by Meg Xuemei X
Gabriel’s First Officer’s voice buzzed in the shuttle. “Captain, Queen Faya has an urgent message.”
“Receive their hail,” I said to Gabriel.
He voice-commanded the ship like a robot. “Accept.”
Senator Wellstone appeared on the screen. “Princess Athena, I’m very sorry to rush you, but we have a narrow time window. Our borrowed StarGate will close soon. If we don’t go now, we’ll be stranded in space.”
I needed to ask the details about the StarGate to stall them, so I could stay here a little longer with Gabriel.
No, I didn’t want to go. I needed more time to think about it. And I wouldn’t let the senator push me like this. But if I didn’t leave now, I would never have the strength to leave. I might not have another chance to go home, since the future always seemed uncertain.
I’d fought to go home every day for three years—
“Princess Athena,” the senator urged again. “Please. We have to go.”
Gabriel snarled.
I strode toward him, reducing the distance between us. He stared at me pleadingly without a word, his cold, stiff demeanor dropping.
My fingertips brushed across the ancient black-inked runes that jumped on his temple at his boiling emotion. “Goodbye, Gabriel.”
I stepped back, turning to the senator on the screen with deceptive icy calm. “I’m ready.”
I wasn’t ready. I would never be ready to leave him.
An intense traction beam locked on me.
The column of the light twirled just as Gabriel lunged at me with a devastating look.
A blink. I was in the bridge of the Queen Faya. Gabriel was no longer with me. Nor were Kaara and all the people I’d grown to care about.
Before I gained my footing, the royal spaceship shot toward a blue shimmer right ahead at a blinding speed.
As soon as the StarGate closed behind us, a vast, icy blue galaxy stretched ahead—we’d reached Icearth Galaxy.
I was closer to home than ever.
25
The Angel
I didn’t know what it was—as soon as we’d flown through the portal and left Pandemonium behind, there was this mystical gap between Fiammetta and me. The reality just shifted, and I had a hard time to follow.
The damned spaceship from her empire popped out of nowhere to take her away from me. She jumped right to it and couldn’t wait to get away from me fast enough.
She no longer needed me.
I’d thought once we solved her memory issue, there’d be no barrier between us. Given time, I could even persuade her to go with me to deliver the Furies’ message. It should be a quick errand, then we would go to her home planet together.
It turned out that the witch had a commitment issue.
That was why she’d acted cold then hot then cold again these last few days.
I’d casually asked her about her plan while we’d lain in bed in her Witch Tower, her head resting on my chest, her soft, warm body on my feathers.
“Go home and reclaim my birthright,” she had said.
There hadn’t been any mention of me in her future plan. She’d never had a place for me in her new life.
“That’s all you want?” I had asked.
She’d arched an eyebrow. “What else would I want?”
I’d contained my bitter disappointment. “That’s a good plan.”
But I hadn’t expected her to want to leave me so soon, not like this.
This hurt. This goddamn fucking hurt!
She stared at me, icy mask on her face.
She was back to being the Wickedest Witch I had first known, who had treated me like a completely stranger. I was worth no more than dust to her.
A sudden rage filled my chest.
All those nights when she’d dismissed me right after our hot, sweaty sex flooded right back, like salt on a wound. Athena Fiammetta Faya was still heartless.
Maybe I should reconsider our relationship!
Even though she was the best fuck I’d ever had, I should not be tied down, either. I would keep going to the next galaxy, then the next, to explore, or conquer. There was always something brand new out there. Furthermore, I needed to resume my course to hunt down the Dark Lord after the Furies’ task. That difficult wicked witch would only slow me down.
The universe was a big place. I would find her replacement somewhere in no time without investing anything and without giving any piece of me. She was actually doing me a favor by running off. She made all this easy for me.
Yet my male instinct roared furiously at me. She’s wicked, but she’s still your mate!
The image of our tangled limbs in bed played before me. When I’d pumped my seed into her depth, I’d rejoiced like never before. Our mating bond—a blue flame like a living cord—had snapped to existence.
Had I gone through so much trouble falling into the past to a doomed planet for her, only to lose her?
Just as I snapped back and completely realized what was happening, a teleport beam locked on her.
“No!” I screamed and lunged, but I was too late.
As I flicked my furious gaze at the screen, Queen Faya sailed faster than lightning toward a blue shimmer—the StarGate.
“Captain, they’re going at warp speed.” Racer’s voice buzzed in the shuttle.
I turned the Red Dragon to chase her. I no longer cared about my pride, the mission, or the whole universe. I wouldn’t let her out of my sight. I wouldn’t let her just disappear from my world.
She was mine.
But then, the magical band on my left wrist flared, excruciating pain rendering me immobile.
My vow to the Furies was preventing me from pursuing my mate.
Daisy’s words echoed in my mind. “When you cross the portal, you’ll deliver my message before you escort your mate to her home.”
A sequence of blood red runes rose from the band, showing me the coordinates to the Furies’ true loves.
I felt sorry for Daisy, and I wanted to help her.
