Chapter 16

Aaaand, It’s My Turn (Eve)

“Good morning!” Connor bounces into the suite early as I sit there and munch despondently on an apple-ish fruit. Only ish. Just ish. It has a bright purple pit, so … definitely not an actual apple. “Look what I’ve got.” Connor takes his unbuttoned jacket off and spins around, revealing his back with a grin.

“We haven’t seen you in two days,” Avril says as she works on my hair. I have to wear a super complicated outfit today. It’s, uh. The Day of Tasseography. Which I guess means that we’re having our tea leaves read? I don’t know. Apparently, part of the ritual includes sampling various flower nectars and honey. I don’t bother telling Rurik how ‘moth-like’ that is. “Where have you been?”

“Getting to know my new mate,” Connor replies coyly, pointing at his back. He’s not wearing glasses anymore. I wonder if the Vestalis have the medical capabilities to restore perfect version to a person’s eyes. That shot yesterday took care of my allergies; I’m holding the two-headed cat in my lap. It’s only bitten me twice now. Well, the one head anyway. I quite like the other head. “I’m actually only here to visit as a princeling.” He grins as he takes a seat and selects one of the macarons. I hope it’s not the one that tastes like smiling bees and summer days; that’s my favorite.

“Where is Brot?” Rurik demands, sweeping out of our room in a red silk robe that drags on the floor. It’s undone and hangs loose on his shoulders, revealing his pale midsection. His silk pants are too low, and I struggle not to stare.

“He’s waiting in the hallway.” Connor gestures in that direction. “We couldn’t stand to be separated from each other, but I really wanted to see you guys, so I convinced him to come over here. He said that coming into the room would be too much like giving into Rurik, and he didn’t want to do that.”

I snort, and Rurik sighs.

He sweeps magnificently over to the door and flings it open, putting a hand on the doorjamb and staring at his stubborn idiot of a brother.

“What in Stars are you doing? Come in.” There’s a long pause there, and then my husband’s voice lowers to a cold command. “That is an order, Brot. After all, you are my most favorite of all my brothers.”

Brot stalks into the room, but refuses to sit down. His black chin marking seriously looks like a goatee, and I feel sort of sorry for Connor until I see him checking his mate out. Well, better him than me then. I don’t find Brot attractive at all.

Both of the cat’s heads hiss now, and I chuckle. Brot hesitates a moment before speaking.

“What happened with Ranet?” he asks as Rurik gestures at a chair by the table.

“Sit down. Eat. Those are orders as well.”

Brot does as he’s told without argument. Maybe that display with his brother’s beheading changed his attitude a little? I’d hope so. It was broadcast across the entire Noctuida. Which means Abraxas might’ve seen. Officer Hyt might’ve seen.

Only a few days left, I tell myself, but that doesn’t make today’s dizziness any better.

“Why did mother and father kill Ranet?” Brot demands, but not like he’s actually discussing the subject of his parents slaughtering his brother. He doesn’t sound like he’s devastated or anything, just demanding and curious. I guess with a hundred-and-two siblings, it’d be hard to get to know them all much less like them all.

“I am the future king of the Noctuida, and he was threatening insurrection. Mother and Father acted in the only way he allowed them to act. Tea?” Rurik gestures at the pot, but Brot ignores him.

Brot notices me studying the pattern on his wings, and fluffs them, like he wants the world to see. His pattern isn’t bad; it consists of repeating diamond shapes, like a patchwork quilt. Huh.

“No, I will pass. Thank you.” Brot sniffs imperiously, and Rurik smiles slightly. Maybe he really does like this brother? Certainly he isn’t all that upset about Ranet. I asked him about it in bed, when we were alone, and all he told me was that it was fortunate his parents hadn’t come after us.

My head spins, and I struggle to stay sitting in the chair. Avril grabs my shoulder at the last second, and I snap to. The cat darts off my lap, and I drop the apple-ish thing from my hand.

“Are you alright?” Avril whispers, and I nod, not wanting to alert Brot to anything being amiss.

“Just hungry.” I snag another piece of fruit, but I can feel Rurik’s gaze on my back. “Did you have fun over the last few days?” I ask Connor with a snicker, and he grins right back. He leans in and puts an elbow on the tabletop.

