“And if I decided not to marry you?” I said stiffly.
“Then I would respect your decision and return you to your homeworld.”
Well, that was refreshing.
But just because he said it, didn’t make it true.
The M’rora shuffled his feet and looked up at me.
“I feel I owe you an apology.”
“For what? You haven’t done anything.”
“That’s the reason for the apology. I should have reached you first. When the Shadow and I learn of our fated mate’s location, we feel the pulse of the bond in our chests at the same time. We race across the galaxy, following that bond. Just a single event can slow us down and give the other an advantage. Somewhere along the way, I lost that advantage and arrived on your planet later than him. If I reached you first, none of what happened to you would have occurred. You would have been in my care and I would never have allowed any harm to come to you.”
But no harm had come to me…
Except emotional harm.
But could the M’rora have prevented that?
Yes, I suppose he could.
After all, his home planet hadn’t been taken over by the Shadow.
He hadn’t grown up in the Shadow military academy.
His thoughts and beliefs hadn’t been warped by their teachings…
And none of the incredible memories I shared with Kayal would have happened…
The M’rora remained at the door, watching me.
“I understand,” I said, turning to enter my room. “Good night.”
“Wait.”
The M’rora stepped forward.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. When I saw your ship in the solar storm, you were struck by lightning. And for a fraction of a second, you weren’t there. Then, just as quickly, you were back again. I thought maybe my mind was playing tricks on me but did something happen in that fraction of time?”
I considered what I ought to tell him.
Did it even matter now?
“Yes, something happened. The lightning struck us and we fell toward the planet. Some… things happened. We managed to fix the ship and return to the solar storm.”
“How is that possible? You were only gone for a fraction of a second.”
“It didn’t happen in our time. Somehow, we ended up in the past. The solar storm was happening then too. We figured if we managed to reach it before it ended and recreate the events that made us travel back in time in the first place, we might return to our own time and place. Luckily, we were right.”
“That’s… quite some story.”
There was doubt in his voice.
“You don’t believe me?”
“Of course I do. What reason is there for you to lie?”
He hesitated for a moment and I could see the there was a question he very much wished to ask.
“Did anything… happen between you and the Shadow?”
It wasn’t doubt I’d pick up in his voice.
It was trepidation.
Now how did I respond?
No doubt he felt the extinguishing of our linked bond the same way I had.
I could no longer feel him, just as he couldn’t feel me.
It was no good lying to him.
What good would it do anyway?
Lying only ever seemed to cause more problems.
“Yes. Something happened.”
I left it at that.
He didn’t want to know the intimate details.
He nodded sadly.
It only confirmed his suspicions.
“Does this… make any difference between what happens next between us?” I said.
“To be honest, I’m not sure.”
Honesty.
Now there was an interesting idea.
“We can return to the Citadel and see what the Elders say. This can’t be the first time something like this has happened.”
My mind was still jumbled up.
The thought of marrying someone I barely knew hadn’t fully computed yet.
Except, I did know him.
I knew what he looked like naked, what it felt like for him to be inside me, what his innermost thoughts and secrets were…
Or did I?
How much difference was there really between them?
“My name is Layak, by the way.”
“Layak? Huh. That’s the opposite of Kayal’s name.”
“We are reflections of each other.”
They were, but were they perfect reflections?
Could I still get the relationship I wanted with Kayal, even if it wasn’t really with him, but his twin?
It sounded ridiculous on its surface but I was desperate to enjoy the relationship we could have had.
I was willing to give anything a try.
“Get some rest,” Layak said. “We’ll be at the Citadel in the next few hours.”
The door hissed shut and I moved for the bed.
I sat on it and kicked off my shoes.
I needed a good nap, I thought.
To hit the reset button so my mind could process what was going on here.
This situation couldn’t have happened to many human females before.
Human females.
Who even spoke like that?
I climbed into bed, felt the crisp sheets against my skin, and drifted off the moment my head hit the pillow.
The Citadel was a huge gleaming white building carved from marble or similar alien rock.
Sunlight gleamed off it like the pearl at a clam’s heart.
Multiple ships arrived at the same time we did.
From their hatch doors, M’rora and unique alien species marched alongside them.
Some grinned broadly, others were nervous.
At least half their number had failed the fight to win their fated mates.
Their fated mates.
If this world was a reflection of what happened in the Shadow Realm, then it stood to reason this was a mirror reflection of what Kayal was going through right now.
He would be one of those turning up without a mate on his arm.
He would be wearing the dreary expression, heading toward the Shadow Citadel and its huge ornate entrance, marching alongside those who had succeeded in their mission.
“Excuse me,” Layak said, breaking from me and slapping a female M’rora on the back. “Hey, Xat. How’d you do?”
The female M’rora was slim with wide yellow eyes.
She fell into Layak’s arms and wept.
“Sh, sh, sh, sh, sh,” Layak said. “It’s all right. There will be plenty of M’rora for you to choose from. You’ll still find your mate.”
I noted the lack of the word “fated.”
Xat smiled a little at the bracing arms of Layak, a little color returning to her cheeks.
She opened her eyes and saw me standing
