by LC Morgans
Chapter Nine
Greegis sauntered in with all the pomp and ceremony of any other high society Thrakorian and Kronus had to force himself to smile across at him in greeting. He felt like death, literally, and wasn’t sure how any of this was going to pan out, but just hoped his dying wish to save Kyra might be about to come true. He was already one step closer, all he had to do now was figure out how to go about the rest. He hadn’t thought that far ahead yet, thanks to the bout of nausea followed by chronic migraines that’d plagued him since his meeting with Rasmos. One thing Kronus did know was that he had to move quickly, and not only because of his deteriorating health. News would undoubtedly travel fast of Rasmos’s imprisonment and when it did, others like him would go into hiding, or worse—beg Kronus’s father for amnesty. There were far more who deserved to be in the same place as Rasmos right now, but many of who had his father’s ear so would never be counted among the lowlifes made example of to appease his youngest heir’s need for justice.
“Thank you for seeing us on such short notice,” he said, shaking the scientist’s hand. “I’m fading, old friend and I need your help. What do you have that might help give me some respite?”
“Your majesty, my latest batch isn’t ready for Thrakorian testing. I’m about to begin human trials first to ensure its safety and suitability for our kind,” Greegis replied, bowing apologetically. “Go home and rest. I’ll send you a pure-blooded Thrakorian to give you a blood transfusion which should help ease your symptoms, albeit temporarily…” The conversation, it seemed, was over, at least in Greegis’s eyes. However, Kronus wasn’t about to let him off so easily.
“That’s not good enough,” he demanded. “With all the funding and allowances afforded to this project, you ought to be further ahead by now. Show me your research, I’d like to see where we are for myself.” The coward straightened, fiddled with his collar and cuffs for a moment, and then had the audacity to shake his head at the Thrakorian Prince.
“I’m afraid that’s impossible,” he told him, looking bleak.
“Why?” Kronus insisted.
“Because he has nothing to show for months of research, your highness,” a soft, gentle voice he knew oh-so well came from over Kronus’s shoulder. It was as if all of his life had led him to this moment, so he closed his eyes and allowed himself a second to bask in the sound of her voice. The one voice that had been lost to him so very long before. He breathed a deep sigh at hearing the blessed sound, and then nodded to Domo.
Upon his silent order, his guard quickly incapacitated the Paladin and administered a sleeper hold. Kronus was surprised to watch as Greegis gave up without any fight at all, as though he’d already figured out that he was about to get caught. He was out cold within seconds and it felt good knowing he’d been the one to discover the sinister scientist’s secret. Greegis would be tried and sentenced soon, but now, all Kronus could think of or care about was the voice he’d just heard.
Kyra had been lost to him way before her planet had imploded, and yet that voice of hers had been gone even longer. However against all odds, there it was. It’d returned to her somehow and Kronus knew he’d be lying if he didn’t accept that his heart beat wildly at hearing her speak again.
He turned to find two women standing before him in one of the doorways that led to Greegis’s office. One was a kind looking nurse and the other a frail blonde being held up on faltering feet by the woman beside her. She was young and tanned, without a scar or a blemish in sight. The young woman had on a ripped dress in bright pastel colors, not the black combats or jeans and shirts Kyra usually wore.
The scene confused him. Where was she? Kronus was positive he’d heard her voice, or was it nothing more than a dream? Perhaps a hallucination? The girl standing on unsteady feet was clearly Greegis’s slave. She was malnourished and had been treated badly, not like his strong and willful soldier, and he looked around for Kyra again.
It was only when the blonde woman raised her hand and scratched aggressively at her chin that it registered. His Kyra was found but still long gone. Thrayke’s lost love seemed to have transformed into someone else. Someone suddenly incredibly far out of reach. All that was left standing before him was the debris of what once had been an amazing testament to human strength and fierceness of will. Kronus pitied her, regardless of not knowing what ordeals she’d faced since he’d last seen her. He didn’t need to ask, they were written all over her terrified face.
