“Then I will go as well.” Olek frowned. It was clear he didn’t like his wife’s decision. He turned to look at Ulyssa from across the short distance. He didn’t trust her, not completely. She couldn’t blame him. He loved his wife very much. It was obvious all the Draig Princes had found love. Ulyssa had to look away first.
“I will go. I know the shadowed marshes better than any here,” Zoran stated.
“As will I,” Pia asserted. She winked at her husband. It was clear she had a thirst for adventure of any kind. “I have a feeling I might be needed.”
Zoran looked grimly at his wife, but it was obvious her mind was made up. He gave her a stiff militant nod. “I don’t trust the Var to deal fairly with us. They’re leading us to the marshes could be a trap.”
“The Var?” Ulyssa gasped, drawing attention to herself. “Who said anything about the Var? They don’t know that I’m here. We don’t have to tell them anything. They’re the ones who brought the weapon here in the first place.”
The same strange look crossed Nadja’s face that she’d worn in the medical ward, the look of secrets. Ulyssa paled dramatically. What was going on here? What weren’t they telling her?
“King Attor was the one who brought the weapon to our planet. King Kirill has come here to the palace with Prince Falke to inform us about its existence and to request Princess Nadja’s help in disarming it. He’s also come to inquire after you,” Prince Ualan stated. “He awaits our decision.”
Ulyssa paled and shook her head. “Decision for what?”
The four Princes studied her quietly, taking in her nervous reaction.
“Decision for what?!” Ulyssa demanded, shaking violently.
“On whether or not to return my property to me.”
The Princes’ eyes turned to the door. Ulyssa froze, refusing to move. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, trying to escape. Her fingers gripped the wooden bench at her side, grinding into the surface as if she could crumble it beneath her. If she didn’t look, he’d just disappear. He’d go away. She swallowed nervously. A chill racked its way up her spine, as she felt all eyes on her, watching what she would do.
A hand lightly clamped down on her shoulder, not squeezing or hurtful, just resting, letting her feel its weight pressing against her. Her mouth went dry. A familiar tremor racked through her at the touch, alighting her nerves with fire. Very slowly, she glanced at the hand, recognizing it.
“Kirill,” she whispered, unable to look away from the long fingers. She’d missed him so much, her body longed for him still. Her flesh tingled, remembering what it felt like to be held against him. Her body warmed. Her breasts reacted violently until the nipples stood at erect points, trying to lure his hand down to them.
Ulyssa forced herself to remember him next to Linzi in the hall. She could not, would not be a King’s whore, the dirty little secret he had to hide from the world. With an angry jerk, she tore her arm away from him and stood. She met with his dark, foreboding features. His brown-black eyes glittered an angry green within their depths. The firm set of his jaw clamped down. His nostrils flared. He was livid.
“Ualan,” Morrigan’s voice invaded Ulyssa’s trance. “Can’t—?
“Hush, love,” Ualan answered his wife. “We have his word that he won’t harm her.”
“What are you doing here?” Ulyssa whispered, terrified to see him and well aware that they were watched.
Kirill reached into a hidden pocket of his pants and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. Ulyssa’s eyes stayed focused on his hard gaze before twitching over to look at his hand. It was the trade agreement she’d found in his office. “I came to bring this. I found it in your coat.”
Ulyssa swallowed, uneasy. Kirill glanced over to the table before stepping forward to grab her arm. With a firm tug, he dragged her across the hall to where they could be watched but not heard.
“Do you even know what it is?” Kirill demanded hotly, letting her go.
Faintly, Ulyssa nodded. “It’s the trade agreement with the Medical Mafia to buy biological weapons. An agreement made between the Mafia and your people.”
“No, it’s an agreement made between the Medical Mafia and my father. Don’t you think I would’ve liked to have seen it? Don’t you think I could have handled this matter on my own?”
“It was on your desk, your highness. You knew about it,” Ulyssa accused.
