“Z eke!” Ahnna called out.
Jumping out the Orion Nebula, she ran to the red-headed man slowly walking towards her, ducking as a bolt of lightning lit up Primaera’s dark angry sky. “Did you know? Did you?”
She punched him in the chest with the flat of her palm, and then again, her short angry questions reduced to gulping sobs as Octiron’s vid operator silently absorbed every blow.
As her fury ran out of steam in the face of his calm, Zeke wrapped arms around her.
“I saw what happened on Altaira, but I didn’t know what Crandal planned to do with the material. He’s been distracted, not himself, back and forth in meetings with the producers. I decided he was waiting for you guys to come forward with the truth. Ahnna, I am so sorry.” His hand cupped her head as she drenched his T-shirt in tears. “Please don’t cry. You’ve been so brave, so steadfast.”
She shook her head and pushed him away. “I left him there, all alone. Did you see? What happened to you? You never came back. I had no one to talk to. Crandal wouldn’t answer my questions, said we’d brought it on ourselves with our deceit, that we’d signed up to be honest with Octiron. Couldn’t you have said something? Anything? We trusted you!”
“I know. I got reassigned, had no way to contact you. I got too close to you guys. The production team figured out the sex scene. Some jerk in the audience compiled some repeated shots and—well, my fault. Should have done a better job.”
“Do you know if he’s okay? Tierc? Is he okay?”
“No one knows anything.”
“But you had a vid drone in the palace! I know you were watching us. No way you left that scene to just my point of view!”
“We had the Tetriarch’s permission to film. She edited the footage sent back. A lot got cut out.”
Ahnna spotted dark anger in his eyes. “You saw something!”
Zeke grimaced. “A badly edited segment, just a split second. I’m sorry, Ahnna, I won’t lie to you. The Tetriarch used the force-fields to punish him. It may have been a brief moment, but, how do I put this… it’s well known, she likes the rebellious type; gives her an excuse to indulge her tastes.”
Ahnna smothered a cry with a hand. “Oh my god!”
“I did hear some gossip, Ahnna. The Krakan Toll was spotted making a jump back to the Verdon sector.”
“Jalo! He got my message?” Zeke’s dumb expression answered her, but Ahnna’s heart thudded with hope. “He must have done!”
She and Tierc had planned to transport with Xecara to the Orion Nebula. While Verdon’s forces chased the Krakan Toll, they would sneak off to Sorsei. Ahnna had handed Jalo Vichai the key to the Krakan Toll, to give him a head start.
Jalo had a mind of his own. If the pilot returned to Verdon…
Another streak of lightning made them both jump. “Fuck, can’t have been fun landing in that. This freaking storm’s outta control,” Zeke moaned.
“Zeke! What about Jalo?”
“I don’t know. I do know the Tetriarch launched a huge manhunt for an escaped convict a week later.”
“Zeke!” a man’s voice yelled from across the launch pad. “You coming?”
“I gotta go. Ahnna, hold it together. Read your contract. Don’t do anything to jeopardize your freedom.” He waved at his colleague and began to walk backwards, the expression on his face telling Ahnna to heed his words. “You need that citizenship or Octiron will never let you go.”
She watched Zeke board a transport. The hatchway closed behind him, the closest person she had to a friend on Primaera.
She made her way to the Arrivals Lounge in Octiron’s planetside spaceport. An Octiron hostess greeted her inside. The woman needed a root pigment alteration, her natural brunette beginning to show through. So the dumb blonde act was deliberate, a stereotype that refused to die out. Everything about the Great Space Race was fake—fake, bad, and ugly.
Xecara’s words rattled in Ahnna’s head. “I want to go home.”
That longing spoken by the living embodiment of the Sorsei faith had reached in and grabbed Ahnna’s devotion. That longing that had captured her heart now filled her dreams and waking moments. That longing threatened to cast her into despair again and again for she was totally, utterly lost. Those moments in Tierc’s arms were the closest to home Ahnna had felt since those few precious years with Joseph.
Home wasn’t a place, it was a person.
A connection to another soul that gave everything and took nothing.