Everything about Kyra looked different, from the blonde hair and her flawless skin to the vacant expression on her face and scrawny body. Kronus had to blink away the tears pricking at his eyes. He ran his thumb down his neck to his chest in the same way he used to ask her if she was okay back on Kro Island. He stared at her intently for an answer, and then coughed on a sob when she shook her head no.
“It’s really you?” he asked and Kyra nodded. “What… What has he done to you?”
“He hid me in plain sight. Just another human slave girl…” She stepped closer with the help of the nurse and crumpled in a heap in a nearby chair, staring back at him in disbelief. Kronus knew he must be a shocking sight too. He couldn’t begrudge her a moment to take in the awful view. To witness for herself just how pale and small he too had become these past two years because of his disease. “I’m not the only one who’s nothing like they used to be, am I? Why didn’t you tell me you were sick?” she eventually asked with a sad smile.
“It was easier to ignore it and hope for the best. I didn’t form any attachments on purpose, knowing I would either die alone or somehow survive and marry as I was meant to. I held out for as long as I could, hoping Greegis might find me a cure. However, it seems my only hope was based on a lie that selfish deviant wove. At least this way, I got to see you before I die. I was able to finally save you like I was supposed to all those years ago. I’m sorry, Kyra,” he said, and to the surprise of their small group of onlookers, slid to his knees before her. Kronus took her cold hands in his and kissed her palms. “I was such a fool. Selfish, cruel, and stupid. I never should have let you go and I never should’ve made you feel worthless for loving me.”
“Kronus,” she whimpered, and tears fell down her cheeks as he watched her absorb his words. “Please…” He knew it was too much, too soon, but he simply had to say the words that’d haunted him since he’d let her go. Kronus had hesitated one time too many and had lost her, so now he was going to give her everything he had, while he still had the strength to.
“I’m so ashamed, because I loved you so much it broke me in two. I was just too proud to show it, to afraid to show everyone what you meant to me,” he carried on, ignoring her pleas. He wiped away the hot tears from her cheeks and cradled her face in his hands. “I’m done now, Kyra. I can die happy when I know you’re safe and back in the arms of the man you love. I know I missed my chance and that it’s no longer me who holds your heart. I can accept that, but please let me be the one to save you this one last time?”
“No,” she replied, and his heart sank. It then sprang back to life when she offered him a small smile. “I don’t accept your death, Kronus. There must be more we can do?” Kyra tried to stand, but Kronus stopped her. He appreciated her effort, but knew there was nothing anyone could do to help him.
“Without Greegis the cure is finished. Only he knew the intricacies of the work involved and the necessities required,” he answered, and this time it was the nurse’s turn to answer.
“That’s not true at all, sire. Myself and the other doctors here have worked with him for years and despite his insistence that we were nothing but worthless humans, we’ve picked up on a thing or two in his service. I’ve every confidence our team can figure it out if we’re given the chance,” she assured him, and Kronus nodded in acceptance, but still didn’t let himself hope too hard for a cure in time to save him.
“Then I guess I’d better let you get back to work,” he replied, and stood. Kronus then put out his hand for the nurse to shake, and sh
e took it, grinning from ear to ear.
***
Kyra hadn’t been able to believe it when she’d woken up again just minutes after Greegis had knocked her out on that gurney. Lasiandra’s face had materialized over her, watching as Kyra came back around and she had looked incredibly pleased with herself as she’d loomed with an empty syringe of something in her hand, and rightly so. Her quick thinking had brought Kyra out of her forced anesthesia in a fraction of the time it would’ve normally taken for the sedative to leave her system, and she’d forced herself upright as soon as the cuffs were then removed from her wrists and ankles.
“How did you do that?” she’d asked and Lasiandra had tapped her nose.
“Secret project. Greegis doesn’t know half of what goes on under his roof, he’s too busy playing with his new toy to notice,” she’d answered, but had then apologized for being so insensitive. It was true though, and whatever the concoction was, Kyra was glad it had been formulated and administered in time to help her overcome Greegis’s tranquilizer. “Let’s get you out of here. We can steal the ship Kronus came on,” Lasiandra had then offered and she’d seemed shocked when Kyra had shaken her head no.