“The coremata,” he whispers, and I laugh. I take another huge bite of fruit as Brot bristles.

“Our private life should remain private.” He chastises his mate, but otherwise does nothing to stop him. I have a feeling that I know who’s going to be in control of this relationship, and it isn’t Brot.

“Everyone talks about how good the Falopex are in bed. It’s just constant, constant chatter about how skilled they are, but you know what? I think the Vestalis are highly underrated.” Connor doesn’t seem to notice how annoyed Rurik is, how annoyed Avril is, how annoyed his own mate is. I’m the only one who seems to be amused by his rambling. “Those claspers—”

“Enough, Connor,” Avril breathes, setting the brush down on the table. “You’re done for now. I don’t want to put all the fancy twists in until right before we leave or you’ll end up knocking them loose.”

“Thank you,” I tell her honestly. I do feel bad that she’s a servant with no mate. I’m a princess and now Connor is a princeling. It must be shitty to be left out.

“Are you mad at me?” Connor asks her, and even though I haven’t heard much about their past together, I’m guessing they’ve known each other for a long time. “We broke up months before this ever happened,” he adds, and I’m like … oh. Oooh.

“I’m aware, Connor.” Avril narrows her eyes on him. “It’s not you that I’m jealous over. I’m just jealous in general. I was kidnapped by aliens, too. I was forced into this against my will, too. But I don’t have power or any say in anything that happens. I’m just along for the ride.”

“When I’m queen, I’ll set you free,” I tell her, and she just stares at me. “You can go off and find a mate. I’ll give you money, too.” I don’t even have to look at Rurik to know that I’ll be allowed to do all that. It’ll be easy. It’ll be well within the scope of my power.

“Are you serious?” she asks, blinking at me like she can’t understand why I’d ever do a thing like that.

“I’m not about keeping someone as a slave, Avril,” I tell her, taking another bite of the apple. She smiles at me, genuinely, for what might very well be the first time since we met back up after the initial abduction.

“I’m glad we were able to save you,” she tells me, and I smile, too.

“The two of you …” Brot doesn’t finish his sentence. He stares at his mate, takes Avril in with narrowed eyes, and then looks back to Connor. “You mated her?”

“Way back when, sure,” Connor replies, eating another macaron.

Rurik and I exchange a look.

“Come, my princess. I will help you get dressed.” He takes my hand and draws me away from the breakfast table before the drama gets good.

“I wanted to see that,” I grumble, but I know how it’ll end anyway. If Avril and Connor ever had something, it’s long since over, and Brot is Connor’s mate now. Avril doesn’t stand a chance. Unless … he loved her the way I love Abraxas. But I don’t think so.

“If you want romantic strife, I will read to you again later,” Rurik tells me, and then he paces halfway across the room, wings softly closing and then opening again. The robe he’s wearing—like all of his jackets—has long slits down the back so that he can easily slip it on or off. The openings in the robe reveal the black silk pants underneath and the faintest hint of his furled coremata.

He turns back to look at me, and I can tell there’s something he wants to say, but isn’t sure how to go about approaching it.

“Yes, my dear?” I tease, but the quip does nothing to relax him.

“It’s the venom,” he tells me, mouth pursed.

“What?” I know he’s talking about Abraxas’ venom, but I’m not sure what he means.

“According to the results of the Cartian tech, that is the reason you are ill.”

I just stare.

After he found me in the woods last night, we came back here, he read to me, we made love, we slept. That’s it. I forgot all about the Cartian medical wand, and the odd expressions on both the medic’s and Zero’s faces. Saw my brother-in-law and his pregnant mate get beheaded, so I can’t be blamed for letting it slip my mind.

“Your blood contains lethal levels of Aspis venom.” Rurik sighs and looks down at the floor, like he’s trying to figure out how to break the news. “Your … the markings inside of you. They are venomous.”

“My … glowing vagina is venomous?” I ask cautiously, and then alarm spikes in me. “But you drink my blood. You fuck my—”

“I do not know why, but I am not affected by it,” he tells me, gently, empathetically. “But you are. This is why you are not feeling well.”

I have to really think about that for a minute.

