Lena
Lyro stalks toward me, and I stumble backward until I hit the outer wall of his ship. He wraps his hand around the back of my neck, squeezing softly, like he’s trying to remind me of our connection.
Dragonfly. He only remembers the part where he holds me and doesn’t let go, not the part where I have to agree for it to work.
“I’m staying, Lyro. They need me.” I’m proud of how clear and firm my voice is, how I look him straight in the eye while I say it. No little-Lena voice, no ducking my head and nodding because someone else knows what’s best for me.Iknow what’s best for me. “I don’t mean Rose and Harl. I don’t care whether they’re using me or not. Those Frathik babies need me. They’remybabies.”
“What aboutourbaby?” Lyro demands, his skin going charcoal and purple. Not the pale, perfect lavender of our fated bond, but darker. The purple of a storm cloud. The purple of fear. His hand ghosts over my hip, presses lightly into my lower belly. “He could be inside you now.”
An inadvertent shiver ripples through me at the idea. He’s right. I don’t know if our species are biologically compatible, but it stands to reason that if the star goddess brought us together, it’s possible for us to have children. It’s equally possible thatwe conceived one, even if it’s only a few cells floating down a Fallopian tube right now.
“I don’t care about Frathik spawn,” he hisses, bending over me. “I only care about you. Abouthim.” His fingers dig into my hip as he genders our hypothetical child, already using the baby against me.
I roll my eyes at his obvious attempts to sway me to his point of view. “He’ll be fine. It takes a long time for a baby to grow. Plenty of time to see the Hatching through. Just be patient, please? I don’t want to lose you.”
His arms slip around me, and he tugs me close, wrapping us both in his cloak. He presses a kiss on the top of my head. “Naïve little terrakin. They’re going to use us both if we stay. And if there is a baby in your belly? I’ll be lucky if they let me in the same room with you again. They’ll have the perfect blade to extract any organ they like from the Five Planets if they have the pregnant sister of the Empress in their grasp.”
He’s really worried. That’s why he’s panicking. He reminds me of the horses at the vet practice where I worked as a tech. They were so powerful, barely contained in their own skin when they were in pain. We always tried to calm them down before we treated them, because when they were like that, they’d hurt themselves trying to get away from our touch.
I press my cheek against his sternum, and his heart jumps and skips underneath the bone. “So we won’t tell them. It’s our secret.”
“Our secret,” he repeats numbly.
“Yes. Stay with me.”
His breathing settles, and he starts playing with my hair obsessively, raking his fingers through it and inhaling deeply.
“Are we good?” I ask, after letting him self-soothe for a minute. “It’s really not going to be very much longer. Days, not even a week.”
“I don’t have that long.” Lyro sighs, one hand still twisted in my hair, thumb absentmindedly rubbing my scalp. “I have a small window to reach Zomah before he precipitates a war. I know you’ll hate me for it, pet, but I have to take you with me. Let it happen, and maybe it won’t be as bad as you think.”
Wait,what? My whole body goes cold. Did I hear him right? “I thought we just agreed that you were staying. That was our agreement from the beginning.”
“We agreed we’re staying together,” he says coolly, releasing his grip on me. “I’ve always intended to leave as soon as I could. The hangar doors are opening in a few minutes, so you should fasten your harness.”
He motions to a seat against one wall where I’m supposed to sit, then moves to the navigation panel and dances his hand over the screen, selecting options. The ship purrs to life, humming under my feet.
This is worse than the moment Ada and I were separated, when she was dragged away to be sold at auction and I was left behind in the underground cell, surrounded by weeping women. At least then, there was a possibility she was going to be okay. I know for a fact that some of my babies won’t make it if I’m not there to sing the Hatching song.
I can’t leave. With or without him, I’m staying. I promised, and my promises aren’t empty. I don’t think his are, either. He just has promises to himself that outweigh his promises to everyone else.
Lyro can stay or he can go. I hope he stays, but that’s his choice.
While his back is turned, I dart for the exit, slamming my hand on the door release. He’s on me before I’m three feet outside, pulling me back inside.
The first breath I can drag into my lungs, I yell for help. At least five Frathik heads turn toward me. My arms flail, fingerscatching on the edge of the doorframe. I kick backwards, hear Lyro’s surprised grunt when my foot lands. He didn’t think I’d fight back.
I’ve never fought back. I learned young that when you defend yourself, most times you get hurt worse. Let it happen, and it’s not so bad. Or if it’s bad, it doesn’t last forever.
But this isn’t about me. This is hundreds of lives that are mine to save, and I’m going to fight for them, just like I’d fight for the baby that might be inside me right now.
So I fight hard. I scratch at his hands, twisting in his grip. Stomp on his feet. Ignore the prickle of hair pulling out of my scalp when it catches in his claws, the bruises that his tightening grip will leave.
I do everything I can to get away from the man I thought I loved. The man who has told me mostly lies since I met him. I’m not sure ifanythinghe’s said is true.
An alarm sounds, filling the hangar with noise the drowns out the ugly, quiet noises of our struggle. Lyro curses as more Frathiks rush into the room, zerduks drawn and buzzing. He wraps his arms around me and holds me tight, pinning my limbs like a straitjacket as he drags me backward. I let my body go limp and heavy like a toddler. Anything to stall him.
“Help!” I yell again.
