5. Naeris #3
“I’m still deciding if I like him,” I informed her coolly.
Thyros’ eyes darkened instantly.
“Liar,” he said quietly.
Oh, great Abyss, please take me. It wasn't what he said, but how he said it. The single word slid through me like a blade wrapped in silk. The bond between us tightened sharply enough to steal my breath.
Nadine, apparently deciding emotional chaos had gone on long enough, cleared her throat loudly.
“Returning to the terrifying cosmic mystery,” she announced. “You clearly know more about Ashera and Caelor than you’re admitting.”
She was right. I did know the names. Everyone in the Temple did.
The First Pair. The Star-Bound. The ancient gods from whom all Gifts supposedly descended.
Children were raised on stories of Ashera’s wisdom and Caelor’s strength.
Of their descent from the heavens. Of the war that split the stars themselves. Myths.
Only now I wasn’t entirely sure they were myths at all. Because just like Nadine had said, what were the odds that two superpowers, who had never heard of one another, knew the same mythic names?
That realization unsettled me more than I wanted to admit.
Ella leaned forward slightly. “Who were they in your stories?”
I hesitated, then answered carefully. “The first blessed beings.”
Ashley blinked. “That sounds ominous.”
“It was meant to sound holy,” I corrected dryly.
Nadine’s eyes sharpened instantly. “And?”
I exhaled slowly. “The stories say they came from the stars before recorded history.” My gaze drifted briefly toward Thyros before I could stop it.
“That they carried light and darkness equally within them.” My mouth twisted faintly.
“The Temple taught us that humanity inherited fragments of their gifts.”
Dravok straightened subtly in the shadows.
“And the Dark Abyss?” Zapharos asked quietly.
The room chilled instantly. Even saying the name seemed to alter the atmosphere. I looked toward Earth through the viewport before answering.
“The stories say it wasn’t always there.” My voice lowered slightly. “That something broke the universe.”
No one rushed to fill the silence this time. Not even Ella. The weight of the conversation seemed to settle over all of us at once, threads of impossible history slowly weaving themselves together in ways none of us fully understood yet.
Arkhevari.
Earth.
The Sythari.
The Abyss.
Ashera and Caelor.
All somehow connected. And somehow, impossibly, connected to me. The thought sent another wave of unease through my chest. I shoved it aside ruthlessly. Because none of that changed the immediate reality. I still didn’t know these people.
Didn’t trust them.
Trust was not something I handed out simply because a dangerously attractive alien male looked at me like he’d discovered religion.
“Your turn—” I looked from the men to the women, avoiding Thyros at all costs. “—you are here to do what?”
Xandros took a deep breath. "We're here, same as you, it seems, looking for answers."
I shook my head. "I'm not looking for answers on anything. I'm looking for payback for what was done to my species. For what is being done to them."
Nadine regarded both Xandros and me, then decided to continue as if the whole exchange hadn't taken place.
Throwing a thumb in Dravok's direction, she asked, “So there’s a whole Sythari civilization out there that you, the gods, never even heard about," she eyed Xandros, "and a human religion based on your legends," she turned to Zapharos and me, "and all of you just… what, missed it?”
Dravok shrugged, his aura flaring lightly. “The Collapse was total. We lost entire civilizations, not just histories.” He turned to face me directly. “The Wound erased everything we built. Maybe you’re what survived.”
Ashley snorted, muttering, “Great. So we’re what? Stuck in the universe's worst family reunion?”
I shook my head. “You asked about Ashera and Caelor yesterday. Why? ”
Ella stepped in as calm as ever. “We think that Earth was important to the Arkhevari. That Ashera and Caelor left something here, something that will help us put the Harrowed One back into his spot. Seal the Dark Abyss for good.
"We found records that indicate Ashera and Caelor fled to Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago.
That they might have created the human race," here she shrugged helplessly, "we don't know.
But there is something important about Earth, and we need to find out what.
" She leaned forward to me, "You said you are looking for payback for what has been done to your species, but why did you come to Earth? "
The question lingered in the space between us, heavier than it should have been. I had already decided to keep the rebels to myself. The half lie came easily enough. "To keep my prisoners safe."
"About that," Xandros unfolded his crossed arms and tilted his head. "You said you're part of some breeding program, yet here you are. Free with prisoners. Who are your people, Naeris? Who do you work for?"