“We need to go to where Kronus is. He’ll save us all, I promise.” Lasiandra hadn’t seemed convinced, but had gone along with her request after conceding defeat when under Kyra’s decisive stare.
And now that Kronus had come through for them all like she’d known, an ‘I told you so,’ wasn’t necessary. Lasiandra’s reaction to seeing Kronus profess his adoration and regret for how his past with Kyra had gone had said it all. She’d figured out for herself one more reason why Kyra had been such a commodity to the Thrakorian’s who had coveted her, but she’d also evidently realized why she had insisted they run to Kronus rather than away from him. And now, the vastly intelligent nurse could show their former leader exactly what she and the others were capable of and hopefully save him in the process. Kyra had every confidence in her and the other members of Greegis’s staff and their ability to produce a serum of worth. She’d hoped Lasiandra would offer their service to him rather than beg for their freedom, which was exactly what she’d done.
It was time for them to shine and get the recognition each and every one of them deserved, but Kyra just hoped they’d get to a conclusion in time to save him. Greegis had been carted off in chains already, locked away where he could hurt them no more. Gone was the tyrant boss who’d regulated every part of their lives, and now they could be free to work their magic to, hopefully, create that cure at long last.
Kyra and Kronus were then left alone for the first time in years. Domo had gone with Lasiandra and the others to make a start on their strategizing and the pair of them had been left to recoup in the small office where they could both rest comfortably in sofas sat opposite one another.
The last time Kyra had seen him she’d still been mute and he’d been tall, powerful, and ever such a strong force of nature. Now, they were both frail and broken. They stared at each other for a while, neither seeming to know what to say, but before long, Kyra felt her body strengthening from within and repositioned when she felt her skin smoothing over the last of Greegis’s sutures. She was still tender, but it appeared her new kidney was up and running, so she sat up, leaning against the pillow behind.
“You look so different,” Kronus said, and she instinctively ran a hand through her long golden curls.
“Some mornings I can’t even bring myself to look in the mirror,” Kyra admitted. “He did this to me, among other things, and I don’t know if I can get my body back to how it was before. Greegis turned me inside out and back again with his upgrade to my previous serum, and in the process he created his perfect pet. To his personal specification this time… I don’t feel like myself anymore, regardless of how far I’ve come in trying to fight his unyielding command over me.” She didn’t feel like telling him how she’d lost the better part of the last year to Greegis’s mind-altering experiment with nano-bots, so let her voice trail off.
“He’ll still love you, Kyra. He never stopped,” Kronus replied. She wiped a stray tear from her eye at even the mention of the man she hoped might come and join them soon, but couldn’t imagine how Thrayke could still love her after all the distance that’d been forced between them. “He doesn’t know where you are, not yet anyway. I knew he’d come in guns blazing if I revealed what I learned from Rasmos and I couldn’t risk Greegis sneaking you out before we could get to you.”
Kyra shuddered at the sheer sound of her initial captor’s name, and rubbed her wrists. So far, she’d had cuffs and ropes wrapped around those wrists, but the worst by far had to be Rasmos’s hands as he’d held her. His vice-like grip as he’d kidnapped and beaten her had been terrifying, and Kyra curled in on herself protectively. Kronus noticed and his face fell as he read her reaction. “When all of this is over, I’ll let you be the one to slit his throat. I give you my word,” he promised darkly.
“That’d be nice,” Kyra replied, turning pensive. She had so many questions but part of her wasn’t sure she was ready for the answers, so she opted to talk about something other than Rasmos or his fate. “Did you know I was aboard the ship? Were you onto us right from the start when I was hiding in that suitcase?” she then asked, forcing away her sadness.
Kyra was safe at long last and knew she ought to be elated, so focused on creating some good memories of this place to help fight away at least some of the bad. It helped when Kronus began laughing loudly, shocking her, and it was infectious. Kyra grinned back at him and shrugged.
