Without waiting for a response, Kaede snapped his fingers and disappeared.
“I am starting to like that moody male,” Oeta chuckled, straightening her wings. “He doesn’t have a filter.”
“He gets worse when he’s around our nestqueen, believe me.” Xylo waved off his crew. “If you can help Selena, please do so. I’ve tried everything I can think of to wake her up.”
Oeta nodded, a furious determination settling in her eyes as she approached Selena’s bed.
The room relaxed, its occupants adjusting their appendages around their waists to save as much room as possible in the already-crowded infirmary.
Z’fir came to stand next to V’dim, and they watched Oeta trace Selena’s body with her fingers. Her fuchsia glow brightened, almost blindingly so, completely overtaking the blackness of her skin.
A snap filled the air, and two dark figures appeared on the infirmary’s doorstep.
“Where is my Nova?”
Chapter Twelve Zirene
Zirene sat at his desk in the private office he’d built above the villa’s warehouse to attend to what his Nova called his ‘princely duties.’ He’d wanted a workspace on the grounds of Selena's villa, to be near his clan while he was moon-side between missions, but he wanted to keep its location hidden. He planned to keep this office a secret from the empire. Not because he was ashamed of Selena, the cubs, or their home life, but because he didn't want his father to know exactly how much time he spent on Destima.
As long as all of his star system’s paperwork was done and managed well, he should be free to do as he wanted.
Zirene had done all of that, plus some. No other Aldawi star system had made the technological advances his had. His fleet was unparalleled in the empire, enhanced by his super soldiers; he dared others to try and take over.
Anyone who tested him swiftly met their doom, rejoining the Stars as dust and awaiting Fates’ judgment.
He growled in frustration, his flicking tail showing his agents exactly how agitated he was about the news.
The male who’d attacked Selena on the space station was arrogant enough to attempt—and somehow succeed in—another attack, on her land.
How was he supposed to protect her from an unknown force while he was away?
Zirene rolled his nails on his desk, eyeing the flickering message on his display screen titled with his most recent summons, as he tried to come up with another way to delay the inevitable.
His father, the Aldawi Sovereign, was demanding his presence at the palace, growing angrier each time Zirene declined his summons.
Just like the mysterious voice sneaking through Selena’s mental shields and breaking another wall of their void chamber, he knew the Sovereign wasn’t afraid to use dishonorable tactics to get his way.
Zirene was afraid that sooner or later, he might anger his father enough for him to threaten Selena and their cubs to force him to cooperate. If she’d thought the CEG Assembly were brutal interrogators, they were nothing compared to his father. Zirene would rather face the Assembly a hundred times than be subjected to the Sovereign’s scrutiny.
He could only imagine what his father would tell his Nova to cut her down and demoralize her, breaking apart all his clan’s efforts to build her inner strength. His father believed females made males weak, and only wanted two things: power and credits. That was why Zirene wasn’t close to his sister. As she’d matured, she had begun to rebel against the Sovereign, so she’d been sent off to an all-female Aldawi colony.
Zirene had only managed to protect his two half-brothers from his father’s torment after he gained rulership of Aldawi’s second-star system. He’d offered them a job, and they had belonged in Lunkai ever since.
This Xenak of Verya, the mysterious cyan presence, currently bugged him the most.
He believed Selena was his enemy because of her connection to her masters, the Yaarkins. In Xenak’s mind, the creation of his enemy was an enemy, too—regardless of the creation’s actions. Zirene didn’t follow his logic. Another thing that irked him was that Xenak had said his ‘Cosmic Soul’ had communed with the Stars and learned that Selena held the key to retrieving his brother.
What the Stars was a Cosmic Soul? And why was Selena being dragged into a fight she had nothing to do with, yet again? He’d hoped that once he brought her to Destima, all the trouble that seemed to revolve around her would cease, but he now realized that hope had been futile.
“Report.”
Kaede stood from his kneeling position and saluted, in full agent mode.
“Xylo reports Selena suffered from a minor concussion and slight blood loss,” Kaede replied. “She is still in a deep sleep, but her vitals are stable. Oeta has been in contact with her father about what we should do about the invader, Xenak—if that’s even the male’s true name.”
Zirene lifted an eyebrow. “You think it isn’t?”
“Who in their right mind would reveal their true identity to the enemy—unless they’re arrogant enough to think they won’t be caught?” he scoffed. “Or they’re too much of a dim star to realize their mistake?”
“But Oeta reported that she told him her name,” Zirene said. “What was her reasoning?”
“The former.” Kaede crossed his arms. “Clearly, with her mental abilities and her precious father’s support, she’s an unstoppable force. We would be insane not to ally with her, regardless of whether our goals align.”
Zirene nodded. “I agree, but that doesn’t mean that I enjoy having Chamber Master Mwe’s daughter here, to report back everything that
