Chapter 14

Faint light glows around the edges of the curtains, but not enough to be daylight. Did we sleep away the whole day? Or has the sun just not come up? Then I remember what Rurik said, that this planet only goes through twilight, dusk, and night before cycling back around.

Interesting.

“Hey.” I roll over to look at him, finding him asleep beside me. He truly is stunning. I reach out and trace the odd shape of his face, the slits of his nostrils, barely visible to the naked eye, the dark pattern between his eyes, the slope of his … well, it’s not a nose, but the way his skin slopes down between his eyes. The massive white and black horns resting in the pillows. The wings, like blankets tucked up underneath us both.

He cracks his lids, and I bite back a little gasp at the sight of those deep black orbs. He stares at me, blinking like he’s coming out of a trance. I love seeing him sleep. I wonder if this is adapted to my being human? His sleep patterns, I mean.

“You’re beautiful, too,” I tell him, piggybacking on last night’s compliment. I smile and trace his mouth with my finger, and he shudders all over. I’m considering whether I should ride him or try to have some semblance of a conversation first when I notice that the double-headed cat with the pink fur from yesterday has followed me. It’s in the room with us. “Rurik …” I trail off, but he just barely lifts his head to see what I’m staring at.

“Ah, the Dehvas,” he says softly. “They are free to roam here. No efforts are made to keep them out or tell them what to do.” He lays back down, and I wonder maybe if the Vestalis aren’t so bad. They could’ve exterminated the cat creatures. Trapped them. Locked them out of their posh royal suites.

“I’m allergic to cats and, also, apparently whatever these are.” I point at the cat as one head yawns, and the other hisses at me. Again. “Seeing as you’re from an advanced race capable of complex space travel, I just assume you have some way to cure me of my allergy? If so, then I’d like that, please.”

Rurik chuckles at me as he sits up in bed, looking like a god of blood and sex. He is way too pretty for his own good. He stops laughing and then smiles, wickedly.

“We do indeed have the capabilities to reverse your allergy.” He turns toward the door with a frown, like he expects one of our crew members to come bursting in. It happens pretty much every time we get intimate or frisky. This time, nobody shows up and I breathe a sigh of relief. Rurik looks at me again. “We will administer it when we visit the med bay.”

“Why would we visit the med bay?” I ask as I wrinkle my nose. “No way, dude. I’m not going on that ship any sooner than I have to.”

“Which is now,” he tells me, and I try to slap him. He catches my wrist and then licks it. Bites it gently. Pulls back and brushes his lips over it. “Med bay. Today or perhaps tomorrow.”

“Why?” I repeat, but I have a weird feeling. Rurik, like, looks right through me when he’s drinking my blood. If … well … he might already know something. “I’m pregnant?”

“You are.” He sits up with a bit of a sigh. “Which means you were pregnant before we mated.” He sounds more annoyed than anything else. “But which also means that I have deposited my own DNA into the egg; it is now my child.”

“Huh.” I prop up on my elbows and grin at him. “Abraxas thinks it’s an impervious girl child. Shall we take bets?”

Rurik is unamused, and then I feel bad. And then I feel bad for feeling bad. Who am I supposed to be loyal to now? Abraxas or Rurik? What if I can’t pick? We’re all sort of stuck together anyway, right? Rurik needs me to live; I get sick without Abraxas around.

Speaking of … I’m just a little bit dizzy. My grin turns into a frown. I feel worse than I did last time.

“You are not feeling well?” Rurik clarifies, and I nod as I close my eyes. “Thus, the med bay. Today.”

I sigh in anguish—getting back on the ship might be worse than dying, it’s possible—and fall back into the pillows. Then I look over and see that Rurik is still wearing his pants.

“I told you to get naked last night,” I warn him, and he gives me a hot look in response.

“I will have to correct that.” He takes his clothes off and covers me with his body.

We don’t leave that room until the next day.

“You might’ve told me that day three of the wedding was called the Day of Knowing. That everyone knew we’d be holed up in there and fucking. I might’ve—”

“Not fucked?” Rurik retorts, playing with his gloves. “No, I don’t believe that’s true. You would have behaved the exact same way.”

He’s right, and it’s pissing me off.

Also because we’re striding down the dusky street toward the med bay. It’s cold out today, so I’ve got gloves on, too. I don’t fidget with mine nearly as much as he does. He’s got such restless hands, but such a calm mind. I’m the opposite. I don’t fidget, and I’m all over the place with my thoughts.

“Your doctor guy couldn’t scan me before—which you did while I was unconscious, I might add.” Rurik cringes but he does it with a royal sneer on his lips. “So why would he be able to scan me now?”

“He has uncovered some Cartian technology on the black market. Presumably, he will try to use some of it.”