She closed her eyes and dug deep for the resolve she would need to see this race through to the bitter end. I need to find him. I need to make my home. Getting her citizenship was her key, the precious pendant she needed around her neck.
Read her contract, fulfill her contract, and find Tierc.
So they could get the fuck out of Paragon.
* * *
“So, Ahnna, it’s been awhile since you returned the High Priestess to Sorsei. What have you been doing since?” Suede Harrington bade Ahnna sit on the sofa where he’d once interviewed her and Tierc together.
Ahnna plastered on a bright smile. “Oh you know, the usual—a bit of ribbon cutting, meeting our amazing fans.” She’d waited out the months to Primaera’s winter solstice—that marked the Great Space Race winners’ gala—earning her citizenship. Octiron had her run a gauntlet of promotion duties: corporate presentations, mall openings, evening receptions, and numerous pointless errands, the list endless.
“No sign of Tierc Marcel? Not even a message from House Verdon?”
Ahnna glowered at Suede with loathing, the cruel question a Harrington baiting tactic. She shook with anger, exposed to the mass media in a lilac, gem-crusted, slit to the thigh dress she couldn’t control while sat down. High-heeled glass slippers adorned her feet, and plenty of cleavage added to the bare flesh on show.
The bright studio lights heated her skin.
“Good thing you no longer carry a blaster,” Suede jested, “or I think I might be toast!”
The audience laughed dutifully.
Ahnna bit her lip, refused to give way to tears. “I’ve heard nothing from Tierc, as you well know.”
She understood why Tierc hadn’t contacted her. If he was alive, and Ahnna refused to believe he wasn’t, then he knew she was at Octiron’s HQ on Primaera. The whole of Paragon knew her every move! But she hadn’t heard a whisper, and Tierc was Qui. He’d contact her if he wanted to.
Her betrayal had devastated him.
The loss swelled up inside her, choked her throat.
“Did you know Jalo Vichai’s plans after you handed him the Krakan Toll?” Harrington continued to pursue dangerous ground, like the bastard wanted Ahnna to lose her citizenship.
No one knew the truth of Tierc’s escape. Unconfirmed reports from Verdazia suggested the Tetriarch continued her warpath hunt for a missing prisoner, but nothing official, nothing in sector-regulated news. The terms of her contract bound Ahnna to complicity with Octiron and the media corporation had speculated for weeks now that Tierc was either dead or remained a guest of House Verdon. The Tetriarch demanded nothing less.
Ahnna picked her words carefully. “Jalo wanted to retire. Disappear.”
“And he did, but he might have helped you. Our viewers want to know why you abandoned Tierc. You left Verdon so quickly.”
Harrington tore into the gaping chasm inside her and Ahnna sat frozen in pain even as her heart quickened with guilt. She forced out an answer through chattering teeth. “My job was to get Xecara back to Sorsei. I worried the Tetriarch might change her mind.” Surprise flashed in Harrington’s eyes and Ahnna clamped down on her hatred for the Verdon bitch. “I—Axo—launched the Orion Nebula immediately I and Xecara transported aboard.”
She stopped there, determined to protect Jalo at least. God, she hoped the pilot was okay. She monitored the news for the Krakan Toll and Jalo Vichai and had heard nothing. That could be good. It might not be.
“You were supposed to be a team,” Harrington jibed.
“Yes.”
That sick feeling of being played, conned from beginning to end, wrapped around her stomach—first Human Defense-X, then Octiron and the Tetriarch. All played a vicious game for media ratings and power at her and Tierc’s expense, able to mess with their lives, because she and Tierc weren’t Paragon citizens, because in their ignorance they had signed a contract that placed them under commercial law, because they originated from another universe and had no recourse to protection under an inter-galactic treaty.
Anger simmered inside her.
Soon it would be over. Do this one last interview and she would be free.
Alone in a galaxy she hated, a galaxy invaded and ruled by humankind. Paragon made the Qui Empire look almost benevolent, and she spoke as someone raised to hate the Qui.
“What would you say to Tierc if he could hear you now?” Harrington asked.
