“Jaiya Lian, you are hereby charged with treason and fraternizing with the enemy,” Rear Admiral Dias snarled. “As punishment, all of your titles and privileges are stripped, and you will be offered as part of the first tribute to our new allies.” He leaned in close, hatred burned in his hardened gaze. “I will enjoy watching you scream for mercy as the Vresqoxk break you and broadcast your punishment for all to see.”
Jaiya jerked her body, wrists tugging uselessly at their restraints.
“Why?” She hissed, as the guards tightened their hold on her. “Why would you go through the motions of organizing a diplomatic mission if an alliance with the Daextru was never the goal?”
Laughter rolled through the room.
“The Vresqoxk offered to become our allies shortly after the Daextru first betrayed us. Your father refused to accept their offer to join forces, unwilling to trust another alien species. His rage blinded him to the opportunities the Vresqoxk presented. Our superiors saw this.” He chuckled. “In fact, we all did. So he was dismissed for disobeying orders.”
Dias reached forward and gripped her chin in a bruising grip, turning her head side to side.
“You look a lot like your father with all of your hair shaved. It will give me great pleasure to know he will watch his daughter be punished for a mistake he made. We’ll make an example out of you, so anyone who considers opposing the CTA will think twice from now on.”
“That’s not what this is about, is it? Your daughter and her crew didn’t return from the base. Instead, you got me, who returned, hoping that the betrayal at the signing was a mistake.” She yanked her chin from his grip. Venom laced her voice. “I had the pleasure of killing your daughter. My only mistake was ever entering CTA space again.”
A loud snap sounded as her head jerked to the side with the force of his blow.
She gasped when Dias gripped her hair brutally and brought his lips to her ear.
“You are going to wish you’d died after the Vresqoxk are done with you.”
* * *
Jaiya stared at the ceiling and wondered what was happening in the galaxy. She felt betrayed, used, and, most of all, annoyed.
The whole mission had been a lie, and her gut was telling her that it had been pre-planned to cover some nefarious plot.
The problem was, she didn’t have any idea what that plot entailed.
Jaiya resented not speaking more with her father after all these years. The loss of her mother and betrayal of the very military they had all enlisted in led him to live his life in seclusion. A part of her blamed him for her current situation; if he’d only been honest with her about their government’s dishonorable dealings in the past, she could have been more careful. Maybe she wouldn’t be locked in a cell, waiting to face her gruesome punishment.
She would have become a mercenary pilot or run trade routes, if only he had warned her.
But instead, she had taken what she’d thought was the best route to fix his mistakes and make a name for herself. In a male-dominated environment where your family namedefinedyou, it was no wonder her coworkers had always kept her at arm’s length.
Stuck in both of her parents’ shadows, she had lived an ostracized life.
‘The Great Lian War’—that name had been mockingly thrown at her every day by colleagues trying to get a rise out of her. Her parent’s story was a lesson taught to every soldier enrolled in the military—love had no place in times of war.
Her side itched. Just another reminder of the moment her life came crashing down. Afraid to alert the cameras monitoring the room, she gripped the hem of her dirty shirt before sneaking her other hand to touch her hidden treasure. Idris’ golden scales still covered the injuries she had received from the failed assassination attempt, and they protected her battle wounds from harm as they healed.
But there was a cost: they could never be removed, as far as she knew.
In a fit of worry, she had tried picking at them, to remove them before she arrived at the moon base, but they refused to budge.
Since then, she had always kept her chest and torso hidden in fear of what would happen if her captors found out. She was lucky they left her in the clothes she’d arrived in and never inspected her other than a rough pat-down.
The scales frequently itched, as if the Stars were reminding her of Idris.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t keep the sapphire-scaled male out of her mind.
The harsh words she had overheard him say cut deep within her. His refusal to speak with her before her departure only added to the pain. Whatever they had built between them was ruined, ripped apart by both the representatives’ actions and her own deception.
If only she had told himwhoshe was before the humans had arrived and explained her motivations, things wouldn’t have gone so sour, so quickly. Perhaps he would have been more amenable to the truth if he had learned about it before the attempt on his life.
Too much doubt and danger surrounded him.
Even though it hurts, I don’t blame him for sending me away. In his place, I would have done the same.