“If those markings are venomous, how am I still alive?” I’ve seen Abraxas use his venom on animals. I’ve seen it used on him. Within hours of being attacked by the female, he was at death’s door, and he’s far bigger and stronger than I am. It’s been days since I last saw him, and I’m still standing here.

“It stands to reason that mating with the Aspis male activates … something. Perhaps antivenom of some sort that protects you both. There is no way to know for certain. But I do believe that you need to mate him regularly to maintain your health—much as I wish I could blow his planet to smithereens.” A pause. “With him on it.”

I sit down heavily on the edge of the bed.

Venom? I’m being poisoned by our mate markings? I think that over, really think on that for a second.

“Abraxas was envenomated by a female Aspis once,” I say, staring at my bare toes and taking another bite of my apple-ish fruit. “He was dying. It’s what initially encouraged me to mate with him. He said I could save his life if I did. I …”

“When Aspis mates are separated, they die. It is without fail. It cannot be undone.” I can hear that deep, grumbling voice in my head, and I shiver despite the circumstances. Stars, I miss my alien dragon mate.

Rurik waits for me to keep talking, his hands curling into fists at his sides before he forces them to relax.

“When we mate, our bodies connect.” I touch a hand to my belly, savoring the memory of it. Five days ago, Eve, you saw him. It’s not like it’s been a million years. Feels like it though, especially now that I’m sitting here and talking about him. Fuck. “Little, like, blood vessels or something. I can feel his heartbeat. We exchange fluids.” I give Rurik a look. “What if it has something to do with that? When we mate, we’re like … cured of the venom? But also … maybe I get a dose of it at the same time?”

“It’s a theory,” he responds tightly, but also like he’s leaning toward the markings themselves as the culprit. “When Vrach first examined you, he assured me the marks were not harming you.” Rurik curls the edge of that pretty mouth in a scowl and then fidgets with his robe the way he usually fidgets with his gloves. “I will drop him and his mate both onto a planet with a toxic atmosphere.”

He’s joking, but his voice is tight with a worry he can’t hide.

“Can’t blame the poor guy,” I tell him, digging my fingers into the flesh of the apple-ish. “The Aspis are a mysterious bunch, aren’t they? Even with the blood lace, you can’t sense his venom, can you?”

Rurik shakes his head. Damn. He can read my thoughts, can tell that I’m pregnant, but Abraxas’ venom is invisible. I almost smile at that.

“I have no way to contact Officer Hyt or Captain Kidd,” he tells me gravely. “No communications can be sent without my parents knowing. We must administer whatever treatments we can while we wait.”

He doesn’t add what I know he’s thinking: we must find other treatments in case they don’t show up.

But they will. I trust Officer Hyt. Even if I didn’t, I trust Abraxas.

I glance over at the bedroom door and Rurik’s blood lace pattern as it pulses hot and red against it. He licked that into place the morning after we first arrived on Dome. Well, not morning but the sort of early twilight that serves as morning.

Rurik comes over to kneel in front of me.

“I have an offer that you might find strange, but also one that will bolster your health.” He reaches up and puts a hand to my forehead. Avril taught him how to check my temperature that way. It’s cute, but I push his wrist aside and lift a brow.

“Let’s hear this strange offer then. Do you have access to some advanced alien medicine shit? Or is this some freaky alien shit?” He hesitates for long enough that I know it’s going to be freaky. I take another bite of the apple-ish fruit and wait. I’m not going to prod. I want to hear him say this.

The prince puffs himself up, shoulders back, chest out. He looks so goddamn beautiful in that red robe and silk pants, barefoot in our gorgeous honeymoon suite. I’d swoon if that swoon might not send me straight to the floor with dizziness. My chest aches, like my heart is fighting harder than it should to keep beating steadily.

He said we’d die of broken hearts if we were separated. God, it sure as hell feels like he was right. Literally. My chest is so damn tight. My blood feels sluggish. All I want to do is sleep.

“When a Vestalis male scents that his female is with child, he creates a …” Rurik spreads his hands and wings both, like he’s struggling to find an explanation. He keeps his eyes on mine though. Never once looks away as he feeds me this ridiculous story. “A packet of vitamins, of nutrition.”

“Uh-huh.” I take another bite of the apple-ish. Might be my new favorite food, this apple-ish. “Continue.”

