Chapter 2

Evie

I paced across the ready room with my hands tucked behind my back. My cloth slippers made a soft noise against the deck, and I missed my boots. There was nothing more satisfying than clomping rudely around the room with sharp heels and steel toes when I was riled. It was one of the things that Evadne and our endless line of teachers had tried to train out of me, and it was the one thing I had held onto with all my heart. I’d just learned to do it when nobody was watching—nobody that mattered, anyway.

Theronix sat in a chair at the long conference table, his hands placed on the metal surface in front of him, his posture ramrod straight. Ever the soldier. Two weeks aboard the Varakartoom had managed to greatly improve his health, but he was still working hard to regain the muscle mass he’d lost. Today, we arrived at Rakesh, a planet on the outskirts of the Kertinillian Empire, and it had taken us weeks in the wrong direction if I wanted to fulfill my promise to Evadne.

The truth was, if I could run away from it all, I would. I didn’t want to impersonate a Xurtal princess; I never wanted any of this. Evadne was my friend, but she was also my employer—my boss—and she never let me forget it. Nor did Theronix let me forget what my place was now. “You have to keep your word,” he said firmly. His red eyes glittered with hints of gold that betrayed the passion he felt for this subject. A subject we’d already discussed a dozen times over the past two weeks.

I rolled a shoulder and glared when he started to open his mouth to berate me for my very un-princess-like behavior. “I know,” I said. “The fate of the entire Xurtal Kingdom depends on it.” But I was not Xurtal, and I didn’t really fancy putting my life on the line any more than I had already been forced to do. Nothing had ever been my choice since the moment I’d been rescued by the Xurtal military and brought to their planet. I’d only been seven at the time, scared out of my mind. Truthfully, nothing had changed; I was still scared out of my mind.

The only difference was that I was older, with more knowledge and more survival skills than I had ever dreamed of having. Right now, I knew I could take down Theronix with my hands tied behind my back, but that didn’t really feel like a fair achievement. The warrior was still recovering from his ordeal, and I’d suffered far less during our captivity than any of the others in our entourage. Two weeks and a few booster shots from the mercenaries' very odd doctor had perked me back up in no time.

“I’m not going to break my vow.” I had already decided that. No matter how I looked at it, Evadne had been good to me, kind, and yes a friend. I owed it to her to see this through; I owed my life to the Xurtal Kingdom. It wouldn’t feel right to back down and let this mission fail without even trying, but I was quaking in my boots thinking about it. This mission was time-sensitive, and we were so very far away from where we needed to be.

Theronix had gone behind my back and spoken to the mercenary captain. In a few minutes, they were going to call the Xurtal Empire and discuss options. Theronix wanted me to pretend to be the princess in that talk, and I wanted to come clean. I couldn’t lie to the king of Xurtal and pretend to be his dead daughter. I couldn’t believe that Evadne’s head guard was even proposing it, but he was convinced that while we needed to hire these mercenaries, we couldn’t trust them. Thus, the ruse had to be kept at all costs.

I knew I’d fall in line with his wishes, because what options did I have? But it sucked, and I wanted to escape this room and run away from all of it. Instead, I took a deep breath, straightened my shoulders, and sat down at the head of the table as regally as I could. Every inch of me settled into the role I’d played since the time I was eight: the princess, the consummate elite and diplomat. Having shared every lesson Evadne had received growing up, and then a whole slew more—including martial arts and weapons training—it felt as simple as breathing.

My hands had only just settled demurely in my lap when the door to the ready room opened, revealing the bridge beyond it. The captain was a huge, black-scaled Naga with an impressive scowl, and he halted in surprise when he discovered that I was in his chair at the head of the table. It was the only chair someone of Evadne’s status would have taken, so that’s where I sat, but I felt his narrow-eyed, golden glare all the way down to my toes. The real princess would have taken that in stride, shrugged it off, but I already felt like such an impostor that it made my heart skip an anxious beat.

Captain Asmoded seemed to conclude that this was the price of dealing with royalty and slithered into the room, the first hint of a mocking smile curling his firm mouth. His human mate was not with him, but he was followed by his second-in-command, a very angry individual of a species I did not know. The last male to enter the room was another unknown alien, a male with huge red and white wings and a feathered crest rising from his head.