God, she’d thought long and hard about this question. He might be watching her right now. In the moment, with the lights bright and Suede Harrington sitting there in her face, the audience hanging on her every word with bated breath, Ahnna’s mind faltered.
She closed her eyes, slowed her racing pulse and spoke from the heart.
“I would say that I love you, Tierc.” She couldn’t hold back her emotion. A single tear escaped. “And that I’m so sorry. If I could have thought of any other way to handle things on Verdon… please believe me, I ran out of options. I couldn’t see a way through.” The sob burst out before she could stop it and Ahnna buried her head in her hands, unable to control the loss and self-loathing surging through her.
Harrington handed her a folded handkerchief.
“Beautiful,” he whispered.
When the interminable, odious interview had finished dissecting her to shreds, Ahnna stumbled out of the studio and on to the open rooftop where the gala party was in full swing and Crandal awaited her with her citizenship credentials. Everything had been choreographed in advance. Vid drones buzzed her as Crandal made a show of presenting her citizenship credentials on a tablet. She smiled dutifully and posed for pictures, but her handler seemed distracted, checking around him. The man flinched when lightning crisscrossed the dark stormy sky.
“Madness holding the gala here,” he moaned.
Ahnna stared at him. She’d assumed a reasonably good forecast had decided the gala would continue on the rooftop as planned. Hard to spot a clear night sky from a stormy one for the brightly lit orbs splashing the rooftop with color. They were so high up the orbs could be floating amongst the stars, Octiron’s HQ a skyscraping tower, one of the tallest in the city.
She refused a cocktail, watched the drink-bot target Kayana, a crimson-skinned flame-throwing Malebranki standing with her partner. Ahnna scanned other contestants, admired the way the orbs lit up Mia’s golden dress, loving the Tygean’s feline grace and the way her dress looked one with her skin, or had Mia produced fur? Ahnna wanted to find out. She’d avoided Mia and Kayana at the opening gala—suspicious of anyone not human. So stupid.
Shame warmed her cheeks.
Meeting the teams as they trickled home to Primaera had opened her eyes anew. She could have made friends here.
An Octiron guard approached and whispered in Crandal’s ear. Her handler paled and leaned towards Ahnna. “Don’t go anywhere. Octiron still needs to talk with you.”
What? Fuck that. She nodded at Crandal, unwilling to jeopardize her freedom until her citizenship was in her hand, but surely the deed was done. She watched him leave via the elevator, frantically reviewed her contract in her head trying to work out whether Octiron still had a hold on her, a hold she hadn’t realized.
She shuddered, scanned the guards as she let her eye casually rove over the party crowd.
Guests were cheering. Mia’s teammate had joined her, the pair so different from each other. D’Arek wore an expression that came close to an outright scowl. Easy on the eye in all other respects.
Soon they would be formally announcing this year’s winners.
Without Tierc, Ahnna could lay no claim to the prize. They had completed their challenges, they might have won. Instead she had no prize and no ship. Just the brief sight of a document confirming her Paragon citizenship, a bitter consolation without Tierc beside her. How everything changed.
Streaks of lightning rent the sky, momentarily blinding her and causing consternation amongst Octiron’s security. A nearby orb spat out a fireball of light and those nearest squealed. Ahnna slipped into the elevator. Her duties were at an end, she had fulfilled every condition of her contract, and she didn’t like the way security congregated near her.
Within seconds, the high-speed elevator deposited her in the reception foyer. She barged past a group of guests coming in, heard someone shout, “Ahnna, wait,” and lengthened her stride, cursing her high heels.
Outside, she looked back, saw security moving towards the glass doors and panicked. Ripping off her shoes, she gathered her skirt and ran down the widely spaced steps to the boulevard. She veered to one side, aimed for a side alley, spotted Luc Amaveo in black fatigues and Amy in a long tunic, her legs and arms covered, an unusual look for an Octiron gala. At least Amy was warm. They were engrossed in conversation, and Ahnna didn’t want to stop. She thought they saw her, couldn’t be sure, and ran smack into a group of menacing-looking guys. Ahnna gasped, backtracked, and flinched at a rush of air, the flap of wings a flashback to the bat-like creature in the tunnels. She ducked and covered her head.
