Solara 11
When I open my door the next morning, Onidus blocks my exit. He leans a shoulder against my doorjamb, hands in his pockets, a smirk playing with his eyes. “Morning, beautiful. Did you do the things I recommended?”
“Yes.”
“Did it help?”
I rest a hand on my hip and scrutinize the creases around his eyes that seem to deepen the longer I look. “Also, yes. Did you sleep at all last night?”
“Enough. Breakfast?”
“That was my plan.”
Onidus, now dressed in a male’s Abr navy blue bodysuit, his wristband strapped to his left arm, stays at my side all the way to the dining hall.
When we get to the packed room and head for the buffet tables, Onidus picks up a peanut and flicks it at a Xarthrin.
It hits him in the ear as Onidus guides me ahead of him.
“Ow. What the… Who did that?” The Xarthrin wheels around as Onidus and I skirt the far side of the food tables.
Onidus finds a booth away from that male and sets two mugs of coffee between our plates.
“What did you do that for?” I quietly ask him.
He cuts a bite of his pancake, barely lifts his mask, and tucks the forkful inside his mouth. “He spent the night with a pink after he flirted with you. Trust me, I’m holding back.”
I try really hard not to smile as I eat.
“Just believe that kind of attention should only be given when we have chosen. But our kind don’t really choose. Our Vibrance does. The soulfire in our bodies. It’s deeply connected to the universe’s energy.”
“What does yours say?” I ask, curious whether he knows who he wants and is just not doing anything about it.
He finishes his plate quickly, in true soldier fashion, then nearly chugs his steaming coffee.
“Doesn’t that burn?”
He shakes his head. “I burn. But that’s how I have to drink because of the mask and the…scar. Anyway, uh… I’m not sure I trust my Vibrance anymore. I got a gift from Azrim, the alpha of the Aegeris pack. My Luminescence has been different since then. My skin is…brighter.”
“What did you do to get a gift from him?” I ask.
Onidus looks around, gets up, and encourages me outside. The ropes course is the first task of the day, and he leads me to it as he assesses it from the side like he doesn’t like the blind spots. I definitely don’t. He finds a spot along the railing, filling up with racers. “I was dying.”
When he shrugs and looks away, I grab his wrist. “Onidus…”
“It’s fine. I survived. But my power is different now. It’s angrier. And I was plenty angry before.” He adjusts his mask, as if the positioning is off. “Aegeris are connected to the Circidians by an ancient ancestor.”
He tells me about freeing the Aegeris pack, Tessi, and the Roscazkans. “This is my first event since I was cleared post-recovery.”
Ohni calls the women racers to the railing.
Onidus encourages me forward. “Your turn.”
I make it up to the railing as the countdown starts.
When the railing turns green, we charge across the grass and into the fort.
But I’m not interested in the egg prizes or the bell for myself.
I want to win so I can build up my stash for my humanitarian missions.
Ships and money will help me reach more species in need.
But when I climb the rope net and run across the bridge to the complex with the bell, I see a pink-banded woman pull a blue down from the hut by her hair and sling her aside. Tasia comes to mind.
I scramble up after her. I grab the pink by the ankle and drag her down to the deck with me. I turn to the blue. “Go!”
The young brunette crawls up the roof toward the bell with speed.
The pink-banded woman snarls at me. “Solara… Your sister says hi.”
She charges at me, clawed hands in the air like she can’t wait to dig her manicured fingers into my hair. I pick up a boot, plant it in her chest, and shove her back. She topples and rolls down and into the belly of the bridge.
The blue-banded woman rings the bell above me. She smiles, and it makes me feel better than any prize could. But as the pink gets to her feet, I know my trials have only just begun.
I climb down and return to the sidelines.
Onidus meets up with me. It’s his turn. “I don’t like leaving you here alone. But after that maneuver, I think a few minutes is okay.”
I hug myself. “I just pretended she was Tasia.”
