24
The Witch

 

 

 

But I didn’t let my surprise show.

“Thank you, Captain Ravenna, Senator Wellstone,” I said. “Please give me a moment.”

Gabriel immediately cut off the communication, and their images flicked out.

“I don’t recognize this Captain Ravenna, though Senator Wellstone looks somewhat familiar,” Kaara said behind me. “I’d know any captain of royal spaceships and any senator. And that ship seems to have been upgraded.”

“Then it’s not safe for you to go with them, Fia,” said Gabriel. “We need further investigation to see who they really are. If they belong to the enemy ship, we’ll shoot them down. And you do have powerful enemies in your empire.”

I understood the queen couldn’t come on a spaceship to welcome me back. But shouldn’t she at least send some familiar faces?

But I knew, the welcome party in the royal ship had come for me and meant me no harm, or my magic would have flared. Besides, after three years on Pandemonium and regaining my magic, I was more powerful. I believed that the Archangel’s flame had strengthened me when it mated with mine, and when I’d held Akem’s hand in my Time Maze, I’d also taken something from him, though I couldn’t work out exactly what it was.

Only that I felt my magic was invincible. I felt like a goddess.

No assassins could take me down.

“It’s been three years,” I said, taking a deep breath. “It’s natural my family hired a new royal captain, and the new senators replaced the old ones. When I talked to Captain Ravenna and Senator Wellstone, my magic probed their ship and sensed no threat.”

Kaara put her hand gently on my shoulder. “So, you’re going with them, Fia?”

I nodded. And I knew she wouldn’t go with me.

Marrok and Kaara had talked to Gabriel, and he’d agreed to lend them the Red Dragon. The wolves were going back to their home planet, SunDance, to take back what was theirs. Kaara had briefly told me about her mate’s exiled history. Marrok had been the rightful heir to the throne before his uncle had slaughtered his parents—the former Wolf King and Wolf Queen.

Kaara had done everything for me, and she should have her own life, though it broke my heart to see her go. My alien army would join their force. Gabriel had also offered to send some of his battle Angels to aid them.

I laid my hand on hers on my shoulder and squeezed it. “Think you can handle Akem?”

Kaara grinned. “The best he can do is to make some noises.”

I smiled. Akem had screamed a few more times and caused the ship to purr louder. I’d sensed him trying to devour Red Dragon’s energy, but he was basically biting his own tail, because the energy came from him and kept recharging the ship.

“We’ve gotten used to his complaints,” Kaara continued. “He’s harmless for the first time.”

“Talk to him sometimes when he gets lonely,” I said.

Marrok, who stood not too close to give his mate and me some space, and not too far, because he would never stay far from her, stared hard at me as if I were crazy. “No,” he said. “Thank you, Lady Fiammetta. We’ll never talk to that difficult entity. In fact, I won’t allow anyone to even try. Akem might succeed in talking his way out.”

“Fine,” I said. “He’s yours. I believe he’s in good hands, and I can shed my responsibility for him.”

I hugged Kaara one last time and turned to Gabriel. Kaara and Marrok both withdrew to give us privacy.

A dark storm brewed in the Archangel’s stunning green eyes.

“I have to go,” I said softly.

He didn’t say anything.

A chime sounded in the ship. Queen Faya hailed us again.

Gabriel ignored them, his intense eyes glued to me.

He didn’t ask me to stay.

And I knew he wouldn’t go with me, either.

So, this was it.

I was going home to ease back into my old life as the realm’s princess, and Gabriel would keep chasing his ambition and tell the next person about his glorious battle history.

Our separation was inevitable, but we’d been close, before suddenly, there was this gap between us. He stood on one side, and I on the other, and neither of us seemed able to cross it or move toward each other.

Our being lovers was a temporary arrangement on Pandemonium, where we needed each other during those dire hours. Once we got out of it, and once a better future unfolded before us, we could no longer walk on the same path.

Our feelings for each other would fade, even though right now we both seemed to have a hard time coping with the sudden shift.

I swallowed.

He had to go on the Furies’ quest anyway and fulfill his vow to her. I wouldn’t make this parting hard for him.

I forced a smile, but he didn’t smile back. He just looked at me, like a dark storm hovering on the horizon. He was waiting for me to say something and to decide.

And I realized, if I kept looking at him like this, soon, I would break down in pieces. I would melt down. I would beg him to come with me and never let me go.

I knew how to handle being wicked. I knew how to be hard ice and steel. But I couldn’t do this. It was out of my depth.

The hail from Queen Faya chimed again, but Gabriel and I just froze there.

Gabriel’s First Officer’s voice buzzed in the shuttle. “Captain, Queen Faya has an urgent message.”

“Receive their hail,” I said to Gabriel.

He voice-commanded the ship like a robot. “Accept.”

Senator Wellstone appeared on the screen. “Princess Athena, I’m very sorry to rush you, but we have a narrow time window. Our borrowed StarGate will close soon. If we don’t go now, we’ll be stranded in space.”

I needed to ask the details about the StarGate to stall them, so I could stay here a little longer with Gabriel.

No, I didn’t want to go. I needed more time to think about it. And I wouldn’t let the senator push me like this. But if I didn’t leave now, I would never have the strength to leave. I might not have another chance to go home, since the future always seemed uncertain.

I’d fought to go home every day for three years—  

“Princess Athena,” the senator urged again. “Please. We have to go.”

Gabriel snarled.

I strode toward him, reducing the distance between us. He stared at me pleadingly without a word, his cold, stiff demeanor dropping.

My fingertips brushed across the ancient black-inked runes that jumped on his temple at his boiling emotion. “Goodbye, Gabriel.”

I stepped back, turning to the senator on the screen with deceptive icy calm. “I’m ready.”

I wasn’t ready. I would never be ready to leave him.

An intense traction beam locked on me.

The column of the light twirled just as Gabriel lunged at me with a devastating look.

A blink. I was in the bridge of the Queen Faya. Gabriel was no longer with me. Nor were Kaara and all the people I’d grown to care about.

Before I gained my footing, the royal spaceship shot toward a blue shimmer right ahead at a blinding speed.

As soon as the StarGate closed behind us, a vast, icy blue galaxy stretched ahead—we’d reached Icearth Galaxy.

I was closer to home than ever.