An iron band wrapped around her waist and hoisted her upwards.
Her stomach swooped. She squealed.
Lightning flashed again as she inhaled his scent, a spicy exotic hint of cinnamon she had craved to smell one last time.
“Tierc!”
* * *
“I love you too, Ahnna,” Tierc murmured against her ear, voicing the words he had been desperate to say ever since her interview with Harrington.
Flying up and out of the alley, Tierc turned the startled woman in her arms so she faced him nose to nose. He’d needed to hold her close for so long. Waiting had nearly killed him.
“Tierc?” she squeaked again. Her eyes were wide. She looked pale, frozen.
“You’re okay.” He watched her panic subside, dropped to the rooftops where they’d be less likely to be spotted, darting aside every few seconds to avoid an electrical discharge. One wing brushed a parapet. They couldn’t fly long, too risky in this electrical storm. He detected screams from Octiron’s building, glanced back briefly and caught sight of more orbs shorting out in the storm’s electrical discharge. They needed to land. He touched down in the commercial district, deserted this time of night.
The ground rumbled underfoot. Now that was unusual.
The moment her feet touched down, Ahnna rose up on her toes and locked her lips to his. She kissed his mouth, his nose, his cheeks, and his eyes until he was forced to grab her hands and push her away so he could get her attention.
“Believe me, although, there is nothing I want more than to,” he tore her dress in two, loving her shocked gasp, “ravish you where you stand, I can’t afford to be caught. Now,” he pulled clothes out of the bag strapped to his waist. “Put these on. We can catch up later.”
“Oh my God, I can’t believe it! I prayed you were alive, but I thought you must hate me!” Her eyes devoured him; she looked in complete shock, her expression flitting between sheer delight and disbelief.
“I won’t lie, I had some sticky moments for a while there, but I quickly realized Octiron had been playing games, messing with our heads, and I couldn’t forget the devastation on your face. Ahnna, you did the right thing, putting Xecara first, getting your citizenship. That’s all I’ve been waiting for. Now’s the time to disappear.” He grinned. “With me. Now put these clothes on.”
Ahnna grabbed the clothing he handed her and pulled on the pants first, Tierc helping to remove the remaining shreds of her dress. “They had Xecara in this hole, Tierc. She was terrified. God, I know that fear, I’ve been there, and she was filthy, like the slaves on the Krakan Toll.” She shoved arms into sleeves and Tierc pulled the shirt over her head. Damn, she was cold, her nipples puckered, unsurprising given the temperature had just plunged, or she was just incredibly happy to see him. Overhead the sky lit up from a long series of lightning bolts, a general mask of white when seen from their covered position in the alley. Winter come early.
He found the foot leggings and boots he’d purchased for her. “I thought Xecara looked okay, just really scrawny… and frightened.”
“Only because I helped clean her up and feed her.”
“It’s okay. I’m not accusing you.”
He would never tell her the truth, that the Tetriarch had used Ahnna as her personal delivery service. As far as he knew, the details of House Verdon’s reinstatement of diplomatic relations with Sorsei had not been made public. Octiron had presented the challenge as Team Orion Nebula facilitating the release of a political prisoner, thereby resolving a diplomatic row. No one queried the ethics, the audience more interested in the heart-breaking end to their budding romance.
More drama in bust ups than weddings.
She pulled on the first boot and looked up. “Was it Jalo? Who got you out?”
Tierc dropped down to hold the second boot still. “All I know is the force-field containment collapsed. I shifted to a Cyran snake and disappeared into the ventilation system. Your cuffs stopped me shifting, never stopped me absorbing DNA.”
“A snake!” Ahnna’s nose scrunched up in disgust.
“It’s reptilian. Worked for me.”
“But how do you think? What happens to your brain?”
“Gets stored… like data in a pin crystal. Basic instructions filter through and when it’s safe, instinct takes over and I shift back. It’s not much different from matter transfer, just need a DNA imprint as input.”
