“Sasue,” he muttered. “I won’t let him near you.”
Silence.
“Did you come back to make me eat?” she eventually said.
Kosen frowned at her. He had forgotten that she hadn’t eaten yet. Feeding her was the last thing on his mind right now.
Right now, he just wanted to get his head straight. He needed to know what was different about her and why he was acting this way after all these years.
“No,” he said and leaned back, staring up at the ceiling, at the dot of light shining down on her. “I have a question though.”
Did he really want to ask her this? If he asked and she answered then there was no going back. He would have overstepped the mark and broken the rules he had laid down for himself when he had joined this venture. He had to know though. He needed a name to go with her beautiful face.
“What do they call you?”
At first, she frowned and looked as though she wouldn’t answer. After long seconds of silence, her frown disappeared and she sighed.
“Miali.”
It brought a smile to his lips. “Named after a princess, huh?”
And then he looked closer at her, at the way she bit her lip and turned her head away, at how beautiful she was and how silver her hair shone.
And it dawned on him.
“My mother named me Kosen. Do you know what that means in Minervan?”
She shook her head, still looking away from him.
“Seer of truth.” He frowned and stood. “And I do. I saw the truth back at the Varkan steel mines that worked men’s fingers to the bone and tore families apart. I saw the truth the day my father made a small fortune by selling my two younger sisters into slavery. I saw the truth the day he left... and I can see the truth now.”
She looked at him, her eyes enormous and full of fear.
“Not named for a princess.” Kosen stepped up to her and caught her cheek in his palm, forcing her eyes to remain locked with his. “You are the princess.”
He laughed at how cruel fate was being with him and her. She would make the crew of this ship a fortune, enough for each to live richly for the rest of their days. Only no one here knew that she was a princess. The contact hadn’t told them, which meant he couldn’t know either. She had been offered to them as nothing more than a beautiful Lyran—a specimen of perfection.
What they had received was a death sentence.
“Shh,” she whispered and glanced past him to the door before her eyes met his again. They pleaded him. “Don’t tell them. They don’t know, do they? No one knows. To the world, I’m just an ambassador. If they were to find out—”
He pressed his finger against her lips, silencing her. It was soft and warm under his touch. “I won’t tell them.”
The betrayal in those four words didn’t bother him in the slightest. Since setting eyes on her, he had been more loyal to her than to Nostra and the crew of this ship. The moment he had found her in the cryo-sleep pod, he had been thinking about her constantly. He even dreamed of her, although she was muddled into his nightmares.
A smile curved her lips and set his heart racing. It had been too long since a female had affected him so much with such a small gesture. The slightest tilt of her lips or hint of tender emotion in her eyes and he was ready to pledge his allegiance to her and her alone.
He couldn’t.
He stepped back, distancing himself. She was beautiful but she was a means to an end. He needed the money that she would bring him. He had to save his sisters.
He couldn’t save her.
“If they find out,” she said and then frowned, as though she couldn’t bring herself to say anything more. She knew as well as he did how Nostra would react if he discovered her lineage. They would drop into sub-space again and would sell her tomorrow on the black market rather than at the auctions in a few days time. Nostra wouldn’t risk her family coming after her or any Lyran army officer discovering her whereabouts.
They would be lucky if they could get someone to buy her at all, but if they did, they would never need to sell another slave again.
He would buy back his sisters.
He would be free of this life.
But at what price?
Could he live with himself knowing that he had sold her into slavery? Miali. A name as beautiful as her face.
His heart thumped harder, betraying his desire to touch her as his hand trembled at his side. She stared deep into his eyes, their dark depths still pleading him to help her, speaking to his soul. It waged war against his mind, leaving him torn between helping her and condemning her.
“You mentioned that your sisters are slaves,” she said and he silently cursed her for bringing that up at this moment, when he stood balanced on a knife’s edge.
“To free himself of a life of slavery, my father sold them. That night still haunts me. I couldn’t do anything to stop him. I tried. I was no match for him in a fight. I fell unconscious to the sounds of my sisters screaming and when I woke, they were gone.”
