Chapter 9

Chapter

Nine

A ll day and another night, it was eerily quiet. The base, the Wall, the surrounding area, there had been no attack since we took down their Red Palace and killed the prime leader.

Was it because they were grappling with their loss and burying their dead? Were they swearing in Maxim, and was he waiting until I replied to act? My mind swirled, and all the while, Onyx and Liana were unreachable.

Tonight, Tetra and the rest of our alliance would show up to fulfill their orders, and the base was currently in a lockdown, unsure of what to expect next.

After a full day of more meetings, as I was passing down a long hallway in search of the mess hall for a late dinner, a side door opened, and I yelped until I saw Kohen grinning. He pulled me into the small room and shut the door, pinning my back against it.

My heart fluttered in my chest. I’d barely seen him. I’d been busy in meetings and learning the ropes of the new base. I was still getting introduced to squad leaders and learning about what my new schedule would be. Student by day, empress by night. That’s what we’d decided on. I’d train with Tetra and the rest of my squadron as rookie recruits from sunup to sundown, and then I’d have meetings at night to deal with empress things. On weekends, I was permitted to fly back to Riverine to see my sisters and have more meetings there.

I was already sick of the meetings.

“Tell me you have intel on our creatures. I’m freaking out,” I told him.

He smiled. “I don’t.”

I frowned. “Then why are you smiling?”

He leaned in, sniffing my neck and dragging his lips along my jaw until they rested on mine.

Everything within me disarmed around him. It was like all of the survival techniques I was taught my entire life were blanked from my mind when Kohen was present.

“I had a vision of you,” he whispered as he dragged his lips tantalizingly over mine, not stopping until he reached my ear. Heat bloomed through my body so fast and hot, I genuinely wondered if I’d catch fire.

I moaned and reached out to grasp his biceps. This man would be my ruin. I’d never been more infatuated with another soul than I was with him. But I’d never tell him that.

“And…?” I asked as he kissed my collarbone, tendrils of heat traveling to my core.

Kohen pulled back and just gave me a half-cocked smirk. “I’m not telling. It’s for me to know and you to live out.”

I punched his shoulder, and he just grinned wider.

“Hey, not fair!” I told him.

He glanced at my lips, grinning like a mad fool, and I couldn’t help but match his smile. Kohen was like a drug; his very presence intoxicated me. “Was it a good vision?” I asked.

“The best yet.” He licked his lips. I equally loved and hated the anticipation of kissing him. There was something thrilling about knowing he’d had a good vision about me and not knowing it. I’d get to live it out like he said.

“Our love…” He finally kissed my lips before pulling away. “…will rewrite history.” He kissed me again, harder, deeper, and I opened myself to him. Was that the vision? That our love would rewrite history, or was he just making a romantic statement?

Did I even care?

I was drowning in this kiss, willingly losing myself to all things Kohen, when I heard a pair of boots clomping down the hall, and we both froze. I pulled back, and Kohen reached up and placed his hand over my frantically beating heart. Then he cocked his head to the side, looking past me and appearing to concentrate deeply. “Onyx just got back. Liana’s not with him.”

That was all I needed to hear. I sidestepped him and threw the door open. Luckily, no one was in the hallway because I stepped out, smoothing my hair and making sure my shirt was still tucked in.

“Where is she? What happened?” I asked frantically.

Kohen’s head was still cocked, brows bunched, as he led the way to the stairwell that would take us outside. We were still living in the underground bunker, expecting Luska to attack.

He was quiet for three flights of stairs and then turned to me. “They killed Drak. But Liana died protecting Onyx.”

“She what!” I screeched.

He lowered his voice. “Relax, she’s being reborn in the woods. It will just take time before she can get back here.”

Relax? My freaking creature died. Even if she was immortal, it was still stressful. “The Luskins could get to her,” I whispered back. “Onyx should have stayed with her.”

Kohen shook his head. “Liana ordered him to come back and protect you.”

I didn’t need protection. I needed her to be okay!

I frantically searched our bond, only to feel it shut down like a steel door.

When we reached the top, there was a guard at the door who stood stiffly and saluted me as I passed. When we stepped outside, Kohen took three large steps away from me, so it didn’t look like we’d walked out together. Commander Ledger was standing out in the open, watching Onyx with curiosity.

