“Well, I think. Undernourished and chilled to the bone, but the healers will take care of her and the other mothers. When they’re strong enough, Aqen will escort them to Olethia to meet with their sons. He says he’s ready to meet with Fenix.”
“Oh, that’s great. It seems like everything is falling into place.” Delphie’s eyes grow shiny, and the tear that slides down her cheek freezes in mere seconds, reminding me that she’s not safe until she’s off the surface.
I pull a breather out of the pack I brought. “Here, put this on.”
She smiles, shaking her head. “I told you. I don’t need it. The cold doesn’t bother me anymore. My crown keeps me warm. Kiss me if you don’t believe me.” She proves it with a series of heated kisses that only make me more eager to get back to our quarters.
After ensuring she’s securely strapped onto the platform, I begin to turn the vehicle around, but something in the sky catches my eye. At first I think it’s bright sparks from a distant eruption, but then I realize it’s something else. Meteorite fall, maybe? Whatever it is, it’s beautiful.
“We might have a small problem,” Delphie says with an edge of caution in her voice.
“Are you hurt?!” Panic rising, I scan her, looking for potential injuries or tears in her clothing. Her hat is missing, but she looks otherwise unharmed. “What did the shadowcloaks do to you?”
She pets my forearm soothingly. “Nothing, nothing. They were nice, Nik. Mostly nice. The problem is I told them that if they wanted to bail on the Eye, they could stay here. We might have a few unexpected guests tonight.” She grimaces, gesturing at the sparks falling from the sky, and I realize they’reescape pods. From theEye.Falling ontomyplanet.
Ourplanet, I mentally correct. It’s hers now, too, so this isn’t only about what I want. I groan at the thought of my passageways packed with priests, but at the same time I’m filled with pride for her compassion. “You have a generous heart, Alara.”
“Maybe it’s a problem.” She laughs self-consciously, but she shouldn’t worry. She’s my everything. I love her problems as much as her solutions. “Should we wait for them to land and give them a ride?” she asks.
It will take hours to locate and collect all the evacuees, and I want to get her inside as soon as possible, so I shake my head as I steer the surface vehicle back toward the mountain. “We’ll send a few teams of warriors out to take in your strays.”
“Thank you, Nik. You have a generous heart, too.”
I laugh. “I don’t. Not this time. I want something in return.”
“Oh yeah?”
“You’ll only train with me from now on.”
“Okay,” she says immediately, a note of amusement in her tone. “That’s easy.”
“And you’ll fight like an Irran.”
She snorts. “Naked?”
I hum in agreement, my cock pulsing in my trousers.
“Deal.”
I park and lift her to the ground just outside the airlock. She grabs my arm, pointing to the sky. “Look!”
I turn, expecting to see more sparkling pods coming to plague me, but instead there’s a tiny orange flower blooming in the sky. Then a slightly larger flower blooms next to it, and another one, its petals a brighter yellow. It’s an expensive bouquet, given how much ore is going up in smoke, but the epylium did its job. It was worth the price to save my father’s concubines and free Lyro from blackmail.
Delphie leans into my side. I slide my arm around here and we watch as the once-dark triangle becomes a ball of fire that lights up the sky. If Gemeri’s calculations are right, the blasts will fling the space station away from Usuri, out into deep space where it will be irretrievable.
The Eye is dead. Even if Zomah managed to escape, there’s no way he will be able to rebuild his army or his fortune.
I curve Delphie into my body, hugging her tight before drawing her into the airlock. “Come inside now. Our duty is done.”
Hand-in-hand, we stop by the comm room. Gemeri turns bright blue when we tell him of the successful hostage “exchange”—and the end of the Eye.
“I saw the update on the comm, but I didn’t really believe it,” he says, shaking his head. “Is it truly gone, or just damaged?”
“Gone to R’Hiza,” I assure him and clap him on the back. It was his plan as much as mine, and we will be celebrating this victory for a long time. The three of us quickly go over someterrain scans to map out the landed escape pods, and he alerts three rescue teams to retrieve them. Delphie invites him to share gresha in the pits, but he declines, saying he still has work to do, but will join us later.
When Delphie finally meets my mother, Nikkava is sitting up on a cot in the pits, wrapped in furs, a steaming cup of nomo in her hands. Her eyes are bright as we approach. “Welcome, daughter,” she says, greeting Delphie first when I introduce them.
Delphie kneels down in front of her and unloops the cord of the old red pendant from around her neck. She holds it out. “I think this is yours.”