Kosen sat back down, not daring to risk continuing to stand so close to her when he desired to touch her in order to gain some comfort and was barely strong enough to stop himself. Whenever he fought, the memories of that night haunted his sleep again for weeks afterwards. Now, when he closed his eyes, he saw the fight on her ship mingled in with his fight against his father. It tormented him. He hadn’t been able to save his sisters. He wouldn’t be able to save her.
“Your sisters are slaves, and you work to send others to a similar horrific fate. What kind of a sick man are you?”
Her words rocked him to his soul, making him nauseas as it struck him that she was right. He was sick. In order to get money to save his sisters, he had resorted to condemning others to the life of a slave. He was no better than his father. His father had sold them to save his family. Now he sold strangers for a similar reason.
He was going to sell Miali and he knew that whatever horrors his sisters had lived through, they would be pale compared to those that awaited her. As a princess, as a Lyran, she would be prized by her owner. He would take great satisfaction in using her repeatedly, favouring her above any other slaves that he might own.
She was right.
What kind of sick man was he?
He had thought that he had been doing right by trading people that he didn’t know for those that he loved. Those people meant nothing to him. His sisters meant everything. He had even managed to fool himself into believing that at first and that he had no other choice. Now he could see that this wasn’t the only way of saving his sisters. Minervans prided themselves on their valour and strength.
What valour was there in this?
What strength?
He was weak and shameful. It was little wonder that he hated himself and the things that he had done. They haunted his sleep, pervading his dreams. Every face of those that he had helped sell into a life of hell had stayed with him, lived in him.
The thought of seeing Miali’s face amongst them was too much to bear. He couldn’t live with the idea that he had traded her life for his sisters. She wasn’t a stranger to him. No stranger could make him feel this way.
Staring into her dark eyes, he could see how easily life as a slave would break her. The thought of Sasue touching her had frightened her half to death. How would she survive the touch of a master?
“I only wanted to save my sisters,” he whispered and hung his head forwards. His eyes unfocused. “I have no right to call myself Minervan.”
Burying his face in his hands, he asked Arkus for forgiveness, strength and guidance. He couldn’t allow them to send Miali to her death but he couldn’t sacrifice his sisters either. He had to find a way to save them all.
“Do you know where your sisters are?” Miali said, her voice smooth and coaxing.
Kosen looked up at her, into her eyes, and wondered how she could bring herself to look at him after what he had done to her. He should have saved her just as he had wanted t
o back on her ship.
The sight of her sleeping, so unaware of her fate, had made him consider moving her to one of the escape capsules and setting her free. He wished that he could set her free now, but he couldn’t think of a way. If she escaped, Nostra would know that it had been his doing. Nostra would kill him. His sisters would never be saved.
“I know,” he said, thinking about the last time that he had seen them. “I have been to their master’s home on Minerva Seven. I have watched them but couldn’t find the strength to save them.”
A hint of sympathy touched her expression, shining in her eyes. “A Minervan bought Minervan women for slaves?”
He nodded.
“What is the universe coming to?” she said on a sigh and then tugged at her wrists. “Will you help me?”
“I cannot,” he said. “And you should not think about trying to break those bonds. Only Nostra can open them.”
“I see.”
She had changed. Her fear was gone. In front of him now was a woman who was in command, one raised to be strong and get things done. Looking at her now, he could see why she was an ambassador for Lyra. Few males would stand in her way.
“How long until we arrive at the markets?”
“If they don’t discover from our contact that you’re royalty, then we will reach the open auctions in two days.”
“And if they do?”
“Tomorrow, and it will be the black market.”
Her face paled. “You mentioned a contact.”
Kosen stood when the door behind him opened and Nostra walked in. When their contact stepped out from behind Nostra, Kosen turned to look at Miali. Her dark eyes were wide with shock and her skin was the colour of stars.
Tears shone in her eyes.
Her mouth opened and a single word left her lips.
“No.”
****
Chapter 5
Miali stared at the man who was evidently Nostra’s contact. The only other survivor of her ship.
“Eryc?” she said and shook her head in disbelief. It couldn’t be true. They were friends. She had known him since they were both children. She had been falling for him. She had cried when she had thought that he was dead.
He couldn’t have sold her into slavery.