Kohen strode right over to his creature and stroked his neck as Commander Ledger turned to face me. “Where’s yours?” he asked.

“Delayed,” I responded, gutted that she was all alone in Luska without me.

‘Where are you? I’ll come get you,’ I sent to her but got no response.

Admiral Caruso crossed the quad with a few soldiers at her side and motioned for me to join them.

I saluted the commander and then passed Kohen and Onyx.

“Liana’s not responding to me,” I whispered to Kohen as I passed.

“She’s conserving energy for the rebirth,” he told me.

I growled. I didn’t like this. Not one bit. The red dragon rider could find her and put another one of those nets over her to keep her from fully being reborn.

But she had survived a thousand years without me—I had to trust she’d be able to survive another few days.

Admiral Caruso saluted me, as did the two men and one woman beside her. I glanced at the rank pins on their uniform to see that they were lieutenants. The female looked particularly badass, with a shaved head and the small amount of hair she did have dyed hot pink. A white snake creature was coiled up her arm.

“These are your instructors,” the admiral said. “Combs…” She pointed to the pink-haired female. “Hammer…” She gestured to a male with long dark hair and broody eyes who was missing a finger on his right hand. “And Rahul…” She pointed to a light brown-skinned male with short-cropped hair and brown eyes.

“Imbrian?” I asked Rahul.

“Half,” he said, giving no more and no less information.

I nodded. “Will you be instructing the others from Riverine who’ve been posted here?”

Because Tetra, Alek, Roc, Meera, Dev, Kian, and Anika were due at any moment.

Combs, the female who stood stiffly, flicked her gaze to me. “Yes, Empress.”

Two words. They were not a chatty bunch.

“Alright, well, thanks for your service to the Fleet.” I saluted them, and they saluted back.

As they left, Admiral Caruso stepped over to me and raised one eyebrow. Her eye was no longer swollen shut, but her face was still covered in bruises. “I haven’t seen Lieutenant Steele around…”

It was an open-ended question.

“Mmmm,” was all I said.

“She mentioned she might be gone for a few days.”

I trusted Caruso, but also I didn’t trust anyone.

“She will,” I confirmed, and her eyes narrowed.

“Does this have to do with your missing creature?”

Ouch, right for the heart.

“No,” I said, though as empress, I didn’t need to say anything.

“Then it has to do with the top-secret letter I saw being delivered late last night. Commander Ledger won’t say what it was.”

This woman was relentless. I sighed, too tired to debate. “Yes, and I will let you and the other admirals in on the contents of the letter when she gets back.”

Her interest piqued, she said nothing more. Instead, she looked at the sky. “Why haven’t they retaliated for bringing down their Red Palace?”

I knew why. Maxim was waiting on my reply to his ridiculous marriage proposal.

“Any luck on finding my father’s killer?” I wanted to change the topic until I was ready to talk to the admirals about the fact that the new Luskin prime leader asked me to wed him.

She nodded. “Found a new lab. Telling no one where it is. Results should take about three to four days.”

I blew air through my teeth.

“What if it was one of us?” I asked her.

Her lips pursed into a thin line. “Then I’ll spend my life interrogating every single Amersean until I find out who it was and bring you their head.”

Her vow was touching. I reached out and squeezed her elbow. “Thank you.”

She peered at me and nodded once. “Your father was not a kind man, but he was a damn good leader. He didn’t deserve that.”

Your father was not a kind man .

Those words unfortunately rang true, and maybe that’s why they didn’t sting. There was nothing soft or loving about him. But he was a provider, a safety net for my sisters and I growing up in a world without our mother. He did the best he could, and it was good enough. I wasn’t going to complain about my lot in life. I’d led a very privileged existence, so not having a father who doted on me wasn’t something I was going to cry about at night.

No. It was chin up. Move on.

“Don’t worry about your instructors or your friends or Elaine. I’ve already questioned them, and they are clear. Anyone in close contact with you has been?—”

“You questioned Tetra?” I asked her, offense in my voice. “Did you hurt her?”

Now she looked offended. “No. That’s not how my power works. Unless they won’t talk, then…” She opened her hands as if to say, then she hurt them.

“So they all… talked?”

