Chapter 17
Rezor
The ships appeared on the eighth cycle after Cleo stopped treating me as her mate.
I was in the council chambers when the alarm sounded—three sharp bells that meant an unknown threat approached from above. My steps thundered as I ran for the plaza.
Above the valley, two massive vessels hovered like impossible metal birds. Not crawlers. Not anything designed for atmospheric storms. These were starships, sleek and powerful, hanging in the clear blue sky with a grace that defied everything I knew about the world.
Cleo’s world.
Around me, people scattered. Mothers grabbed their young ones and ran for their homes.
Warriors converged on the plaza with weapons that were useless against whatever arsenal the ships contained.
The council members emerged from their chambers, their eyes flashing with colors I’d never seen—confusion, fear, awe.
“Lord Rezor!” Torak’s voice cut through the chaos. “What do we do?”
“Nothing.” I kept my eyes on the ships. “We do nothing. These are our guests returning.”
“Those are warships,” Dira said, her voice tight with fear. “They’ve come to take the valley.”
“No.” I watched as several smaller craft emerged from the underside of the larger vessel. They descended with controlled precision toward the central plaza. “They’ve come to take their people home.”
The words tasted like ash in my mouth.
Zelana appeared at my side, her expression grave. “The prophecy—”
Something inside me snapped. I was sick of hearing about that cursed prophecy and finished with letting it dictate my clan’s lives. I turned to face the council. “I will not keep them here against their will. Not anymore. If they choose to leave, we let them go.”
“But—”
“That is final.” I spoke sharply and with a finality, and for once, not one of them argued.
The first craft touched down in the center of the plaza with barely a whisper of displaced air. The technology was beyond anything I’d ever seen—smooth, controlled, utterly foreign. The door opened with a hiss of equalizing pressure.
And there she was.
Zara.
The human female who’d threatened to bring war stepped out first. Her slightly wild yellow hair caught the afternoon sun.
Behind her came the tall Destran male. Then others I didn’t recognize.
Another human female with dark hair and a gently rounded belly that suggested new life growing.
A tall Destran male whose protective stance near the pregnant female marked him as her mate.
His bearing told me he was a leader among his people.
But I barely saw them. Because Cleo had emerged from the guest quarters.
She stood frozen at the edge of the plaza, hand pressed to her mouth, eyes wide with shock and hope and desperate longing. She looked thinner than she had eight cycles ago. Shadows under her eyes. But still beautiful. Still the female who’d stolen my heart and shattered it in the same breath.
Zara saw her and everything else ceased to matter. “CLEO!”
The shout was pure joy, pure relief, and exactly the same loud and unrestrained energy that I recalled from our first encounter. Her voice rang with so much emotion it seemed to echo off the mountains. She broke into a sprint, her face transformed with happiness, and tears already streaming.
Cleo’s control shattered. “Zara!”
She ran too, but even in her desperation, there was a difference. Zara ran like a storm unleashed. Cleo ran like gravity had finally found her center again.
They collided in the middle of the plaza with enough force that both of them stumbled. Zara caught Cleo, spun her around, laughing and sobbing at the same time.
“You’re alive!” Zara pulled back just enough to grab Cleo’s face, her hands shaking.
“You’re alive, you’re alive, you’re actually alive.
I was afraid that warlord who captured you—” Her words tumbled over each other in a rush.
“I’ve been losing my mind, Cleo. Completely losing it.
Torven can tell you. I’ve been impossible.
I threatened to commandeer ships, I nearly started an interplanetary incident, I—”
“I’m okay.” Cleo’s voice was steadier but no less emotional, her own tears flowing freely. “I’m here. We’re okay.”
“You better be okay because if you died, I was going to kill you.” Zara laughed through her tears. “I love you so much, you impossible, brilliant, stubborn—” She yanked Cleo into another crushing hug.
My chest tightened watching them. The pure, uncomplicated love between friends who’d thought they’d lost each other. The way Cleo melted into that embrace like she’d finally found safe harbor after a storm.
This was what I’d kept her from. This connection. This joy.
The guilt was a physical ache that made me wince.
“Zara, I can’t breathe,” Cleo managed, but she was laughing too, that bright sound I hadn’t heard in so long.
