Chapter 5

The kiss was everything. Rhakaris’s alien lips were firm but yielding, cool and smooth. My eyes fluttered shut as his kiss brushed my lips, moving in a dance both familiar and intoxicating. His hand cupped the back of my head, steadying me, holding me close. Both gentle and possessive, his touch laid claim to me, and in that moment, I wanted nothing else.

The world faded to nothing. Time stood still. The kiss was my entire world. I moaned as his tongue probed my lips, parting them, finding mine and dancing with it. The tongue felt strange, rough but not unpleasant, long and flexible. Razor sharp fangs grazed my lips delicately, and a shiver of fear mixed with the surge of desire. He pulsed with a primal force, something ancient and powerful, something that drew me in like a beacon. Something that would not be denied.

When our lips parted, my head span and my heart pounded like a drum. The alien king’s dark, inscrutable eyes stayed fixed on mine, and it felt as though he looked into my soul. They trapped me, prey caught in a predator’s gaze, and worst of all, I didn’t mind.

Around us, chaos reigned. Oh yeah. We’re not alone. That realization broke the spell, letting me turn away to see how much trouble we were in.

Kharmiya stood between us and her father, her shoulders tense. Framed by the broken doorway, the duke looked like fury incarnate, and four guards with rifles stood at his side. They weren’t aiming at anyone, but the way they held the weapons made me certain that they were waiting for an excuse.

The duke and his daughter snarled back and forth at each other in their alien language, leaving me at a loss. Beside me, Rhakaris tensed, so I doubted it was anything good.

“Speak Galtrade,” he snarled, interrupting Duke Vazand mid-growl. “You dishonor yourself and offend my mate otherwise.”

“That is not your mate,” the duke snapped, though to be fair, he snapped it in Galtrade. “My daughter is. Prophecy foretells that she will marry you—”

“—and I have,” interrupted Kharmiya, voice steady and dripping sincerity. “I married the two of them, as is my right as a noble lady.”

The duke’s eyes blazed with rage, but he bit back whatever he was about to shout at her with a visible effort and took a deep breath. “You have always been a prankster, my dear, but we all know a human cannot marry our king. The Keepers are here to witness the real ceremony. Guards, remove the alien.”

He means me. I was still in shock from the kiss, and couldn’t do more than blink as the four guards raised their rifles. And I think he means ‘remove me’ permanently.

While I froze, Rhakaris didn’t hesitate. He stepped between me and the gunmen, into the line of fire.

“You are mistaken.” His voice was crisp, hard, commanding. Even now, under threat of death, it sent a thrill through me. “I am your king, and I order you to drop your weapons.”

That crack of command hit hard—and it wasn’t even aimed at me. But the guards only paused for a moment, then spread out. Rhakaris shifted this way and that, but he couldn’t block four people at once, and he knew it. Every move crowded me back, away from the door, but there was a limit to how far we could retreat.

The balcony railing was coming up fast, and beyond it was a long drop into the toxic lake. The fall would probably kill me, which might be a blessing. I’d prefer that to the lake dissolving my bones.

“Did you really think that would work?” I hissed at the king. He chuckled, making my blood boil.

“No, but I had to try,” he said, his focus clearly elsewhere. Normally, that would have offended me, but his attention was on the gunmen trying to get a clear shot at me. I decided that gave him a pass.

“We’re out of space to retreat,” I told him. “Got something else you want to try, or is this a last stand?”

“I’ve got an idea or two,” the alien king said. “But I don’t think you’ll like them.”

“Yeah, well, it doesn’t look like I’ve got a lot of choice, thanks to you. So fucking do something.”

The winds whipping around the tower smelled of hot metal and sulfur, and they brought a chill that cut deep into my bones. I breathed deep anyway—if it was going to be my last breath, I wanted to make the most of it.

“Your Majesty,” the cold, hard voice of Duke Vazand called out. “Be reasonable. You have no escape route, and I have no interest in seeing you hurt. If the human female means so much to you, fine, you can keep her. All you must do is marry my daughter, who will give you strong and numerous heirs.”

Like hell she will, I thought, controlling a snort. I saw how Kharmiya looked at Ellarax, and how she didn’t look at Rhakaris.

It was hardly the most pressing matter, but it was better than focusing on the way the duke referred to me like an animal, or the choice facing Rhakaris. Giving in seemed the sanest option, and the one I least wanted him to take. A defiant charge might get us both killed, but at least it would be brave. Futile, stupid, but brave. Pleading? I couldn’t imagine it.

The last thing I expected was the deep, booming laugh. “Duke Vazand, my mating is not something to buy and sell, and nor is my mate yours to spare. We are nobles of the Drachali, and do not haggle like grocers. Where there is conflict, we shall settle it in the old way. Violence.”

“If it must be so. My daughter will have to rule as your swiftly widowed mate.”

That brought shocked gasps. Apparently, the duke’s pet Keepers weren’t on board for regicide, but it was a little late to draw that line in the sand. I didn’t think either the duke or the king would back down from a fight.

Ah. Doomed heroic charge it is. I wish he hadn’t given them that warning. I braced myself to follow him—no fucking way was I about to let him hog the glory while I stood back and waited to die.

I didn’t expect him to turn and grab me in a fierce embrace as the thump of the guards’ guns sounded. His powerful arms closed around me and my breath caught as he lifted me off my feet and leaped.

Over the railing, into the chill winds and the long fall into the toxic ocean below.