Chapter 21

Something is wrong with Piper.

She won’t even look at me. Instead, she holds my hand like she would like to wrench my fingers from my body.

Then there’s the scent of her fear, so intense and overpowering even the blue aliens seem to be able to sniff it out.

Although that might be why they haven’t shocked either of us with their sticks. If they think she’s afraid, they know she’ll be compliant.

I inhale sharply.

I know better.

Piper ruled by fear is… a staggering idea. She keeps herself carefully in check and strategizes when possible, analyzing every decision for an outcome that maximizes the benefit to her goals.

Terror driving all of her considerable strategic energy into a more unpredictable force is a cause for utmost concern.

I squeeze her hand back, trying to get her to look at me, trying to see what’s wrong with her.

The guard’s heavy boots ring out against the stone flooring, and apprehension crawls through me on spider’s legs.

I haven’t felt this helpless since I was a young boy, when Nydo left me and our younger brother Ayro to join the emperor’s military. To shield us from those who would have sought to stamp our bloodline out.

Not since my mother died, leaving me alone with my little brother.

But that was then, and this is now. Piper isn’t my mother. She is brave and resourceful and immeasurably clever.

I swallow hard, squeezing her hand again.

I’m so concerned about her state of mind that I hardly notice as we enter the main chamber. It’s emptier than before, though still full of the blue-maned aliens who barely seem to notice us as we walk into the huge space.

Their attention is on the dais, where their leader stands, a weapon of some sort at the throat of the golden alien.

The human female translator cries out, breaking through the line of guards at a speed that belies her frail appearance, charging up the stairs of the dais and flinging herself across the golden alien.

The blue-maned aliens appear as shocked as I feel.

“That’s our sponsor,” Piper says, her voice breathy and far away. “They’re going to execute him. This is an execution.”

Something cold touches the back of my neck, and Piper slowly turns to face me in the same moment.

The blue-maned aliens have a weapon to the back of her neck, too.

I notice it, my heart seizing up. Time trickles by, possibilities dividing out around me. Attack the aliens, lose Piper. Don’t attack, lose Piper.

Losing Piper isn’t an option. It will never be an option.

The weapon slams into the back of my neck, another at the base of my spine, and fear grips me. Not for me, but for Piper. What will happen to Piper if I die here? Who will take care of her?

No one can love her like I can.

Heat builds next to me, hotter than anything I’ve felt before, hotter than my own fire.

I glance up at her. Hot blood runs down my spine, but the collar around my biceps keeps me from doing anything, keeps me from the power that’s my birthright.

Piper’s eyes aren’t blue anymore. They’re not rolled back either, not the whites.

No. They’ve gone black, full black, with twin red-orange flames in them.

My chest tightens, and the weapon at the nape of my neck digs in deeper, though the alien holding it is saying something I can’t understand in a high-pitched voice that reeks of his own fear.

Piper ignores the weapons bristling around her as waves of heat roll from her skin. No, she’s not ignoring them. I blink.

They’re melting from the heat she’s producing, and yet there’s no flame. Nothing save the heat rolling from her, the fathomless depths of her all-black eyes.

She tilts her head, a smile on her face I haven’t seen before, and lifts one hand.

Black drips from her neck, the collar they embedded in her skin melting where it sits, rolling down her body. I can’t look away. The scent of burning material grows stronger, acrid, toxic, and I can’t look away from her.

Blue flame ignites all around her as the last of the collar melts away, a ball of it forming over where her palm’s uplifted.

The crowd of aliens screams, the smarter of them sprinting for the exits. The ruler on the dais is seemingly transfixed in horror, staring at Piper as if she’s the embodiment of all his worst nightmares come to life.

She laughs as he stares at her, and a cruel voice that’s not her own trills out of her—incomprehensible.

The alien on the dais wears an expression of utmost dread, his blue lips parted and eyes wide.

She’s speaking their language, I realize.

Not her.

The goddess inside her. Using her, manipulating her.

The sack of a dress she wears burns to ash all over her skin, disintegrating in a fresh wave of blinding heat. Piper shouts something else, and she hurls the fireball at the alien ruler.

The effect is instantaneous and horrible.

One moment, there is a living being there. The next, the spot where he stood is charred, the only sign he ever existed a pillar of foul smoke and a pile of ash and muck.

I turn back to Piper, shock running through me.

Her small hand, still sheathed in blue flame, reaches for me, and she mutters something in that same language, her teeth bared.

I close my eyes. If I am to die, at least Piper lives.

Heat ensconces my arm, and I thank the gods of Roth that I lived long enough to love her. That I wish I had been enough.

In the next moment, my own fire surges to life, and I open my eyes to see the remnants of my own alien energy collar dripping onto the floor.

The thing that wears Piper’s face smiles at me, but it’s an inhuman stretching of the mouth. The small velvety hairs on my arms stand up.

Whatever that is, that is not Piper looking at me.

I’ll get her back. I have to get her back.

The golden alien stands up, shouting something at the few that remain. Piper throws her hands out around her, and the guards scream as one.

Heat barrels out through her, an inferno of power instantly turning the guards to nothing.

She’s nearly pure flame now. The dress is gone, hints of her body peeking out beneath that living blue flame. Can her human body withstand such a torrent of power?

She’s stronger than I ever imagined, but this… this is unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed.

I doubt anyone has ever witnessed something like this.

The golden alien is screaming something at her, and all I can do is watch as he drops to his knees, pressing his forehead against his fingertips.

Bowing, I realize.

To Piper.

Or to whatever it is that’s controlling her.

He cries out again, finally picking up the limp body next to him. Red blood soaks the young human female’s form, and he holds it out in front of him as if she weighs nothing at all.

In halting English, he speaks, and my translator finally picks up what he’s saying.

“Heal her, goddess of fire. Heal her. She is my mate; she is mine. You were driven from this world. We prayed for your return. My people worship in the old ways. Come back to us.”

Piper regally dips her chin, wordlessly acknowledging his words.

The Roth goddess riding along inside Piper is from this planet?

“Fire is destruction. Fire is chaos. Fire is power and heat. Fire is also life and purification,” the thing says through Piper’s mouth.

She walks slowly up to the dais, where the kneeling alien still holds the body of the young female translator out to her. Muscled calves flex as she takes the stairs, flame whipping around her, raising her blond hair.

“This will be my last act. My last bit of energy,” the thing says from Piper’s mouth. “I will save your mate. I will purify your planet of those who would taint it with darkness. Fire and light will erase their stain.”

Her head turns briefly, looking over her shoulder at me, and I see it then: Piper. A flash of blue, the cruel smile replaced by a crushing sadness. And then it’s gone again, the pure black washing it all away as she faces the golden alien.

Piper’s small human body expands, as if she’s taking a deep breath, then seems to fold in on itself.

Energy and light explode from her body.

The next thing I’m aware of is a ringing in my ears, tight pain in my chest when I draw breath. The ceiling looms overhead, the stench of burnt bodies and melted plastic hanging heavy in the air.

My heart thuds against my chest, and I sit up, each breath a fresh wave of agony, and my eyes immediately land on a naked body, pale and limp on the floor.

Piper.