Chapter 24

I carried Heather back to my suite, reluctant to break our contact, to let her out of my arms.

Guilt tore at me for having frightened her. Her! The one I vowed to cherish and protect. That her voice, her slight touch, had brought me back from the edge of going completely feral, was a small miracle.

Had I needed any further proof that she was my mekarry, this would have done it.

My body was still aroused as it had never been before when I gently placed her on the bed, but I realized that now was not the time to follow my baser instinct. She needed rest and she needed time to digest everything that had happened to her. The next time we made love I wanted it to be special, not overshadowed by all the darkness around us.

I was more than happy to lie down next to her, scoop her into my arms, and just relish in her nearness and the knowledge that she was safe and here with me.

I waited until her breathing evened out, telling me she had fallen asleep, and left the door open to go into my living room. I needed to do a few things, no matter how much I ached to just hold her.

My suite had been empty when I entered with Heather—Lady Madeema and Commander Noctus were gone. The table was set with drinks and food and, out of habit, I gravitated toward it, filled a glass with vepo, and ate a few bites. Chewing on them without noticing what I ate.

I needed to get a hold of the chaos in my mind.

Lady Madeema had been in Lady Natoi’s chamber the night of Heather’s abduction. Coincidence?

I didn’t think so. I had never seen the two of them interact with one another before. Had Lady Madeema been seen with anybody else on any other night, I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. This though, I couldn’t discount.

Lady Madeema had also gone behind my back and abducted Sir Priough. It wasn’t in direct violation of an order, because there had never been one in the first place. I had allowed her a lot of free rein when it came to matters of intelligence, but abducting a foreign dignitary was a line I would have never crossed and she should have known that.

Not to forget the matter of her—also behind my back—pulling Xandros into her dark web of lies, making him choose between his loyalties to his emperor and to his friend.

It was the friend he confided in eventually.

At best, Lady Madeema was overstepping.

At worst, she was behind Heather’s abduction, and probably a whole lot more.

I tapped my fingers impatiently against my desk. Lady Madeema had been invaluable to me since the failed coup to overthrow me in my youth. But she was also dangerous and beginning to think of herself as more powerful than she was.

She was also in a position she couldn’t simply be fired from.

Neither could I have her executed just on the suspicion of what she had done.

Most of all, frankly, I had no idea why she would have ordered Heather abducted. As much as I racked my brain over it, I could not come up with one explanation.

Lady Madeema was a lot of things, but first and foremost, she was loyal. She might go about it the wrong way, but I had never doubted that she had my and the Pandraxian Empire’s best interests at heart. Just suspecting her made me feel disloyal to her and yet… I needed to know.

“Commander Noctus,” I commed him, knowing he would be awake.

“Your Imperial Highness,” came his instant reply, before clicks later his hologram appeared in my living quarters. He bowed deeply. “I trust everything is alright with the Lady Heather?”

“She is doing well, all things considered,” I acknowledged. “I need you to look into something, very discreetly.”

“I’m at your service, Emperor,” he replied, all but rubbing his hands in anticipation.

“According to Lady Madeema, the ship holding Sir Priough was shot down en route to the GTU,” I reminded him. “So far she has been unable to find out who was behind that attack.”

Commander Noctus drew his brows together. “Strange.”

I nodded. “Vra.” We both knew that keeping secrets from Lady Madeema was nearly impossible, especially something like this.

“You want me to find out who was behind it, why, how they knew about it, and most of all if it is true, or if she’s still keeping him somewhere,” Commander Noctus summarized.

“It’s dangerous,” I warned.

“I’m aware.” But I’m up for the challenge, were the unspoken words following his first statement. There was no love lost between the two of them and sooner or later one of them would face the consequences; I had always been aware of it. Both were invaluable to me and I had been dreading that day. It didn’t surprise me that it was coming sooner than I had hoped. What surprised me was that it looked like Lady Madeema wouldn’t be the victor.

“There is one more thing,” I added, hating myself. Distrusting Lady Madeema was one thing, but voicing it in the company of her arch competition, setting him on her trail, was unforgivable—especially if I was wrong. “The males who abducted Lady Heather, crosscheck them with any males who are or have ever been in Lady Madeema’s employ.”