“Because the Vestalis breed with untold different species, there may be occasions when a male is unable to procure proper food for his mate.” Rurik steps closer to me, accepting the pit of the apple-ish and then pausing beside what appears to be a small basket. The lid opens automatically, and I spot a metal chute inside. A garbage chute, I guess? The pit disappears and the lid slams shut. Rurik turns back to me. “I can deliver these to you. It should … I imagine your symptoms would be relieved for a short period.”

“A vitamin/nutrition packet?” I ask wryly, because I see where this is going.

It’s a dumb-dumb alien romance plot; I know it is.

“Yes.” Rurik stands stone-still, staring back at me. The two-headed cat slips in through a cat door embedded in the wall that I’ve only just now noticed. It glares at me with bright green eyes on one head, and studies a dangling bit of tassel from the bedspread with the other. In the end, it sits down right where it is and simultaneously licks its shoulder and yawns. Mean head and nice head working in unison for the perfect cat moment.

“How does one go about delivering a vitamin packet?” I inquire as he steps up to the bed and my legs part of their own accord. My breath rushes out in a wild exhale. Rurik puts his hands on my shoulders and leans in, his mouth near my ear. It’s still stained red from all the bloodletting last night, and I wish he wouldn’t get so vigorous about scrubbing it clean. When it’s red, it looks like a ruby. I want to kiss the shine of that jewel right off of his face.

“For you to consume it, it must go into your mouth,” he says, which is a pretty obvious statement. Nutrition. Vitamins. Mouth. Swallow. I’m guessing the way in which it’s delivered is a bit unorthodox. “For me to give it, I must ejaculate.”

I snort, but then he’s kissing me, and my hands find the fur around his neck. The bright red part in the front is my favorite, so I’m not shy about focusing my attention there. I dig my fingers under the edges, finding the spots where the soft fur morphs into silken skin.

“You want me to suck you off and swallow?” I clarify, thinking of how Doctor Vrach called out a gentle suggestion yesterday, and the way Rurik turned pink for the briefest of seconds. “If you wanted me to return the favor from last night, all you had to do was ask. What is this vitamin nonsense?”

I’m teasing him, of course. I’m sure he’s serious about what he’s saying. He probably can deliver vitamins and nutrition through his dick. This is the Noctuida. Jane has a copulatory plug. I have a glowing vagina, lacy moth wings on my back, and a husband who can squirt vitamins into my mouth through his dick.

Yeah. Well.

“Yes, my princess.” That’s his hushed, breathy response to my cheeky question.

“Let’s do this thing then.” I slide forward, offering an enticing grind of my hips against his pelvis that has him gritting his teeth. “Did Avril teach you to offer me a pillow for my knees first?” I ask with a frantic batting of my eyelashes.

You wouldn’t think such a cheap flirtation would work, but the guy is an alien. His body has literally imprinted on mine. He loves it. His breath catches, and his feelers slide over my hair, sprinkling pheromones over me in a gentle scent shower.

“Your comfort is of utmost concern to me,” he snarls, snagging my lower lip with his teeth and drawing a bit of blood. He licks it off with slow, lavish strokes and then shudders. “Allow me.” Rurik draws away, grabbing some of the pillows from near the headboard, and sets me up a nice cushy spot in a pool of twilight.

The curtains are open, but the sheers are closed, and I sure as hell hope that nobody can peep in here. There’s just enough light to see by, giving the room a cozy, intimate atmosphere, bordering on erotic.

I get onto my knees, conscious of all the work that Avril’s put into my hair thus far. At least I’ll be swallowing, so that takes care of the mess.

Rurik steps close, but I reach out and snag the waist of his silken pants, dragging him even closer. I yank the fabric down suddenly, and he makes this beautiful sound, somewhere between a whisper and a growl. It’s not translatable and for that, I’m grateful. I don’t need that translated to know that he likes this.

His cock looks massive, the claspers still swirled around it in red. I touch my finger to the sharp thorn-like tip, and Rurik hisses through his teeth.

“You like that?” I ask, and then I lean forward and lick it. I press my tongue against it just hard enough to draw a drop of blood, and he groans, digging his fingers into my hair. He uses his nails to gently scrape my scalp, his hips bucking toward my face involuntarily.

