“Khiva!” Eve gasped, scurrying around the dining table when her male stepped into their dwelling. “What happened? Are you okay?”

There was a large gash down the front of his arm and some of it had gotten on his clothes.

“Oh,” Eve said, her brows furrowing when she saw how deep it ran. It wasn’t heavily bleeding since it was old enough to already start clotting over. “Khiva, you should’ve come home.”

“I have had worse, leeldra,” he said softly, gripping her neck to pull her forward for a kiss.

Yes, he had, she thought. She would never be able to get the sight of his bloody, whipped back from her mind. Ever.

“Mhppff—” she pulled away from his kiss with a frown. “None of that right now. This needs to be cleaned.”

She led him quickly to the washroom, his work boots falling heavily on the floor of their dwelling, no doubt tracking crushed minerals and slivers of metal with them, but she didn’t worry about that right then.

Immediately, she placed a damp, warm cloth on his arm, before running the bath. Khiva undressed as it filled and when his fingers came to the straps of her dress, she swatted his hands.

“In,” she ordered, not in the mood for his advances. She hated when he came home injured and unfortunately, it was something that happened often enough over the past couple months where they had a routine.

Khiva blew out a heavy breath and got into the large washing tub. Eve sat on the edge, letting him soak for bit before she tried to clean off the dirt and debris.

“What happened?” she asked.

“A rock fell,” he replied, shrugging. “It sliced my arm.”

“Khiva,” Eve said, shaking her head. “Luckily that’s all it sliced!”

Again, he blew out another breath, taking the cloth she’d draped over his gash and lathering it up with soap. She took it from him and used it to clean his skin, the water turning a blue-grey.

“It could’ve fallen on your head,” she continued, frowning, swallowing past the thick lump in her throat.

“It was small, leeldra,” Khiva comforted her, though he was the one making the bath water bloody.

“Khiva,” she whispered, looking at him, “I know you like working, but maybe you should reconsider working at the mines.”

“We will not talk about this again.”

“I’m pregnant now,” Eve said and Khiva stilled, his eyes warming. “I don’t want to bring up an old argument here, but you know we have enough credits to live a more than comfortable life, even if we both stopped working today.”

“It is just a new section of the mines, leeldra,” he said softly. “It takes time to stabilize and to learn which areas to avoid.”

“What would happen if you got seriously hurt?” Eve asked. “Or worse?”

His expression softened, seeing tears well up in her eyes. “Keriv’i skin is thick, Evelyn,” he said. “It will take much to harm me.”

“That doesn’t make me feel better,” she said, lifting his injured arm from the bath water. It was deep, but not deep enough to expose bone.

Gently, she cleaned the wound.

When he was clean, Khiva stood from the tub and she got the healing salve and bandages as he dressed. Once she applied both, she looked up at him as their tub drained, twining her arms around his neck.

She stood on her tiptoes to kiss him and his hands gripped her hips.

“It won’t be just you and me, soon,” she said when she pulled away, placing his hands on her belly. “Mining work is dangerous. Everyone knows that. Just promise me that you’ll think about finding something else. I’m not asking you to stop working…just to find something where you won’t come home hurt.”

Khiva made a sound in his throat.

“Will you?” she asked softly.

Khiva swallowed and said, “I…I have been thinking of it, leeldra.”

Her heart skipped. “Really?”

“Pax,” he said, his expression sober.

Slowly, she asked, “Does this have anything to do with what Kavik keeps referring to, and not very subtly?”

She’d noticed, not only the first time she’d met him, but also at the dinner she’d invited him to a few days ago, that he talked about some kind of venture with Khiva. Though, Eve didn’t press him when Khiva made it clear he didn’t want to talk about it at dinner. And truthfully, once Kavik had left, she’d forgotten to ask her male about it, since he distracted her with far more pleasurable ventures.

“Kavik,” Khiva said, as if measuring his words with precision, “wants me to create firestones again.”

Eve stilled, knowing that it was a sensitive subject for her male. No wonder he’d always changed the subject.

“And what do you think?” she asked, trying to read his expression.

He inhaled a long breath, his gaze darting around the brightly lit washroom, where they were still standing. “I am…torn.”

Lately, she’d been worrying about him. He stayed up late into the night, slipping out of bed after she went to sleep. A couple nights ago, she’d woken to an empty bed and had padded out to the sitting room to look for him. She’d found him, hunched over a notebook, writing with what she could only describe as ferocity.