“No, it was part of a stack I had yet to read through. Do you really think so little of me, Lyssa, to believe I would wipe out an entire race of people? Sacred Cats woman! Do you know what you could’ve done if I’d not found this? You could’ve started a war between the Var and the Draig! I don’t want another war. I don’t want to send my people to their deaths because we are different than the Draig—not better, not worse, just different. I want the hatred to stop. I want the death to stop. I don’t want blood on my hands!” Kirill shook the paper at her as he spoke. “Do you think they would have trusted me after this? I would’ve taken care of it—”
“How can I trust you’re telling the truth? You might only be here now because I came and ruined your plans,” Ulyssa hissed.
“I came because I found this. I came because this little note in the corner reveals who Princess Nadja is. That it was her father who brought it here and my father who paid for it. I came to stop this.” Kirill frowned, lowering his arm to his side. “I want peace. I want the prejudices of my father and the older generation to end. I don’t want to conquer more land, land my people doesn’t really need.”
“How was I to know anything? I am—was just your whore,” Ulyssa hissed. “Clearly one of many. Why should there be anything between us, especially trust?”
“What do you mean? One of many?”
“Oh, you know very well. I know you go to the harem,” Ulyssa snorted in dismissal. “I don’t care. I welcome you to those women. Enjoy yourself, highness, in your little brothel. We are over. Done. Finished. I want nothing to do with you.”
Kirill stiffened at her heated words. His eyes hardened, becoming blank voids. “Very well. As you wish it, my lady.”
Ulyssa didn’t know what he meant by that, but his dead tone scared her more than his heated anger. Somehow she doubted he was just going to let the matter drop completely.
Kirill turned and walked away. He didn’t have other women, but after her little tirade he wasn’t about to tell her that. He’d been so worried. He wanted to go to her campsite to confront her, to see with his own eyes that she was well, but Falke insisted he go instead so none at the palace would suspect her absence. When Falke told him about overhearing her conversation with the ‘mission director’ and that afterwards he’d tracked her to the Draig palace, Kirill’s worry had been replaced by anger. By not trusting him, she could have brought him to the brink of war. If he had not come forward when he did, the Draig wouldn’t have ever believed in his innocence.
It sickened him to think of what his father had been planning. It tore at his soul to know Ulyssa thought he was capable of the same. He’d hoped there was more between them—more than just sex. He’d been wrong and it was slowly killing him. An ache rested on his chest, growing worse with each passing heartbeat, squeezing the life from him, the breath from his lungs. He steeled himself for what he must do. He was a King and he would act like one.
“Falke and I will travel with you to the shadowed marshes. I know the area this paper talks about well. It shouldn’t take us long to find it.” Kirill paused and looked at Ualan. “As a test of good faith, I leave my brother Quinn here in your care. I ask that you send Yusef to my palace for the same. We have no reason to trust each other—”
“Like hell!” Olena yelled, jumping to her feet. The dark Yusef grabbed her arm and pulled her back down next to him. He stroked back her hair and whispered in her ear.
“I give you my word that I won’t harm any here, so long as my own aren’t harmed,” Kirill stated.
“What good is your word to me?” Olena demanded hotl
y. “I have seen firsthand what your kind is capable of!”
“Princess Olena, I apologize for the rash actions of a few, but I did not order your kidnapping.” Kirill was tense. He knew the woman was just scared for her husband.
“It was Attor—” she began. Yusef took her and pulled her to his chest. He again whispered to her and she settled down, nestling in his arms.
Ulyssa stepped forward to his side. Kirill glanced at her. She looked pale, sick, and so very beautiful. His arms ached to hold her, the way the Draig Princes held their wives, but, by the way she’d jerked his hand from her shoulder, he knew his touch would not be welcomed.
“If your husband or any Draig is harmed in this,” Ulyssa paused. Her round blue eyes met Kirill’s. They were hard, devoid of life, and they matched his look perfectly. Very warily, she finished, “Then you run his heir through with a sword.”
