Ashley, who had been quietly observing from the side with crossed arms, let out a short laugh. “From a military standpoint? We spent decades training to fight human enemies on Earth. Then the Cryons showed up, and suddenly we’re playing nice with green-skinned emperors and shadow gods. The scientific community can choke on their old textbooks. Reality didn’t wait for their approval.”
The females' easy banter drifted around me, but my mind had already slipped its leash. Naeris.
The way she moved, unbelievably graceful even in defiance, every step controlled, every shift of her body screamed of trained lethality wrapped in curves. The dark braid that swung against her back. The faint scar beneath her right eye that only made her sharper. The way her gaze had locked with mine, like a challenge and a promise at the same time.
No other female had ever lingered, nor I with them. The Abyss had always called me back, cold, familiar, and honest in its hunger.
But Naeris…
She was fire in the wound. Light that refused to be swallowed. And the flaw inside me—the restless heat I had carried since my forging—roared awake at the mere thought of her. It wanted to claim. To mark. To wrap her in crimson and gold until the universe itself understood she was mine.
I clenched my jaw until it ached.Unworthy.The word echoed like a death knell. I was the Executioner. The last, creation born in fracture. If Ashera and Caelor fled to Earth, then by her own admission about herspecial gifts, I had no doubt that she carried echoes of Ashera herself. What right did I have to drag something that pure into my darkness?
Zapharos’ voice pulled me back, quieter now. “Brother.”
I met his gaze. For once, the Praetor of War looked almost… understanding.
“We will not force this,” he promised. “But if she is your Aelyth, the bond will not be denied forever. You know that.”
I did. I had seen it happen with both of my brothers. A fact that terrified me more than any battlefield I had ever walked or any execution I was ever forced to perform. For the first time in my long, fractured existence, I wanted something I was terrified I would destroy.
Xandros entered the breakroom, and from the way he zeroed in on our table, he’d undoubtedly been looking for us.
His voice was clipped with command. “Now what? Our… guest is secured. We need to get more information from her.”
Ella answered before any of us could. “Give her time to adjust, Commander. She just went from… whatever she was doing guarding prisoners to alien gods. Let her breathe.”
Zapharos nodded once. “Tomorrow, we go down to Earth. Ella, you said you had sites you want to examine?”
Ella’s eyes lit with that archaeologist fire I had come to recognize. “The oldest ones I can think of—Gobekli Tepe, and maybe the submerged structures off India or Japan. Places where the timelines already don’t make sense according to human history.”
Nadine shook her head immediately. “Whatever we’re looking for has to be older than that. Much older. We need abaseline. We need to talk to Naeris, establish when her ancestors were taken, and from where.”
Ashley agreed. “Smart. Timeline and geography first. Why don’t you go talk to her, Ella? Woman to woman. She might open up more to you.”
“Not alone,” Zapharos cut in instantly, his golden aura flaring with protective instinct.
Ella rolled her eyes. “She’s not going to hurt me, Zaph.”
“I’m not going to bet your life on that,” he countered in a tone that didn't leave room for negotiation.
I sighed, the sound rough even to my own ears. The flaw inside my chest twisted tighter at the mere thought of seeing her again. “I’ll go.”
Zapharos turned a sharp, almost amused look on me. “Right. Like you won’t scare her worse than the rest of us combined.”
I tuned them out again.
Their voices faded into background static while my mind dragged me back to the holding cell. To the way Naeris had stood in the center of it, shoulders squared, chin lifted, dark braid swinging like a battle standard. The lethal grace in every shift of her body. The way her eyes had burned when they locked with mine. I wanted her because she refused to kneel even when cornered by gods. I remembered pinning her against a wall and tasting that fire. The thought made me sick with self-loathing.
“…give it at least the night,” Ella was saying when I dragged my attention back. “Let her rest. Process. We’ll talk to her in the morning.”
Zapharos nodded. “Agreed.”
Dravok shot me one last knowing look—his shadows curled with silent judgment—but he said nothing.
I turned away before anyone could read the storm still raging behind my eyes. Naeris was somewhere on this ship. Breathing the same air. Fighting the same invisible thread I was. Everyinstinct I possessed screamed at me to find her, claim her, and protect her from the very darkness I carried.
I walked in the opposite direction, clenching my jaw so tight it ached. Because if I went to her now, I wasn’t sure I would be strong enough to walk away again. And she deserved better than a monster who couldn’t even trust himself.