She’d never seen him write before and she’d stood, transfixed by the way his hand had moved effortlessly over the pages. She wondered if he’d been writing in English or in Keriv’i.

In the end, she’d left him to whatever he was doing and returned to bed, not wanting to disturb him. And just last night, she’d woken in the middle of the night to find him gone from bed again.

“Is this why you haven’t been able to sleep lately?” she asked softly.

“Yes,” he replied.

“What…what have you been writing in your notebook?” she asked, wondering if he’d answer her.

A smile touched his lips. “You saw that?”

“One night, I went to see where you were. I saw you, but I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“I have been making notes,” he said. “On the process. The formula. What minerals and metals I could use as replacements for the ones I do not have access to any longer. Equipment needed.”

Eve’s lips parted. “You’ve been doing more than just thinking about this.”

Khiva nodded. “Like you said, it will not just be the two of us soon.”

Her heart softened.

“When we were in the southern tip of Dumera, Kavik told me that he had no intention of working the mines until his body was broken. I realized then that I would’ve been willing to. But then, what help and comfort would that be to you? To our children? Work for males, other than mining, is scarce on Dumera. And the one skill I had honed for most of my life, which would bring in plenty of credits and would not demand a physical toll on my body, was the one skill I refused to use.”

“Khiva,” she whispered.

He shook his head. “Kavik suggested that I begin again.”

“How would he fit into this?” Eve questioned.

“He would manage the exports, just as his father had done for my family,” Khiva said.

Eve saw how conflicted about this he was. She knew, from what he’d told her, how difficult it was for him, how much blame he took for what happened to Kerivu. He believed that in some way, firestones had been the reason for his planet’s destruction.

“If I created firestones again,” he said softly, “I could be home more. With you. With our child. I would worry less. I wouldn’t be so tired from the mines.”

“All of those sound like very good reasons,” she said softly and slowly. “It sounds like you have already made up your mind, Khiva.”

“I…have.”

Her breathed hitched, hope rising in her breast.

He swallowed, looking down at her, his beautiful eyes so dark that she could see her reflection in them. “I suppose I just needed to see your face when I told you…to know it was the right decision.”

Eve placed her hands on his chest and said, “I want you to do this because you want to. I know how much you’ve struggled with the idea of ever making them again. I know it’s a big decision, but I want it to be your decision.”

“Truthfully,” he started, “I made the decision the night you gave me the ledger.”

“Really?”

“After you had gone to sleep, I sat out in the sitting room all night. I realized that,” he swallowed hard, his voice dropping slightly, “now that my mother and brother are gone, I am the last of my family line that knows how to create firestones. Seeing my family name in that ledger…it made me feel a part of that legacy again. I realized that the knowledge and the history of firestones, which is so deeply rooted in my people and culture, would fade away if I did not keep it alive. If I did not pass it on to my own children.”

Eve bit her lip when it trembled and she felt the beginnings of a soft smile, though she tried to hide it until he finished.

“I feel that it is my duty, to my people, to my mother and my brother, and all that came before me, that I continue,” he said.

“Khiva,” she whispered, unable to stop her smile from spreading. She kissed his chin and said, “I am proud that our children will have a father like you.”

Khiva placed his forehead on hers and she wrapped her arms around his waist, careful of his freshly cleaned wound.

“I wanted you to be the first to know,” he said softly. “I will tell Kavik in the morning. Tomorrow will be my last day in the mines.”

Eve blew out a soft breath of relief. “Watch out for those falling rocks then.”

Khiva laughed softly, his shoulders shaking. When he took in a deep breath, she realized that something had been lifted from him.

“It will take time,” he told her. “We will need to find a lab, source materials. It will be difficult to create them without the materials I am used to.”

“But you will?” Eve asked. “You think you can recreate them here on Dumera?”

Khiva grinned and her pulse fluttered at the look in his eyes. There was something in his gaze, an expression she’d never seen before. It was playful, confident…knowing.

“I am the Prince of Firestones, leeldra,” he said.

His fingers slid under the straps of her dress and that time she didn’t stop him as he pushed them off her shoulders.

She gasped when he leaned down to tongue her bared breasts, his mouth warm against her cool skin.

Looking up at her, he rasped, “I know I can create them again.”