Niva rushed from Rayner’s apartment and didn’t stop until she had made her way deep within the old servant tunnels. Leaning back against the cool stone walls, she willed her tears to stop falling. She’d cried enough over Gerrit. He never seen her as anything more than some young little thing Vera kept as a pet. Without even giving her a chance, he’d mated with another human. And now a baby. A Vilkan baby with his human wife. It was like having her face pressed into the floor and stepped on, grinding dirt in her open wound.

Coming back to Kladuu had been a mistake. She’d wanted a new life, one far away from the detritus of Earth and the poverty she lived in on the Zynthar International Space Station. She might have only been twenty, but she’d seen enough pain and squalor to last a lifetime. This was supposed to be her fresh start. A new life.

She’d hoped that new life would include Gerrit. That somehow, he would notice her, that she would win his attention and favor when she came back with Vera.

Niva was loyal. She was strong. She hadn’t broken, no matter what had happened to her. And she’d suffered more than anyone under Savas and his men.

But no, the right to Gerrit’s heart was earned by Jude, who did nothing but manage to crash her ship onto the planet at the right time and place. And she was going to have his child.

Niva swiped at her cheeks roughly. No more tears. Not over Gerrit. Never again.

Voices swelled from farther down the hall. Low, gruff sounds that were littered with sharp barks of laughter. She could feel them in her bones, the sound rumbling up through the stone like an oncoming storm.

And then she saw them.

In the dim light, a group of men, larger even than the average Vilka, came striding toward her, taking up the entire hall. She’d hoped to avoid anyone seeing her, assuming she could melt into the wall, but when she saw the man at the front, her breath caught in her throat.

His hair shone in the darkness, so light it almost appeared white. He walked with quick efficiency, bantering with the men surrounding him, but Niva didn’t notice anything about them, her entire vision was taken up with him.

As they approached she meant to step out of the way, but she couldn’t move. His hair covered half his face, but the eye she could see was so dark that light disappeared like a vortex inside it. She was drawn into him, her entire existence seeming to take place in his dark pupil.

“Are you okay?” His voice was so deep it registered in her body before she heard the words.

She shook her head, unable to speak.

One of the other men said something and the group chuckled, but she was transfixed.

“Go wait outside,” the light-haired man snapped.

At his command, the others left without question.

“Who are you?” she asked, forgetting her manners entirely.

“Zayd.” His name sounded like a piece of caramel stretching from his mouth; sweet and savory, something you wanted to linger on forever. “And who are you? Why are you hiding in these dark halls like a lost drop of dew?”

Niva’s mind filled with images of Gerrit and Jude, Jude’s growing belly and Gerrit’s glowing happiness. Her tears fell again, unbidden. She shook her head, helpless in the pain swelling up from her heart.

“What are you doing?” The man backed away from her as if her tears were made of acid.

“I’m sorry,” she said, sniffling. “I don’t mean to. I just can’t stand being here anymore.”

“Me either,” he huffed, his eye shifting to look behind her. “It’s the smell. I don’t know how you live with these Vilkas.”

“You can tell I’m human?”

“Yes. I can tell quite a lot about people from how they hold themselves, and you are not happy. Did something happen?”

She ignored his question, grasping instead onto a desperate idea, one that suddenly seemed like the best possible option for her. “Where are you from? Outside the mountain?”

Zayd tilted his head “You don’t know me?”

“No. But I can’t stay here anymore …” Her voice trailed off and her throat filled with regrets of a life she’d never live. “Are you leaving now?”

“Yes.” He studied her, and the air around him seemed to quiver as if he were tasting it with his aura. “But you said you don’t know who I am.”

Niva looked into his bottomless eyes and saw a sadness she recognized like it was her own heart that was breaking. As if he knew what this felt like, this hollow, unrelenting ache deep in her chest. “It doesn’t matter. Just take me with you. I’m a good worker, and I don’t require much.”

He frowned, his hair shielding his face like a mourning veil. “No. Absolutely not. Humans are not welcome at my home.”

“Please.” Her voice broke as a sob tore from her lips. If she had to stay here and watch Jude’s belly grow, she might die. “I can’t stay here another second.”

Zayd watched, her despair not affecting him in the slightest. He was cold, like stone, and just as hard. He was completely opposite of Gerrit’s glowing warmth. While Gerrit couldn’t stop smiling lately, this man, this Zayd, looked like he would never smile again.

“Okay, dewdrop,” he said, deciding finally. “You’ll come with us, then. To the Draqon hive.”

* * *

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