Ahnna stood up, ready to go. Tierc grasped her hand and began to run.
“Where are we going?” Ahnna yelled.
“The Orion Nebula.”
“But we forfeit the ship! You never made it back in time!” She began to pant.
“Technically, I did. My contract merely demands I and my partner return to Primaera after successful completion of one hundred points before the winter solstice, and I have. Axo logged my presence on Primaera two minutes ago. So we need to move now.”
“Axo?” Ahnna grabbed a quick breath. “You trust Axo?”
“Axo, the AI you love to hate, never let on about the shields I put in, did he?”
Ahnna threw him a quizzical look.
“See, Axo belonged to Octiron and had to follow their direct orders. Work around his directives and he can be very helpful. Now his logic circuits states he belongs to us. There are no vid drones watching us, no comms-link tracking us.”
“Is that why you didn’t contact me? You needed me to complete the terms of my contract?”
“Couldn’t afford any suspicion and you needed your citizenship.”
They reached a clearing and Tierc detected a light humming in the air. Two minutes later the Orion Nebula landed, its door already open. Tierc grabbed Ahnna and hoisted her in. She squealed with surprise. He jumped in behind her.
“Have you been working out?” she gasped, scrabbling to reach the bridge as the T-47 yacht launched at high speed into space.
Tierc showed her his bare wrists as he dropped into his customary seat and grinned. “No cuffs remember. I have my Qui back.”
“Axo?” Ahnna looked around her.
A bodiless voice answered. “Yes, Ahnna.”
“Thank you. I owe you an apology.”
“I look forward to your apology at a more convenient moment.”
Tierc grinned as Ahnna’s jaw dropped.
* * *
The Orion Nebula cloaked, they watched hundreds of Central Alliance ships stream past their hiding place behind an asteroid two hours out from Primaera. They had raised cloaking shields to await the nearest wormhole out of the sector.
Ahnna peered out the viewscreen in disbelief. “They can’t be looking for us.”
“We need to find another wormhole,” Tierc replied, his jaw clenched with tension. “Axo?”
“Tierc, I am detecting transmissions on multiple frequencies. I can confirm the Central Alliance is searching for the Orion Nebula.”
“But why?” Ahnna jumped up, furious. “We’ve done nothing wrong. Octiron doesn’t own the Central Alliance!”
Tierc shot her a glare. “Ahnna, keep still, and whisper. The shields diffuse energy signatures, but the system’s hardly robust. The less we output the better.”
“Sorry,” she whispered. She slowly sank into her chair, worry gnawing at her. They just wanted to live their lives out quietly, away from the rest of Paragon. Were all these ships after Tierc? They couldn’t possibly want her.
Fear for him laced her heart. “Axo, are they saying we stole the Orion Nebula?”
“They are asking you to trust them. They say it’s a matter of galactic security.”
“Trust them?”
“Papers are filed.” Axo reported. “You are both citizens of Paragon with full rights. Octiron have waived ownership of the Orion Nebula.”
Tierc’s eyebrows furrowed. “So why are they chasing us?”
Ahnna shook her head. “I can’t believe this,” she whispered. “We haven’t even had a chance to eat and there’s an entire fleet looking for us! Do they want to hand us our papers gift-wrapped in ribbon?”
Tierc didn’t respond. That rogue muscle in his cheek was twitching and he was chewing his lip, something she’d not seen him do before. As she studied him more closely, she noticed new lines around his eyes, and his fingers were shaking. She placed her palm over his hand, and he stilled, looked at her.
“What did she do to you? The Tetriarch.”
“Nothing. Something.” His hand turned, fingers entwining with hers. “I’m getting better.”
Ahnna caught her lower lip between her teeth. “I hate them.”
“The Tetriarch? She’s a bitch. Crandal? He’s evil. But not everyone we met was out to hurt us.”
She sighed, accepted this was true. “Maybe we can wait them out. Your shields are holding. They’re guessing we’re here.”
“Shields are deteriorating by point oh oh one percent every minute,” Axo reported.