Kirill felt as if he’d been kicked in the gut. His eyes trailed down in disbelief to where her hand was placed on her stomach. Pleasure tried to assault him at her words, but as the whole of her statement set in, he froze. She would dare to use his unborn son as collateral? Did his baby mean so little to her? Did he? He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak.
“But that would also kill you,” Morrigan pointed out.
“If it will get this whining over with, then so be it.” Ulyssa gazed at them all, fed up with their bickering. She didn’t feel like dying any time soon—especially sitting around waiting for them to get their act together. “If we don’t get moving soon, it’s quite possible we’ll all die anyway. We have no way of knowing how the weapon is being stored, if it’s compromised, if it’s set to detonate. Standing here will not answer these questions.”
“She’s right,” Nadja said. “They wouldn’t have planned on keeping it in long time storage. If an animal got to it, or a child...”
“So can we come to a temporary truce or not?” Ulyssa demanded. “There is something more at stake than a few petty differences of one planet. If we don’t stop this here and now, it’s a very real chance that it could spread to other parts of the quadrants. I will not stand by and watch the innocent die because we all can’t get along. Hate me if you wish for saying it, but hate me alive.”
“My lord,” Falke, who’d quietly watched, stepped forward.
Kirill ripped his eyes from Ulyssa and held up his hand to silence his brother, as he forced himself to concentrate. Slowly, he nodded. He didn’t like the position she put him in. But, if they couldn’t reach an agreement, many Var would die, too. There wasn’t enough of the antidote to cure everyone. He hated to admit it, but in the end, his father had been a madman. “It will be as she says. If any are harmed, run her through.”
* * * *
To get to the shadowed marshes, they first had to trudge through miles of swampland. The Draig provided Ulyssa and their two Var companions with ceffyls, hideous looking creatures with a center horn protruding from their skull. They had the eyes of a reptile, the face and hooves of a beast of burden, and the body of a small elephant. The animals’ wide back shifted low, as they trudged through the swamps, taking their passengers through the mucky waters.
The ceffyls’ hisses kept most of the large swamp life at bay. Their thick hide could withstand the bite of the poisonous givre that swam freely in this part of the kingdom. When Falke helped Ulyssa to mount, he’d warned her to keep her legs from the water. She obeyed, holding tightly onto the horn, her legs lifted onto the strange creature’s back to sit crosswise.
The group traveled in silence for about an hour. A diffused light fell over the dense forest in a soft green haze that blended eerily with the patches of hot, steamy fog from the nearby marshland. From what Ulyssa could tell, there wasn’t much difference between the swamps and the marshes, except that the marshes seemed dead of all life.
The air was damp in this part of the woods. Moss hung from treetops, unmoving in their windless isolation. They were in an awful place. The rotting smell of molding plant life and animal carcasses masked even the barest traces of scent. Even the insects seemed to have deserted the area.
Kirill didn’t look at her once during their trip, but kept his gaze stoically forward. Ulyssa had never dreamt of being a mother and the pregnancy didn’t seem real to her. She knew the Agency would never allow her to keep and raise the child. Nevertheless, it hurt that Kirill so readily agreed to run her through. She’d said it to shock him, to hurt him for not denying he’d been with other women since her. She never thought he’d agree to it.
It hurt that he showed her no more notice or consideration than if she’d announced she’d grown a new freckle. Prince Olek and even the stoic Prince Zoran hovered protectively around their pregnant wives, rubbing at their lower backs, guiding their arms, kiss their temples with quiet whispers of concern. Ulyssa grimaced as she looked forward to where Kirill rode near the front of the group, far away from her.
The constant bumping of the animal beneath her made her queasy. She was ready to stop and rest, but would never be so weak as to complain. Gritting her teeth, she stared forward, concentrating on sitting up right.
“You knew you carried his first heir and yet you left anyway?”
Ulyssa jolted and turned to stare at Falke. She’d not heard him ride up next to her. Her eyes had drifted absently to Kirill’s back, trying to remember to hate him. Glancing around, she saw no one heard his words.
“I just found out today,” she answered quietly, letting her mount fall slightly behind so they wouldn’t be overheard.
