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Rylec met his wife’s eyes over their crying children and smiled.I love you, he mouthed.
Inez mouthed it back and laughed.
Rylec resisted the urge to roar with joy.
Chapter 16
7 Years Later
Eliaz propped one elbow on the wide expanse of polished stone table before him and rested his chin on his fist. “I don’t think so.”
Rylec’s holographic face stayed blank and cold, but Inez frowned for a second. The Empress of Sollir quickly washed the expression off her face but Eliaz had seen it. His own lip curved, an infuriating smile. Neither the empress nor emperor were here in the flesh, but Eliaz didn’t need to read their minds to know he’d win this negotiation.
If you could call it that.
“You’ve given me an order, but you offer nothing in return, Empress.”
“She shouldn’t have to,” Rylec said. “She’s your empress, Eliaz—”
“We’re an independent colony, are we not? That was our agreement, Rylec.”
His old ally glared at him. “You still have to follow our rules.”
Eliaz gave a mocking little shrug. “That’s not what the word independent means.”
“In every other way, you’re independent,” Empress Inez interjected, “but not this way. This is too important.”
“Oh, I know.” That was exactly why Eliaz knew he’d win this. Inez was a tact negotiator, but he knew what issues mattered to her most. Though she had spent seven years as empress and twenty as a star-maid, underneath it all she was only an Earthling. An inferior species, like so many others in the galaxy. “How many assassination attempts have you faced in your seven years on the throne? Two-hundred and twenty-eight, was it?”
“If you were responsible for any of those,” Rylec started with a growl—
Eliaz raised a hand. “I wouldn’t have either of you killed, Rylec. A new emperor or empress might not honor our agreement. I have no desire to bend the knee again.” Eliaz laid back in his seat. “Or face execution. It’s more likely to go that way, I think.”
Inez banged her fist against the table. The hologram projected the sound across their solar system, but given the way Rylec flinched, it had lost some of its impact in translation. “If you do not follow my order, you won’t have to worry about a new empress executing you. I’ll do it myself.”
“The crown has made you quite bloodthirsty, Inez.”
“It’s ‘Your Majesty’, Archlord.”
Eliaz inclined his head. “Your Majesty.”
Inez narrowed her eyes. “Will you do it? Or do we have a problem?”
Eliaz let out a long sigh, but flicked his fingers at the hologram before him, pulling up the required paperwork for his empress to see. “As you commanded six years ago, all Tertian star-maids were untethered and returned to their Star Temple. Since then, they’ve slaughtered all the priests and barricaded themselves inside. They have enough land to be self-sustaining. We have sent diplomats to negotiate, but they refuse every offer.”
“This time, the offer comes from me.”
“But without me, you have nothing to offer.”
Inez narrowed her green eyes. They bored into him like a laser, but Eliaz had never turned away from a stare. Eye contact was all he needed to hook his power into someone’s mind.
“Your magic will once again be boosted,” she said.
“I’ve never needed a star-maid, Your Majesty. They were helpful to have around, but I wouldn’t be an Archlord of Tertia if I relied on another for my power.”
Inez clenched her fist. “You—”
“—need me. Make it worth my time, Empress.”
