A dark hunger boiled in my mind, its energy focused on the female. The urge to create roots clawed at me.
The Queen shot her a look so withering that the female flinched.
“Thasnan At’ens has offered us bribes before and we have always held fast. Do not presume to offer your opinion unless given leave again.”
The table erupted into stilted arguments while the Queen started a steady tapping with the claws on her lower hand on the tabletop.
“We can’t let an alien union stand!”
“The Rijitera will kill us all! Do none of you remember your history!”
“This union is a farce! The Unity must prevail! My Queen, please have some sense!”
My skin prickled as they shouted at each other, my face twisting, and I thought seriously about just stabbing everyone in this room. It was a terrible idea, but holy shit would it make me feel better. I took several moments while they argued to get myself under control. Once I was relatively calm I thought about what the Queen had said about Thasnan At’ens.
Judging by the way Rema had sucked in a breath at the name drop, and that they shared the last name of my good friend, I was guessing this was another one of Ohem’s family members that was in charge of the Unity now that Rakis was headless.
I leaned over to Rema to whisper, “Who is Thasnan?”
He leaned in close to me. “Ohem’s father. He must have come out of retirement to take over. This does not bode well for us.”
According to Anu, Ohem’s father was like the Don of the mafia that was the At’ens House. The tip of the spear… or the knife at our backs.
“Awesome. Poor fucking Ohem,” I said, sitting back up in my seat. That dark hunger came roaring back at the thought of myfavorite bestie-in-law having to face the fact that his family was turning against him. He’d loved them once. When he’d told us about them when we’d been stranded on the desert planet, it had been with fondness in his voice. My mouth twisted into a soundless snarl. Me and Jack were going to fuckingcrush them.
Rema reached over and took my hand, giving it a squeeze. “He has us and Jack now. He will be okay.”
I smiled to myself. Not only did he have us, but now that he was meeting Jack’s family, namely her mother, he’d have all the support he’d ever need. Hella was the greatest force of nature I’d ever met, including all the aliens I knew now. Knowing that she was an actual monster made so much sense. She would rip and tear anyone who threatened her family.
The woman scared the bejesus out of me and she was so going to beat my ass for… something. I know I’d donesomethingbefore we’d been taken that Hella was pissy with me about but I’d run… and got caught by the cops. Man, what was it? I’d done so much shit that it was all mashing together. Had I set her drapes on fire? No. That was last year when she’d called me a goody two shoes because I wouldn’t rat Jack out for beating that one cop who got grabby.
I’d mowed her flowers that one time, but she’d painted my house yellow in retaliation for that. I scowled down at my plate at the memory. My house was still a disgusting puke yellow. Even the windows. That evil bitch.
“Patty?”
I jerked my head to Rema and found him staring at me with a smile.
“You were muttering.”
What the hell had we been talking about? Oh yeah, Ohem’s asshole dad.
“Sorry, I got pulled down a thought spiral.”
“Enough!” The Queen jerked to her feet, her four blood red wings flaring wide, blocking out the light from the planet outside.
The conversation died in an instant, all eyes fixed on her with wary alertness.
“Wow. Will you teach me?” My voice shocked through the tension-laden air like a bomb going off.
Six jewel-like amber eyes fixed on me like a predator to prey and held there unblinking.
When I just stared back the Queen’s skin thinned on her face, pulling tight over the bones in a kind of morbid displeasure. Her emotions, which thus far, had been a wintery storm of nothingness, warmed slightly. The cold emptiness taking on the hint of heat, like a volcano in the empty wasteland of antarctica.
Oh.Oh my. There was a molten pool of fury under all that icy control. The single wisp of taste that touched my tongue scorched with its intensity before the Queen locked her emotions down again. Lyees met my eyes and smiled with a nod.
“You are one scary bitch, Your Majesty,” I told her, and Lyees’s smile widened.
Six eyes blinked at me before the Queen slowly pulled her wings back from their outstretched position. “You have a touch of madness, don’t you, Patrica Dells?”