“Good. Suffer. You scared me half to death.” But Zara loosened her grip, pulling back to really look at Cleo. Her expression shifted, going from manic joy to something more intense. “Are you really okay? They didn’t hurt you? Because if they did—”
“I’m fine. Really.” Cleo glanced back toward the guest quarters. “Mierva and Baleck are here too. They’re alive.”
“Thank every star in the galaxy.” Zara wiped at her face, still grinning like a fool. “When we found the others from the other pods but not you three—” She shook her head. “I was so scared, Cleo.”
“Me too,” Cleo admitted quietly. “When I woke up and you weren’t there, when I couldn’t reach anyone—” Her voice broke.
They fell into each other again, holding on like lifelines.
The other human female—it had to be Maya, based on Cleo’s past description—had approached more slowly, one hand resting on her rounded belly. Her smile was gentle, understanding. Waiting for her moment.
Cleo must have sensed her presence because she turned, still in Zara’s arms, and went completely still.
“Maya?” Her voice was barely a whisper. “Oh my stars—Maya!”
She disentangled from Zara and practically threw herself at the pregnant female, who caught her with a laugh.
“Easy!” Maya steadied them both. “I had a hard enough time convincing Rykar it was safe to take this journey.”
Cleo pulled back, staring at Maya’s belly with a critical eye. “He’s right. It was too dangerous and you should have stayed home.” Her face melted into a smile. “But I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me, too.” Maya’s smile was radiant. “You know how I am when I make my mind up about something.” She glanced back at her mate, who regarded them with a level, if resigned, look.
“Nothing would have stopped her from coming,” the male said, then he also smiled. “Stars, Cleo. It’s good to see you.”
“Same, Rykar.” She sent the male—Rykar—a warm grin. “I can’t believe you both came all this way.”
Rykar put a protective arm around his mate. “I would not leave her side.” He shrugged. “The Sola can mind herself for a few cycles.”
“You’re family, Cleo. And also, two Destrans are being held here, making this an issue for both our species. Did you really think I’d stay comfortable at home while you were lost out here?”
Cleo let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. “You’re supposed to be resting. Nesting. Not flying across the galaxy to rescue me.”
I observed all this, flinching as Cleo used the word rescue, as if she were ever in any kind of danger from me or my people.
“Well, someone has to keep Zara from starting a war.” Maya shot Zara a fond look. “She’s been absolutely insufferable. Torven has the patience of a saint.”
“I have not been insufferable,” Zara protested. “I’ve been appropriately concerned.”
“You threatened to hijack a Sola,” Maya said dryly.
“It was a very polite threat.”
Cleo laughed again, that beautiful sound that made my marks flare with heat and longing. She stood between her two friends, her arms looped around them like she was afraid they’d disappear if she let go.
This was where she belonged. With them. With people who loved her without complication, without the weight of prophecy and duty and cultures that didn’t understand each other.
I watched the three of them together—Zara vibrating with excess energy, already talking rapid-fire about everything that had happened since the crash. Maya calm and grounded, asking gentle questions. And Cleo, caught between them, looking more herself than I’d seen her in cycles.
She was home. Even standing in my valley, surrounded by my people, she was home because they were here.
My throat tightened. My marks burned so hot I thought they might actually hurt. Every instinct I had screamed to go to her, to pull her away from them, to remind her that she was mine.
But I stayed where I was. Because this moment wasn’t about me. It was about her. About the love and connection she’d been missing. About the friends who’d crossed the galaxy to find her.
And despite the pain, despite the fear that I was losing her for good, I found myself smiling. Seeing her this happy—this purely, genuinely joyful—was worth everything.
Even if it meant letting her go.
The tall Destran male who’d been standing protectively near Maya moved forward now.
I’d bet anything he was a Destran lord. Mierva had shared knowledge of the Destran social system, so I was not ignorant on how they chose leadership.
Living on sentient ships that chose their symbiont as leaders was a fascinating concept.
Rykar’s skin was currently a shifting wave of warm golds and bronzes.
His hand found Maya’s lower back in a gesture that was both protective and possessive.
Then he looked at me and his coloring shifted to orange streaked with gray.
Vikkat had emerged from a second small craft, flanked by his warriors but also with a party of Destrans. Zara’s group had made a stop before coming here, apparently. He caught my eye and gave a slight nod. Confirmation. These were who they claimed to be.