I watch in awe as his claspers unfurl, reaching out for me. This should be interesting. I slide my mouth over the tip of him, and his claspers grab onto my head, curling around my skull, the thorns clacking together as they close behind me. I’m pushed forward, drawing him in about halfway, right up to the base of his testes. It should be weird that they’re part of his shaft, these two plump shapes halfway up his dick, but it’s not. It feels normal, natural.

I scrape my tongue along the ridge on his underside, and flick my eyes up to watch his reaction. His head falls back, the design on his wings glowing fiercely, bathing the room in more of that sensual red light. I use my fingers to play with the red fur around his base, stroking and petting it as he moans and thrusts, fingers tightening ever so slightly in my hair.

I use my other hand to grab the base of him in a tight grip, jerking his pale skin up toward his testes and feeling them tighten as my lips meet them from the other side. The craziest part of it all? He tastes like he smells. Like some sort of artisanal honey spice tea.

Pheromones.

I try to draw back, but his claspers won’t let me, pinning me in place here as effectively as they do when they’re on my hips. Doesn’t matter. The things I was looking for—that is, his coremata—are unfurling at the edges of my vision. The way they inflate, it’s almost like watching four balloons being blown up. But that metaphor, it doesn’t do them fucking justice.

I groan around Rurik’s cock, tightening the grip of my hand around the base, working my mouth up and down, faster and faster. His claspers pull me in, push his testes hard against my lips. If I could, I’d take them into my mouth, but they’re far too plump and swollen.

“Squeeze them,” he growls out, digging into my thoughts with little effort.

That’s our new reality: mating with Rurik has changed everything.

I do as he asks, using both hands to massage and fondle him.

That spicy-sweet taste hits the back of my tongue as Rurik bucks his pelvis into me, claspers snatching my head and pulling me taut against his testes, the head of his cock bumping into my throat. He’s as far as he can go and orgasming wildly in my mouth. His wings ruffle, showering me with pheromones. His coremata touch my skin, and my hand drops suddenly between my legs, rubbing my aching, unsatisfied body with my fingers.

I swallow several times to take it all down, and … holy shit. My entire body lights up like I’ve just downed a really nice cocktail or taken a faceful of laughing gas at the dentist. I’m dizzy, but in a different way than before, like there’s too much energy inside of me and no place for it to go.

Rurik reaches down and uses his hands to pry his own claspers apart, drawing his hips away from my face, his cock out of my mouth. He picks me up while I’m still going through it, my body perking up, waking as if from a groggy sleep.

“Oh.” That’s all I can think to say. He told me I’d feel better if I ate his cum, and … well, I do feel better. So much better. “Can you go again?” I ask as he lays me down on the bed, and I grab at him, trying to pull him down on top of me. “How soon?”

He buries his face against my neck and chuckles.

“I see that the vitamins are working,” he whispers against my neck. He kisses my skin and settles between my legs, letting his hungry claspers snatch my hips up. We kiss and hold each other, rubbing and grinding together until he’s ready again. Doesn’t take long. Less than five minutes, maybe less than three.

He drives into me, and my back arches, hands grasping at the smooth expanse of his back.

“Just a few more days, my love, and you will get to see your love. Be strong.”

“You are my love,” I tell him, and his breath hitches before he kisses me again, and starts to fuck.

We’re this close to missing the entire tea ceremony.

My attire for the Day of Tasseography—a super fancy name for reading tea leaves—is atrocious. A sniff-necked cloak, a massive ball gown, a face covered in thick makeup. Rurik, too, is attired in a similar outfit. Rather than a dress, he wears a red robe belted with fur at the waist, and since he has wings and doesn’t need a cloak, he gets an ugly collar to strap around his neck instead.

Today’s wedding ritual consists of us sitting across from one another, on the floor with cushions underneath us, and a table between us covered in various flowers. Each flower is situated like a cup, its center filled with honey or nectar or tea. We start with the latter, draining our cups and then sitting there and staring at one another as an older Vestalis male with a beard of white fur peers into them and then reads us our fortunes.

“A long and fruitful rule awaits the future Imperial King Rurik and his beautiful queen—” I tune it out after the first few drawling lines.

