Zirene rose from the nest—all shadows and controlled power, every inch the Sovereign his people needed him to be. Throughour relationship, and all the years that I’d known him, through our Shadow-Nova bond that connected us deeper than any crown or title, I felt the truth.
He was breaking too.
His shadow reached for me one last time—a tendril of darkness brushing my cheek like a final caress. Then it retreated, coiling back around him as he turned toward the door.
“Find me in the dreamscape.” His voice echoed through the silent nestroom. “Every night. I’ll be there.”
I watched him go, my hand pressed flat against my belly where our family’s future grew.
I made a silent vow to not break.
Never break.
10
Zirene
The royal spaceport of Destima had never felt so vast.
Thousands of Destima citizens filled the plaza below the ceremonial platform—a sea of faces stretching toward the distant perimeter walls. Warriors stood rigid in formation. Civilians clutched loved ones to their chests. Elders leaned on younger shoulders, their eyes bright with the memory of wars past and the terrible knowledge of wars to come.
Through his shadow reach, Zirene sensed every Aldawi on the moon. Thousands of shadow signatures pressing against his awareness—fear and resolve and desperate hope tangled together into a collective weight that threatened to crush him.
His people. His burden. His reason for leaving everything that mattered.
His ceremonial armor sat heavy on his shoulders—obsidian plates etched with the ancient sigils of his bloodline, the mantle of sovereignty he’d worn for centuries. His shadow coiled tight against his body, contained, controlled. Projecting the strength they needed to see. The certainty they needed to believe.
It was a lie.
Beneath the mask of the Sovereign, Zirene was fracturing.
Selena stood beside him—close enough to touch, too far to hold. Her Beacon regalia glowed soft gold in the morning light, orangish yellow spots shimmering across her skin like scattered starfire. The swell of her belly pressed against the ceremonial robes, visible even through the formal draping. Kaede’s daughter. Their future. Growing inside the woman he loved while he flew toward death.
He wanted to pull her into his arms. Shield her from the thousands of watching eyes. Pretend for one more moment that duty wasn’t ripping them apart.
Instead, he stood straight. Kept his gaze forward. Played the part his people needed.
The clan arrayed behind them in formal positions—Kaede a controlled pillar of lethal stillness, V’dim and Z’fir synchronized in their calm, Xylo’s gentle presence anchoring Odelm’s quiet devotion, and Zyxel coiled uncertain at the edge, still finding his place in their constellation. His clanbrothers. The males who would guard his Nova while he was gone.
Trust them,he told himself.She chose them. They will not fail her.
But the thought rang hollow. Not because he doubted them—never that. Because he doubted himself.
The Shadow-Nova bond that connected him to Selena still hummed between them, but it was different now. Thinner. Strained by his own foolishness, his own fear, the distance he’d insisted on keeping between their minds. He’d refused to let her bind their mental shields together. Kept her at arm’s length when she’d wanted nothing more than to share his burdens.
He’d damaged what should have been unbreakable.
Dimstar.The word echoed in his mind—an old Aldawi insult, reserved for males who couldn’t see what was right in frontof them. Males who let their ego and oversight cloud their judgement. Males who neglected and hurt the ones who loved them.
That was him. A dimstar Sovereign, leaving his Nova when she needed him most.
But time wasn’t on his side. The Quaww weren’t going to wait for him to mend what he’d broken. The Verya weren’t going to pause their hunt while he rebuilt the trust he’d let erode through caution and duty and the crushing weight of the crown.
If he wanted a future—any future at all—he had to go. Now. Before the borders collapsed. Before the hunters found what they were seeking. Before everything he’d built turned to ash.
Small bodies pressed against his legs.
Zirene looked down, and his chest cracked open.