He was sharp. Instead of answering, I deflected. “I have no interest in your mission. "Your war is not mine. I came here to hide what I carry. Nothing more.”
Xandros stepped forward, unimpressed. “Convenient.”
“Believe it or not, that is none of my concern,” I stood my ground. “It changes nothing.”
“It changes everything,” he countered, his voice filled with a sharpness I didn’t like. “The Sythari are a species we've never met. Earth holds our mekarry bonds and is under the Pandraxian Empire's protection. That makes it our problem.”
I tore my gaze away from him and folded my arms. I didn’t really care what the violet giant considered his problem and what he didn’t. What mattered was that, for the moment, my fate—and the fate of my crew—rested in the hands of beings I neither trusted nor fully understood.
Which meant leverage was all I had left.
Leverage I intended to use very carefully.
Xandros sighed, making it known that he was already tired of this. “Perhaps we should focus on the part where your crew and prisoners are still my guests.”
“Yes,” I agreed immediately, grateful for the interruption.
I seized the opening like a lifeline. “Perhaps we should.
" I lifted my chin. “You want cooperation? Start by giving me some reassurance that our guest status isn't just temporary. Then we’ll talk about what else I know. Until then, I have nothing more to say.”
Thyros’ jaw tightened. The aura around him flared once—crimson threaded with gold—before he forced it back under control.
“Careful, little rebel,” he murmured, keeping his voice low enough that only I could hear. “Some doors, once opened, cannot be closed again.”
The words sent an unwelcome shiver down my spine. Because I had the terrible feeling he wasn’t just talking about my crew. He was talking about us. Somehow, he had also picked up that I was part of the rebellion.
Ella turned toward Xandros before anyone else could speak. Her voice stayed calm, but there was steel under it, the kind that came from someone who had already survived gods and abductions and still chose kindness anyway. “She's right, Commander, can't you give her some reassurance?”
Xandros studied her for a long moment, then looked at me. A slow, wary smile curved his mouth, the kind of smile a predator gives when it decides the prey might be useful. "You're just going to have to trust me."
I snorted. Trust was the last thing in the universe I could afford.
“You will receive guest quarters,” he repeated. “But let’s be clear.” His gaze flicked to me. “You’ll be treated as guests… with shadows. My people will be watching. Closely. One wrong move, one attempt to reach your ship or your weapons, and the hospitality ends.”
I lifted my chin. He was right. I did have to trust him. For now. “I’d expect nothing less from an empire that likes to own everything it touches.”
Ashley snorted softly behind him, clearly amused. Xandros only inclined his head, the smile never reaching his eyes. “Smart female.”
I stepped forward slowly, testing the freedom, every muscle coiled. Thyros fell into step beside me, while two of Xandros’ security officers fell in behind me as we left the holding block. The others stayed behind.
The corridor narrowed, creating a funnel in case prisoners escaped. The walls pressed close enough that Thyros’ shoulder brushed mine with every step. The bond roared to life.
Heat slammed through me so violently, my next breath caught.
My blood rushed through me like an electrical current.
Fire bloomed in my belly. I felt him—felt him—like a phantom hand sliding down my spine, cupping my ass, spreading me open.
A memory that wasn’t a memory flashed behind my eyes: his big body pinning me to the wall, his cock buried deep while I screamed his name in a language older than the stars.
The moment was so vivid, I stumbled. Thyros’ hand shot out, steadying me at the elbow. The second his skin touched mine, the bond surged hotter. My core clenched hard around nothing. A low, desperate sound tried to climb up my throat, and I bit it back.
Suddenly, the ship shuddered.
Lights flickered. A low alarm pulsed once. The deck plating groaned as a power fluctuation ripped through the lower levels. The two guards cursed and sprinted ahead toward the junction panel.
“Stay here!” one shouted. “We’ll have it fixed in thirty seconds.”
The emergency bulkhead slammed down behind them with a heavy clang, sealing the narrow funnel. Trapping Thyros and me alone.
Ten feet of dim corridor. No doors. No cameras.
Just the two of us and the bond that had been clawing at us since the moment our eyes met in the cell.
My back hit the wall before I realized I’d moved.
Thyros was on me in the next heartbeat, one hand braced beside my head, the other hovering an inch from my waist like he didn’t trust himself to touch me.
Our breathing filled the tight space, ragged, too loud.