Chapter 13
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
“Dearest,” Lunastra cooed, rushing forward to brush her mouth across my forehead.
She all but ignored Captain Ruciyah, stepping back to assess me in a similar way as Lyrace, her amethyst skin creasing with her frown before she shot the captain a look. And then, for her assistant’s benefit, she touched my cheek before stepping away with a tut.
“You aren’t letting her sleep, are you?” She turned in a sumptuous twirl of glittering fabric to fall onto her couch, gesturing with an open hand for us to follow.
When the captain didn’t respond, Greabes elbowed him in the ribs.
“I daresay she has not been sleeping much.” Something had changed in him, however. His voice sounded a bit smoother, warmer even, but his hand twitched at his side and his shoulders stiffened as if in embarrassment.
Perhaps Quinzyr males were shy of such things.
Regardless, the insinuation of why I’d not been sleeping pricked beneath my skin.
It was a struggle to follow the captain and stand beside his chair.
On his other side Greabes clasped his hands behind his back, red eyes flicking around each exit and hiding place.
Lyrace studied Captain Ruciyah intently as he took up a similar position as me on Lunastra’s left side and she absently tangled her fingers in the fabric of Lyrace’s cloak for a moment. A subtle hint, a reminder of the role the captain must play.
I bit down so hard the tang of blood spread across my tongue when a wide hand curled around the back of my thigh, tugging me closer until I was forced to rest an elbow on the back of the captain’s chair. I expected his hand to fall away, but it merely slid down to my knee, holding me to him.
“How may I be of service, Captain Ruciyah?” Lunastra purred.
“It’s not you we’re interested in speaking with, but your assistant here.” He gestured with his free hand. Lyrace stiffened before a slow grin spread across his face and he walked sinuously toward us, falling to his knees with a practiced grace.
The captain’s hand fell from my leg, his head tilting to the side while he touched a knuckle beneath Lyrace’s chin. “Not that sort of interest this time, though you are lovely.”
I blinked, surprised at the charm suddenly pouring out of his mask. Greabes bit back his grin. But Lyrace flushed a deep gold, the veins beneath his skin pulsing with the beating of his heart.
“How may I be of service then, Captain?”
Captain Ruciyah leaned back, an air of power crackling around him. It was the same state I’d seen him in the very first time we’d met and I wondered which was the lie: the cold, unfeeling bastard or this charming male who had the typically shrewd Lyrace as putty in his gloves.
The Louxurian hadn’t even seen his face yet.
“I believe before you came to the Daskquah, you were in the service of Beiste Lesephous?”
Lyrace fell back on his heels with an exhale. A subtle play of emotion washed across his face, wiping away the desire that had been there a moment ago. But it was Lunastra who smiled, resting her cheek on one hand.
“Why, yes, he was.”
Captain Ruciyah’s shoulders stiffened, as if her answer had somehow offended him. “I heard there will be a gala within the next quarter cycle and it’s been my dream for some time to visit Louxuria. I have had an affinity for Louxurian artifacts since I was a child.”
With each word the captain spoke, the tension bled from Lyrace’s shoulders until he was grinning slyly up at him with a tilt of his head.
“I’m sure Master Beiste would be honored to host you for the event,” Lyrace all but purred, reaching out to curl a hand around the captain’s wrist. “Have you decided on your date, Captain? Just so I may tell him which name to put down.”
My stomach dropped, then knotted somewhere around my knees when Captain Ruciyah gently tugged his arm from Lyrace’s grip, reaching back to curl his fingers around mine in a similar fashion.
“I admit I already have my hands full here. Juniper is a constant distraction and fixation.” His thumb brushed against my pulse point, the leather of his glove sliding beneath the cuff of my tunic.
Instinct had me tensing and my pulse pounded in my ears while heat snaked up my spine. I ground my teeth together, looking down at this male who seemed even more a stranger than before.
A male with many faces hiding behind a mask.
The idea that I was helping to lead him to his destruction was the only reason I didn’t snatch my hand away. The only reason that, after a moment, I forced my shoulders to relax. But Lyrace wasn’t looking at me at all. Instead, he tried to hide his own disappointment with a nod.
“Of course. I’d be happy to ensure Master Beiste puts your name on his list, with Juniper attending as your pleasure yeska.”
Captain Ruciyah’s hand tensed around my wrist almost to the point of pain before it relaxed again. But he nodded, releasing me to lean forward and touch a knuckle beneath Lyrace’s chin. “Thank you, lovely.”
At this, all the disappointment faded from Lyrace’s expression, replaced by a hunger dancing in his lavender irises.
I fought my scowl, choking on the words I wanted to say.
I wanted to tell him the male Lyrace desired was a murderer, that he had destroyed an entire village—perhaps even an entire planet—for his own gain.
He would do it again or sell the power to the highest bidder.
Asher Ruciyah knelt at the altar of violence and greed. To want him would be to resign yourself to the same sickening fate. And as he rose from his chair, the voices around me were merely a hum in my ears. Suddenly it felt as if my skin didn’t fit right.
I would leave this ship with the male who had killed my people, who had burned my home tree until it was ashes. And no one would ever know it ate at me deep within my bones. The scream I could not unleash tore at my throat until I was sure if I opened my mouth, blood would dribble down my chin.
Air whistled past my teeth and the edges of my vision blurred.
A hand on my back guided me from the room but I was trapped within my skull, banging at the bone and screaming for release.
I blinked and we were back on the cruiser, a pair of silver eyes stooping to my level, strands of dark hair waving past silver markings and a shiny black respirator.
I stumbled back, head hitting the wall, and slapped away the hand offered to steady me. The bare hand, dusky blue as his face was and yet mottled with scars.
“Juniper, everything’s okay.” It was Greabes who spoke, stepping in front of Captain Ruciyah with his hands raised.
With a shake of my head, I stumbled away from them both, threw myself into one of the seats and strapped myself in.
Because he was wrong. Nothing was okay. Everything was ruined and had been for endless cycles. I’d lost the meaning of okay that day when I’d lain on my back, staring up at the burning canopy, bodies raining down around me.
And as the male responsible for such destruction slid deftly into the seat in front of me, tugged his gloves back on and reached for the controls, I imagined what it would feel like to watch the life bleed from his eyes. How it would feel to avenge their deaths.
It would be the only peace I could ever find.