Daughters of Lyra: Heart of an Emperor (8 page)

Younglings.

Their red eyes told him
that they were Varkan. Or at least in part they were Varkan. They
had their mother’s beauty.

His younglings.

Their
younglings.

He had never seen such a
beautiful sight as her playing with them, never in his long years.
A sigh escaped him and he allowed himself the moment of whimsy as
he watched them. In this moment, he was no longer a commander of
his people but a man with a family.

It was a beautiful
dream.

No. It would be a
beautiful reality.

Sophia turned and looked
at him, waving as she laughed, the light breeze tousling her hair
and dress.

She was a beautiful
reality.

He flinched and gritted
his teeth as something hit him. The dream slipped through his
fingers as the pain came again and he was torn from sleep. He
frowned as he opened his eyes and then smiled when he saw Sophia
kneeling beside him on the bed.

“
You utter
sekta no uso cruskin nyaaeso!”

She hit him again with
something rectangular and very hard. His head ached and he blocked
her next strike with his arm, unwilling to be beaten up any more.
His translator hadn’t understood the last part of what she had said
but judging by the thunderous black look in her eyes and the fact
that she was beating him to a pulp, he deduced it wasn’t words of
love.

“
You lied to
me.”

He understood
that.

Sitting up, he placed his
hands out behind him to prop himself in place and looked at her.
The marks on her neck were deep and sore. He had been a little
harder on her than he had hoped he would but the bloodlust had been
too intense and he hadn’t been able to stop himself from losing
control.

“
Lied about
what?” he said, his head still reeling. One moment, he was dreaming
about their future family and the next he was being hit with, he
glanced at what she was holding, a book.

“
You,” she said
and opened the book. She turned it to face him and he stared at the
markings on the page. Perhaps some things about his species were
better documented than he had expected. He hadn’t let slip about
these markings so it must have been his father or one of his other
predecessors. With a sigh, she dropped the book and her shoulders
slumped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He picked the book up and
looked at the drawing of the markings and then at his
arms.

“
Because I had
to know,” he said and closed the book, placing it down on the bed.
He looked at her, at her sore eyes, and realised that she had been
crying. Why? Was it because of what she had discovered or something
else? His gaze lowered to her stomach and then darted back to her
face.

“
You had to
know what?” New tears rose into her eyes and he longed to reach out
and wipe them away.

Was this also love? This
past day had been incredible. He had learnt so much, gained so
much, and now he felt as though he was standing on the edge of the
cliffs of Varka Three, one step away from falling to his lonely
death. If he said the wrong thing now, if he couldn’t convince her
that he hadn’t lied to her, then he would lose
everything.

Without her, life wasn’t
worth living. Eternity would be a bleak darkness without this ray
of light before him.

His own shoulders slumped
as he realised that the Terran tale was true. He understood it now.
Love was consuming, beyond mortal control. The star-crossed lovers
had killed themselves—one because they believed the other dead, and
the other because they woke to see their love had died. Neither had
wanted to live without the other. Both had chosen death over life
alone.

A decision he would gladly
make should Sophia turn her back on him because of his
deception.

“
It was not
easy. Please believe me, Sophia,” Regis said and took her hand.
When she didn’t snatch it back, he took it as a good sign. This was
all frightening and new. Never before had he been so scared that
someone would leave him. Never had he relied so heavily on one
person for his future happiness. “I desired to tell you at every
turn, with every furtive glance you threw my way, but I had to
resist and see what you would do. When you rejected the emperor
because you could not love him, and when you sought my company, I
knew that you were growing attached to me but I still could not
dare hope or reveal the truth.”

He sighed and squeezed her
hand.

“
Sophia, I
admit that while we were en route to Lyra Prime, I decided to
switch with Sirus and see what would happen. You have had many
suitors and rejected them all. I wanted to spend time with you to
discover whether you were only waiting for the right amount of
money, planets or power to come along or whether it was something
else that you were looking for.”

“
You
lied.”

He closed his eyes and
raised her hand, pressing it against his cheek. He opened his eyes
again and looked at her. The frown she wore was beginning to
fade.

“
Know that I
did not mean to deceive you. I only wished to observe proceedings,
hoped that perhaps I was wrong and there was something else you
sought. When you admitted that you wanted to love your future
husband, I wanted to rejoice and cry at the same time. You had
chosen the one thing I could not give and I had begun to long for
your company and the sight of your beautiful face.”

A blush touched her cheeks
and he stroked her right one with the backs of his
fingers.

“
But you can
love,” Sophia said and took hold of his hand. “I have seen it...
felt it.”

“
You have made
me realise it.” He squeezed her hand and sighed. “Although I fear
you will no longer love me.”

“
It’s foolish,
but when I met you, I longed for you to be the emperor so I could
spend time with you. I hated the emperor.”

“
Do you still
hate the emperor?” he said with a hopeful look.

Her frown melted away and
she sighed. A smile curved her beautiful lips.

“
I’m an idiot,
but I think I love him.”

Regis smiled, warmed by
her confession and the fact that everything was out in the open
now.

Almost
everything.

“
Would you
marry the emperor?”

“
I don’t think
the emperor should talk about himself in the third person,” she
said and then frowned again. “Your name is Regis though,
yes?”

He nodded.

“
And the Count
of Sagres bit?”