But what if I would never see my mate again?
Pain pierced my heart.
And what if she wasn’t safe in her own empire, considering how she’d fled the realm in the first place? And without me, who was going to protect her? Kaara wasn’t with her, either.
Yet I couldn’t go after her, chained by a vow.
I slumped back into the pilot’s seat, and no one dared look at me or say a word.
My angelic heart had been torn into two halves, and the witch had taken one with her.
Akem laughed himself hoarse inside the engine. He couldn’t get out, but he’d heard all and seen all.
Kaara stepped to my side. “She had to go home.”
I didn’t answer.
Fiammetta wanted to go home more than anything, more than she ever wanted me. If I truly loved her, I shouldn’t focus on only what I wanted. Then I realized that I’d never told her that I loved her, though I’d fallen for her before I’d known she was my mate.
The Wickedest Witch’s heart was hard to warm up and harder to gain. Even if she knew my feelings for her, she didn’t love me back.
She’d left without glancing back.
I should let her go. Let her have what she desired the most.
I turned back to maneuver the Red Dragon, docked it in ThunderSong, then gave the command of it to Marrok. Once my crew uploaded the supplies for them, the aliens and wolves would take off.
I gotta act like an Archangel. I was the Captain of the finest spaceship.
I ordered my crew to set the ThunderSong on a new course.
The great ship whirled into the air and sailed in the opposite direction from Fiammetta’s Queen Faya.
26
The Witch
Outside the viewing window, a vast icy blue galaxy stretched before me.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Captain Ravenna said beside me. “We’ve reached Icearth Galaxy. We’ll be home in three days travelling at maximum warp speed.”
Her warmth made me miss Kaara already. But as my magic probed her, I didn’t get the feel that she was an Empath or had any magic.
A fleeting surprise crossed her face. She’d sensed a subtle tug of my magic.
The realm all knew about my great, terrifying magic, as did she.
The captain held my gaze, unfazed.
My mother had sent the right captain to pick me up.
“We have a StarGate now?” I asked.
The gate was similar to my magic, only that it shortened the distance instead of time, and it was made by technology.
I would have a lot to catch up.
“The StarGate is courtesy of the First Seer, Your Highness,” the captain said.
I narrowed my eyes. “Where is she?”
I’d had to rush away from my own home at the Seer’s sudden visit last time. Now that I’d returned, I demanded a detailed explanation from her. Somehow, I felt like I’d been being played like a pawn, and I wasn’t pleased. She would pay if she had lied.
And leaving Gabriel in such a hasty fashion, due to the narrow time window of the StarGate she’d provided, hadn’t exactly improved my mood.
I’d been eager to go home, but—
I’d bonded with the Archangel.
Our last moment was when my fingertips traced the black-inked runes on his temple and a simple, cold. “Goodbye, Gabriel.”
He hadn’t asked me to stay, and I hadn’t invited him to come with me.
Because I couldn’t go with him and not return home, and he wouldn’t come with me and abandoned his duties and ambitions.
That had been the reality as soon as we’d left Pandemonium.
Yet the departure had left me a gift—unceasing pain in my heart. And this time, there was no forgetting about it. The acid ache would stay with me for a long time. I hoped that eventually it would fade, like all things faded.
“The Seer left before we fetched you,” a deep, male voice said behind me.
Had the Seer been avoiding me? I had this nagging feeling that she’d also played a part whisking me away from Gabriel.
“We took a great risk.” The voice was closer. I recognized it as Senator Wellstone’s. He’d first appeared on the screen of the Red Dragon.
I wheeled and faced an athletic, dark-skinned man. He had light brown hair sprinkled with violet. He looked familiar somehow. Maybe it was his dark, violet eyes, like Kaara’s. But he couldn’t be her relative, or she would have recognized him.
Also, he looked ten years older than us. Kaara’s eyes were warm and full of loyalty when she gazed at me, but this senator’s eyes were calculating.
He sized me up, but not in an offensive way. The senator was trying to figure out who I had become after three years of surviving on a savage planet.
“We’ve prepared the Princess Suite for you,” the senator said. “It has everything you need.”
Of course. It was my family’s ship.
“Thank you for your courtesy, Senator Wellstone,” I said.
He gestured toward a squad of armed soldiers, who flanked him.
One glance and I had scanned them all. I didn’t recognize any of them. None were my old guards; none were my parents’ either. Also, they didn’t wear uniform.
The senator’s eyes never left me, a hint of a knowing smile in them.
“Your royal guards will serve you better by blending in when we’re on the ground.”
Secret service. Had things changed so much that I now needed secret guards?
The guards snapped to attention and saluted me. I nodded an acknowledgment, and they stood at ease.
“Did my mother, Her Majesty, pick them?” I asked.
A few guards appeared uneasy, and I had my answer. The queen had no hand in that. But I waited for the senator to respond. I didn’t know any of them, including the senator, and I trusted no one.
“No, Your Highness,” Senator Wellstone said. “I handpicked them.”
At least he was honest.