Instead, Rurik and I sit there and stare at each other, each of us fighting back a smile.

As soon as the, err, old tea leaf reading guy leaves, it’s just us and an opulent room decorated in silver walls and numerous filigree mirrors. It’d be peaceful if we were truly alone—it feels like we are—but I heard from Avril that this is being broadcast to the whole of the Noctuida. There are moth drones all over the place. I flip one off as it floats lazily past the table.

Lovely.

“So you drank this stuff for sustenance until recently?” I ask, sniffing at a purple flower filled with viscous sugar water. I mean, that’s what it tastes like to me. Apparently, these are some of the finest nectars and honies in—here’s that phrase yet again—the whole of the Noctuida. I dutifully take a sip and then snort.

“Young Vestalis drink nectar and honey,” he explains, “while mature Vestalis are expected to consume blood. Of course, only a mated Vestalis can consume blood, so therein lies the conundrum.”

I take a sip of a golden honey inside of a bright pink flower, and find that it’s oddly fizzy against my tongue. I notice that whatever I drink, Rurik drinks, too. I wonder if he can taste more nuance than I can? Other than the bubbles of that last honey, they all taste more or less the same to me.

I lean in and lower my voice to a whisper, aware that no matter what I say or how quietly I try to say it, it’s going to be broadcast far and wide.

“Rurik, it all tastes the same to me,” I whisper, and he smiles so beautifully that I can’t help myself. I crawl around the table to kiss him, and he puts his arms around me, pulling me into his lap. Even when I know everyone is watching, I can’t help myself.

I sit on him, fingers curled together behind his neck, just kissing and tasting and savoring him.

I won’t let you get stuck on that throne. I fucking swear it.

Can’t say that aloud, obviously, because I know that his parents are listening to us, monitoring us. And after yesterday? I’ve seen how ruthless they can be. Rurik’s warnings are no longer empty words without context.

His brother, Ranet, and his mate were pregnant. And yet, they killed them anyway. I don’t want to think too hard about that or I’ll start to falter. We might be the next in line to the throne, but we are not safe.

We won’t be safe until Rurik is king and then …

That thought sticks inside my brain, and it won’t go away. Not for the rest of the tea ceremony. Not for the long walk back along twisting cobblestone streets, bridges decorated with mosaic lanterns, and cheering crowds. Definitely not after we step into the dark of our bedroom and start to shed our heavy clothes.

“I do not know if I have said this properly,” Rurik tells me as soon as he’s shed the collar from his neck, and I’ve left my cloak in a stiff heap on the floor near the double-headed cat. “But thank you.”

“Thank you?” I echo, brimming with newfound energy from the, uh, vitamin packet, and wishing we could go out and do something as a couple without any eyes on us. I just want to practice being with him, learning his habits, learning his world. “For what?”

Rurik steps close to me, putting his hands on my shoulders and staring down at me in the starlit gloom.

“For joining me. Accepting me. For … taking on all of the burdens that come with my position.”

“A position that’s at least partially my fault,” I add. “I mean, it’s not either of our faults. Just bad timing. Or … well, we found each other in the vastness of the universe so maybe it’s good timing, but … Yeah.” I pause, eyes flicking toward the window. “Do you think, if we waited a little bit, that we might be able to sneak out?”

I look back to Rurik, finding him with a melancholy half-smile followed quickly by a bemused frown. If that makes any sense. Sad and happy. Wry amusement and distaste. It’s easy to understand why. With each day that passes, our time ticks down. We could be forced onto the throne as early as the day after the wedding. As for the wedding itself … I do a quick count in my head … Day of Mating, Day of Wearing, Day of Knowing, Day of Counsel, Day of Tasseography. Shit.

There are only two days left.

Two days for Rurik to be able to leave the ship. Two days before he’s trapped permanently in the throne room. I try to imagine that. Me, living with Abraxas on some planet (probably Jungryuk), exploring new places and doing new things. Raising a baby together? I don’t even know what to do with that thought … But I do know that Rurik would not force his child to grow up in a single room. He’d …

I sway on my feet and Rurik grabs me by the elbows.