I hear Zero’s sharp inhale behind me. I bet she’d love to get her hands on that stuff. Maybe I can gift her some once I’m queen?

Also, also … pregnant.

I’m a bit stuck on that word. I’m not sure if I should be freaked out or excited or if it’s okay to be both things at the same time. Please let it be a girl. I exhale and my breath frosts, and it’s the most glorious thing I’ve ever seen. I want to stay here forever.

Or go back to Jungryuk.

Or … visit Earth.

Fuck, I do still want to visit Earth. Especially now. It’ll have been … months? … since I was abducted. What are my parents doing? Are they still looking for me? Are they grieving? They probably think I’m dead. They might be cleaning out my room. My little brother, Nate, might be using my car to go on dates, and maybe he doesn’t even think of me at all.

“Having an heir is … good?” I ask, and Rurik pauses in the center of a bridge, waving his arm and causing his wings to flow like a rippling white and red cloak. Our entourage backs off on either side of the bridge, the red river snaking beneath us, boats drifting by. I want to ride one. When do we get to do that?

He takes my face in his hands and steps forward, tilting my chin and arching my neck. When he takes my mouth, he curls over me protectively, wraps me in his arms, warms me.

“Stop that.” I slap at him, breathing hard from the contact.

“Having an heir means we’ll take the throne sooner,” he tells me, and there are so many unsaid things in his words. We can’t talk openly out here, but I understand what he’s trying to say. I’m happy to have a child with you. I do not want the throne. We must take the throne. Right. “Come. We must complete our visit before the test administered by my parents.”

“And what test, exactly, would that be …?” I trail off and turn to stare at Avril. It takes her several seconds to figure out that I’m annoyed with her. She flinches. I look back at my husband.

“The Day of Counsel,” he explains, and I just stare. “We will receive a summons from my parents at some point today; they will impart the wisdom of their long and fruitful rule upon us.”

“You’re … literally kidding, right? More time spent on the ship?” I ask, but he only laughs at me again, taking the back of my head in his hand so that he can kiss my forehead. Rurik turns away and keeps walking, so I jog after him. My head spins, and I gasp, knees buckling right out from under me.

He catches me in his arms, but he isn’t smiling this time.

“Fuck.” Rurik hefts me up and holds me against his chest, walking faster down the cobbled street.

“I’m okay,” I tell him, but I’m really not. How long have I been separated from Abraxas this time? Four days? Well, this is the morning of the fourth day. That’s … quick. This is bad. Come on Officer Hyt. You’ve got this. If anyone were going to pull this off, getting me and Abraxas together, it’d be him.

I exhale and relax, allowing Rurik to carry me into the ship and straight to the med bay.

“Ah, Rurik,” the doctor says, turning to smile at the pair of us. Zero and Avril follow us in, and the door shuts. “Have a seat.” The Vestalis man returns to whatever it is that he’s doing on the counter. I see something pink. Plastic-y. Chunky. It looks like a Barbie toy. “I’ve just got this Cartian wand figured out. Shall we give it a try?”

Zero makes a sharp sound that I can’t quite deal with right now. I’m still pretty dizzy.

“Will this discover why she’s fainting?” Rurik demands, and I know he knows that his dad is listening. His mom. This is dangerous, isn’t it?

“It may,” the doctor admits, and the two of them share a long look before Rurik nods and sets me down on the exam table. “Hello there, Imperial Princess.” The medic inclines his chin at me, and I see that he has furred white ears on his head. I wonder what his mate looks like? “My name is Vrach, and it will be my pleasure to serve you.”

“Thanks?” I reply, but that must be good enough because he nods again and holds out the wand. I appreciate that he’s asking this time, but I still want to punch him in the nuts. I make myself resist the urge as I relax. “Go for it.”

He runs the wand over me, and a warm, tingly feeling passes over my skin.

The screen on the wand lights up, and the doctor studies it. He frowns as he turns it toward him, and then shakes his head gently.

“I do not read advanced Cartian, and the synchronicity contacts were never updated with a language that is now somewhat lost to history. I can only begin to guess at what this says.” He passes the wand over to Zero, but she frowns at it. Her gaze snaps to mine.

“Majesty, may I have permission to review these results?” She isn’t asking Rurik even though he’s the one that controls her. She’s asking me.

“You may.”

Zero nods and holds the wand with both hands, staring down at it with a frown.

“It’ll take me some time to figure it out,” she tells me gently, “but I will work as quickly as I can.”

The medic guy runs some more tests, administers a shot that will supposedly cure me of my cat/alien cat allergy, and sends us on our way. Just before we pass through the door, he calls out to Rurik, voice oddly low and subdued.

“Perhaps the vitamins?” he suggests, and Rurik changes color. So he can blush. His moon pale skin has color for a few seconds there before he wills it away with a neutral pout and a brusque bow.

