“What’s happening?” I yelled over the cacophony, trying to keep pace with his long strides.
He shot me a sly grin as we entered a concealed workers’ passage. “Take a wild guess.”
Whirling him around, I pressed him against the cold wall, retrieving the gun from my gown’s hidden pocket. “Stop playing games and tell me! What have you done?”
His laughter echoed eerily in the tight corridor. “Consider it my wedding gift to you. I ensured Ky’rn’s chamber was demolished, enabling his escape.”
Rage bubbled within me. “You used explosives? When I could have released him peacefully after the ceremony?”
His gaze was unwavering. “The ceremony was for theatrics. Once our contracts were signed, they were binding. This facility’s cruel experiments on alien life needed to be stopped. That meant destroying all the labs.”
“Why the charade? The wedding?”
He raised an eyebrow. “To placate our families, we had to appear as if we were to wed.”
“Are we not?”
His laugh was mocking. “No. Our businesses are entwined, but we, dear Isla, are not married.”
“Why?” My voice wavered, a mix of confusion and desperation.
“Because,” he said, “I knew you didn’t desire this union. Ky’rn made it abundantly clear to his leaders that he wished for you to accompany him.”
Reality seemed to bend, the weight of his words almost too much to bear. My grip on the gun slackened, and my arm fell to my side in shock.
He leaned in, his voice soft. “Put away your weapon and come with me. There’s a boat waiting.”
I hesitated for just a moment, then complied. As he grabbed my hand, leading me deeper into the passage, he called over his shoulder, “You deserve your freedom, Isla. Let’s claim your happy ending.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN
KY’RN
Every beat of my dual hearts resonated with pain so profound that it threatened to tear me apart, agonizing over her sacrifice. My thoughts were consumed with an overwhelming mixture of bewilderment and rage.
The human custom of arranged marriage—of mating someone just to further their goals or maintain appearances—was a concept so foreign, so incomprehensible to me. How could her species, one that had journeyed across the stars, still be ensnared in such archaic practices? Did the expanse of the cosmos not teach them the value of freedom?
The recollection of Isla’s distant demeanor during our recent encounters now made an aching kind of sense. Had she been steeling herself for this impending union, this unwilling sacrifice, for my sake?
The very thought of her being shackled to another made my blood boil.
I paced restlessly. The cool water currents against my scales did little to soothe the fire of betrayal burning within me, directed not only at the humans but also at my own leaders.
I had naively believed that my leaders would not agree to such a perverse trade. The thought that they had sanctioned this forced union was a betrayal I couldn’t fathom. What had they been promised? What twisted agreement had they made?
What was my freedom worth to them, that they’d willingly let Isla be chained to another?
Every fiber of my being roared in outrage.
Isla. My precious Isla, who had become my everything since I’d come across her bound form.
She was the one. The one who consumed my thoughts, the one who appeared in my dreams, the one who had awakened a deep yearning in me I hadn’t known existed.
From the very first moment I sensed her presence, she had stirred something deep within me, an ancient and primal connection. A bond I could neither explain nor resist. She was not merely an obsession; she had become the very essence that fueled my existence.
Her laughter, her tears, the way her spirit blazed with defiance and strength—everything about her had intertwined with the core of my being. The taste of her blood, shared in a desperate moment, had sealed the unbreakable bond between us.
Her essence, her very lifeblood, flowed through me and gave me strength.
