by Zara Zenia
I laughed and gave her a friendly nod. “I’ll make a note of it.”
Getting up, I walked to the door so that the passage would open for her and made a mental note to approve her full security clearance. If she happened to wander into my private chamber again, that would be just fine with me. I was already beginning to miss our playful back and forth banter and craved to see more of her.
“It was a pleasure speaking with you, Amy. A pleasure and an enchanting surprise,” I said, bowing over her hand in the traditional Trilyn way, the contact of our skin sending a thrill through me as I looked down. My gaze was surely anything but proper, but I couldn’t help it.
She bit her lip and smiled. “And you . . . Gardax.”
She gave me a slight bow, and I could tell that she wasn’t sure how to properly bid me farewell. I found her even more adorable and attractive than when she’d first arrived in the room.
With that, she slipped out and was gone, but her smell and the sensation of her hand in mine lingered. My insides sizzled with desire that I desperately needed to satiate. I hoped to see her again. If she didn’t come to me, I might eventually crack and attempt to seek her.
I wanted to chase after her, but I didn’t. I needed to be patient. This was far from over. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I smiled at the memory of her shy smile. If anything, I was in better spirits after having that delightful conversation with her.
Chapter 6
Amy
The rest of my workday passed like a dream, despite Darla’s best attempts to make it a nightmare. I was trying to tamp down the growing, yet preposterous, hope that I might be the person Gardax’s scanner was leading him to. The idea of his choosing me made my heart flutter, but my mind was a sea of unrest. It was a ridiculous assumption to think his scanner would ever point to me.
Not that I had much experience in such things, but it felt like he’d been flirting with me. Briefly, it even felt like we’d made a connection. That kind of chemistry was hard to miss, but I was probably insane for thinking that. What would someone like him have in common with me?
Our upbringings were literal worlds apart, not to mention I worked for him. I just needed to shove the fanatical concept from my mind before I ended up setting myself up for disappointment.
A pleasure and an enchanting surprise.
His words echoed in my mind. Even the memory of it sent chills down my back, the way his voice had sounded, low and suggestive. The comment was innocent enough, but the look in his eyes definitely was not. It was useless trying to fight the smile that kept creeping onto my face.
“Look at you, sweet little thing. Mmm! I’ll give you something to smile about, honey,” some creep called out as I passed him, walking along the cracked sidewalk up to our complex.
I briefly tensed up, but it didn’t last long. I’d lived in Union subsidized housing long enough to not be fazed by it anymore. I was smiling like an idiot just now, but even if I wasn’t, even if I was hidden head to toe in a shapeless, unattractive parka, these lecherous lurkers would still call after me. They were desperate for any kind of attention, positive or otherwise.
“What’s the matter, baby? You too good for a compliment? You lookin too good to be from the precinct. Maybe you need someone to show you how it works ‘round here.” One of the lowlifes addressed me with a set of gnarly yellowing teeth.
He was following me, I realized, so I reached into the pocket of my coat and wrapped my fingers around the switchblade I always carried with me. I’d lived enough years with nothing and no one to have figured out how to defend myself, even though the prospect still terrified me, even now. Up until now, I’d been lucky enough to not have to use the switchblade, but I couldn’t keep those hopes alive forever.
I didn’t turn around, but I could hear his footsteps were gaining on mine. I didn’t feed his predatory drive by walking faster, but my pulse leaped and I could feel the vein above my eye twitching. I began sweating under my huge parka. My survival instinct was kicking into overdrive.
The steps to the massive monolithic complex came into view, its uniform rows of sad, characterless windows lit by the throngs of people coming home from whatever meager jobs they’d scrounged up. A drifty fog floated through the air, and the dew was already beginning to saturate the grass lining the empty sidewalks.
I hurried up to the building, eager to put as many walls and doors between myself and my admirer. But as I reached the door, a big hand slammed it closed. I gasped, startled by the event and internally cringing that I’d shown any emotion at all to my perpetrator.
I looked up at my new friend. He was an inch or two taller than me, with a wide-set frame that on a healthy man would have made him large, but he, like everyone else here in the refugee precinct, probably hadn’t eaten a full meal in months. His eyes bulged out from their sockets, rimmed with a sickly red, and when his pale scruffy face broke into a smile, he put his yellowed, chipped teeth on full display.
I gulped and instinctively took a step back, careful to not tumble down the stairs leading to the building.
“Now wait just a minute, baby. Why don’t you tell me what has a pretty little baby like you smiling like that? I could use a reason to smile too. Maybe you can help me with that.” He reached out, putting a hand at my waist.
I didn’t think, just reacted, my body moving on its own. It was eat or be eaten. I was living in a shark-infested world, and I had learned to swim years ago.
I stomped down on his foot, turning to throw an elbow into his ribs and pulling the switchblade out in one swift move, holding it against his throat. I pressed the blade against the tender skin just lightly enough not to draw blood.
“Unless you want me to carve that smile into your face, you might want to find someone else to help you out,” I growled.
Putting a finger between his neck and my blade, he pushed it away as he stepped back. “Hey, now, just lookin’ for some fun.”