She nodded. “Sang like canaries. Gave an entire breakdown of the night your father died. Not a single lie.”

Relief rushed through me so fast I was breathless. I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed to hear that. Not about Tetra, but the others. It was good to know my inner circle was clean.

“That’s good.”

She scanned the base and all of the people milling about. “But someone did it. And if they blew the blood lab and are trying to cover it up, I’ll find them,” she vowed. She saluted me before walking off.

She was right. Someone did do it, likely a person in Amersea. There was no reason to cover up an assassination from Luska. What stories would his blood tell?

Movement at the front gates pulled my attention. My personal driver, Verik’s, car pulled through, and I grinned. Tetra was sitting in the front seat with who I assumed were the rest of the alliance in the two rows in back because all of their creatures ran at the sides, flanking the left and right of the car. Or flew, in Alek’s and Dev’s case. Seeing Dev’s creepy vulture caused a chill to race up my spine, more so because I’d heard that if she touched you with one swipe of her talons, you would drop dead.

Meera’s little fox running alongside Roc’s lynx kept up with the car’s speed easily. Anika’s lioness was so badass, racing effortlessly next to Tetra’s wolf and Kian’s monkey creature. They looked like old friends running together, and that made me happy. If creatures liked each other, then it meant their humans did, too. I’d be busy now that I was empress, so Tetra having someone else to look out for her was a good thing.

When the car pulled to a stop, the creatures fanned out, peering around at the space as the doors opened, and one by one, they all stepped out.

They wore their Fleet-issued fatigues and held duffle bags stiffly in their hands as they stood with backs erect and saluted me.

I tried to keep the grin off my face.

“At ease,” I said.

They relaxed, looking at me as if wondering if things would change now that I was empress.

“You guys are crazy to want to be posted here,” I told them.

Anika hefted her bag and walked over to me. She shrugged. “I hear the food is decent.”

I grinned. “It’s not bad.”

She gripped my shoulder and squeezed before walking past me.

“Hey, old friend,” I heard Kohen call to her and glanced over my shoulder just in time to see him open his arms and pull her into a hug. Jealously sliced through my heart like a hot knife, but before I could dwell on it, Tetra was before me.

She was holding hands with Dev. Okay… so that was definitely a thing. He held her duffle as she used her other hand to grip her cane.

“Please tell me Lieutenant Ashendell isn’t here,” she begged, dropping Dev’s hand and pulling me in for a hug, which I returned.

I laughed. “She’s not, but I met our new instructors today, and they seem… uptight.”

“Great,” Roc said as he came up behind Tetra with Kian at his side. They all walked over to where Kohen and Anika were talking near Onyx.

“Thanks for keeping us all together,” Meera said meekly as she reached out and squeezed my hand.

Then, I was standing in front of Alek.

Sweet, handsome, loyal Alek.

He swallowed hard, his eyes running the length of me. “Aisling… I…” He met my gaze, and I was taken aback by the depth there, the emotion and vulnerability. “I’m so sorry to hear about your father.”

My father . Not the emperor. He recognized that I’d lost my only parent. My throat clogged with emotion, and I nodded. “Thank you, Alek.”

He glanced behind me at everyone talking to Kohen and gave me a weak salute. “I’m going to find my assigned bunk and get settled in. It’s been a long journey,” he said, picking up his duffle and walking off. Iniki flew down and landed on his shoulder, peering back at me.

Why did I feel sad when I saw Alek? Well, not sad for me. Sad for him. I felt bad at how things had transpired between us. He’d put himself out there, and I’d shot him down.

Would I have said yes to something with Alek if Kohen hadn’t existed?

Maybe… but Kohen did exist, and Alek was great… but he wasn’t Kohen.

“Come join us.” Kohen’s deep voice washed over my left shoulder, and my stomach tightened.

I spun, trying to hold off my grin. Stars, he had such a hold over me. Looking at him now, I couldn’t stop thinking about our kiss in the small closet room. I’d never been more attracted to a man.

“Join you where?” I asked, raising one eyebrow.

“There is a bar of sorts on base,” Kohen said and then walked over to the others.

I followed him. I’m pretty sure if my father were alive, he’d council me not to go with my friends to the bar on base as acting empress.