I didn’t know why I felt a sudden hint of disappointment when I realized that was all of them; the Asrai was never supposed to be here, he was their pilot, not an officer. I shouldn’t even want to see him again, I shouldn’t care one bit.

The captain dipped into a half-bow that would have been considered rude on Xurtal. “You’re welcome to sit in my chair, Princess Evadne. Make yourself right at home.” His voice was a deep drawl with a sibilant note, and my skin broke out in goosebumps upon hearing it. I had not interacted with the captain yet, and I’d never met a Naga before as they were rare in the Zeta Quadrant. He made a very primal part of my brain tingle with fear, warning me that I was in front of a monster, a beast, not a man.

“Thank you,” I said politely. “I will.” Stake my claim, sound cool as a cucumber; I could do this. “Have a seat,” I added, and I gestured with a hand at the chairs still available at the table. Asmoded intended to mock me, but treating his insult as a genuine offer was my only way forward. I had to establish dominance in a room chock-full of testosterone.

A Naga face, as it turned out, was hard to read, so I was not certain if he was amused or annoyed at my brazenness. The winged alien was far more humanoid-looking, and his muffled laugh was a clear indication of what he was thinking.

Once everyone was seated, I recognized the second-in-command as the real threat in the room. The Naga was frightening in a primordial sense, but this guy? His aura was so chilling that it seemed as though the temperature in the room had dropped. His silver eyes, under a pronounced frown, bored into me while silver curled and swirled across his black armor in peculiar, organic tendrils, reminiscent of kelp swaying in the current.

“You’ve already been briefed on the details of this mission by my personal guard,” I said, breaking the tense silence. “Are you prepared to take this on? My father, the King of Xurtal, will reward you handsomely for your services.” Of that, I had no doubt. The king would shower them with gold if it meant the salvation of the kingdom. But I couldn't let on just how dire the situation really was—that was information nobody could know.

The unknown, creepy, gray alien curled his lips into a dark, derisive smirk. That grin made me feel as if he knew everything, as if all my secrets were exposed on my face for him to read. I flicked my eyes away from his mesmerizing gaze to look at the captain, finding it easier to continue talking, to perpetuate the lie that Theronix and Evadne wanted me to maintain.

Before long, the winged mercenary was establishing a connection with the Xurtal homeworld. I didn’t really expect the King himself to answer the call, but I knew Evadne would have felt a pang of disappointment when it was his closest advisor. I felt it on her behalf now that she could no longer feel it herself, and that was probably what convinced Pelarios that I was truly her. He dipped into a very deep bow that made my chest ache, and smiled warmly, his relief obvious. “Princess Evadne, it is good to see you.”

I did not even have to open my mouth to claim that I was her, he bought it just like that. All I had to do was go along with it, and the ruse was complete. The negotiations went entirely through Pelarios after that, and I was happy to let him take the lead. When it came to hammering out the details of the mission and the requirements that the mercenaries had to meet to fulfill their contract, I perked back up. This was where I needed to have a say so I could increase my chances of survival.

I didn’t know what came over me when I insisted on a close guard with expert flying skills. Truly, it was insanity, but once I made the demand, there was no taking it back. Leveling a determined look at the present males, I outlined my reasons. “Theronix is a commendable warrior, but he is currently injured and not in fighting shape. I need a close bodyguard who is, and one who will never leave my side. I need a guard who can whisk me to safety, no matter the obstacles, should the situation call for it.

The captain offered a first true expression of mirth, his fanged mouth spreading in a wide smile. “I know just the male for the job, but how are you going to ensure he’s allowed into every meeting, and inside your chambers at night?”

Ah, damn. He was taking my words too literally; that wasn't what I meant… But when I glanced from him to Theronix, and then to Pelarios, I knew they were seriously contemplating it. The former because he knew my safety was the kingdom’s last chance, the latter for the same reasons, but also because he thought I was the heir to the throne. “He’ll have to be her fiancé,” Pelarios said eventually, his gaze pensive. “The Ovters are very strict with their rules. It's the only ruse that will give a bodyguard the right access. They’ll ban anyone else from the negotiations.