“Had you known, would you have left him?”
Ulyssa turned to look at him. His eyes weren’t judging. If anything, he looked sad. She saw he held no hard feelings about being left paralyzed next to the tree. He didn’t mention it, so neither did she. Without flinching, she said, “Yes. You out of anyone should understand that I must do my duty.”
“Yes, I out of any understand that,” Falke answered. He gave a meaningful glance to Kirill. “But he will not. All he will understand is your betrayal.”
“It doesn’t matter, Falke. As soon as this mission is complete, I’m gone. If I fail, I die with the rest of you. If I succeed, the Agency will pick me up. I’ll disappear and not even the King of the Var would be able to track me down.”
“You would take his child from him?” This time when he looked at her she saw a mix of disbelief and horror.
“Yes. This child should’ve never been conceived. It’s against Agency policy for me to have it. They choose me because I have no ties, no commitments beyond duty. My shot must have expired or been defective. When I get back, I’ll be lucky to have a choice in the matter. Most likely they’ll rid me of it without even asking. Or, if they allow it to be born, they’ll take it and find placement for it.” Ulyssa gulped, wondering at the intense sadness that flowed over her at the words.
She suddenly felt very empty and hollow. A pain shot over her abdomen, blanketing her chest and heart in agony. She wanted to cry out, but the air was trapped in her lungs.
Kirill abruptly turned around to stare at her. His dark features frowned in question. Ulyssa felt as if he stabbed her with his eyes. Another pain shot through her and she turned to look at Falke. Her face pale, she whispered, “Help.”
* * * *
Kirill paced outside the tent where Ulyssa slept. He cursed softly. As they journeyed, he’d been doing his best not to look at the woman who tormented his every waking thought. But then, as a sense of pain and sadness so intense washed over him, he was drawn to give her comfort. It was strange, but he felt her inside him. Her agonizing scream echoed in his head, drilling a hole in the side of his skull.
When he looked back at her, her face had paled and, turning to Falke, she slid off her ceffyl into the stagnant water of the marsh. Falke managed to grab her arm so she didn’t go under. Kirill leaped from his mount only to fly through the air to land noisily at her side.
“We camp here,” was all he said to the amazed onlookers.
> Their Draig traveling companions didn’t protest. They watched Kirill carry an unconscious Ulyssa in his arms to drier land, before moving to follow so they could set up camp.
Now, stopping next to the tent, he turned to glare at his brother and demanded, “What did you say to her?”
Falke held still and didn’t answer, not flinching at the dark tone. Nadja came from the tent. Kirill stiffened and looked down at the slender woman. She shook slightly before him, but he was too worried to notice.
“She’ll be fine,” Nadja said. “Just let her rest.”
Nadja tried to step away. Kirill reached out and grabbed her arm. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Olek stand. He instantly let the woman go.
“What is wrong with her?” he asked, his words harder than he intended. He refused to show compassion. As Nadja’s eyes searched his face, she smiled slightly, as if seeing through his façade.
“These little fainting episodes are caused, more or less, by low blood sugar and tremendous amounts of stress. I even suspect that the HIA had her on a heavy birth control that hasn’t expired. According to the readings in her blood levels, she shouldn’t even be pregnant.” Nadja lowered her voice. “I don’t know much about the form of birth suppression the HIA uses on their agents, but I can tell you it will be a hard pregnancy for her. She’ll be sick and weak for much of the time. She should be resting and watching her diet, not traipsing about the forest. Whatever it is causing her stress, if it doesn’t stop, she may eventually lose that child. I didn’t say anything to her about this because she already has enough to deal with.”
“HIA?” Kirill asked.
“You don’t know?” Nadja was taken aback. She paled and tried to step away.
“No, wait, please, tell me.” Kirill let the full torment inside him pass over his face. Princess Nadja seemed to be the only one willing to tell him anything. In a hoarse whisper, he couldn’t stop the words from escaping him. “Please, I beg you. I have to know.”
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