“What vitamins?” I ask as he takes me by the arm, hurrying me along down the corridor.

Rurik stops short and sighs heavily. He reaches up to touch two fingers to his headpiece.

“Yes, mother. Yes, father. We will be there right away.” He looks over at me, and his expression says it all. If they find out that you’re sick, and that it’s because you need to be with Abraxas, we are all dead. I believe him. I also feel like the medic, Vrach, and Zero are both full of shit. They know what that wand says, but they’re not going to state it on The Korol where Rurik’s parents might hear. “We must head to the throne room, my princess.”

He looks … not nervous, but determined? Like he already thinks something bad is going to happen and is determined to spare me from it.

“Yes, of course,” I tell him. If … if they execute us here, now, then I accept it. I don’t regret Abraxas, and I don’t regret Rurik, so if that’s what it comes down to … Well. Fuck.

We head that direction, only to find that his brother, Ranet, and his mate are in the throne room already.

Oh. So that’s what this is about.

I breathe a huge sigh of relief, but Rurik doesn’t relax at all.

“Son, do you have something to tell us?” the queen asks him, slithering across the room on her creepy ass legs. Why am I always in this hellish room? Why can’t we escape? Why can’t we just be left alone?

“Mother, it is none of your—”

“I’m pregnant.” I step in front of him which is … again, it’s TSTL, but there it is. I figure the queen won’t kill her future grandchild. Maybe. I don’t know.

She makes a sound that I can’t decide what to do with. A laugh? A snort? A growl? I don’t speak millipede.

“Well, aren’t you relieved, human? Instead of birthing the bastard child of a slaver, my son has imprinted your child with his superior DNA.”

I … I’m speechless.

Bastard child of a slaver? I’m guessing this is the story Rurik fed them about me, after all that time I spent on Jungryuk.

“You will retract your statement,” Rurik growls, taking me and pushing me back. I think the only reason he allowed me to step in front of him at all is because I surprised him. “You will not shame my child or my mate.”

The queen chitters as the king sighs, but she’s already slithering back over to Ranet and his mate. The king speaks for them both.

“My first sons were born of a prior pregnancy; I have seen firsthand the power of the Vestalis.” The king sounds genial enough, but his words are so beyond creepy that I shudder. “Your mother means nothing by that. We are, of course, overjoyed.”

“My mate is pregnant as well,” Ranet says, and my jaw drops. The fuck?! How? “You yourself heard Vrach confirm it. You did not, however, hear him confirm that Rurik’s mate is pregnant. I beseech you to make a decision now, so that we do not descend into civil war. Already, there is talk.”

“Do you think he’s telling the truth?” I whisper, but Rurik doesn’t move. He stays right where he is in front of me.

“Your father and I have decided to perform a simple test,” the queen says, curling her lower half into a coil while her upper half remains upright. She may very well be the creepiest thing I have ever seen. “We will perform a mate bond test.”

There’s silence in the room.

I’m guessing neither of the Vestalis princes know what that is any better than I do.

“We will cut the blood lace from your mates’ backs,” the king continues, looking from one of his sons to the other. “It will be quite painful, but this will tell us who is truly mated and who is not.”

Painful? I step up next to Rurik, but he holds an arm out to keep me from moving forward.

“Yes, of course, Your Imperial Majesties,” Ranet says, bowing low. His mate does the same, and he gestures for her to step forward, which she does.

“Rurik?” his father asks, leaning down from his giant throne, the veins and meaty swathes of his blood lace snapping and dripping blood as he moves. It’s … it’s awful. It’s so awful. I want to run again.

“You will not touch my mate,” Rurik tells his parents, his voice hard. He yanks me over to him and then bites down on my neck, drawing blood from me and creating a cage made out of red lace around us. “Do not push me any further than simple defense.” He’s speaking with his lips against my neck and, despite my fear, it’s all I can do not to writhe against him.

Instead, I hold very, very still.

The room is taut with threads of unsnapped violence.

“Well,” Ranet says, brushing at his jacket. “I suppose we know who the true prince—”

He doesn’t finish his sentence. One of the king’s blood lace veins separates from the wall and slices right through Ranet’s neck, as well as the neck of his mate. There’s a strange moment of stillness, and then both their bodies slump and blood sprays everywhere.

I have the good sense to snap my mouth shut before it splatters over me and Rurik, but I needn’t have worried. The cage he made around us deflects the blood, and I watch as it oozes down the sides and effectively cuts off our view of the room.

“What … how …?” I hear the door wrench open from behind us, and then the sound of a tired sigh.

“I did not wish to kill him, but we cannot have civil war,” the king says, and Rurik unfolds the lace from around us like he’s unwrapping an invisible gift. He doesn’t take it all the way, only shifts the cage of blood lace enough that the wetness comes off so we can see out.