It wasn’t even about the bedroom as the captain had implied, but that was all I could focus on. Aramon and I in one room, all night long. This was a terrible idea, and now I couldn't prevent it. “I believe I can make this work,” Asmoded said, still grinning widely. “I'll send you the details of my man's fabricated background, and you can inform Ov'Korad.”

By the time the meeting was over, I was a shaky, troubled mess. At least I wasn't worried about my safety and the success of this mission anymore. I had very different worries now. What if the captain wasn't assigning Aramon as my guard at all? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?

He wasn’t on the bridge when I glided from the ready room in my most regal strut, and I wanted to howl with frustration behind my cool mask. I never thought I’d be dealing with intense emotions like these, though they had trained me for the possibility. Trained… Pah, like you could train for the intense lust at first sight type of thing I was experiencing. It hadn’t even waned a little, despite spending two weeks on the ship without ever laying eyes on this guy again.

I felt like I’d run a marathon by the time I’d managed to leave Theronix behind in the hallway and entered my small, private room on the ship. I was the only refugee they'd taken in who had been given a private room, thanks to Theronix advocating for my status with the captain. I had hated it before, but today I was grateful.

My hands trembled when I slipped into the small, attached bathroom and stared at my reflection in the mirror. Green skin, red eyes, green hair. It wasn't me—and yet, it was such a familiar reflection that, paradoxically, it was me. I was Evadne, and that's who the Asrai male had lusted after when we'd seen each other in the hangar bay that day. Not the real me.

I shrugged open my jumpsuit, baring my chest, and slid my hand down my belly to touch the piercing dangling from my belly button. This was a common decoration among Xurtal females. Xurtal was a planet covered in unusual, rich green sand that matched the skin color of the women in the east, while lush, green forests dominated the west. The planet was warm everywhere, and the locals' dress and customs had developed accordingly. This included the peculiar extra eyelids of the eastern tribes, a necessary adaptation to protect them from the sun's glare and blowing sand.

A flick of my thumb over the red gem at the center of the gold pendant, and my reflection in the mirror abruptly changed. Gone was the emerald skin, in its place a pale cream that lacked any hint of a tan after space travel and captivity. I looked waxy and wan to my eyes, fake. I was too used to seeing myself as a Xurtal female to find this reflection any less alien. “I am human,” I whispered, but my red contacts and green dyed hair made a mockery of that statement.

“My name is Evie,” I added. Evelyn. A name that had only helped to cement my fate as Evadne’s body double, another similarity between us. “Evie Mordew.” I was nobody, and it was no wonder that Evadne’s people despised me for impersonating their princess. I hated myself for what I was, so of course, they did too. Theronix, standing guard outside my room, felt like another shackle. He was not there to protect the princess he loved; he was there to keep the fake that should have died in line.

“You can run away after this is done,” I said. That was going to be a promise to myself. They would not need a body double to a dead princess once the treaty was sealed. After I’d fulfilled my promise to Evadne and her people, my obligations were met. I would run away and find a better life, find myself . I didn’t know any more who Evie the human was, and it was time I found out.

The sound of the ship-wide intercom turning on nearly made me jump out of my skin. Suddenly, I was certain that someone was watching me. My hand flew to the button on my belly button piercing, activating my disguise in the blink of an eye. Its cloak of illusion settled over my skin with a painful tingle that would last until my brain adjusted. Sometimes that was a few minutes, sometimes it took much longer, and getting zapped by every object I touched was a given. The discomfort of the device had not been a concern to the Xurtal.

The dark voice that spoke made me shiver, even as I realized that he was not speaking to me. It was the cold second-in-command of the ship, the man they called the Sineater, who was announcing our departure and calling Aramon to the bridge.

Was this a 'human Evie' thing, to ask for a male like Aramon to be my bodyguard? I hadn't asked for him by name, but this meant they had picked him, didn't it? Doubts struck immediately afterward. No, we were departing; they just needed their pilot on the bridge. That was all.

So why couldn’t my heart stop racing as I pictured the Asrai mercenary in his black armor, a grin on his ghoulish face? This was the worst moment to feel attraction for anyone, let alone one as alien as him. I had a mission to complete, promises to fulfill, and secrets to keep.