Chapter 15
BALECK
Ipulled Iris through the maze of collapsed walls and shadowed passages with my heart slamming against my ribs. The searchlights swept overhead in methodical patterns, and I could hear the sound of the Brakken ship’s engines growing closer.
I felt the blaster being plucked from my hip. I glanced back to see Iris checking the charge with practiced efficiency. Of course she’d arm herself. The sight of her moving with such lethal competence while still gripping my hand made something warm and fierce surge through my chest.
That kiss. I was still reeling from that kiss. So different from the one before.
My lips still tingled. My skin kept cycling through golds and ambers I couldn’t control. She’d grabbed my face and kissed me like I was air and she’d been drowning, and for a moment the entire universe had narrowed to the point where our mouths met.
I wanted to know what it meant. Was it gratitude?
Relief? Or something more? My mind spun with possibilities even as I focused on finding shelter.
If it was just a thank-you for the rescue, I’d accept it.
If it was an expression of true feelings, I’d be ecstatic.
Either way, I’d take whatever she offered and count myself lucky.
But right now, we needed to survive.
A tall tower loomed ahead, its upper levels crumbled, but its base still intact. I spotted an opening where a door had once stood and pulled Iris toward it. We dashed inside just as a searchlight swept across the plaza behind us.
The darkness inside was complete. I pressed my back against the cool stone wall, trying to slow my breathing.
Then I heard them. Harsh, guttural voices speaking in clipped Brakken. The language of my nightmares.
A shudder went through me. My skin rippled with involuntary camouflage patterns as my body tried to disappear into the wall. I’d fought them. Watched friends die at their hands. Spent sun cycles in constant fear that the next attack would be the one that killed me or destroyed my Sola.
The war had ended almost nine sun cycles ago, but the sound of their voices brought it all back. The smell of burning ships. The screams. The way their eyes glazed when they were consumed by lami addiction.
A soft hand touched my arm. Iris. Her fingers were gentle but grounding, pulling me back to the present. I wasn’t on a battlefield. I was in ancient ruins with my mate, and we were alive.
I covered her hand with mine, steadying myself.
She tugged me deeper into the shadows, her voice barely a whisper against my ear. “I can see in the dark. My left eye. Trust me.”
I did. Completely. I laced my fingers through hers and followed her into the blackness.
She moved with confidence, navigating around debris I couldn’t see. I heard the scrape of stone under our feet as we descended. A staircase. I counted steps to keep myself focused. Ten. Twenty. Thirty.
At the bottom, she stopped. “Help me barricade this.”
I reached out blindly, my hands finding rough wood and chunks of stone debris. We worked together, pushing and stacking until we’d created a barrier across the doorway we’d come through. If anyone followed us down, they’d have to make noise clearing it.
“Keep going,” she whispered.
We continued through what felt like a narrow passage. The air smelled different here. Stale but dry. Protected.
“This should do.”
A small light came to life, then another. Iris had rolled up her sleeves to reveal the light coming from the underside of the fabric. A soft green light glowed from it, revealing her face, streaked with dust but determined.
“You’re amazing,” I breathed.
She flashed a quick grin. “Operatives are always prepared for the worst.”
I was about to tell her how much I wanted to change that. To give her a life of comfort and safety, but then I looked around and my breath caught. Any grand speeches would have to wait.
We were in a perfectly intact room. Circular, maybe six meters across, with a low ceiling carved from solid rock.
The walls were smooth and covered in the same ancient Destran script I’d seen outside.
But this room had been underground, completely protected from the storms that had devastated the city above.
It was unchanged from the time it had been abandoned over a thousand sun cycles ago.
Furniture sat exactly where it had been left. A low table, metal benches with rotted cushions, shelves built into the walls. Everything covered in a thick layer of dust, but whole. Untouched.
Iris moved to the wall where I could see a panel of some kind. She studied it for a moment, then pressed something. Very dim auxiliary lights flickered to life, powered by some ancient system that still had reserve energy.
The room brightened enough to see properly. This had been someone’s home. A living space, judging by the arrangement. I could see what might have been a sleeping alcove in one corner, a workspace in another.
“We should stay here until morning,” Iris said, still examining the room with her tactical eye. “The city will be swarming with Brakken overnight. But their eyes don’t adjust well to bright sunlight. That’s when we can slip away to the Raycer.”