“Skal!” Tierc pulled his hand away and frowned at the console. “Axo, analyze the Alliance ship movements since their arrival.”
“The Alliance vessels are tracking a standard search grid. They will arrive at this location in thirty point four minutes fifteen seconds.”
“A point oh three deterioration and the shields are already at ninety percent efficiency. Not good.” Disappointment etched lines into his face. “I didn’t build shields for this level of scrutiny.”
“What the heck did we do? A matter of galactic security? This is crazy.”
Tierc rubbed his face. “They want me.”
“No. We don’t go there.” Ahnna racked her brains for another option. “Axo, plot a drift that avoids the search grid, close all systems and reduce life support to bare minimum.” She glanced at Tierc who nodded confirmation.
Silence reigned for thirty-five minutes. The wormhole opened and still they dared not move. As the temperature dropped, they watched an alliance cruiser fly so close it filled the Orion Nebula’s viewscreen.
Ahnna wanted to see their ship from outside. The shields cloaked them from view by deflecting visible radiation around the ship, reforming on the other side, offering the viewer the appearance of a star system. From inside the Orion Nebula, it seemed impossible that the passing Alliance ship could miss them. Heart thumping, hardly daring to breathe, cold, she wanted to run. Only Tierc’s hand on her arm kept her sane. When the ship’s stern slunk out of sight she took a badly needed breath.
“Surely they will move on.”
Tierc also kept his voice to a whisper. “They must have tracked us to these coordinates to be this persistent. I think they know we’re here.”
Another ten minutes passed.
“Shields dropped to sixty percent,” Axo reported.
“Skal!”
Ahnna spotted a cruiser turning towards them. “They’ve seen us.”
“Axo, defensive shields up.” Tierc ordered, manually switching systems on. “Arm weapons.”
Tierc took one second to scan the navigational display and then fired propulsion. G-force pressed Ahnna back into her seat. She couldn’t even turn her head. Tierc zigzagged through the sphere of ships forming around them and then they were racing for the open wormhole, the nearest alliance ships forced to reverse direction to catch them up, but more distant vessels were already on their tail.
Ahnna caught a shift of color across the wormhole’s event horizon and then a gigantic war ship popped into existence a thousand meters ahead of them. Tierc hauled the directional column left, taking them into a wide spiraling path in an attempt to get them back on track.
A second, a third warship appeared.
Thwarted, Tierc reduced speed to a point Ahnna could look at him.
“Receiving transmission,” Axo reported.
“Put it on,” Tierc said grimly. His eyes blazed with anger, or frustration, Ahnna couldn’t quite tell.
“Don’t fire!” Zeke’s voice exclaimed. “Honestly, you don’t want to fire. It will complicate what’s already a fucking mess.”
Tierc stabbed transmit. “Fuck you! Fuck Octiron!”
Ahnna grabbed his arm. “Tierc, wait! I met Zeke when I arrived back at Primaera. He said he didn’t know Crandal’s plan and I believed him. I don’t think he’s part of what happened on Verdon. We should hear him out.”
“I didn’t know.” Zeke jumped in. “I swear! Please, give me a chance!”
Tierc’s jaw popped, he was so mad. Scales burst through his blue flushed skin.
Ahnna shivered, goosebumps rising. She swallowed and then nodded even though Zeke couldn’t see her. “Zeke, go ahead. What’s going on?”
“You’re not going to believe this. I’m having trouble believing it. That portal that got you here. From your universe?”
“Go on,” Tierc growled.
“It’s still open. They never closed it. Octiron’s been containing the ripple effect for months. See, Crandal knew the chances of reaching your universe again were minimal and he wanted to see if Octiron could control it, move it elsewhere.” His voice rose. “Even got the Ops-Dir reassigned.”
Tierc leaned forward, scales dominating now. “What? So he could haul in other innocent victims?”
“I guess. I mean, I’ve only just learned all this! Shit like this doesn’t happen! Anyways, they can’t contain it, and they can’t close it! They hadn’t realized until they tried. They think it’s because you two are on the wrong side.”
“Oh my god!” Ahnna jumped out of her chair. “They need us to go back!”
