Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
My body floated in the vacuum of space, debris flew around us, some nearly hitting me.
The four Dragonkin floated, unconscious, nearby, some of them bleeding.
I had to get air. I was going to either freeze to death or suffocate. Honestly, I wasn’t certain how I was still alive as it was. Clearly, it had to do with the upgrades that had been implanted into me, but a normal being would have had their eyes and mouth boiling as soon as they entered space.
Scout. I needed Scout to …
My eyes fluttered closed, the lack of oxygen affecting my brain.
There was a frantic chirping sound that seemed to move far away and closer at the same time.
Something pressed against my face and air suddenly filled my lungs. I gasped in air, my eyes flying open.
Scout hovered nearby, its eye flashing a worried orange.
Scout had found a breathing mask!
Turning, I pointed towards the closest dragonkin, Wayne, but he was awake. They all were and they were all in their dragon forms.
Wayne flew closer to me, pressed his nose against my body, due to his huge size, his nose pressed from my knees to my shoulders. Exhaling, he breathed warm breath against me, helping to ease the chill a bit.
It wouldn’t be enough to save me, though. We had to find an escape pod or something.
Wayne exhaled a few more times, but he was running out of air.
Yanking the mask off my face, I pushed it at him.
He tried to shake his head, but I stubbornly kept pushing it towards him.
Finally, he relented, shifted, took the mask, breathed in several times, then went to his friends to have them do the same.
Once they all had fresh breath, they moved closer to me, back in their dragon forms, and started breathing on me from all sides while I used the breathing mask.
Was this it? Was this how we would die? Floating in space and abandoned?
At least I wasn’t alone. I had always assumed that I would die alone.
Being surrounded by the dragonkin, my princes, their warm exhales the last thing I felt, was not a bad way to go.
My eyes grew heavy, Scout screamed, and just as I was about to black out, a bright light covered me.
Scout chirped and flew back to hide behind my ear in its resting place.
Preston shifted into his human form, though with scales instead of skin, wrapped his arms around me, and together we were lifted by the beam of light up into an unfamiliar ship.
Once inside of the ship, several beings rushed around, putting oxygen masks on each of us and scanning our bodies for injuries.
They didn’t seem to be hostile, thankfully, but I kept my guard up all the same.
“Report?” a giant male with two long horns on each side of his head asked one of the female gnomes who was tending to us. It took me longer than it should have to realize everyone around us were Dragonkin.
“We pulled them out before anything drastic happened to them. They just need to rest and they’ll recover in minutes.” She was clearly a healer, even though she looked irritated to have to deal with us.
“The female?”
“I’m fine,” I said quickly as I pulled the mask off of my face. “Thank you, for saving me … us.”
“Father, what are you doing here?” Gage asked as he struggled to his feet.
Wayne and Zeke moved closer to me, helping me to my feet as they struggled to their own.
“You shouldn’t stand yet,” the female healer said and reached out towards me.
Wayne growled at her and she immediately froze, eyes widening in fear.
“Wayne,” I chastised.
“We were on our way home when we received a distress beacon from your ship,” the large male – Gage’s father, apparently – said.
Scout! I needed to find a way to thank and repay Scout for saving us. Maybe some upgrades they’d like installed.
“Thank you, sir,” Preston said as he stood, not even a slight wobble in his body, though I noticed a small tightening at the corners of his eyes.
Was he pretending to be uninjured so Gage’s father wouldn’t see a weakness in him?
Was Gage’s father a potential threat? It made me eye the older Dragonkin before us more warily.
“Who is this?” he asked and tilted his chin towards me. “Found a bauble on your trip?”
Preston growled. “She’s our betrothed, Princess Xoe Zarmascas of Caltyrela.”
I wasn’t offended by the question, since I’d asked them something similar myself previously. It almost made me smile to know my question hadn’t been that far off.
Gage’s father’s eyes widened. “You found her?” He approached me slowly, and drew in a deep breath near my head. Wayne and Zeke stiffened beside me, but didn’t growl or shove him away. His eyes widened even more as he whispered in awe, “It really is her.”
The urge to sniff myself was hard to ignore, but I managed … barely.
Gage’s father bowed to me. “I apologize for my rude greeting. I didn’t expect you to be with them after all of this time. We thought …” He didn’t finish his sentence, but I could guess what he’d been about to say. They had thought I was dead after all of this time.