“The vitamins did not work.” He sounds so grave. I can’t help but lighten up what I know is likely a very serious moment. His parents slaughtered his brother and his brother’s pregnant mate right in front of me. We are only one misstep away from expendable and dead. I make the joke anyway.

“Don’t look so down. All men think their semen is special. You’re no different.”

“Eve.” Rurik’s voice is hard, and I cringe slightly. He slides his hands down my forearms, circles my wrists with his thumbs, tugs me a little closer. “You feel unwell already?”

“I was thinking about you being stuck on that ship. How often does it even land on a planet? That must take a lot of energy.”

Rurik closes his eyes for a minute and then opens them slowly to stare at me.

“My father thinks we will refuel soon—on Earth. So he does not care to withhold the extra energy for frivolities. We could as easily have taken a small transport down here.” Rurik curls his lip in a frustrated scowl. “It would have taken a fraction of the fuel.”

My heart was already racing—I can’t tell Rurik that just now—so when it picks up from stress, I go lightheaded again. I refuse to let it show on my face this time. Rurik being worried about me won’t help either of us. Officer Hyt and Captain Kidd, they can’t get Abraxas here any sooner. All I can do is wait and hope that Hyt shows up at the chapel the way he promised he would.

“Where else can we refuel?” I ask, looking up to meet Rurik’s gaze.

It all feels so sadly fucking grave in here right now. Us, in our fancy clothes, standing in the dark with starlight, his hands hot on my wrists, and we have to consider the consequences of two awful things.

Take the throne as soon as possible and trap Rurik as soon as possible or … fail to do it in time and watch my entire family die. It’s one thing for me to miss them. It’s a whole other thing if they were eaten by The Korol—which I would then have to live on forever anyway.

“Jungryuk,” Rurik tells me, and I give him a look. “If I cannot get my father to move from the throne then I will have to convince him of a secondary target. That is the only other option he would consider.” He inhales and then holds the breath for some time before exhaling gently. “As it is, there are no good choices for refueling even if I were to go out of my way to be as conservative with our power as possible.” He thinks for a minute, and those fine hairs of mine stand up in warning.

“Don’t you dare consider crashing that ship on purpose.” I’m staring at him with wide eyes because I feel like I might’ve figured out one of his secrets. He at least has the decency to look ashamed. “You were. You were considering letting The Korol lose fuel on purpose.”

“If I were to intentionally draw the entire fleet into a fatal situation, that would be the end of the problem. No planet would need to be used for refueling. You could live your life with Abraxas. It was not an option that I should’ve stripped away from you.” He sighs as he runs his fingers down the side of my face. I haven’t said a word. Can’t force my lips to speak. I’m shell-shocked right now. “I should not have taken you from the woods. I … If only my parents had not found out about you, then I could have at least given you a choice.”

“I know it doesn’t feel this way, but I would’ve chosen to save you. Then dealt with the consequences later, like we’re doing now. When Abraxas and I were getting ready to flee our den, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. In the end, I knew you would come for me.”

He cups my face in both hands and kisses me again.

“There must be somewhere else that we can refuel,” I breathe against his mouth, but Rurik only sighs in response. Earth isn’t an option for me. Neither is Jungryuk. How could I condemn Abraxas’ entire family, his entire species, to be eaten by a sentient spaceship?

“I am pursuing other avenues, but I cannot guarantee they will bear results. I would rather not die, of course. I would like to meet my child and spend as much time as is physically possible with you. It would not behoove either of us if I were to perish.” He smiles slightly, but it’s genuine. “If necessary, we will drain Jungryuk, but it will not matter because Abraxas will not be on it.”

Oh. Abraxas. Fuck. I can’t wait to see him; he’ll help me figure this out. If I want the Vestalis prince to live, he’ll go out of his way to help me with that. It’s insane that I trust someone that much.

“If we evacuated my family, I’d … rather destroy Earth than lose you.” The words are said very quietly, but I mean them.

“Yes, the mate bond will cause you to think things like that. It is not true. You would be devastated, my princess.” Rurik walks right past me and over to the window, peeling apart the curtains to look out. “The guards are mostly for show. I do not need them to keep us safe, and my parents well know that.” He smiles, and the starlight strikes him strangely. He looks so alien in that moment that I’m touched by dizziness all over again. “Change your clothes, and I will take you somewhere.”