Onidus smiles behind his mask. I only know by the way his eyes crease in the corners. He waits for the buzzer as a pole rises with a fire egg and a platform hovers into the air with a new prize.
As the males race out into the complex, Onidus leaps up the side of a building, jumps across the alley to another building ledge, and back again. He weaves closer to a hoverdrone floating above the complex, carrying an egg that shines with milky facets like Leosantian skin.
What the heck is that? A woman near me asks.
I don’t know, but Onidus is almost to it. An Amphiran claims the fire egg atop a pedestal. A Ginarigon taps the bell. But Onidus is still climbing. He lands on a nearby floating drone and then leaps for the egg. He snags it and clutches it close as he falls.
He lands hard, fixes his mask, then gets up and lifts the egg. All the racers around me cheer. He hands it off to Ohni and tilts his head like he’s listening. Then shakes his head.
“The moonstone egg!” Ohni announces.
“What’s the prize?” someone asks.
“A week-long couple’s relaxation retreat on Pearl de Gaia.” Ohni scans his wristband, then hovers off to award the Amphiran his choice of prizes for the fire egg capture.
Onidus makes his way inside, away from me. I watch him, wondering why he isn’t coming back to me. I see him stealing a glance in my direction.
Something must be wrong. So I make my way through the crowd to the hallway.
He meets me in a quiet area between doorways.
“You okay?” I ask.
“Yeah. Didn’t want to draw attention to you.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s already happening.”
“What makes you say that?” he asks.
“That chick I shoved back said my sister says hi.”
His eyes crease as he looks away. “That’s the female that slept with the Xarthrin.”
I nod in slow realization. “So they’re already getting their claws into the males.”
“How?”
“Money. Fame? Who knows?” I shrug. “I don’t care. But I realize now that my fear that would happen has come true.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So who are you taking on your vacation?”
“Do you want to go?” he asks.
“God no. I have been on the Pearl. Beautiful ship, great services, but it’s not a crowd I want to be around anymore.”
He hums a note in disappointment.
“Unless that’s what you want.”
Onidus scowls playfully at me. “Don’t change yourself for me. I appreciate honesty. Maybe I will send Ulian and Ryz. They could use a vacation. Ulian definitely needs a massage. He is always tied up in knots with worry. Ryz would love to flirt with all the females on the ship.”
“Where is your team?”
“Separate missions this time. Recon, from what I gathered. But we all got separate orders from General Viriden.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here. And nice work back there. You’ve gained some new skills.”
He smiles, even if I can only see it in his eyes. “Want to grab a quick bite before the creatures tour?”
“I was actually hoping you might want…”
“Solara.”
I turn to see the Leosantian standing in the doorway. “Yes?”
He glances at Onidus. “I had hoped to speak with you further about a potential bond, but after seeing you kick that female like that, I have determined you are too violent for my family. I am sorry.”
I nod. “I understand. Thank you for telling me.”
He turns like he’s going to walk back outside, then stops. “A Mrs. Arlenne called me.”
I look back at him. “My…disowned mother.”
He chews on something. “She tried to bribe me to leave you. I didn’t take the money. I made my own decision because my family is…similar to yours. Just watch out for that.” His gaze travels to Onidus again.
“I appreciate the warning.”
He dips his head and walks back outside.
Onidus looks me over. “You going to be alright?”
“I wish I could say that I knew. But I’m not going to cater to their manipulation. Basically anyone here who hits on me could be an Arlenne agent hired by my mother to sabotage me. What I need is a new identity. But Chris wouldn’t give me one.”
I study Onidus’ mask. “That’s what I need.”
“You don’t want this. It’s a symbol of giving up more than your identity, Solara. It hides our individualism, our expressions, and makes it difficult to eat. I…” He sighs. “I killed a lot of shadow soldiers to earn this. It just happens to hide the damage we Smoldren often have.”
“I wish you felt comfortable around me enough to let me see you as you are.”
