34. Chapter 34
thirty-four
Hue
The entire world around me has changed as I greet it again.
A sparkling grit dances behind my eyes as I struggle to get to a seated position.
Only half aware of Melion helping me. I rub my eyes, trying to clear the haze from my vision desperately, but it doesn’t budge.
A moment of panic plasters over my chest until it's wiped away.
Not a haze, but the veil.
And not my thought… or concept, but it came from somewhere else in my mind. Far away toward the back. I twist slowly to see Melion as a deep warmth, an adoration as startling as the sun enters my chest, warming every inch of me from my fingers to my toes. I know that’s him too.
My hands shake as I press them to my sweaty chest. “I can feel you.”
The confirmation wisps from the back of my mind.
“And these… are the veil? Dozens of tiny rips.”
The sparkling grit is not that at all, but rips in the fabric of the world I had been blind to before. I’m suddenly aware of how… horrible I feel. An agonizing pain rips through my stomach, making my forehead bead anew with sweat.
Melion’s concern finds me as he swirls around, desperate to comfort me, to keep me from standing.
I stand anyway, unsteady on my feet, but also…
stronger than before. Like there’s crackling energy all around, I need only to reach out and use it.
So, I do just that. I take a few uneasy steps until I’m before one of those odd rips, hesitating before it.
Safe.
I reach out, letting the static run up the length of my arm as I gasp, snagging my hand back out when the feeling becomes overwhelming.
After that, I stand a little easier, but there’s a throb deep in my lower belly, a small one I do my best to ignore.
Like the nausea building with it and the throbbing of my skull.
“Show him to me, please.”
Melion hesitates.
Not safe.
I huff, still trying to catch my breath. “Why?”
Too new.
I’m not sure what exactly is too new, but my heart falls to my gut at the realization I can’t see Sor’en. I glance around the field, trying to get my bearings.
“W-where is he, Melion?”
Melion warbles before sending me the answer. It’s disorienting, having concepts of knowledge slipped into your head. Is it stupid to wander extremely pregnant onto an alien vessel to try to sneak off my giant mate? Yes. Oh, most certainly.
Melion agrees from deep inside my head.
My hands shake as I start through the field, toward the edge of the dome.
Heavily pregnant, it looks farther away than ever, the distance daunting as Melion starts slipping in and out of a veil in front of me.
Over and over again, he slips in and out, not making any attempt to follow me forward.
I frown at the Vena’lel as his urging presses deeper into my mind.
Just as soon as I step toward him, I’m suddenly surrounded.
I nearly scream at the sudden appearance of the Balla’mar.
My eyes widen at the shimmering cloud above his head, the ripple he just stepped out of.
His cloud is white, fluffy, and glittering, but there is also smoke pumping into the mix, dark and swirling.
Balance.
Melion flares protectively around me, his soft touches grazing my aching stomach. My little baby gives a fluttering kick as if to respond to his friend. I would be touched, probably cry like a fucking loser too if I wasn’t busy glaring daggers at the large, robed male in front of me and his backup.
“I am going to my home, Balla’mar. You may send—"
“You are not going home any more than I can let you board that warship.”
I stand taller, my hands fisted at my sides, the bitterness of what they’ve done hitting me again. Melion shares my disgust. “I do not take orders from cowards, nor do I require their concern.”
The males behind me shift and whisper, tossing their hands through their darkening clouds. But no one's cloud is darker than the Balla’mar’s. My body tenses, readying myself, sending Melion a thought to stand down for now. Half surprised when he dissipates, reforming at my flank.
If I wasn’t mistaken, I could swear that was… shame on the Balla’mar’s face.
“Do you truly believe Sor’en deserves to be killed? Do you truly think he would murder a child?”
The arrogant male glances around at the others before him. “He was not to be reasoned with, human. You—"
“So, you tried? You spoke to him about his choice because everyone seemed aware of what he was about to do but me!” my voice ends on a yell, making everyone darken, but only the Balla’mar tries to clear this one away.
“He is unreasonable. Always has been,” he offers simply. “We leave for the temple now. You should be resting.”
“You heard what he said. He was trying to keep you all safe!” I argue, stepping closer to Melion.
“There is a Kalzait warship at my door with enough technology to wipe Silloria from the quadrant! What do you propose I do? Fight? Send all of my males to their deaths so our females are open for the poachers?” he snaps, getting closer to my face.
The males and Melion alike tense in the face of his sudden burst of anger, but I know that’s not what this really is.
I see it in his opaque eyes, so much like my mate's, it makes my heart hurt. Of course, I recognize the guilt festering there. I reach out, grabbing the Balla’mar’s hand, making him snap his head down to see what I’ve done.
“No Balla’mar, nobody here thinks you would fight, but nobody here doubts my mate would’ve been the first to board that ship to retrieve you.
” That seems to deflate the male as he stares at the hand I’m still clutching.
“I want to say thank you to everyone for welcoming me, making this my home.” The Balla’mar doesn’t stop staring at the hand I hold for a long moment before I continue. “But mostly I want to apologize.”
Another male from the back, one I recognize as the younger boy who touched me so many months ago, speaks up next. “What do you have to apologize for, human?”
