Frankie three weeks later and waited for the final vote of the stockholders. It took every ounce of will in her to get out of bed, since the nagging stomach issues and Kai’s absence had weighed heavily on her. Her family hadn’t talked about it, and Frankie had been unusually quiet about the whole thing, but she knew what she’d witnessed. Nothing or no one would ever convince her otherwise.
“We are as upset as anyone with the disappearance of the Hawksworth family, but we were right in the actions we took as a board,” Shawn Reagan, the acting head of the board, said in answer to a question from the audience.
The woman at the microphone looked like someone she’d met, but Vivien couldn’t place from where. “What concern required the removal of Mr. Palmer from the helm of the company?”
Shawn explained the programs that had to do with the environment and nothing to do with oil production,
as well as leaving Steve out of some of the major decisions made after they’d been shut down. The rest of the board nodded as he spoke, but the woman showed no sign of emotion one way or another.
“So you don’t believe the two-billion-dollar contract with the state of Louisiana to grow both the fish farms and land-expander programs good for the company?” the woman said with heat. “Or that you placed all your trust in a man who’s disappeared along with his family, deserting the company when we desperately need leadership?”
“What contract?” Shawn asked, looking back at the board and then Vivien’s family as if someone would feed him the answer.
“I’m here representing clients who own fifteen percent of the common stock, and I make a motion to place Mr. Winston Palmer back to his original position.” The motion was immediately seconded and passed with a strong majority. “I also make a motion to have another vote once new, better-qualified people are found to replace the entire board. We can consider a new tally of names in a month’s time.”
“Wait a minute,” Shawn said as some of the board members stood.
“No. You wait until my motion has been addressed.” Like the first, it was immediately ratified.
Vivien thought how right her father had been and how helpful this woman had been in giving him what he wanted. It was almost as if she’d been privy to the conversation they’d had about it when Kai had been present. The memory twisted the knife that seemed to have lodged in her heart.
Once the meeting was adjourned, the way her father laughed cut through some of her pain. “Hopefully he’ll stay the same now that he has the big chair back,” Frankie said with a smile that appeared melancholy. “It’s been nice to have him finally be simply Dad.”
“I think it’ll be okay.” She took Frankie’s hand to anchor herself in something familiar. “Do you know the woman asking the questions?”