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He clenched his jaw. Instead of being happy he could give her something she wanted, he questioned why she wanted whatever abird’s eyeview was. Her DNA wasn’t avian. It was mammal.
Two sides of him were fighting. The need to please and protect her, and protecting and fulfilling his duty to Quillon. The battle felt like it would rage until he got to the bottom of this.
He turned back to Zhictor so he wouldn’t get lost in Leah’s wide, curious gaze again. “We’re flying tonight. Get me the fastest ship you have.”
Fast also meant small. And cramped. He would be sitting side by side with Leah. He’d have to make sure not to touch her again.
Letting her wrist go had been torture before, and his energy was pulling him closer to her the longer he was in her presence.
This flight was going to test his control like nothing had before. Nines help him.
8
LEAH
“Wow.” Leah twirled on the spot, trying to see as much of the garden as possible. “You live in heaven.”
If every mythical human garden had been inspired by this place, Leah wouldn’t have been surprised. As soon as they’d exited the cold, echoey building, she and Taryn had stepped into paradise.
So many wonderfully bizarre plants surrounded them, thorny and fragrant. The burgundy trees had pink cotton balls lining their branches instead of leaves, the multicolored flowers were the size of her head, and everything was vibrant and alive in a way that she hadn’t felt back on Earth in years. Since she’d last tended the rose bushes with Nana, to be precise. It happened a day before she’d collapsed and everything had gone to hell.
The gloom which had impregnated her every cell since coming to Quillon had been dulled down at feeling nature again. Her mind was too preoccupied with thinking up flower arrangements. That purple, cascading flower would look great in a bride’s bouquet. And the soft, pink star petals of the other one would make any corsage pop. Oh, and those peppered red flowers would be absolutely lovely in an arrangement at the front of her fictional store.
The longer she waited with Taryn at the front of the line, the more ideas flowed. A small laugh passed her lips.
She hadn’t daydreamed about her flower shop in ages. But standing here, smelling the honeyed scent wafting through the air, that small, abandoned dream felt possible again.
“We don’t believe in heaven,” Taryn said from beside her, tapping his translator, the same kind Leah had strapped to her left ear. “We live, we die, the Nines take care of the rest.”
“That’s because you’re already living in paradise.”
Tall, imposing buildings towered over them only a mile away, but right here, right now, Leah stood in the calming stillness she’d missed so much.
She’d been sick and tired of running and being exhausted even before she’d left Earth. But seeing what the universe had to offer outside of her pitiful existence would make it even harder to go back home.
“Do you think I could gather some of them?” she asked.
“That would be difficult for a newcomer. Our plants are sentient.”
Leah’s eyes shot up to his. Damn. Still gorgeous. “You’re joking.”
Taryn laughed low in his throat. “If I were, it would have been a very bad joke. It’s very true. They live and feel. Whatever flowers you gather have to be given willingly.”
“So.” Leah ran a hand through the hairs which had escaped her bun, eyeing the closest bush like she was getting ready for an interview. “Do I just...ask them?”
She was distantly aware of the Quillons waiting behind them for their own shuttles. Some guards had followed her and Taryn, yes, but some of the guests had wandered out of the party, too.
Leah had been mesmerized by the rows and rows of blood-red jewels around the females’ long necks and the strands of green gems twisted in their long, black hair. But then Taryn had caught her staring, mouth open, and she’d struggled to keep her hungry eyes away from them ever since.
Who needed jewels when she had flowers, anyway?
But that didn’t stop the Quillons from staring at her. Specifically, her next to Taryn. Leah might’ve been from a different planet, but she understood those narrowed skeptical looks.
They were wondering why he was withher. It was fine. Leah didn’t understand it, either, but here she was.
This beautiful Quillon’s soulmate.
“You can ask, but you’re a stranger. They might not respond until they learn your energy,” he said.
