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“He would be the only one to see the bright side of my being stabbed,” I drawl. “I think I’ll wait until I’m feeling more up to it before picking a fight with him.”
My mate does that adorable thing where her eyes roll up toward the ceiling.
“Think about it. His dogmatic obsession with our home planet is now the reason that one of our closest friends is behind enemy lines. And as a result, he put not only me but also my mate in peril because of it.”
“Niko, he didn’t even know I existed. He didn’t know you were trying to contact Kalla. And he told me that Kalla himself wanted to perform the mission in the first place!”
“Kalla is an idiot who would gladly walk into death’s own arms if he thought it would spite the Azza!” I huff out a humorless laugh. “You and he would be a pair. Both of you so recklessly brave that you never think of your own necks.”
She reaches out to soothe me by caressing my shoulder and neck. “You don’t think he’s an idiot. You’re not even angry at Mak, are you? You just miss them. You worry about them. Admit that’s all it is.”
“Why can’t it be both?”
A glare that could cut through steel hits me. I will never tire of that. Why is she so beautiful when I annoy her?
“Fine, I admit it,” I say, making the effort to straighten up so that I might look at her face more easily. “I admit that when I first stayed away from home, I foolishly believed that distance would cool my connections with them. I thought that if I stepped away, it would hurt less, and there would be less burden on my heart. But every scrap of news I heard of our planet and our species made me long to be closer again. I still wondered where they were and whether they were up to new and dangerous plots.”
“Lalo recently said to me that emotions will find you one way or another. Seems like you’ve been dodging them for years,” she points out.
“She’s a wise female. I’m sorry that these past days have been so hard for you.”
“I’m just grateful that you’re okay.”
“Are there any other surprises you were waiting to share with me until my strength was back?” I ask. “I might still feel weak, but I’d rather you tell me now.”
“We’re having a mating ceremony.”
I jump to turn toward her, splashing some water as I grasp her dangling leg.
“Truly?”
“I thought you wouldn’t want to,” she laughs. “Are you excited, then?”
“Overjoyed.” I had once imagined her in the ceremonial dress. Now the vision will come true. “But . . . do you want to?”
“Sure,” she agrees. “I’ll admit I never imagined a wedding day for myself, but I think you and I deserve to celebrate. I was hoping we could include Kaye and Frankie, but it seems they’re not invited to stay here onThe Rightful Heir. If they can’t come, then it doesn’t matter when we do it. We could do it tomorrow for all I care.”
I shake my head. “Sorry, but this place is only for Kar’Kali. No others can know of its existence.”
“I understand. When the adrenaline was gone that night, I kept thinking how unfair it was to lose you when we never got the chance to be together.” Every sentence she adds unravels me more than the one before. “We never lived together and enjoyed what had grown between us. This could be the start of that.”
“We have that chance now,” I say. “We can go wherever we want, live wherever you wish.”
“Even if I said we should consider staying here or joining with Rossa or Mak? We could go find Kalla. We could retrace our steps on Station City to find out more about the man that attacked us. We could do something to help, anything.”
My mate. I might call her mykaia, and I might have thought that she was a message from the spirit that I need not go home at all. But I was wrong, so wrong that I can’t believe my own blindness. She is not just a wild fighter ready for any adventure. She follows what is right, no matter the cost, with a dogged inner strength I crave to be close to. The spirit has a different message for me, I believe. What I should call her is my compass because she is trying to lead my heart toward the proper paths. But I’ll stick withkaia,because it is fiercer and rolls off the tongue much nicer.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FOUR
NIKO
I’m lockedout of my own room. And the only person to blame is the one female I’ve trusted all my life.
“Why did you tell Lalo about this ridiculous human superstition?” I shout.
My mate is on the other side, laughing at me. She’s in on the joke. Raina wouldn’t have bothered adhering to her planet’s traditions if Lalo hadn’t insisted.
“It’s one day, Niko,” she says. “She was trying to combine our cultural rituals. I don’t have many to contribute.”