“Look elsewhere,” I warned with a hissing drawl.
He nodded and staggered back. “You got it.”
I turned and hurried into the building and up the five flights of stairs to our unit, stopping outside our door to regain my composure and my breath. Without the knife to protect myself with, I would have been toast.
It was stuff like this that I wanted to get Corinne away from. She was just getting to an age where she’d start attracting the same kind of notice, and it scared the hell out of me. I’d lived through enough close-calls and scraped out of enough near-misses to know how easily you could get cornered.
Corinne wasn’t as seasoned on the streets as me, but I wasn’t ready to go down that road yet and train her for what it was like out there in the cruel real world.
I needed to get us both out of here. The clock was ticking. There was little time left to waste. I needed to brainstorm a plan, one that would be failsafe and protect us both.
I almost had enough money stashed away to put down a deposit on a place in Brooklyn. I just needed to keep my head down and work hard. Whatever it took, I was going to protect Corinne. She was the only one I cared about, even above myself. I never wanted to see her get hurt or have to endure the nightmares I’d faced in my life.
Of course, there was the possibility I could be Gardax’s mate. I closed my eyes, retreating into fantasy. It was impossible, completely impractical, but I needed an escape. If I could even allow the private desires of my mind to flood my reality for a few minutes, maybe I could regroup and feel less rattled.
We’d chatted so easily. I loved that he didn’t seem to mind when I challenged him. He was a prince, after all. He didn’t have to suffer such a thing if it assaulted his vanity. He wasn’t that kind of prince, though, with an ego that bruised like a peach.
I unlocked the apartment and walked in, quietly setting my bag on the small table, hoping not to wake Corinne. She was lying on her side on the sofa-bed, her small frame an almost imperceptible lump under her thin blanket. She had a compress over her
eyes, a sign the migraine hadn’t passed yet. Her body was a slender silhouette under the faint glow of the streetlamps scattering a dim yellow light into the room.
I set about making dinner as quietly as I could. I didn’t want to make any racket that would make Corinne’s migraines any worse, but I was starving. Through my rhythmic movements around the kitchen, I decided that it was in my best interest to allow myself to let my thoughts linger on Gardax.
I could almost picture our life together. The prospect made me smile. How could I even begin to adapt from barely scraping by to becoming a royal princess overnight? The idea was thrilling. Sure, I knew nothing of Trilynia or what his life was like there, but I knew if I were lucky enough to be the girl he picked, or was matched with, rather, it would be a happy life.
Not just because it would take me out of this hellhole, but because I could tell he was kind and playful, and surprisingly, it felt like we’d both, in our own ways, gone without for the sake of others.
He had a witty, charismatic way about him, even though he wasn’t native to Earth. The playful banter was able to travel the miles across the galaxy. Perhaps joy and laughter were a universal language.
We had each sacrificed something of ourselves for the betterment of the people we cared for. In the cutthroat world I’d come up in, that wasn’t something I saw often. It was every man for himself.
Still, I had to remember that just because he’d flirted with me wasn’t any reason to think I was the right match for him. He’d said they were looking for genetic compatibility. What did I know about that? It wasn’t going to do me any good to spend too much time fixating on the possibility that I was going to get whisked off my feet by some warrior prince.
After all, the device would speak for itself. It didn’t matter if we were soul mates on every possible level. If I wasn’t a genetic match for him, then the dream would fade away quicker than a sunset.
“You look serious,” Corinne’s voice croaked.
I flinched a little at being startled, but not enough for her to notice. I glanced over to see she’d turned to face our tiny kitchenette.
I ignored the observation. “Are you feeling any better?”
“Meh.” She shrugged, then yawned. “What’re you making?”
I gave her an apologetic smile. “Miso and tofu. Again.” At least it was food, something to eat and prevent immediate starvation.
Being the trooper that she was, or maybe just being hungry, she smiled. “Sounds perfect.” She never complained, which made my guilty conscience gnaw at me even further.
I didn’t tell Corinne about my conversation with the prince, especially not my promise to help sort out who else had been in the kitchens. She’d probably gouge out an eye if she found out I had offered to help him find someone else. Knowing how scrappy Corinne could be, she’d probably gouge out both of my eyes except that might hurt my chances with Gardax.
We ate what little we had, mainly in silence. I was lost in my own private thoughts, and Corinne still had her throbbing head to plague her. After that, there was nothing left to do but go to bed.
Fortunately, Corinne had forgotten about the subject for now, to my relief. I already had my own wayward hopes to contend with. I didn’t need another voice in the back of my mind, skewing and altering my already confused mentality.
Despite my best attempts to stay level-headed, my heart raced when I got to work the next morning. Every time someone came into the kitchen, I looked up eagerly, hoping it might be him, hoping to see him come in, scanner in hand and walking straight toward me. I was jumpy and jittery and going through the motions of my day with a hopeful heart.
Everyone in the kitchens would surely gasp as he took me into a rapturous kiss. My lips tingled at the thought, and I smiled into the batter I was whipping. He was probably a masterful kisser. He was royalty, and his touch would probably turn my skin to gold, warming me from the inside out.
