A group of crew members came running.
“Azralen, what are you doing here?” the leader asked. He hastily grabbed one of the silver overcoats and offered it to her.
It warmed her skin, but did little to ease the sickening chill in her heart.
“I must return with Smith to his ship. Where is he?” she demanded.
An orange glowing A.I. disc let out an encouraging
pip
and a
whirr
, then flew off through one of the corridors. Cyani followed it, leaving the protesting crew members at the mouth of the ship. If the little thing was anything like Bug, it would lead her to Nu just to stir things up.
After winding through a maze of halls with simple silver doors, they came to a large door at the end of a corridor. Cyani looked closer in amazement as orbs of light drifted slowly within the metal of the door. The A.I. darted around the door, touching the drifting lights in a specific order. The door dissolved before Cyani’s eyes to reveal the commander’s personal quarters. Ice sculptures of giant fanged cats stood to either side of the doorway, guarding the entrance to a room with plush furs and colorful woven tapestries filled with flower and vine motifs that had to have come from Byra.
Cyani stepslowly l, her hands pinned behind her back as he kissed her. She flowed into his body as she hungrily kissed him back.
Cyani shook off her shock. So much for wanting to kill him. She didn’t have time for this.
“What are you doing?” Cyani thrust her hands on her hips.
Cyn managed an awkward jump back that looked like he had been jabbed in the ass with a Romlen ox prod. Nu flushed as she shoved him to the side.
“What am I doing? What are you doing?” he countered as his expression shifted from shock to anger. “Where’s Soren?”
“He’s home,” she answered.
In his beautiful garden full of warmth and life.
She had to stop thinking like this. She steeled herself. “I did what I had to do. I got him here. We need to leave for Azra.” And the sooner they left the better. She had to purge herself of all this emotion. Taking the mantle would be a trickier and deadlier task than crossing a pit of cobras. She needed her strength and her wits.
“Cyani, you don’t belong on Azra,” Cyn stated.
Nu took a step to the door. “I have work to do,” she mumbled. She shoved the small troop of Yeshulen guards back out the door just as they skidded to a stop in her room. The doors reappeared behind Nu, leaving Cyani to face her twin alone.
“You don’t understand.” She crossed her arms, but it didn’t help warm her.
“You love him.”
No.
Cyani stumbled backward. Slowly she sank onto a red woven cushion on the floor next to an ice fountain. Warm water cut through the channels of ice, melting the hard crystals into tiny flowing rivers while vapor danced in seductive curls toward the ceiling.
Great merciful Creator.
How could she deny it? She did love him.
“Damn it, Cyani. Stop being such a stubborn ass. This is where you belong.” Cyn knelt in front of her and placed his hand on her shoulder.
“I can’t do this,” she murmured as she watched the water flow. Before her eyes a cold shard of ice slowly melted. “I can’t let myself love him.”
“But you do,” Cyn prodded. “Why are you wearing this?” He flicked his finger under the center bead of the necklace.
“Cyn, there are things going on that you don’t know about,” she protested.
“What, that the Grand Sister made you her heir? Oh, I know. That manipulative old bitch is playing you. Again. And you’re walking right into her claws without a fight.” He shoved her shoulder in disgust.
“Were you spying on me?”
Cyn snorted. “I deal in information, remember? Bug caught an earful during that conversation. Luckily it wasn’t the only thing he caught.”
Cyani placed her hand over her necklace.
“So you know I have to go back. I’m the only one who can change things on Azra.” She felt like she was in a fog. Her misting breath curled around her face as her frozen tears stung her cheeks.
“There’s the arrogance of a true Elite. And here I thought they hadn’t brainwashed you,” Cyn grumbled.
Cyani’s anger flared. “If I don’t go back and take the mantle, what then? Who will fight for the children of the ground cities?”
“Whose is it, yours?” she shouted at him.
His eyes hardened. Slowly a smile crept over his face, but his eyes remained as dark and hard as the shadows they grew up in.
“Damn you, Cyn.” It was her turn to pound him with her fists. He caught them and held them. “What are you involved in now?”
“I live my life my way. It’s time for you to let me live my life and learn to live your own. I’m a man, Cyani. No matter what the Elite told you, I’m not helpless. I’m certainly not stupid. My worth and my strength as a man have nothing to do with you. And I don’t need your protection.” He brought her fists together and pressed them to the center of his chest. The irritation and bitterness in his voice was tempered by the understanding in his eyes. They were so much alike. Why didn’t she see it before? She would have never allowed him to sacrifice his happiness for her.
“Listen to me,” he continued in a softer tone. “A revolution is brewing, and I don’t want you caught up in it. You can’t lead the Elite against the attack, Cyani. They’ll turn on you in the midst of battle and they
will
kill you. To them you are no different than the mudbirds rising against them.”
“I can fight them,” she protested.
“You can’t fight them and all of Azra! To the Elite, you are the enemy. Don’t feed me any bullshit about how they’ll learn to respect you. You know it’s not true. Forget about mercy from the ground-dwellers. If you become Grand Sister, you will be their enemy, too. Whose side does that leave you on?” His jaw set as his brow furrowed, but there was no mistaking the subtle desperation in his eyes. “You can’t win.” He was trying to protect her.
“Shit,” he continued. “For once in your life, will you listen to me?” He stood and stalked over to the other side of the room. He lifted a vessel made of ice and downed the liquid inside.