“Please, let me show you to your rooms.” He turned and headed out of the room, which I realized was a teleportation room.
“Can you walk?” Wayne asked.
I nodded. “I’m okay to walk.”
Zeke kept a hand on my lower back while Wayne held my hand on the inside of his arm.
Gage walked behind me, hovering enough that I knew he was waiting for any sign of me fainting to catch me.
Clearly, they didn’t trust my ability to walk by myself yet, but instead of irritating me as it might have before, I found myself smiling at their concern.
“What of the ship that attacked us?” Preston asked as he strode beside Gage’s father.
“There was nothing here when we arrived, except the remnants of your ship and you,” he answered. “Who attacked you?”
“Tarkar of Tartarus Mercenary Guild,” I answered before the others. “He’s been hunting me since my planet was destroyed.”
Gage’s father spun around, concern crinkling the corners of his eyes and rage filling his eyes until they turned into slitted pupiled dragon’s eyes in a beautiful red color. “Hunting you? Do you know who hired him?”
I nodded. “King Almarst of Exostalon.” I held my hand up when he opened his mouth. “I already killed the king and prince, so it was likely a contingency plan that I hadn’t realized they’d set up or he was just still hunting me all these years later, which is also possible.”
His mouth dropped open. “I believe I may need a full debrief on your … activities.”
“After a shower and rest,” Zeke said. “She’s not as durable as we are and her body is still cold, too cold.”
He was right, my teeth were trying to chatter, but I kept clenching my jaw to prevent it so that they wouldn’t worry and to prevent showing more weakness to Gage’s father or the other Dragonkin around us.
“Of course,” Gage’s father dipped his head. “I’ll have food sent to your rooms.”
“We only need four rooms,” Preston said suddenly.
We all looked at him in question.
“Princess Xoe will stay with me,” he answered with a slightly raised eyebrow aimed at me.
If I objected in front of Gage’s father, it might make them look bad. Plus, I didn’t really want to be by myself on an unknown ship, even if they were supposed to be allies. There was too much I didn’t know about Dragonkin politics to be lax in my security.
“Only if we get a second blanket, since you’re such a blanket hog,” I said with a return smirk. I had a feeling that if we played a united front like this, it would go a long way in solidifying my place as their betrothed.
“You’re the one who cocoons yourself in blankets,” Wayne said and scoffed.
“That was one night when I was sick,” I countered.
Gage’s father smirked, clearly enjoying our banter. “This way.”
Thankfully the guys were quick to pick up on the lies I was trying to use.
He showed us to our quarters, which were thankfully all right next to each other and excused himself.
Preston pushed my lower back, guiding me inside of the room we would be sharing, locked the door, and wrapped his arms around me so tightly, I could barely breathe.
“Preston?” I squeaked in surprise.
“I … I thought you were dead. I thought we lost you.” His hold tightened, but when I squeaked again, he relaxed his hold, leaning back to look down into my eyes.
“I’m rarely scared, but when I saw you floating in space between us …
I was terrified. Even touching you now, smelling you, and hearing your heartbeat, I still don’t feel like it’s real …
I can’t believe you are alive … that you survived. ”
Having the stoic leader of my four Dragonkin open up to me like this was a rare treat and yet, I felt discomfort at seeing him so worked up.
Reaching up slowly, I set my hand on his cheek and gave him my best, cocky smirk. “I told you I was strong.”
“Xoe,” he growled.
I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my nose against his throat. “I was scared, too. I don’t know how I survived out there. It …” I swallowed hard. “… it shouldn’t have been possible.” And it was all my fault that their ship had been destroyed. Tarkar had been after me.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“Why are you sorry?” I asked pulling my head back. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I know you overheard me talking to Wayne before about my worry we were getting too close to you too fast. You never brought it up, but I saw that you’d been there. I’m sorry. I was wrong. I was … scared.”
“You were scared? You?”
He chuckled. “I may act stoic often, but that’s just a mask I had to develop as prince and son of the High King and High Queen.
I was scared because … I’ve never felt this way about a woman before.
I’ve had countless women throw themselves at me, all across the universe, but you were the first one to draw my attention. ”
The emotional rollercoaster he had just sent me on: empathy, jealousy, and then joy.