The silence that followed was telling, more so than the shocked expression on Commander Noctus’s face before he got himself under control again. “I will keep you posted, Emperor,” he said a bit stiffly and without glee, realizing full well what a blow to the empire it would be should Lady Madeema be found guilty in this.

“I’m counting on you,” I said, breaking the connection and leaning heavily against my desk. Automatically, I took a few deep breaths to ease the anger that always burned a hole inside my stomach, ready to come out, but surprisingly there wasn’t any, only emptiness.

“That must have been hard,” a soft voice called.

I turned and found Heather standing in the doorway. “I’m sorry. Did I wake you?”

“I woke when you left the room.” She nodded, walking over to me. “I’m sorry I eavesdropped.”

I couldn’t fault her for it. She was as entangled in this as me, and if it eased her suspicions of me, I would gladly take it.

“Who is Sir Priough?” she probed.

“King Crough’s closest advisor,” I told her, seeing no reason to keep secrets from her. She was my mekarry and she would be my empress soon. If I couldn’t trust her… That was just the crux of it though, wasn’t it? Vra, she was my mekarry but for some inexplicable reason, the gods had seen fit to make our bond one-sided. Had I bonded with a Pandraxian merrily she would have not only reciprocated my feelings for her immediately, she would have died for me just as I would have been ready to die for her.

Staring into Heather’s beautiful face though, I realized I wouldn’t want it to be anybody else. I already loved her with every fiber of my being. She was the ONE, my all. I would just have to fight harder to make her see that I was hers.

“Lady Madeema had him abducted too? Why?” Heather brought me back to our conversation.

“Because I needed proof of certain atrocities the Cryons are committing to take it to the GTU to help Earth,” I summarized.

“But you didn’t know she ordered him to be abducted?”

I shook my head. “Nocc, I would have never sanctioned something like that, not from my planet, not while he was under my hospitality.”

“She wants to please you,” Heather said thoughtfully.

“Vra. She always had my best interests at heart.”

“Hmm,” Heather uttered noncommittally.

“Hmm, what?” I asked.

“She’s in love with you,” she stated, looking a bit abashed, as if she felt she shouldn’t have told me.

“Lady Madeema?” I asked astounded.

“Women will do all kinds of crazy things for the man they love,” Heather argued.

“Nocc. We were a couple for a little while, but… nocc.”

One of Heather’s eyebrows rose as she inquired, “You don’t have those feelings for her anymore?”

“I never did have those kinds of feelings for her,” I explained badly, unsure of what I should and shouldn’t tell her and deciding on the truth. “It was a pairing of convenience, that’s all.”

“At the time you didn’t remember the mekarry bond anymore, though, right?” Heather probed.

“Vra, but it didn’t matter. Lady Madeema would have never made a good empress.”

“Is she aware of that?” Heather countered mercilessly.

“Where is this going, Heather? You are my mekarry. Nothing—”

“Does she know that?” Heather reiterated with an unreadable expression on her face.

Slowly I shook my head. “Not directly. We broke it off. It was both of our decision. She became my intelligence officer and…” Heather cocked her head, waiting. Vra, Daryus, how jointly had the breakup been? my mind mocked. Well, she wasn’t in tears or heartbroken, I argued back. “She might have still harbored some hopes,” I finally admitted to Heather.

“And suddenly mekarries pop up all over the place,” she said quietly. “All of them human, and you start seeing one, asking her for dinner, meeting her at the park.”

I nodded, finally seeing where she was going with this. “Vra.”

“I think it’s time we talked to Lady Natoi,” I suggested, taking her into my arms, “Are you up for that?”

“Yes.” She snuggled into my embrace. “And I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” I asked astonished.

“For having doubted you for a moment,” she admitted.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” I said, framing her small face with both of my hands. “Nothing. If anybody has to be sorry, it’s me for having put you into this position.”

“Believe it or not, I’m happy you did,” she said, nearly flooring me.