My eyes meet the glowing orbs of my companion. A singular idea passing between us. “This,” I breathe before jerking my hand from the Balla’mar’s. “Melion, now!”
Chaos erupts in the field as Melion all but tackles the males, expanding wilder and larger than I’ve ever seen as he swallows them whole. He won’t hurt them, merely give me long enough to do—
A dark, shadowy tendril slaps at the back of my thighs, making me hiss in pain, halting seconds before I was about to throw myself into a ripple.
Not safe.
Think about where.
Melion shows me a better one, and God help me, I don’t hesitate, thinking about the side of the dome where the warship lies outside its invisible cloak.
The veil bleeds around me as I picture the spot I need to be.
Its hazy, glimmering hug presses me with taunting warmth, but I can’t stay.
A blink later, energy crackles, making my entire body tingle as I step back out, gasping as I fall to my knees just outside of a massive warship.
I retch, grateful no actual vomit decided to show up.
A second later, Melion is back at my side, urging me to my feet. I go, vertigo making my stomach swirl as I head toward the open bridge of the ship. Shocked to see there’s no guard there ready to detach my head from my shoulders. Most warships have a hatch just inside, if I can just—
A loud crackling warble grabs my attention as Melion slams into a wall of nothing. His body growing and spreading across an invisible… oh god, it’s a Faraday shield. He can’t cross the ship’s shield.
Stop! Melion begs, throwing himself against the barrier.
It's standard on most space-faring vessels, a smart addition for those not willing to be shot from the stars. I hate it at this moment. Melion’s panic hits me like a killing blow as I take a step away from him. “I have to try, Melion.”
He flings himself at the barrier, his violet light crackling across it.
“I’m sorry!” I whisper-shout before I scramble up the lowered bridge in search of a maintenance hatch.
Ontics later, I’m scrambling down the hall, my hair heavy and knotted as I shove myself into a dark alcove.
My heart pounds in tune with the sounds of thumping boots on the ship's metal flooring. I’ve been sneaking in and out of ships and stations all my life, but I’ve never attempted to do so without the help of a maintenance hatch.
Hidden hell tunnels great for sneaking unseen by the denizens on the other side of the wall.
That is not the game plan today.
Because I didn’t fit.
I did not fucking fit.
Melion, get somewhere safe. They’re coming to check on the energy disturbance.
I only get a sharp sting of his annoyance and worry from the other side of whatever this bond is, kicking myself for being too chicken shit to bond sooner.
Kicking myself at the cold sweat that’s slicking my palms at the prospect of where I am.
Kalzaits and their dead eyes, clinical and unnerving, making my already uneasy gut churn.
Can you feel him? Can you tell where he is?
A snapshots picture frame into my mind, one after another, dizzyingly enough to make me grip the wall for support. Hot saliva pools in my mouth as I double over, trying to keep my retching quiet. Melion shows me again, slower this time, w
hich would be great if all the damn halls didn’t look the same.
One of the pictures now lodged in my mind as if they were my own memories sports a symbol of a room.
It's what's at the bottom of that mental image that makes me nearly cry out, giving myself away. My hand snapping over my mouth. Limp long legs that I’d know anywhere. These are Sor’en’s memories.
It seems obvious now, but my heart lurches at the trickle of blood smeared across the ground by his shoes.
Tears burst into my eyes as I tuck into another dark alcove.
Thankfully, the ship is littered with them, the most decorative warship I’ve ever seen.
Each alcove fitted with precious gem molding and tapestries that make it seem like more of a palace than dungon.
The lighting is even dim and pretty, the hallways fitted with runners!
Rugs in a space vessel. The absurdity is a good distraction from the aching hollow of my chest. The anxiety that keeps trying to root my feet to the ground.
I peek out of the recess, heading back into the long and twisting hall, checking the foreign and complex Kalzait symbols on the walls denoting the rooms. Nothing here looks familiar, so when it splinters off, I bank left, only to be greeted with another volley of footsteps, although these are far lighter.
I shove myself back around the corner, my heart pounding so hard in my chest I can hear it whooshing in my ears as a small Kalzait female rounds the corner opposite me, pushing an empty cart, none the wiser to my existence.
Her short, pale light green hair bobs just above her iridescent wings, reflecting light even as dim as it is here.
“…the prince does whatever best suits him. I’ve long stopped trying to understand his whims,” a deep male voice offers from somewhere far too close behind me, and I blanch, bolting down the hall the female just left.
But of course, this one has no alcove, no recess to tuck into, just a lone door only halfway closed and getting closer every domtic.
Blindly, I slam myself into the room, my breath wheezing rapidly through my lungs as my stomach lets out a nasty little pang.
I hiss, gripping my swollen belly, my head knocking against the back of the door.
For a moment, I let misery overwhelm me. The impossibility of actually making it off this ship with Sor’en in tow. Making it off alive at this point.
“Well, this is most unexpected.”
I scream as a voice finds me in the dark room, spinning, slamming my back against the door as my hands fumble for the controls.
My eyes widen as a soft light kicks on, illuminating the scowling male lying on the bed.
“For the gods’ sake, do not make that sound again. I am horribly hungover.”
Two things occur to me at once.
Firstly, I have just shoved myself into the bedroom of Kalzait royalty.
Secondly, I am most certainly going to fucking die.