She wanted to. Great Matriarchs, she wanted to. Perhaps he was right, but that still didn’t solve the problem of Yara. She didn’t know what Cyn was capable of, but she knew what Yara was capable of. She didn’t want to think of what would happen if the two ever met. “The Grand Sister will send a bloodhunter after you.” Cyani reminded him as she rose to her feet as well.
“Let her come.” Cyn placed the vessel back on a shelf, confirming her suspicions. Cyn wanted the fight. “Even if you go back
to the high cities, I’m not coming with you. You think I’m going to stand by and be our dear aunt’s breeding stud? I don’t think so. She’s not getting her legacy from me. She doesn’t control me, and she never will.”
“I just want you to be safe,” Cyani argued.
He hung his head. “I thought you were dead. They say a twin is supposed to know if the other dies. I felt it, Cyani. We were born together . . .” He paused and looked away, as if he couldn’t finish that thought, but Cyani knew what he was trying to say. He didn’t want to live if she was gone.
“I found out you were alive,” he looked back up at her. “For five years I’ve been fighting to find you. I couldn’t handle the thought of losing you before I found you again.”
He uncorked a flask and poured another drink. “If you want to be noble and selfless, stop trying to protect me and give me the only thing I’ve ever prayed for.”
Cyani stared at him. “You pray?mile slid back across his face. “And if you can work it in, I wouldn’t mind being an uncle.”
Cyani stood in the center of the room as waves of shock pulsed through her numb fingers. Without the certainty of her duty, her future stretched out before her like a large void. Did she really have a choice?
“It’s your future, sis. Go back to Azra, trust your Elite
sisters
. Maybe I’m wrong—maybe they won’t blame you when the ground and the seas finally rise up against them. Or you can stay here, hidden and safe with a man who loves you. What do
you
want?” Cyn asked.
The words echoed in her mind, her heart. She had heard them before.
“If I become the Grand Sister, you won’t need your revolution. I can make things better,” she reasoned.
“Damn it, I can’t turn back now. The islands will erupt with or without me. I’m going to stand for what I believe in. I’m a soldier, and I’ve made my choice. I will fight. I don’t want to fight you. Stay, Cyani. Please. Do what makes you happy.”
A fluttering feeling started in her numb toes and rushed up her legs. The release was intense as she felt hot tears on her cold cheeks. She could have a life of peace. She could have love. She could have babies of her own raised in safety with a strong and noble man as their father. Joy rushed through her. She threw herself into Cyn’s arms.
He laughed as he caught her.
“I love you, sis,” he confessed. “Mom and Dad will be thrilled.”
“I love you, too, Cyn, even though I hate you right now.” She squeezed him tighter. “I swear, if you get yourself killed, I’ll kill you.”
“Don’t worry about me. I’ve learned a thing or two in the last few years. I’ll be fine.”
The door slid open and Nu stood in the corridor with her arms crossed.
“I swear, Smith, you are a menace. Fenril help the woman who ends up with you,” she scolded.
Cyn let go of Cyani as she tried to stifle a chuckle.
“Aw, Nu. Are you saying you don’t want to spend the rest of your days with me?” he teased.
“I’d rather tie myself to the foul end of a mammoth with a digestive virus,” she grumbled. “The sooner I get you off this ship, the better. Are we leaving?”
“Wait,” Cyani burst out. “I need to stay.”
Nu’s hard eyes softened. She placed a hand on Cyani’s bicep and gave it a squeeze. “Good. Take Skitter with you, and the translator. Skitter will be able to communicate with Bug. You can contact your family secretly that way.” Nu winked. The orange A.I. floated up and the light around her swelled with what could only be pride.
Cyani’s shock nearly stole her speech. “Why?”
“Cyn here isn’t the only one capable of spying,” Nu stated as she poked him in the chest. “I’ll monitor any communication between the two of you. You are not to mention the Yeshulen or Byra’s location. Keep it to family. And when you do speak, know this, I will know exactly where you are.”
Cyn nodded, but his face turned contemplative, like he was trying to figure out a way around the tech-leash.
“Cyani, you have to get back to the garden right now,” she pleaded.
“We should wait out the storm,” Cyani reasoned.
“Don’t you love him?” Rensa asked, her voice hard with accusation. “Don’t you want to be with him?”
“What are you talking about? We’ll get killed if we go running out there. As soon as the storm clears, we can go back.” What was wrong with her?
“Soren is dying.” Her voice broke into a sob.
“What?” Cyani’s knees buckled as she stumbled sideways. She caught one of the supports of the awning and clung to it while she tried to breathe. How could that be? He hadn’t bonded with her. He told her he hadn’t. He promised she would have a choice, that he wouldn’t chain her.
He let me go.
Thunder boomed again as another strike of lightning hit close by. Suddenly the truth threaded itself through her memories of the last few days. His eyes were blue.
He was bonded to her, and he let her go.
“
Shakt
,” she whispered. “How bad is it?”
“He’s not fighting.” Rensa collapsed against the wall.
“I don’t understand—he can live a couple of weeks, right?” She had time. She had to have time.
“No, Cyani. He’s bonded. It changes our blood. The longest anyone has survived the loss of a fully bonded mate is a day. If he doesn’t want to live, he won’t last the night.”