“
Count of
Sagres is the name traditionally given to me as Emperor Varka. It
was a risk to use it, but it is not well documented.”

Sophia stared at him.
Regis was a count, and also the emperor. The man she had thought
was the emperor wasn’t the emperor at all. She couldn’t believe
this. It was almost as strange and fantastical as the thought that
he couldn’t love. She had wanted Regis to be the emperor, and it
had turned out that he was. Was this the deception her father had
spoken of?

“
My father
knows, doesn’t he?”

“
Does he?”
Regis said with a frown.

“
Down at the
cells he mentioned a deception and that someone had to explain
something. It must be this.”

“
The cells.”
Regis looked pensive, as though he was having difficulty
remembering being there. “It is not clear. Perhaps he does.
Everything between leaving you here and seeing you there is a
blur.”

“
The
bloodlust?” Sophia said and he nodded again. She stroked the back
of his hand and then the start of the marks running up his arm.
“You really are the emperor, aren’t you? You’re not going to
suddenly announce that the Count of Aeris is the
emperor?”

He laughed, although it
sounded strained to her. “No. Van would make a terrible emperor. He
is a better tactician than politician. He is the commander of our
finest fleet.”

“
And the other
one?”

“
Sirus?” he
said and lowered his gaze to watch her hand. “He is my first
attendant and bodyguard. Although I do not need one.”

She could believe that.
Having seen Regis fight, she couldn’t imagine anyone besting him if
he was in control of himself. Her fingers followed the marks up to
his elbow.

“
Were you going
to tell me?” she said with a frown, hoping his answer would be yes.
She hoped that he had been intending to tell her sooner rather than
later. She hoped that he would have told her before she had found
out from her father.

“
Were you going
to tell me?” he countered and her frown intensified.

“
Tell you
what?” she said, unable to think of any secret she had withheld
from him.

He lowered his hand to her
stomach. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open.

“
Varkans are
very sensitive to female times of needing and pregnancies. A Varkan
pregnancy develops quickly. A Varkan’s ability to see the future of
their family develops faster than that.” He smiled and she was
stunned to see the tenderness in it and the affection that filled
his eyes as he stroked her stomach. “There will be two.”

“
How do you
know?” She placed her hand over his, shocked by how sure he had
sounded.

“
I have seen
them. A boy and a girl. Playing under the Lyran sun with their
mother.”

When he smiled at her, she
wondered how he could have ever said that Varkans couldn’t love.
There was so much affection and love in his expression and in his
voice.

She hesitated and then
smiled. “Do they have red eyes?”

He nodded.

“
I think I
might be the first Varkan to ever say this.” He looked nervous for
a moment and cleared his throat. “I love you.”

Sophia grinned and forgot
that she had been angry with him. It was impossible to be angry
with him when he looked at her like this, so full of devotion and
love. She was about to throw her arms around him when she stopped
herself.

“
You saw us
here?” she said, wanting to make sure that she had heard him
right.

He nodded. “In the
gardens.”

“
But you’re the
emperor of Varka. You can’t live here and I’ve already made up my
mind to leave with you. How could you see us here?”

“
Perhaps
because I had already decided to stay here. The dreams can change.
I am willing to change with them. We could make both palaces our
homes.”

“
Spend some
time here and some on Varka Prime?” It sounded too good to be true.
She knew it was a long journey between the planets but perhaps the
Varkans could invent a type of space travel that would be even
faster than sub-space. She could happily spend half a year on Varka
Prime if she knew she could bask in the sun of Lyra Prime for the
other half. If they were having twins as he said, then she wanted
her family involved with them. She didn’t have a clue how to look
after children and everyone would be more than willing to
help.

“
Whatever you
wish for, you will receive, my love.”

Sophia threw her arms
around him then and dragged him down to the bed. His mouth claimed
hers and she sighed inside over his tender kisses and the fact that
his hand remained against her stomach.

“
Regis?” she
whispered when he kissed down her neck.

“
Yes,
Sophia?”

“
Will you lose
control again... if you taste my blood?”

“
No, not
now.”

“
Not now?” she
said with a frown.

“
Not now that
you wear this,” he said and kissed the mark on her throat. It was
something she hadn’t read anything about and now she wished she had
so she could understand what was happening.

“
Why
not?”

He drew back and looked at
her. “Because it tells everyone that you are mine.”

“
I’m yours?”
she said, hopeful and wanting to hear him say it again.

“
Forever mine
and mine alone. No one will dare touch you.” He caressed the marks
on her throat and warmth spread out from their centre, suffusing
her entire body. She closed her eyes for a moment to relish the
feel of his fingers against her and then looked at him. “To bite
someone’s neck is the equivalent to... well...
marriage.”

“
Marriage?” Her
eyebrows shot up and she went to touch her neck but touched his
hand instead. A jolt ran through her and she bit her lip at the
sudden hunger that followed. She wanted to feel him against her,
their bodies as one again. She cursed him for being able to make
her feel like that from just a touch, for making her forget what
she had been talking about. “Marriage?”

“
There will be
an official ceremony of course, both here and on Varka Prime. The
people will wish to meet their empress. If you will have
me?”

And she had been worried
that he was going to leave her. She blinked, too stunned to form a
response. He had already marked her as his but he still wanted to
marry her.