The arcs surface on my skin, filling the chamber with green light and blue smoke. The tingles turn to painful crackles and sizzling flesh. Heat rises with so much force inside me that I fear I might explode.
I collapse to my hands and knees as the power takes over. My Storm turns the chamber into a field of frenzied light.
Aura. Allele says it with an heir of condescension.Blaize is right. You need release.
Just let me burn this out!
A chart illuminates on an insulated screen.
Storm Status: Prince Aurelius of Tiatith of Amphir - Nova warning. Recommended action: immediate release. Primal Power Class: Beta Wave 39/40Hz.
My heat rises. Electricity lashes out of my body into the room with destructive force. I watch my beta waves rise to forty, then forty-one, forty-two. I am above the normal limit.
This is not how I want to live my life, leaving my home behind and trying to keep others safe from my inexplicable power.
I writhe under its heat and the twisting, barbed threads that tie knots in my bones. Electricity fills the room, roaring out of me like a lightning storm until I cannot see anything and have to close my eyes.
My insides continue pushing outward, each beat of my heart slow and powerful, until I can barely breathe through the tension and miserable, searing agony. Then, slowly, it eases, dropping, draining, returning me to balance.
I finally relax, lightless and out of breath. A few random arcs still zigzag through the air into the ported walls. Allele doesn’t need fuel. She has me.
“Aura?” Blaize calls to me through the door. “Everything okay in there? The lights flickered out here.”
I get myself to my feet, fix my armor, and step up to the door. Allele doesn’t let me out.
“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” I solemnly say to the empty room, hoping she’s listening.
Allele opens the discharge chamber. As she lets me out, it hits me. If that is what my mating will look like, I will kill her, even if she is Amphiran.
“I’m not going to the races. Drop off the others. Then take me to a desolate planet. I’m not safe for a female ofanyspecies. I’m…”
I throw a glance in Eluni’s and Fieri’s directions. Jorusk is belted in just behind the copilot’s seat. I don’t want to explain myself, or they’ll try to find a way around it. “I need to be alone.”Forever.
Allele protests in my mind. But I am tired and broken and aware of how very dangerous I am becoming.
My father was right about one thing. I have taken too long to find a mate.
Blaize looks bewildered. “Is this decision because of what just happened onTiatith?”
“Yeah, what the hell?” Eluni hugs herself. “With respect, sir. You didn’t tell me you were the prince!”
“Was.” I sulk to my room. “My father has disowned me. Allele can guide you.”
Aura, this is irrational. What has gotten into you?
I am thinking clearly, Allele. I want you to bond with Blaize and Fieri. Leave me behind. I’m getting to be too much for you.
No, you are not, sir.
Enough.I’ve decided. I take out my implant chip and set it in a static barrier storage drawer in my room. It’s nice to have Allele out of my head for a change. The silence is desperately needed.
“Just tell me when we’re in orbit so I can pack,” I mutter to Blaize.
I let the door close, then lie on my bed and close my eyes. I used to wonder how anyone as powerful as my father could be so lost. But I am now in his position, except my power is my Storm, and I don’t know where I belong anymore. The last thing I desire is to hurt the only thing I’ve ever wanted. I won’t do it.
I won’t.
But as I fall asleep, I can’t stop thinking about a mate. She’s out there. I can feel her like I felt Allele—crying out for help.
