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"Then what is it?" I clasp her hands in mine. "What ails you?"
Her lips part and she presses a palm to the center of her chest, yet she is hesitant to speak.
"Just tell me so I can fix it."
"I don't want to go," she blurts.
"To meet my brother or to Etto?"
"Home."
I couldn't have been more stunned had Ruze appeared out of thin air and blasted a hole in my chest with my own weapon again. "I thought that's what you wanted?"
"It was," she sniffles. "I have no right to ask you for anything, and I know how much you value your privacy."
I raise up on my knees, cupping her face in my hands. Hope ribbons around my heart as I search her eyes for an understanding. "What are you trying to say?"
"You've already risked your life to keep me safe and I can't let you do it again. But..." Cora's words fade on a lingering sigh.
"But, what, starfire?"
"I made peace a long time ago with the fact I would never see home again, my mom, or my friends. I figured I would eventually die on Onis." Cora's gaze grows bright with pooling tears. "Though I would love to see my mom one last time. Let her know that I'm okay."
"You don't wish to return to Earth?" My heart hammers in my throat at the prospect of Cora remaining with me on Zeva.
"Qhix said it was too dangerous to travel to Earth. He said the chances of you getting away from the Yulineons is slim to none. I can't let you die because of me."
"Qhix has a big mouth and little faith in my abilities to outrun a group of bliking patrollers." Deflated that it's merely my safety that concerns her, I sit back on my knees. Hope is a dangerous thing to wield when matters of the heart have not been resolved. I got ahead of myself thinking Cora shares the same tender feelings for me as I have for her. "Worry not, starfire. I will not die in the process of returning you home."
I start to rise, but she grabs a hold of my wrist. "That isn't the only reason."
My eyes roam her face, searching for a glimmer of the tenderness I feel for her, but as I do, an underlying fear creeps in. The longer she remains silent, I worry maybe mine isn't a genuine emotion reciprocated, and perhaps I have been twice a fool to lay myself vulnerable to the pain of rejection.
Had I allowed myself to be taken alive by her beauty, only to be slain by an icy indifference?
"I love you, Navik." Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. "My heart couldn't bear it if I had to leave you behind."
I sag under the weight of the relief that washes over me as her words echo in my mind. The breath I hadn't realized I was holding punches from my lungs. Only now, as I inhale deeply, do I finally allow myself to feel the full force of my love for her.
"You what?" I utter like a gibbering idiot. "You... did I hear you right?"
"You did," she fidgets while my mouth hangs loose, my mind still processing the very thing I yearned to hear. "Going by your expression, I've stunned you into silence. It's okay if you don't feel the same—"
I snatch her up so fast, she squeaks. Her body is so small against mine, but her presence fills me up like nothing else ever could. I hold her tightly, not wanting to ever let her go, and whisper, "I love you too, Cora. More than anything else in the Universe."
Her big gray eyes widen, and then soften with a smile that could light up the darkest of skies. "I was afraid to tell you," she says, shyly.
"Never be afraid to tell me anything, starfire. A Kaul without his mate is lost. Had I taken you home, I don't know if I could have let you go," I admit. "Once both sides of me knotted you, filling your womb with my mating seed, I sealed your fate. I shouldn't have forced a Kaul mating on you."
"Is this what you and Qhix were deep in discussion about aboard his ship? The thing you said you were going to catch me up on later?"
"Yes. I shouldn't have forced a Kaul mating on you when I should have asked first."
"Well, then," Cora leans back on bended elbows and widens her knees invitingly, "get to asking."
* * *
CORA