I didn’t shift my icy expression. “They’re surely loyal to you.”
“They’ll protect you with their lives,” said the senator.
“I’ll allow them to tag along,” I said, “as long as they don’t get in my way.”
Senator Wellstone smiled. “They’re well-trained.”
“I’m sure,” I said. And they would be his spies. Why had the queen allowed the senators to take charge like this? Something didn’t feel right.
“Captain Ravenna, please set up visual-communication and send it to my suite,” I said. “I’d like to speak to the queen alone.”
I gestured for a lead guard to take me to the Princess Suite. He was a clear-cut military type with gray eyes like mine and a square jaw. His every line spelled efficiency.
The senators hadn’t sent me incompetent soldiers, but who wanted their spies to be useless?
“Ariston at your service, Your Highness,” the lead guard said. “But we haven’t finished briefing you.”
How dare he dictate what I do? I trained my hard eyes on him. Except for Gabriel, everyone on Pandemonium, including the toughest criminals, battle-hardened militants, and wolf shifters flinched under such a gaze.
Everyone appeared anxious, and an alarm flashed by Ariston’s eyes, but he held my gaze. “I’m very sorry, Your Highness,” he said. “What I meant to say is that Queen Faya passed away three centuries ago.”
“It’s Nesnurn year 1334b now,” Senator Wellstone said softly. “You left in 1034b. The king and the queen both faded away in 1064b.”
My parents had been gone thirty years after I’d left. They’d waited for thirty years and I’d never returned. And when I had finally come home, three centuries had slipped by.
Darkness tore from me, hissing and draining the light from Queen Faya. My icy storm slammed into everyone and drove them back to give me a wide berth, and ice crystals coated the floor, the walls, and the ceiling of the bridge.
My eyes burned with flames to stop me from sobbing.
The spaceship rumbled violently.
Yet, no one whimpered. They all tried to hold a breath and stood still.
They’d been warned of what I could do.
My icy light illuminated their paled faces.
My darkness travelled in the ship. If any hands went for a weapon, my ice would get into their veins and freeze them to death.
I’d left Pandemonium, but I was still in the war mode.
I was just in a different world now, playing the same survival game.
And when Gabriel and Kaara were no longer with me, it only made me more ruthless and merciless.
“There are many innocent lives in the ship, Your Highness,” Captain Ravenna said quietly.
It wasn’t their fault that I’d come back too late. These people had made an effort and risked themselves to come get me.
“Do not assume I’d care,” I said. “Before I left, they called me the Wickedest Witch in the universe. I still am.”
But I brew a breath. My darkness withdrew, rippling at my feet, and my ice melted without a trace. And finally, I snuffed out the flames in my eyes.
I stood regal and steely, though I wanted to bend over, curl into a ball, and weep.
“Captain Ariston,” I said. “The briefing is over. Lead the way to my suite, please.”
I needed to be alone, so I wouldn’t melt down or damage anyone.
Ariston turned on his heels. “Your Highness, this way please.”
The senator bowed slightly. “Would you care to join me for dinner after you settle in, Princess Athena?”
“Yes, Senator Wellstone,” I said.
I followed Ariston along the corridor.
27
The Witch
Queen Faya entered
interplanetary space.
I tore my gaze from the view window in my suite and slumped in a chair. Darkness twirled, forming walls around me. If there were any hidden surveillance devices, they wouldn’t penetrate my darkness and see me with my face in my hands and sobbing.
I’d come home for nothing.
No, I wouldn’t break down. I could still pick up my crown and rule. But did this generation need me? I raised my head. It wasn’t about what they wanted. It was about my birthright. I was the ruling class—I was born to rule.
And if anyone tried to stand in my way to my ascending to the throne, they’d be sorry. Three years on Pandemonium had changed me. I could reign with mercy, as my mother had done, or I could pound the realm with iron fists. It would be up to them.
I pulled myself up. First, I needed to know as much from the senator as I could before we landed, but I wouldn’t trust him or anyone.
After I bathed, I called for the guards, chatting with them casually before heading toward the private dining section reserved by Senator Wellstone.
The spaceship seemed much more advanced but less luxurious than the royal ship Nightingale I’d gotten used to travelling on. As I entered the dining lounge, Senator Wellstone rose from his seat, pulled out mine until I sat, and returned to his side.
When I sipped my coffee, the servers rolled the carts with a variety of selections, many of which were delicacies. Gods, I hadn’t even had the most common dish—roasted chicken and purple potato—for three years. My throat moved, and my stomach grumbled, yet I kept my icy mask.
I chose clay-baked chicken breast with sweet potato on the side. The senator had rosemary chicken with steamed greens.
He waved a hand, and all personnel withdrew, including the guards. This was a classified meeting, though I didn’t mind spies. I would act the same with only the senator or the entire public present and listening.
If he wanted such a secret meeting, he might have more to lose than I.
I cut a piece of chicken, my hands staying steady, yet suddenly I wanted to laugh at all this—the ridiculous new beginning.
I glanced at the infinite space outside and put the tender meat into my mouth.