“Yes,” Zeke replied. “Octiron was hoping Tierc might reappear, that they could capture you both and send you back, but they never expected Axo to go rogue. That’s when they contacted the Central Alliance. Those electrical storms on Primaera are only the start if the portal escapes containment and the storms are ramping up. We’re beginning to see geomagnetic disturbance. Please, you need to go back… for all our sakes.”
Tierc paused transmission and looked at Ahnna, his eyes calmer, glittering with excitement. “I would love to say no, out of pure spite, but what’s happening here, could be happening on Earth. If Zeke’s telling the truth, we have to go back. If he’s not, well, I hate to say it, but we’re out-gunned.”
“Zeke wouldn’t lie to us.”
“Yes, he would.”
“Not about this. He cares for us. I believe that.” Her body stopped shivering. The ship was warming up and happiness filled her. “Tierc! We can go home!”
He grimaced, thinking, silent for several moments. “Except we don’t know what’s waiting on the other side, especially for you.”
* * *
Tierc held Ahnna’s hand, took a deep breath of filtered oxygen. Back where they started.
Now they were here, face to face with an Octiron-created portal, he had vague memories of their arrival in Paragon, a disoriented impression of dark striated walls and polished floor, all illuminated by the writhing portal in front of him. He remembered Ahnna’s threat to kill him, the cold blade at his throat, an overpowering feeling of helplessness.
He’d blacked out, come around briefly, here, in this cavernous room licensed to abduct victims for Paragon’s consumption.
He looked at Ahnna, still sexy inside her bulky EVA suit. They hadn’t needed them on arrival, but the portal was less stable than normal and this was Octiron’s precaution. She gave him a wan smile, her mind clearly elsewhere. Light from the portal swooped and fluctuated and suddenly, they could see Ahnna’s Las Vegas apartment again, the portal re-stabilized. Shadows moved on the other side. The techs monitoring the portal had determined that Earth was managing their end using force-field containment measures as part of a massive security operation. There had been communication, neither Earth nor Octiron ready to risk the consequences of an energy overload between two discrete universes.
A voice from the control room started a minute countdown.
Ahnna jumped, glanced to the door. She looked ready to run.
Tierc hastened to reassure her. “Try not to be scared. There’s no evidence you were planning anything and they know you’re under my protection.” He prayed the hour of preparation had given the authorities on Earth sufficient time to process the message he’d composed on the trip back to Primaera. He prayed the message had got through, the portal so unstable.
“You going to lie for me now?”
“No.” The queasy fear in his stomach tumbled over.
“Cos if you did, I’d be really disappointed in you.”
“I’m a United Regions agent and—”
“You’re being Qui doesn’t put me above the law.”
“And I am bringing you in as a valuable asset. The information you have on HD-X is worth immunity from prosecution. Things will be hard for a while, but we’ll be searching for Joseph. I won’t stop until I find him, I swear. He’s young. It’s not too late for him.” His heart ached to see the nervous unease in her eyes. She didn’t reply, and he understood why. Betraying HD-X meant betraying everyone she’d ever cared about, but for Ahnna there was no going back. “I’ll make this work, Ahnna.”
Falling in love with the enemy altered perspective, he knew that.
“It feels wrong,” she whispered.
“Tierc, Ahnna, it’s time.” The Central Alliance commander broke in over the comms, her voice soft given the circumstances.
Tierc squeezed her gloved hand. “Whatever happens, I’m with you. Never forget, I am a noble Qui and you are my mate. The United Regions makes allowances for Qui mates, after all, it is the Qui Empire…” He grinned reassuringly.
“I never saved your life,” she moaned.
“What do you mean?”
“You always saved me. I did nothing for you. I caused you nothing but pain and heartache!”
“You were too busy saving everyone else.” Behind her protective visor, he saw her fight back tears. Love filled him. “Plus I’m Qui. I shouldn’t need saving. Makes us look bad.”
She spluttered, half-laugh, half-outrage, but shy warmth shone in her eyes when she squeezed his fingers back. They stepped through together.