Anger overcame her initial disbelief and she lunged forwards, growling with effort as she tried to get her wrists free so she could attack the man who had betrayed her. The metal cuffs bit into her wrists but she didn’t feel any pain. She only felt intense anger. Hatred.
“Restrain her, Kosen, before she damages herself,” Nostra ordered in Minervan and the younger Minervan moved towards her.
Miali fought him as his hands caught her upper arms and then stilled when his chest pressed against hers.
“You’ll only hurt yourself,” Kosen whispered in Lyran and she looked at him. He was incredibly close, his mouth barely inches from hers. A smile touched those lips, sending a flush of heat through her. Her hair threatened to rise but he smoothed it down, surprising her, and acted as though he was checking her neck. He gathered her hair and twirled it into a knot at the back of her head, restraining it. “Not a word.”
She dipped her chin and then looked past him to Nostra and Eryc.
“She isn’t eating,” Nostra said in Minervan as he crossed the room and picked up the discarded protein pack.
He threw it at Kosen, hitting him in the face.
“You had one order. Make her eat. If she doesn’t eat and her price goes down, it comes out of your share!”
Miali leaned away when Nostra approached her. Instinct made her turn towards Kosen and hide her face. Hope bloomed in her chest. If Nostra tried anything, would Kosen protect her?
She had come to realise something.
She wasn’t the only one feeling something. Kosen felt something for her too. If she could only be alone with him again, she was sure that she could convince him to help her. It was terrible to use his attraction against him, but if that was what it took to escape a life of slavery, then that was what she was willing to do.
A quiet voice at the back of her mind said that it wouldn’t be so bad. If he touched her, she would enjoy it. There was no denying that. Her whole body responded whenever his skin grazed hers or their eyes met and his were holding a hint of desire.
“I will,” Kosen said, so close to her face that his warm breath washed her skin. Her body heated with the feel of it. “I returned here to see to it that she ate.”
“Then see she does.” Nostra bent to pick up the protein pack.
Miali lurched forwards, managing to hit Nostra in the head with her hipbone. He growled and his fist slammed into her stomach, knocking the breath from her and sending a shockwave of pain ripping through her body.
She collapsed forwards as much as she could, her hands jamming into the tight cuffs and the metal collar scraping her jaw. Kosen’s hands shifted to under her arms and he lifted her, supporting her body so the restraints no longer bit into her skin. Why was he doing this for her? Nostra would surely notice that Kosen’s actions went beyond stopping her from damaging herself.
Nostra tossed the pack onto the crate that Kosen had moved to be in front of her. He paused and looked over his shoulder.
“And Kosen?”
“Yes, Captain?”
“If you touch Sasue again—”
“He was trying to get to her.” Kosen interjected and Nostra’s eyes darkened. Miali shrank back, afraid that the two men would fight. Pure anger twisted Kosen’s handsome face, turning it dark. “If he tries to break this door down again, I will see to it that he won’t be fit to leave sickbay let alone touch a female.”
Nostra held his gaze and Miali expected him to put Kosen in his place. Surprise claimed her when Nostra grinned, turning him even uglier as his scars pulled against his skin and his sharp teeth were revealed, and then laughed and clapped a hand down heavily on Kosen’s shoulder.
“I am seeing a new side to you, Kosen, one which I think I prefer. Make sure she eats. We must be ready for market tomorrow.”
Kosen tensed at the same time as her.
“Tomorrow?” he said. His expression betrayed none of the shock that she knew he must have been feeling.
“Eryc has informed me of something he had neglected to mention before.”
“Now, Nostra. I was not sure until I intercepted a contact she sent out a few days past.” Eryc smiled at Nostra in a winsome way. Miali struggled again, filled with a dark urge to hit him. Kosen had a knife. If she could get out of the restraints and get hold of it, she could kill Eryc. Her father and brothers had trained her well.
Kosen’s body pressed against hers. She stilled when she realised that their hips were touching and his thigh was between hers.
Her cheeks flushed when he moved and his thigh brushed the apex of her legs.
She hoped that the knot in her hair was holding because right now it felt as though she was flying.
“Take care of our little princess,” Nostra said as the door behind him opened.
Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Mercenary Page 4