“I had no clue you were hiding in one of those suitcases! I was clueless that you’d stowed away at all until Thrayke told me a couple days ago,” he told her, and they both turned serious again. “He has searched day and night for you, refusing a promotion and a wealthy future because he couldn’t let you go. I finally got it out of him that you were somewhere on Thrakor and knew I had to help find you. Technically, you should both be thrown in jail for breaking the law, but I guess I can overlook it this once…”
“Why thank you, Prince Kronus,” she replied with a playful bow and smiled again.
They then chatted for a while longer, but when he started to look tired and the conversation grew lighter, she let him rest, but didn’t leave. Kyra stayed with Kronus while he slept, keeping watch over the frail man, and for a long while she sobbed quietly and thanked her lucky stars that they’d found each other again. That he’d come through for her at last. She just hoped they had enough time to save him as well.
***
Hours passed, and while Kronus remained asleep, Kyra forced herself to stay awake. She couldn’t handle the usual barrage of bad dreams if they came, but also couldn’t deny how the tiredness that’d settled behind her eyes was getting harder to fight.
It was still hard to believe Kronus was currently laid opposite her. After all this time and all the changes in each of them, he’d come and found her before it was too late—for them both. What was also a wonderful surprise was how they’d fallen back into such comfortable sync after hashing out some of the harder elements to their recent history. He was the same man who’d changed her life on many occasions, both in good and bad ways, but who had also cared throughout it all and he had poured out his heart to her in the end.
There was no denying how all of those things Kronus had told her were the desperate ranting’s of a dying man, but Kyra knew she’d treasure his words until the day she died. They’d gone from ‘I love you,’ to ‘goodbye,’ in a matter of moments on Earth and it’d broken her heart to have to walk away. Now, she was finally certain it’d broken his as well, and while it wasn’t a victory, at least it gave her some peace to know it hadn’t been easy on him either.
She stared into the nothingness when darkness fell, rather than bother with turning on a light or heading out to find the others. Kyra was lost in her thoughts, and guessed she must’ve dozed a little in the end, because one moment she was alone with Kronus and the next
she looked to her right and found Domo sitting beside her. He was a master at stealth though, and so she simply smiled and let him wrap a sympathetic arm around her shoulders. They’d gotten to know one another a little during her stay on Kro Island, but had never been close, however his support was still a welcome addition to his silent presence and caring touch.
“I’ve contacted Thrayke. He’s due here in the morning,” he told her. Kyra thanked him. He seemed to have known without her saying so that she’d need some time to mentally prepare herself for Thrayke’s arrival, rather than him burst in out of the blue, and was glad Domo had come to tell her.
“Thank you. How’s the work going?” she asked and felt relieved when she saw him smile in the dim light.
“Well. There won’t be anything for at least a few days, but the team has already come up with a sound theoretical basis. They’re a force to be reckoned with that lot, reminds me of someone else I used to know.” Domo grinned and gave her a squeeze. “We’ll have the cure soon, I’m sure,” he said, and Kyra got the feeling he was coddling her. She thought about the Thrak lying on the sofa opposite, as well as the one reportedly on his way. Feeling overwhelmed, Kyra decided she couldn’t let any more worry creep into her already frazzled mind, so she chose not to question him any further.
One day, Kyra hoped she’d be that strong and self-assured woman who questioned everything and everyone again, but for now she’d been bested, and all she could think about was spending time with those she’d loved and lost. Those she’d missed so much it’d torn her apart from the inside out. The man she’d yearned for badly enough that she’d welcomed the numbness Greegis’s nano-bots had forced on her.
After a few minutes spent silent and still, Domo then stood and quietly left. Kyra didn’t call after him or ask for him to stay. She simply sat for a while, watching the dark shadows where soft, shallow breaths were resonating from. Something within her had the urge to go to Kronus and to lie beside him. To have his arms wrapped protectively around her, but she instantly pushed that impulse away. She’d chosen Thrayke over him two years before and knew she still wanted him despite her history with Kronus, or the beautiful words he’d spoken earlier that afternoon. It was too late for them to make something of those ancient feelings, but it wasn’t too late for her and Thrayke to start over—or at least she hoped so.