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“Cut off my cock while you’re at it—” I’m muttering to myself when the door to the room opens. I’m not alone. The slap of bare feet on wet tile rings out.
I squat down again to peek under the stall opening. Little pink-ish feet, delicate pale ankles, the curve of a feminine calf…
It can’t be.
She’s in here?
Niko’s mate has darker skin than that, and smaller feet if I’m not mistaken. I haven’t actually seen her feet, but if her body is brown, then I assume her feet would match.
There are a few options. I could pick my feet up off the floor and hide from her like a coward. I could grab my things and walk right by her out the door with only a gruff apology. It might startle her, but she wouldn’t think anything of it, and might not remember my face afterwards. Or I could storm up to her and announce that we’re mated, tossing away my original plan on a horny, selfish whim. The mating hormones like that idea, because my skin buzzes at the prospect of taking her in my arms and seducing her quickly.
That’s when I hear her whimper and sniffle like a wounded animal. Is she in pain for some reason?
I lean forward. The bench creaks. She gasps.
“Is someone in here?” she asks. “Hello?”
CHAPTERSIX
KAYE
I meetRaina at her mate’s childhood home, apartments that are within the palace that dominates the landscape ofThe Rightful Heir. I tiptoe through the halls, feeling like I don’t belong. Niko’s adoptive mother once acted as the late queen’s handmaiden, so she still occupies the rooms adjacent to the king’s apartments.
The Kar’Kali don’t treat the place with any pomp and circumstance like the grand decor would suggest. It’s treated like any other apartment building, with people bustling to and fro. There are guards posted in various places, but they seem relaxed, chatting like off duty office workers. After getting lost and asking for directions twice, I finally find my way.
“I can’t believe you’re actually here!” Raina exclaims when she greets me at the door. “Ugh, I wish you could’ve called me or something, but between the palace and the village and the lack of cell reception, it can feel like the Middle Ages around here. Where’s Frankie?”
“Let’s sit down first…”
The happiness of seeing each other quickly turns to a morbid mood when I reiterate what the Kar’Kali healers told me about Frankie’s recovery process. Raina has a way of taking bad news in stride.
“That stuff is magic. We’ll have her out of there in no time.”
“I heard they might putThe Rightful Heiron lockdown. What are we supposed to do?”
Raina frowns. “Niko and I are joining the fleet. In fact, we’re about to be assigned to Captain Rossa’s team. Can you take Frankie to the colony in the regen?”
“I was told that it can’t travel through space at high speed or on a forkline at all! So she can’t risk travel right now, not when she was going into shock hours ago.”
“Deep breath,” Raina reminds me. “We’ll… talk it through.”
“With both of us leaving, there’s a chance she’ll wake up alone.” The guilt washes over me. How can I keep my promise to Rossaandsupport Frankie through this? “But she can’t travel.”
“I know it might be frightening for her if she wakes up to a stranger’s face, but we could make some recordings to be played for her in case we can’t get here in time. I’m sure Lalo would agree to check in on her for us— that’s Niko’s foster mom.The Heiris not such a bad place to heal. The people here are kind, and she’d be safe until we find a way to reconnect with her.”
We put a pin in the Frankie decision, because it’s too painful to dwell on it constantly. Having missed so much in the little time we’ve spent apart; Raina and I fill each other in. She tells me what happened after we left her in Station City to pursue Frankie’s captor into a highly restricted forkline. I explain why it took us so long to catch up to that bastard. Raina’s mate Niko appears a few stories in, and after hearing about it, he insists that we head to the king’s own heated baths to relax.
“I’ll go bug the Ka’lakka,” he says with a smirk. “And you two can continue your conversation in comfort, hm?”
When he bids Raina goodbye, I catch the way he squeezes her waist and whispers in her ear as I’m turning toward the door. I hear her low giggle in response to whatever he said. I’ve never seen Raina so infatuated. What kind of witchcraft is this Kar’Kali mating call, I wonder? She’s the kind of girl that tends to have men wagging their tongue over her athletic figure, her sharp tongue, and her boundless energy. She never gave them the time of day before. In fact, sometimes she’d tell them to kick rocks. Now, she’s married to an alien after knowing him for a couple months. It boggles the mind, but then, Raina would be the type to go from zero to sixty for someone. One day, she’d spit in your face and then once you prove yourself worthy of her trust, she’d put everything on the line for you. I give them some space by rushing into the hallway, and when Raina follows me out, she’s carefully wiping the goofy smile off her face.
“Don’t say a word,” she warns, grabbing my wrist to lead the way.
While the royal apartments are beautiful, there’s a spooky quality to them. Raffa did tell me this place is haunted, but such a rumor probably exists because of the echo-y high ceilings, the fading tapestries, and the masterful wall carvings that have begun to crack and chip in places. There’s nothing more ghostly than disrepair, and while everything seems to be kept clean, it’s ancient in a way you can feel.
There’s a cozier atmosphere to the heated baths, perhaps because the rooms are smaller and filled with modern amenities like stacks of towels, lounge chairs, and even a vending machine of some kind. It would be more relaxing if both of us didn’t have Frankie on the brain, but we manage to put that aside as we talk and talk until we’re exhausted. We even get a little giggly, which feels like the delirious release I was needing. And once we’re done laughing our heads off over something stupid, I float on my back so peacefully that I think I’ll drift off in the water.
“I only fell asleep for a few hours at the hospital while the doctors were busy with Frankie,” I tell Raina when she reaches over to playfully open my eyelids for me.
