“Oh my god!” Alessia looked up at the sky as dark shadows rose up all around them. “What the hell is that?”

“Mael,” she muttered under her breath, feeling annoyed that Imril hadn’t given her any warning.

Imril’s power was scary, yes, but at least she knew what to expect with him.

Mael, on the other hand, was downright terrifying.

Where is the bastard?

Laid low by another bout of nausea, Sara was resting in the tower room, alone. Mael had already professed his interest in her, but surely Imril wouldn’t let him try anything on her in his own domain.

Mael had already pledged to keep his hands off Sara until the baby was born.

Could he be trusted?

Esania wasn’t so sure. She had to get back up there.

“Oh my god!” Alessia shouted again, and Esania saw a dark figure shoot up into the sky, past the rising shadows, his nightblack-ed wings spreading wide.

Imril in his battle-armor.

A terrifying, awe-inspiring sight.

Her right hand throbbed as she stared at him, increasingly aware of the faint golden glow that surrounded him at all times. Somehow, the elgida must be allowing her to see his energy.

Was that how she appeared to him all the time? Surrounded by a golden glow as if she were somehow being viewed through the lenses of a heat-sig monitor?

He went higher and higher, until he was just a tiny speck.

Imril the Lightbringer. Ancient, powerful, capable of cruel indifference, able to kill her with a touch if he so desired.

What have you gotten yourself into, Esania?

And he was just about the sweetest, most protective, most desirable creature she’d ever known.

“Let’s get everyone inside,” she yelled, raising her voice over the rising wind. Mai and Zahra had arrived, along with the reclusive twins, Raphael and Monroe. From their brilliant green eyes—the same as hers—Esania knew they had Primean ancestry, but whether they were pureblooded or half-human, she had no idea.

The twins were secretive, and she didn’t blame them.

It didn’t matter now anyway, because really, they were all human at the end of the day, weren’t they?

“Kaala!” she yelled at the Vradhu. Let’s go.

The violet-skinned warriors turned their dark eyes upon her in unison, regarding her with lazy, insolent stares as if to say: you dare order us around?

Esania shrugged. Suit yourself.

“Hey, ma’am, are we really going inside? What is this place?”

“It’s shelter,” she said absentmindedly, her eyes drifting toward the sky. What are you going to do, Imril? It terrified her a little bit, that he could be capable of terrible violence and destruction; that he could be an enemy to someone.

That he was probably going to do very bad things to someone who may or may not deserve it.

But he was the one who had protected her, and now he’d made her his own.

If she concentrated very hard, she could almost feel his lust coursing through the tenuous link of their bond, even though he would be very far away by now.

I need to find Mael.

The shadows had all but obliterated the sun by now, plunging them into darkness. Behind her, Zahra flicked on a guide-light which illuminated the stark stone walls of the fortress. “I’m guessing sudden darkness is a regular thing around here, or should I be worried?”

“Let’s just get inside.” Esania gestured toward the lower entrance, which was wide open. “There’s an assembly hall of sorts down the internal corridor, to the right. It’s a bit overgrown, but there’s plenty of room to settle down. This whole place is abandoned and run down. We’re going to have to do a lot of work to get it habitable.”

“Good bones, though,” Mai added, pushing her way past a frowning Vradhu. Lian. That’s what he was called.

He hissed and said something to Mai in Vradhu, although Esania got the sense he was being playful more than anything else.

Mai glared at him, blinked, then returned his taunts with a vulgar sounding Vradhu phrase that Esania had never heard before.

Lian growled, the muscles of his broad violet chest tensing. For a moment Esania thought there would be trouble, but then he just laughed.

Mai stuck out her tongue.

Lian responded in kind.

Amazing. Even in this kind of tense situation, they could… flirt like that.

“Let’s get inside,” she said, not knowing whether to feel giddy or exasperated. “Mai, Zahra, can you please get the Vradhu to cooperate? I never seem to have much luck with them.”

The violet-skinned warriors were wild, secretive, stubborn, primal, violent.

All things she didn’t understand, didn’t know how to deal with.

“That’s because you don’t speak the lingo very well,” Mai said. I’m surprised, Primean. I thought you’d be all over the language by now. Monroe and Raphael already analyzed it with the scanner. They’ve developed some neat learning apps.”

“I know,” she muttered. The truth was that she’d been too shellshocked in those early days to even think of trying to learn the Vradhu tongue.

A fat droplet of rain landed on her forehead, running into her eye. She blinked furiously. Several more droplets fell, hitting the sand with great force.

Pat. Pat. Pat.

“Inside,” she said as the shadows around them became thick and impenetrable. An oppressive feeling crept into the atmosphere, as if the darkened sky were pushing down upon them and death was about to creep out from the depths of the lake.

“Uh, that shadow…” Raphael stood at the shore’s edge, an Analyzer in his hand. The machine glowed pale blue as it picked up… something. “It’s an absence of energy. It’s like a vacuum, only it isn’t. It’s actively consuming energy, but in a controlled manner.” Suddenly, he looked afraid—and Raphael wasn’t usually afraid of anything. A nervous laugh escaped his lips. “This doesn’t make sense. It goes against the basic laws of physics.”

“That’s because we’re on Khira, and nothing makes sense here.” Esania said gently. Having witnessed the impossibility that was Imril up close, she’d had a little more time to adjust to that fact. “Maybe, just maybe, the laws of physics that we thought we knew don’t apply here.”

Boom!

A deafening crack of thunder assaulted her ears, so loud that she swore the ground itself shook beneath her feet.

But there was no lightning.

Suddenly, everyone fell silent.

For once, the Vradhu didn’t look surly.

For once, her people were all quiet.

The skies opened, turning into a vicious downpour.

They all ran inside.