Alien On Fire

I scrub a hand down my face.

“Have you heard a word I’ve said, brother?” Lyko asks quietly. The conversation’s died while I sat and pined over Leigh, and I realize they must have been waiting on me to say something.

Instead of answering, as the answer is obvious, I stand, moving to the window. I don’t know why. It’s almost like a hand pushed me to the wall of windows that look out over the rugged green lands past the nearly empty city and airfield.

“Leave us,” Lyko says simply.

The noise of Roth filing out of the room sounds, and still, I don’t move, even though I half-want to turn and resume our pla

My homeland. I would give up everything to see it safe, to see my brothers safe as well.

“Would you? Truly?”

“What?” I ask, glancing askance at where Lyko stands beside me now.

“I didn’t say anything. Are you alright?” Concern purses his lips.

“I…” I drift off, uncertain how to continue. Kings do not admit they have made mistakes. No king I have ever heard of, at least. “I am not.”

“You aren’t?” Lyko repeats, clearly flummoxed by this.

My little brother. Even though Lyko is as huge as I am, his shoulders broader, even, he will always be my little brother.

“I have never wanted to appear weak. Not to you, not to Ayro. Not to anyone. But I have made a mistake, and I don’t think I will be able to recover.” My chest hurts, and I rub it, sucking in a breath that’s suddenly hard to catch. “I do not know how to fix this, and it may make me weak to ask, but I need help to fix it.”

Lyko places a hand on my shoulder, his expression grim. “You know I would follow you into bloody battle any day. Name it, brother.”

“My Leigh,” I say, and my voice cracks on her name. I swallow, trying again. “Leigh.”

“Is she ill? Hurt? I wondered when Piper could not find her.” Lyko squeezes my shoulder with a powerful hand. He’s always been kinder than I. A better male than I. Generous. Understanding.

“I have wounded her.”

“Brother,” Lyko’s expression grows dark. “You said she was your mate. And you hurt her?”

“Not physically.” I shake my head, sick at the thought, my heart tearing wide open. “But I… was not honest with her about the marking ceremony, about what it means to be a mate of Roth. I thought she was agreed, I thought she understood and wanted to be mine. But I never told her, never asked, and now… now she hates me.” I choke, and something stings my eyes.

Lyko studies me, amazement and fear in his eyes. “You are making tears. Like the humans.”

“Impossible,” I scoff, just as something hot and wet streaks down my cheek. I touch the pads of my fingertips to my face, staring at the wetness in blatant disbelief. “It feels as though my heart has been ripped from my chest,” I confess.

“Then apologize,” Lyko says easily.

“It will not be enough.”

“Have you tried?” He squints at me.

“How do you know so much about what a human wants?” I glower at him, my tears drying up as quickly as they came.

“I have been traveling with one for a week now, and I spent time with them on Sueva, when I could. It is not hard to see that they are more emotional than we are. They think with their hearts, not with their heads. It is a lesson for the Roth, I think.”

“What do you mean?” I turn towards him more fully, homing in on his speculative tone.

“The humans are driven by both their emotions and their rational thoughts, but they feel so deeply. They want others to be happy, for the most part. They want to do right by people, not to gain power over them, or at least, not always. They are complicated, but I can see how your Leigh would be, ahem, upset by lies and manipulations.”

“I have spent just as much time with humans as you, and yet, you seem to know them better than I.”

“Maybe I have simply tried harder to understand them.” He shrugs one shoulder, reminding me so much of our father that a fresh ache twangs through me.

“So I should apologize,” I restate, trying to wrap my thoughts around how I can possibly apologize enough to make things right. “I single-mindedly pursued the throne, only to be bereft of what I truly wanted as soon as I earned my kingdom.”

It wasn’t worth it.

Something red out the window catches my eye, and I turn back to it.

“Leigh,” I rasp.

The red in her hair stands out brightly against the shorn grass, her dress billowing about her as she runs. From here, our mating marks aren’t apparent, but I can feel my tether to her snap tight the farther she runs.

“Guards,” Lyko calls, his voice alarmed.

Several Roth males rush in, and I hold up a hand. At my signal they wait, clearly uneasy.

Love isn’t holding someone so tight you crush the life from them. Love isn’t tearing their wings from them and putting them in a cage. Leigh’s furious, sad voice echoes in my thoughts, so real it’s nearly as if someone is whispering in my ear. Love is letting them go, letting them fly.

Her red dress and hair get smaller and smaller as she sprints across the fields.

To where the ship we flew in on waits.

If she wants to fly, so be it.

I slam my fist into the window, fire licking through the room before turning to smoke and nothing.

I will let her fly.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

OceanofPDF.com

LEIGH

The ship is fucking quiet. Minutes, hours, days, tick by, and I watch the clock like it will somehow speed my arrival.

Not to Earth.

I scratch my marked up arms absent-mindedly, then shovel another spoonful of dessert in my mouth.

The comms tablet rings, and I pick it up, my cheeks full like a chipmunk.

“Hey,” Billie’s face fills the screen.

I heave a sigh. “Hey.”

“Are you eating… the quarn ice cream pack?” She shudders, then covers her mouth like she’s going to gag.

“Desperate times and all that,” I manage through a fresh mouthful.

“Soooo… I know you don’t want to talk about it, but Ayro and I are slightly concerned about the fact you’re hearing voices.”

“Slightly?” I cough, laughing, then hit my own chest as I choke. Oh, god, this is where flying solo in space is a really bad idea. It’s hard to give yourself the Heimlich Maneuver. Not impossible, just hard. “And it’s just one voice.”

“Did they give you drugs?” she asks, though Tati and Carmen, the human medics stuck with the Suevans, both commed me already and went through a laundry list of questions just like this with me.

“Not according to the med sca

“Okay, well, how far are you out from Sueva? They’ve got your old room all ready.”

“Great,” I say blandly.

“What is wrong with you?” She slits her eyes at me, studying me with a knowing gaze. “You fled that place, and Nydo, who, by the way, definitely treated you like garbage, and now you’re… wallowing.”

“I’m not wallowing.” I grab another ice cream pack, this one flavored with solman berries, and decidedly better-tasting than the meat ice cream.

The voice, the voice that has dogged my steps for days now, laughs.

I glare at nothing, ripping the pack open.

“You are absolutely wallowing. You’re acting like you just broke up with the love of your life.”

“I did break up with him, Billie,” I say sullenly. With the love of my life?

“Yeah, but he was a jerk to you. You broke up with him. You ran away, for crying out loud. Stole a whole damn ship. Proud of you for that, actually.”

“Yeah, I did,” I laugh through a fresh bout of tears, spooning some of the new ice cream in my mouth. Straight down the hatch.