Page 76 of Silver Slayer

I shifted against him, my hand sliding down his chest, past the hard ridges of his abdomen, toward his waistband. His muscles jumped beneath my fingers, every scale along his torso constricting, and I felt the sharp intake of breath he couldn't quite suppress.

His hand caught mine, his fingers wrapping around my wrist and pulling my hand back to his chest, pressing it flat against his shawra's glow.

"No." The word came out strained, almost pained, and I felt the tremor running through his arm where it held mine. "It is taking every ounce of discipline I possess not to roll you beneath me and sheath myself inside you right now."

“Vennox—”

“If you touch me, I will not be able to stop.” He lifted and kissed the palm of my hand before pressing it back against his chest. “The bond between us will grow stronger unless we deny it. Besides, you were warned the only thing that would eat you out here was me.”

I chuckled softly, feeling guilty that he went unsatisfied, but I felt the truth of his words. He was barely keeping himself in check, and I would not push him on this.

We lay together in comfortable silence, listening to the steady rhythm of the Caspeen Sea echo through the cavern. My gaze drifted to the line of cots stretched out beside us. Curiosity finally overcame the lingering haze of contentment.

"You said this used to be the medical bay."

"The exiles brought the unconscious Valosian males and the human females they rescued from beneath the palace here," Vennox said quietly. "Before Huren was reclaimed, this became the place where they recovered. Gia was the first to awaken here. Vallon told me she remembered opening her eyes in this cave after they carried her from beneath the palace."

I closed my eyes for a moment. “How terrifying that must have been to awaken surrounded by strangers.”

In that moment, the cave no longer felt like a relic of someone else's history. It felt like a place where impossible endings had quietly become new beginnings.

Chapter Twenty-Six

VENNOX

"How terrifying that must have been to awaken surrounded by strangers." Quin's words lingered in the quiet between us.

The silk of her mane spread across my arm where she rested against me, her weight settled into the curve of my side. I could not read her expression from where I lay, but I did not need to.

Through the faint connection between our spirits, I felt the same conflict I had sensed growing within her for several suns-rises now. She cared for me. Of that I no longer doubted. Yet beneath that compassion lay an ache that reached far beyond this cave, beyond Valose itself. Part of her still longed for the world she had lost.

The grief drifting from her spirit became an anchor for my own. It steadied the instinct still urging me to claim what I had willingly denied only moments before. Her heart needed understanding far more than my body demanded relief, and that truth made the choice easy. My place was beside her, not pressing for more than she was ready to give.

A warm, salt-laden breeze swept through the cave's broad opening, carrying the twin suns' warmth and the faint scent of vernbury tea from our cooling cups. But I had long since stopped noticing anything in the cave that was not Quin.

“Who were they?” she asked, untangling her limbs from mine and rising from the cot. “The exiles. Marie mentioned them at dinner when Sakkar sat with us and said it was a long story, and you’ve mentioned them twice now, but I still don’t know what the story is.”

“It began before I was old enough to understand it,” I said quietly. “During the last war against the Nuttaki.”

Quin donned her undergarment and returned to the table, cradling her cup between both hands. By the time I joined her, she was watching me over the rim of her tea.

“Sia Emmar ruled Huren then. He had twin sons, Jakkar and Sakkar. Tradition dictated that only one would inherit the crown, but before Emmar fell in battle defending our settlement, he named them both Sia.” A faint smile tugged at my lips. “He believed each son possessed strengths the other lacked. Jakkar was a warrior through and through. Sakkar possessed the mind of a scholar and a visionary. Together, they made Huren stronger than either could have alone.”

“So they ruled together?”

I nodded. “For many yerons. I was only a youngling, but I remember them standing together before our people. No one imagined they would one day stand on opposite sides.”

“What changed?”

“Sakkar became fascinated with the stars.” My gaze drifted toward the cave entrance, where sunlight shimmered across the Caspeen Sea. “He convinced Hexxus to construct a vessel capable of leaving our world. The expedition returned carrying something no Valosian had ever encountered. A microscopic germ.”

Quin's expression sobered.

“It spread with terrifying speed. Our females had no immunity. Within weeks they began dying.” I swallowed against the memory. “By the time the sickness burned itself out, every female on Valose was gone.”

Silence settled between us.

“Jakkar blamed the expedition?”