Chapter 30
Hope Is the Strongest Drug in the Universe
Khar
“Should have snapped that Corvus wretch’s neck the moment I had the chance.”
Khar to his brothers, who, for once, agreed with their elder sibling
Khar had not expected this.
During the chase, his treacherous imagination had tormented him with visions of Lily suffering unspeakable agonies, sometimes even whispering that she might already be dead. But even then, he had not imagined the Corvus cry would become their greatest problem.
He knew it existed, of course. Yet its use had been forbidden for chrono-centuries.
Sapiens species, unless deliberately halted, still followed the old paths of evolution.
Khar had assumed Horos, descended from generations of Corvus who no longer used the cry in mating, would have nothing more than a withered, vestigial ability.
The moment Khar laid eyes on Lily, he was almost certain nothing had changed. His sight and scent were far sharper than any Human female’s. He believed he would sense it instantly if anything had begun inside her.
But he had not dared tell her that.
What if he was wrong?
The final step of Corvus mating required a bite, and Lily insisted no such thing had happened.
What if she had not been conscious? Khar had seen no wound on the scan, so he ruled it out, yet he still refused to contradict her.
The cruelty of false reassurance followed by a devastating result was beyond what he would inflict on her.
Overall, Khar believed Horos had thought far too much of himself. He had convinced himself he possessed his ancestors’ dangerous talent. That arrogant delusion was likely what had driven him to kidnap Lily and steal the Vitro in the first place.
But all of that mattered far less than Lily’s well-being.
And on that front, Khar felt he had failed. He should have shown more empathy. He should have made the unshakable nature of his feelings clearer.
So while the scan processed, he decided to record her a message.
“Lily. I’m waiting for the deep scan to finish. I haven’t seen the result yet.”
He turned the camera toward the medical display, letting it capture the slow, rhythmic sweep of scanning beams, then angled it back to his face. Even to himself he looked exhausted, but he had no patience for his own condition.
“I am so sorry I could not protect you. That failure will weigh on me until I die, but I will not let it destroy me. I will use the guilt to become better. Better at keeping you safe, and better at listening to you. In both, I proved lacking. But there is one thing about which there has never been even the faintest uncertainty.”
Khar drew a long breath, steadying his voice.
“Lily, no matter what happens, I will always love you. I will stay with you, whatever comes, for as long as you allow me to walk beside you. Nothing life brings will ever change that. Only you.”
He ended the recording. Anything else would only repeat what he had already said.
A thick, black tear slipped free. He wiped it away quickly and forced a heavy breath through his nose. He had to stay strong.
By the time Lily woke, he had pulled himself together.
The moment the scanner chimed completion, her eyes flew open and immediately sought him out. Khar did not spare a glance for the display. He stepped to her side and gently closed his hand around hers.
“How do you feel?”
Lily pushed herself upright and rolled her neck.
“I’m alright. Khar, the results…”
Khar shook his head.
“I haven’t looked without you. Do you want to check together, or…”
Lily lowered her head, pale and troubled.
“No. I think I want to see it alone.”
Khar’s heart cracked at the sight, but he honored her wish.
“Very well. I left you a message. Listen to it later. I’ll be outside. Call for me if you need anything.”
Every step away from her felt like dragging dead weight. He cared nothing for the results, only for her. Before the doors sealed behind him, he looked back, but Lily did not meet his gaze. She sat small and folded in on herself on the medical bed.
Khar stopped outside the room and crossed his arms over his chest.
The walls blocked every sound, giving him no hint of what was happening inside. Still, he made a vow to himself not to move until Lily came out.
When the door slid open, he had no time to brace for the Lily-shaped avalanche that launched itself into his arms.
She clung so tightly he could barely draw breath, and suffocating had never tasted sweeter. Only when his breathing turned into something worrying did she loosen her grip, though she did not fully let go.
“Khar, come see!”
He did not set her down. He simply carried her to the hovering display, where a vast holographic infograph shimmered in the air, animated with the key results of the scan.
“Look! Nothing changed at the DNA level, my nervous system is stable, and my memory is completely intact!” Lily blurted, breathless with relief.
Khar pressed a soft kiss to the side of her neck. When he finished reviewing the data, joy hit him so sharply he lifted her high and spun her in a full circle.