Smart. I nodded and swung my pack off my shoulders.
I pulled out a water pouch and protein rations, holding them out to her. “You need to eat.”
She accepted without argument, which told me how hungry she must be. She drank deeply from the water pouch, then tore into the rations with visible relief. I wished I’d had time to replicate more chocolate for her.
As I watched her, knowing that we were relatively safe for the moment, my body relaxed. She was magnificent. Even exhausted and covered in dust, even after being kidnapped and tied up, she radiated strength.
When she’d finished eating, we sat together on one of the old metal benches. The rotted cushions had long since disintegrated, but the frame was solid. Our shoulders touched. I could feel the warmth of her even through our clothes.
“Baleck, I—I kissed you back there. You probably want to know what that meant.” The statement came out of nowhere, direct and unflinching. Pure Iris.
I turned to look at her, kind of enjoying the rare glimpse of vulnerability in her features. “Sure,” I said, keeping my voice casual. “What did it mean?”
“I’m not good with words or feelings.” Her dark brows drew together.
“We’ve kissed and it was nice. You’re enjoyable to spend time with and I like you.
” Her dark eyes studied my face, searching for something.
Truth, maybe. “I like you a lot. You’ve made it clear that you want to make something happen between us, but with your kind, it’s all or nothing, isn’t it? ”
I nodded. “With Destrans, yes. We mate for life. I know that must sound scary for you.”
“It’s terrifying.” Her hands fluttered in a rare moment of her control deserting her. “My life is…kind of set. I can’t even wrap my head around how being with you would change things. Can you?” Those black eyes found mine and locked on, filled with questions and fears and uncertainty.
I took a deep breath and reached for her hand.
She didn’t pull away, but I felt the tension in her fingers.
“I don’t know exactly how our lives will change, but I know they will.
And I’m here for it. When I look at you, I feel like the universe gave me something I didn’t know I needed.
” I was going to lay it all out for her, let her take it in, and whatever she decided, well, that would be that.
“Like every conversation we’ve had, every moment spent near you, has been pulling me closer to something inevitable.
” I let my colors shift, not hiding anything.
Golds and warm oranges. “I think you are my mate.”
The furrow between her brows deepened. “Do you have the marks?”
“Not yet,” I replied. “But I suspect I will get them soon. I want to know more about you—your favorite foods, beyond chocolate. What makes you laugh. What you dream about when you let yourself dream. I want you to feel safe enough to tell me those things.” I paused, reeling from dropping that on her so suddenly.
But all of it was true. All of it was real. “How do you feel about me?”
She was quiet for a moment, her gaze dropping to our linked hands. “I’ve never felt safe with anyone before. Not the way I feel with you. It terrifies me.”
“I know.”
“But I’m not running from it.” She looked up at me. “I saw what happened with Cleo and Rezor. How she pushed back against their bond and left. I’ve watched Rezor walk around that settlement like he’s lost half of himself. And I’ve thought, what’s the point of denying something that powerful?”
My heart was beating so hard I was certain she could hear it.
“If this is the mate bond,” she said carefully, “I’m open to it. To you. I don’t know how to do relationships. I’ll probably be terrible at it. But I want to try.”
“It is the mate bond.” The certainty in my voice surprised even me. “I know it. I feel it. The marks haven’t appeared yet, but Destran-human bonds don’t always follow the typical patterns.”
She nodded slowly. “I felt you coming for me. Before you arrived. Like I could sense you getting closer. Is that normal?”
“For mates? Yes.” My skin rippled with acute awareness of the female before me. “The bond creates a connection. Most Destrans feel it immediately, and those bonds deepen over time.”
“How will we know when it’s complete?”
“The marks will appear. They’ll burn into my skin.
Permanent. Undeniable.” This was a lot to take in, and I was grateful that my mate was asking questions, rather than denying what we both knew to be true.
“But I already know, Iris. I’ve known since that day outside the valley when I gave you chocolate and you smiled.
Really smiled. Something in me recognized you. ”
“I’m not easy,” she warned. “I don’t know how to be warm or comforting. I’ve spent my whole life alone.”
“You won’t be alone anymore.”