I didn’t know how long it had been since I’d met with Roxanne, but it felt like too long. After she’d declared the discussion over, several soldiers had surged into the room and taken me to a truck like the one they’d transferred me in before. Then, after a brief ride, I’d been led into a large and well-secured building, where they’d shoved me into a cell with no windows and no furniture.

The location and status of my warriors had not been disclosed to me, though I tried to find out repeatedly as the soldiers strong-armed me from the truck to the cell. As an Elder, I was able to connect soul with them to find out where they were and what condition they were in, but I needed wind to do that. There was no wind in my prison; there was only stale, stagnant air that smelled of bleach and urine. I tried to create wind, spinning in tight circles at rapid speeds and waving my hands about like I was performing a wild tribal dance, but all I succeeded in doing was waft the stench into my nose until I nearly gagged.

When it became clear to me I was essentially helpless in my enclosure, I resigned myself to sitting on the floor with my back pressed against the wall, allowing my thoughts to take over. It wasn’t difficult. My brain was eager to recount every bit of Roxanne it could. I tried to redirect my mind toward more important things, like an escape plan or even the possibility of a peace treaty with the humans, but I was unable to think of anything other than a delicate, heart-shaped face and paralyzing green eyes.

It seemed plausible that I was so consumed with her simply because I hadn’t had the company of a female for so many months, but I couldn’t fool myself. My fascination was not with Roxanne’s gender; it was with Roxanne. Certainly, her enticing curves and classical features were a draw. The way her lips curled and parted when she spoke had entrapped me more than the very prison I sat in. Nevertheless, her beauty was just a shadow to the magnetism of her soul.

She was uncertain of herself. I’d felt that the moment she’d walked into the room. Yet, the way she’d squared her shoulders and held her chin aloft revealed a desire for confidence that was more commanding than if she’d possessed solid confidence, to begin with. She’d had a measure of pride met with an equal measure of modesty, and, though it was for the sake of my opposition, her compassion for the perseverance of life was evident. Why else would she, an unsure woman of no great stature, meet with me and attempt to persuade me to her side? On top of all that, her mind was as open as an expanse of Albaterran plains. None of the prejudice or hatred I’d been met with when interacting with other humans was remotely present in her company. She approached me as I was, not as she perceived me to be, which was the way of the A’li-uud and a delicious breath of fresh air.

Perhaps that was the source of my attraction to her: she reminded me of an A’li-uud, but she was human. She seemed to lack the traits of humanity I loathed while possessing the traits I revered of the A’li-uud. There had to be something more, though, because otherwise my desires would have been reserved only for others of my people.

There was more. I recalled the way she smelled, that sweet, flowery aroma lingering beneath the sharp manufactured scent she wore. It had lit something inside me to smell her, leaving me feeling soothed and stimulated at the same time. The way her cheeks turned pink when I told her had stolen my breath, and I’d felt my heart quicken to twice its normal rate when they became red enough to match her lips.

The woman was enchanting.

Three deafening bangs sounded on the sole door leading to my freedom, and a slot appeared at waist-level.

“Hey! Alien!” a raspy tenor called through the new opening. “Get over here!”

I clambered to my feet, my sword banging between the wall and my thigh as I did. They’d tried again to separate me from my weapon, but the sword’s magic hadn’t allowed it. Once I was alone in my cell, I attempted to hack through the walls and the door with the blade. Unfortunately, that was one power the fuchsia scimitar did not have, so the saber became nothing more than a companion in my imprisonment.

After cuffing me through the slot and restraining me with more ankle and wrist shackles when they entered the tiny room, two soldiers took me by the elbows while a third followed closely behind. They traipsed me through narrow corridors with more cells similar to mine on one side, then through larger rooms with smatterings of tables and chairs. Finally, after what felt like hours, they pushed me through a narrow exit, and hot, yellow sunlight scalded my face. I smelled steaming tarmac and boggy mud, a combination that I couldn’t reconcile in my mind, but I didn’t have the chance to see anything before being thrown into the back of another military truck.

I knew they were taking me to see Roxanne. She’d said she would give me a few days to think about things, and then we would meet again. I was certain they weren’t taking me to my warriors, and it seemed unlikely they would take me to my death if they needed me for their precious peace treaty. The soldiers may have been acting on their own, gone rogue perhaps, but I doubted it. Something in my gut told me I was going to the see the human who’d had me in fits since our last conversation.

As focused as I wanted to stay on getting free and finding my warriors, especially going into a meeting about the future of humans and A’li-uud, I couldn’t pry my mind away from the Ambassador. It wasn’t just rampant lust for her undeniably exquisite body, though some of that was present. I needed to know her. I needed to discover why she was intrinsically different from the others of her kind I’d encountered. I needed to understand why she affected me so.

The truck started to move, bouncing me on the hard bench and jangling my chains, but I was too caught up in my musings to notice. Somehow, I’d become enraptured by a mere human who I’d met for no longer than ten minutes—fifteen if I was being generous. There was something unique in her very being, and I was determined to find out what it was, even if it meant discussing a truce.