“Ha. Horos never stood a chance against your human resilience. You are the finest example of a remarkable species.”
Lily was still giggling when Khar gently set her down beside the examination bed.
As they faced each other, the post-tension euphoria thinned, replaced by something heavier and far more intimate. Warm pressure filled the space between them, that undeniable pull they had toward one another.
A rosy flush spread over Lily’s cheeks. Khar watched it with breathless focus, as if witnessing something sacred. Every tiny change in her expression stirred something fierce and tender inside him.
“Khar, your message…”
He brushed the tip of a clawed finger along her cheek, barely touching.
“Don’t think about it. You’re safe, so everything is all right.”
“I listened to it.”
Now it was Khar’s turn to look flustered, though his obsidian-dark skin betrayed no color.
“Well. Yes.”
He suspected even his heavy boots could have produced a more eloquent reply, but Lily, his personal goddess, did not seem inclined to punish him for briefly becoming the universe’s most incompetent conversationalist.
“Thank you. It meant a lot. When the results came in, I… I wasn’t brave enough to look. I can handle what happened to my body.” Her eyes narrowed. “Do not interrupt. I can see exactly what you’re thinking.”
Khar closed his mouth.
“That’s horrible, but at least that part is mine.
What would have destroyed me is if this changed everything else in my life.
Especially what I have with you. Because maybe at first you wouldn’t have minded, but what if later you did?
What if one day you looked at me and saw I wasn’t who I used to be, and I wasn’t enough anymore?
I don’t know how I would have survived that. ”
Her wide, beautiful eyes shone with tears, but she didn’t break this time. Khar wasn’t sure he could have held his own composure if she had cried again.
“Lily, you never have to worry about that.”
He would have continued, but his sharp hearing caught approaching footsteps.
Ikar and Aros.
Too quiet for Lily to notice, but Khar knew instantly they were coming.
He let out a heavy sigh.
“What you should prepare for is the arrival of my two idiotic brothers, who will be with us for a while. I hope they’ll be tolerable for you.”
Lily swatted his shoulder, outraged.
“Khar, how can you say that? They risked their lives to save me. I’m grateful they’re here!”
Through the cracked doorway, Aros’s head appeared as he peeked inside.
“And we are grateful to meet you. Truly impressive little ship you have, Lily!”
Ikar shoved Aros fully into the room and then approached Lily with steps so light it was almost a dance.
“Lily, it is an honor for us that you have become part of our family. We thought no one would ever take pity on this grumpy mountain of muscle, but miracles exist after all.”
Khar knew exactly what they were doing.
They were trying to get under his skin.
And no amount of Legion training had prepared him for patience where his brothers were concerned. It was as if the two fools were speaking directly to the primitive part of his brain, the part designed for ripping enemies apart on the battlefield and utterly useless for civilized conversation.
So he resorted to staring at them with growing menace, hoping they had enough survival instinct to run once the last thread in him snapped.
Aros clearly preferred to live dangerously. He stepped beside Lily and draped an arm around her shoulders.
“Lily, whatever you did with your mouth when you saw me on the Vitro the first time… you can greet me like that anytime. Really. I would not mind.”
Khar could not believe what he was hearing. The sentence got worse with every word. Lily’s deepening blush confirmed he had not imagined it, and that he was right to be concerned. Aros even had the audacity to give Khar a challenging look.
“Lily,” Khar said, voice flat with warning, “what is this half-wit talking about?”
Lily looked everywhere except at the three Divani.
“Well… um… so… when I ran into him on the Vitro, I may have thought he was you and… I might have… maybe… kind of… kissed him. A little.”
Ikar burst into laughter so loudly it sounded like he hadn’t enjoyed anything more in his entire life.
Khar’s claws clicked out, fully unsheathed. Time for him to have some fun too.
But Lily flung herself at him, clutching his forearm before he could grab the retreating Aros by the scruff.
“Khar, please, don’t. It was a misunderstanding. I bumped into him and I was so happy, and nobody can say you two don’t look alike.”
The air froze.
Ikar stopped laughing. Aros stopped trying to flee. Khar remained as tense as before.
All three Divani stared at Lily with sudden, undivided attention. Lily froze under the crossfire of their gazes.