My own experience was extremely limited. The few times I’d let my guard down enough to accept a date, I’d been disappointed by the belligerent jerks I had foolishly trusted. It was just too risky. Maybe there were good guys out there, but most of them treated women like a commodity, and I couldn’t afford to weed through them and take a chance that a guy really was who he seemed to be.
Not when I had Corinne to think about. I’d built up a protective wall, and it would take a jackhammer to crumble it back down again.
The thin walls of our complex couldn’t hide the screaming fights of neighbors, the crashing furniture, and the awful sounds of domestic violence. There was enough ugliness around us. I didn’t want to add to it. But that didn’t mean I didn’t dream about romance. There were stressors out there in the poverty-riddled world that were like ticking time bombs.
Our parents, despite Corinne having no memory of them, had left an impression in me of what true, unselfish love looked like. Unfortunately, the conflicts of the prior decade seemed to have destroyed any chance I might have once had at true love and all its rose-tinted implications. I was viewing the world through a cynical lens.
That is, until I got lucky enough to be recruited for Gardax’s crew. I didn’t often think that the universe had a purpose for me, but every now and then, I wondered whether fate had led me to places and situations on purpose.
“You look awfully damn chipper.” Darla scowled and eyed me with a special kind of loathing.
I looked down, remembering that if things with Gardax went nowhere, which I knew, in all reality, was probably the case, I still needed this job. I couldn’t blow the opportunity or allow Darla to suck me into her abyss of darkness and rob me of happiness.
“Are you deaf as well as dumb now?” she barked. Her loathing meter was enhanced now. Her cheeks were stained with the red flush of anger.
I looked up at her and realized that if Gardax did end up matching with me, I’d one day be her boss. I tried but couldn’t fight the glee at the thought. My lips curled into a sinister smile that I couldn’t control, no matter how hard I tried to mask it.
“Is there an expression you would prefer that I wear, Darla?” I asked, knowing I was pushing my limits with her. I tried not to sound mocking but the sentence itself was daring.
“Well, isn’t someone feeling awfully smart today?” she sneered. “As a matter of fact, I’d prefer that you do your work instead of daydreaming about whatever idiocy passes for thought in that shrunken brain of yours,” she snarled as she continued to glare daggers through me.
Before I thought better of it, I spat back, tired of the verbal abuse. “Actually, I was just wondering what’ll happen to you when Prince Gardax finds his mate.”
“Excuse me?” She spun back toward me. Her eyes were red with fury.
Crap, why did I say anything? I tried to backtrack, but it was too late. I couldn’t redact a statement that had already been verbalized. “It’s nothing. just that.”
“Spit it out or you’re fired, right here, right now, you gutter trash,” she growled. Her bony hands gripped her hips as if she was trying to keep herself from snapping in half with anger.
Brilliant. Now I’d stuck my foot in it. There was no way to recover from what I’d said now. I’d already said way too much.
I tried to minimize what I could, but it all came spilling out. Truth be told, I was never good at lying, but it was too late to retreat or stay silent. Once I’d opened the gates, there was no telling when I’d stop.
“The prince wanted to know who all had been in the kitchens when he came down from the party. His scanner was leading him here and he suspected that one of the kitchen workers might well be his bride.”
Her eyes sparkled with an icy interest that unsettled me. She looked even more devious than usual.
“And he told you this because . . . ?” she asked as if I weren’t important enough to share even more than a formal hello or goodbye with the prince.
I looked around then, realizing that everyone around us was silent, listening. Some of them
were staring directly at us, arms extended in midair as they froze to watch the spectacle. Others were pretending to be busy doing other things, but it was obvious their sensors were on alert and they were fully tuned in to our heated argument.
“Well, his scanner was broken, and he recognized me from that night, so he asked me to find out who else had been down here so he could figure out which of us it might be.” I smiled then, unable to restrain the dreamy tone of my voice. “Isn’t it crazy to think one of us could marry him?” My eyes floated up to the ceiling. I was involuntarily allowing myself to imagine a better life out there for myself and Corinne.
Murmurs erupted around us, punctuated by gasps of excitement. I couldn’t tell whether they were rooting for me or for a brawl to break out.
Darla turned around, scanning the room, her shoulders puffed out with deep breaths of anger. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get back to work!” she shouted, then spun on her heel and rushed out of the room, taking her furious energy with her.
I thought I was surely in for some kind of retaliation for my attitude with Darla, but to my confusion, she’d completely lost interest. Not one to question a lucky turn of events, I welcomed the respite from her bullying attention. I’d dodged a bullet, at least for now.
Chapter 7
Gardax
“Your highness, the background checks you requested have been collected,” Coel informed me as I ended a conversation with Lifiya.
“Thank you. I’ll review them in my private quarters.” I nodded, then turned back to Lifiya’s brightly lit work station where she was bent over the device. Her brow was furrowed in concentration and a sliver of her tongue was protruding from her mouth as she worked to fix the issues.
“How soon will this be completed?” I asked with optimism.
“I’ll be done repairing the screening chips today. What about your part, Inez?” she asked, looking to her assistant who sat across the room at his own station.