“I don’t want to see me as I am, Solara.” His eyes dart to my neck. “And don’t ask me why unless you are ready to ask yourself the same question.”
His reply reminds me that even I hide from my truth sometimes, pretending I’m happy when I’m not. But being with him has made life better than it was.
The pink-banded woman I kicked on the fort storms inside. “You are exactly what your family says you are, a spoiled piece of impulsive trash that doesn’t like to follow orders!”
She throws a finger in my face as her skin reddens. The Xarthrin enters behind her, grinning with lust, like her rage turns him on. As he carries her off, the woman I protected enters with a Luna Mindoran.
The wolf shifter looks me over, then Onidus, who’s behind me. He slides his arm around the woman’s waist and gives me a nod before encouraging her toward the lunchroom.
“Mending the universe already,” Onidus remarks.
“Don’t say that.” I just want to make peace. “Don’t turn me into something I’m not.”
Onidus guides me away from the cameradrones that chase the racers inside for lunch. “You did not sentence the Delsfein to die. You saved a few.”
“Not nearly enough.”
“I know.” He draws me closer. “Sometimes that’s all we get. But without trying, we don’t even save that many.”
“Why try if we’re destined to wither away into nothingness?”
He rubs my back. “That’s not you talking. That’s frustration. We have to have hope, or we will fail.”
Onidus lifts my chin and studies me closely. “I have hope.”
It’s the first moment I’ve ever wished I could kiss him. But his mask is in the way. “How?”
“I didn’t until I found you after years of thinking I’d lost you forever, even if Viriden intervened. I’m here. You’re here. And I’m going to keep you…as safe as I can.”
Keep me?
The more times I replay it the more I wish it were true. “You’re here to protect me, but from what? It can’t be my mother and sisters. They wouldn’t require Isonian intervention.”
“No.” Onidus glances around, encourages me into the snack bar, and grabs a few items, tucking them in his pockets. I grab a burrito from the table and follow him into the planetarium, where we find a bench to sit and eat.
“So why then?” I ask.
He covertly slips a broken-off piece of a protein bar under his mask and chews. “Think. What else have you been involved in?”
I unwrap my burrito. “I worked in a lot of Myndrous areas.”
“Yeah. And?”
“Chris.”
Onidus nods and scans the area around us. “Viriden’s contact knew you’d found something the Nebs don’t want falling into Federation hands.”
“The chip.”
“Viriden says it had critical information on it, and someone might come looking for you.”
Dread fills my gut with cold lead. “You’re kidding. It was just a chip. The ship detonated after I pulled it.”
Onidus stops chewing. “Stars, Solara. Don’t ever do that again. You are playing with fire.”
“Come on, you know I like a little sting to feel alive.”
He swears and shakes his head. “If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought your father was a Smolder.”
“Doubt it. He was a human for sure.”
“Still could’ve fought with Viriden in Earth’s forces.”
“True.”
“Viriden and Chris served together. Seems likely.”
I set my food down. “How do you know that?”
“Viriden has mentioned names of those on his crews from before he was a General.” Onidus’s brows knit. “You didn’t know?”
“He never talked about it. Neither of them did.”
“Everyone has secrets,” he mutters.
“Including you?” I ask.
“Especially me. The difference is that mine are to keep those around me safe. I intend to help, not harm.”
“What kind of secrets?” I ask with a waggle of my brows.
He glares at me with a playful challenge in his eyes. “That would defeat the purpose of secrets, wouldn’t it?”
“Alright, mystery man.” I sit back and clean up my wrappers. “Just no secrets when it comes to vulnerabilities. If some augmented furry fuck is coming after me, I want to know. Got it?”
He chokes on his bar and laughs. “I promise.”
“And I want to know how to take him out.”
He gets up and grins. “I don’t remember you swearing this much. But okay. Perhaps we should do something other than the creatures tour.”
“Oh?”
“Come with me.”