Zero has wrenched the door open behind us and stands there now, panting heavily, waiting for an order.

“Pardon?” Rurik asks gently enough, but he’s coiled and ready to fight. I wonder how far we’d get if he went all-out in here? How far would we get with Abraxas fighting at our sides?

“Congratulations son,” his mother says, chittering happily. “You have passed the test.” She cocks her round head at us, black eyes flashing. I shudder. “A Vestalis prince who would not protect his mate would bring ruin to the people.” She returns to the king’s side as he smiles beatifically at us.

“You are free to go, Rurik. Enjoy your honeymoon.”

The persistent plop of blood on the floor makes my head ring.

“Yes, of course, father,” Rurik replies, as if we just stopped in for breakfast. This is what serves as a meeting with my in-laws. Suffice it to say that I have it a bit worse than some. “Thank you, as always, for your wise counsel and judgment.”

Rurik moves as if he might drop the blood lace cage and walk us out of there, but something seems to stop him at the last minute, and he throws it back up before taking a single step. One of his father’s veins snaps off the wall and smashes into the cage.

I can feel the impact through my bones. My teeth clack together, and my head explodes white with the force of it against my own blood, against my mate’s abilities. It hurts. It hurts us both.

Rurik and I drop to the floor together, him holding me but both of us on our knees.

“Again,” he whispers, and I squeeze my eyes shut so that I can breathe. Of all the days, why did it have to be today that they decided to put us through a test? Yesterday, I was much stronger. Although … what am I going to look like tomorrow? “Hold on, my princess.”

Another growth comes off the wall like a whip.

Crash.

It hits us and shakes the entire ship. But still, the cage of blood lace does not go down. Rurik exhales heavily as I sag in his arms, struggling to catch my breath. I look up at him, and I don’t know if I can take a third hit. He stares right back at me and then leans in to kiss my forehead.

“You will always carry me with you,” he breathes, and then he stands up and shoves me out of the cage and into Zero’s arms. She picks me up and runs as the door to the throne room disappears under bars of blood lace.

Pretty sure I’m screaming then, but I can’t tell because I’m trying so hard to get back to Rurik.

“Stop it, my princess,” Zero whispers, but it isn’t her voice that’s speaking to me. It’s his. “Calm yourself.”

The cyborg girl books it down the hallway and off the ship before any of the growths along the walls and ceiling can grab us. She hops out and hits the ground in a cloud of broken cobblestone dust. We’re deep into the trees before Zero relaxes into a walk, even longer before she sets me down.

She stares back at me with her own eyes.

“Where is Rurik?” I ask her, and she shrugs. I immediately take off back in the direction of the ship.

And run right into him.

He catches me as I bounce off his chest, and I look up with eyes suddenly filled with tears.

“What the fuck?!” I yell, and he exhales, stepping in quick and taking my mouth before I can curse him out. He’s kissing me so deeply that I forget what it means to breathe. “What … what was all that?” I whisper, struggling to believe how it is that he’s standing in front of me. “Why did you throw me out like that?”

“I was protecting you,” he tells me, and I slap him. And then I kiss him. I slap him again, and he catches my wrist, pressing a kiss into my palm. “It is possible for me to die and for you to live. It is not possible the other way around.”

“You don’t know that,” I growl out, putting my arms around his waist. He stays where he is and holds me close until a soft, wet mist begins to fall. I hear night creatures moving around as twilight fades to dusk again. “Which wedding ritual was this?” Because at least part of that display must’ve been a ritual.

“The Day of Counsel,” he murmurs into my hair, voice slightly haunted. “I have taken control of part of the ship.” He swallows hard, and I step back so that I can look at him.

Zero waits patiently off to the side, leaned back against the trunk of a tree.

“Your brother …” I can’t even make myself say it. Rurik looks grave, but not like Ranet was actually his favorite brother if you catch my drift.

“Yes. My parents have chosen us as the next rulers of the Noctuida. It is quite the honor.” If his parents are still listening, I hope they can’t pick up on the note of disdain in his voice. Or, if they do, I hope that they don’t care. They’re as aware as we are that this is a position that comes with power, but also with a life confined to a single room. To a single chair. I wonder if the king, buried behind rooms within rooms, can even feel the breeze from the open windows? “We are free to do what we want for the rest of the day.”

I nod.

Sex is not an option right now. I’m exhausted. And dizzy. Rurik doesn’t look too steady on his feet either.

“Food and sleep?” I ask, and then pause. “And you did promise to read to me.”

“Yes, my princess.” He scoops me into his arms to walk, and even though he trembles slightly, I don’t complain. I let him carry me back to our room and slam the door behind us.