“What do you want from me?” I demanded, jolting upright in my bed. Thankfully, Vowels had been right to call my body completely healed. Nothing felt stiff or sore when I moved my limbs.
Eyeing the three people in the room, I tried to put together my escape plan. They may have surrounded me, but it was clear that Zyxel was in charge. If I grabbed one of the others and used them as a shield to escape, I wondered how far I could get.
“You suck at this, Zyxel,” Tori snorted. “No wonder you work alone.”
“Stop avoiding my question, Tori,” I snapped, keeping my eyes fixed on the three of them. I didn’t trust them not to act when I wasn’t paying attention. They were hiding something from me, and I intended to figure out what. “I’ve had it with whatever mind game you’re playing. If you know my name, then it’s safe to assume you know who I am. Why am I here? Why haven’t you returned me to my people?”
The blue male wrapped an arm around the bubbly blonde human female, pulling her close to his side as if to shield her from my wrath. They both sent me apologetic grimaces as Tori leaned into his embrace.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way, Selena,” Celyze sighed, combing a hand through his blue-and-white highlighted hair. “It wasn’t our intention to take you by force. In some ways, it’s my fault—”
“But we won’t hurt you. That isn’t the reason we took you,” Tori explained. “Something happened to our commander’s brother while we were under attack, and nothing we’ve tried has been able to pull him out of unconsciousness. I don’t know the finer details because it all happened so fast and no one openly talks about it, but we were willing to do anything to heal him.”
“I’m sorry, but what does your commander’s brother getting injured have to do with me?” I glanced between the three of them. “The Aldawi are a peaceful yet powerful species, along with all they govern in their territory. Unless you are supporting the Quaww, there should have been no hostility between us. You have made a grave mistake by taking me. I pray to the Stars that whoever finds you first is willing to spare you long enough for an explanation.”
“Thanks to my Tori here, I have become one of the most powerful Cosmic Souls in existence.” Celyze glanced down at Tori and squeezed her shoulders. “I asked the Stars for guidance and they led me to you. They told me you were the solution to our problem, even though I don’t agree with how we got you here.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Celyze is a Cosmic Soul, a member of the Cosmic Order and speaker for the Stars,” Zyxel explained. “He is capable of communicating over long distances and healing wounds by touch, but his strength lies in reading the Stars’ path for our gain. A Cosmic Soul as strong as Celyze can read our destinies and warn us about the future. The Stars told him that our commander needed you to save his brother.”
Chapter Six Selena
The sound of the doors sliding open filled the silence in the room.
“Good. Just what I came here for,” a voice from my past chuckled. “I was hoping you would be awake by now, but I wanted to meet you in person to make sure.”
Standing in the doorway with his fists clenched was the last male I had ever wanted to meet.
I would have classified him as a demi-human, but the strange aura he radiated from him told me that wasn’t the case, along with his glowing cyan eyes and rune-like tattoos that covered every visible part of his body. Standing tall in a black sleeveless vest and baggy pants, his cold attitude paired with his coloring told me exactly who he was.
“Xenak of the Verya,” I spat, throwing my blanket off my body as I climbed out of my medical bed. Nervousness marred Tori and Celyze’s faces as they backed away, leaving plenty of open space between my cyan stalker and me.
“I should’ve known it was you as soon as they explained that they stole me to save their commander’s brother. Didn’t you understand when you invaded my mind that I don’t know your brother or what you were talking about? You must be a dimstar. You crossed a line when you kidnapped me from my clan. Now you expect me to somehow fix your brother when I know nothing about him?”
“So dramatic, Selena.” Xenak rolled his eyes. “You have always been over-dramatic. I would know; I’ve studied you. As soon as you do as I say and give me back my brother, I will return you to your clan and we can forever part ways.”
“One problem with your plan: I don’t know what you want me to do. Even if I did, paying someone to kidnap me, drug me, and slice me open is no way to convince me to do your bidding. You’ve only given my loved ones a reason to seek revenge for my treatment.”
“That’s the downside of hiring mercenaries to carry out your plans. Sometimes, they get too greedy for their own good.” Xenak crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “You see, Selena, if I weren’t banned from the Euph Galaxy, things wouldn’t have to be like this. I didn’t want to lose any more of my people, so I had to find a way to bring you here. Fortunately for me, the black market is full of shady people willing to do anything for the right price. Unfortunately for those we hired, they tried to earn twice the credits for doing the same job. You see, the late Aldawi Sovereign wanted you gone because of your relationship with Zirene and the Quaww wanted your eggs to build a hybrid army.
“I just wanted you alive and in one piece.
