AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But still, when I’d stayed behind in this lab, I’d turned my back on the humans that’d come this far with me, and the thing that kept me going was subverting whatever Crux was up to.
No way was he just going to harvest my sample, manufacture a baby, and stick it in my arms to care for and protect. And while I wasn’t sure I was ready to be a dad, I was definitely fucking sure the last person I wanted having any hand in my kid’s life was Crux. It only took one look at Vorian’s dour, handsome frown to realize Crux was possibly the universe’s worst father.
Speaking of the whole mixing of gametes, Crux had still not even taken Vorian’s sample. Vorian would have told me. Said something. So there was nothing for me to do but swap out the little tube I’d stolen that kept the sample viable for the one Crux had.
The past couple days, I’d taken to wandering to his side, watching him work. I thought I’d found the glowing tube he meant for me, my name scrawled into the side of a small vial locked in place.
Another was inserted beside it. So I bided my time. Waited until he wasn’t watching me. He must’ve thought I’d gone soft, staring into the tube all wistfully when there wasn’t even anything there yet.
But while he was messing around with another, I slipped Vorian’s sample from under my dress, unplugged the vial beside mine, and replaced it with Vorian’s.
There was a soft whoosh as it locked into place, but nothing else changed. Nothing, until the light above the vial turned purple. The one I’d taken was still full, but with Vorian’s donation and locking it in—sure, without knowing what the fuck I was doing—it finally began to work.
There. Now I knew, beyond doubt, that if I had a half-alien warrior baby, it’d be Vorian’s. And I’d get to be a kitten raising a whole-ass lion cub.
“What are you doing?” Crux’s sharp voice barked behind me.
I spun around, crushing the vial I’d taken against my lower back. “Just looking. It’s...” I took a deep breath, determined to use that shakiness in my chest to my advantage. Crux already thought I was weak and simpering. “It’s just, I wanted to see how it works. I’ve never, you know, had a baby.”
He scowled down at me, but with my big, watery eyes shining his way, he grimaced like there was nothing more disgusting than a guy getting soft about the fruit of his loins.
A cleared throat caught his attention, and I hid the extra vial against my hip while he looked the other way.
“The prince has arrived,” one of the big blue lab assistants informed us. Informed Crux, I guessed, since they rarely spoke to me.
Crux’s expression immediately hardened as he stared at his minion. “Summon Vipha to the throne room. Find Vorian.”
For a second, I thought he had forgotten me, but then he wrapped his enormous hand around the back of my neck and propelled me, stumbling, back to my cell.
He shoved me inside, and this time, for the first time in weeks, he locked it behind me. I thought it was less to keep me in place than to keep Kaelum or any of the Thorzi inclined to take me away from getting in.
Once the door slid shut, I was alone in the small white cell, no choice but to sit on my cot and wait. I couldn’t hear clear voices beyond the door, and soon, the space was entirely silent.
Anxiety buzzed in my head, blurring time and feeling and everything else. It could’ve been hours of me sitting there, worrying for Vorian, for Kaelum and Lucas, before the door zipped open again.
I was off the cot at once, and there on the other side, with long wounds slashed into the muscle of his chest and down his arm, Vorian gripped the doorframe to catch his breath.
“Are you all right?” I demanded, rushing to steady him. It wasn’t like I could lift the enormous alien warrior, but I braced a palm on an unhurt spot of his chest and he sagged toward me, ignoring his wounds and everything else, like the idea of finding some kind of doctor hadn’t even occurred to him yet.
“Lucas is a mage,” Vorian informed me, gripping me by the tops of my arms. He leaned in, his enormous blue eyes searching every inch of my face. “Did you know?”
I blinked at him, my thoughts shorting out as I stared up into his ardent gaze. A mage? Like fucking Merlin or some shit?
“Of course not. I have no idea what you’re—”
For once, there was no patience left in Vorian. His thumbs rubbed the rounds of my bare shoulders. “Does your kind have power?”
Another blink. Nothing he was saying made sense. Not until I stared at the center of his chest and saw the silvery threads of his star marks. I reached out for his skin, brushing across one of the shimmering lines with the knuckle of my first finger.
“No, Vorian. No. There’s no magic on Earth. Not like yours.”
His hands flexed on my arms, his fingers so tight his grip edged toward painful. “But Kaelum’s Lucas is amage.”
I fought back a grimace, sure there’d been some mistake in translation or a misunderstanding, but Vorian seemed so intent, I did not have the words to tell him he was wrong.
“And Thorzan cannot afford to leave a mage locked away,” he insisted, pulling me with him, and I didn’t know if it was toward something better or the first steps on a quick path to disappointing him.
CHAPTER18
