Did he really not know? Seven years of hurt, seven years of shoving the pain and loss down, and here it was again. Rising up, threatening to drown her. “I wasbanished, Kedar. Are youtelling me you thought they would let me stay after what you did?”
“After whatIdid,” he emphasized. His forearms dropped, causing the vertebrae of the Orcru to scrape against the stone of his seat. “I knew you weren’t staying in your faction or on Soan at all anymore, but I didn’t know…” He cleared his throat. “Why?”
“Why.” She huffed. “Elder Nerra knew. I don’t know how, but shewasa Seer. She kneweverything. How we remained comrades long after the Zaram invasion ended. After our leaders disagreed over the argott mines and declared us enemies again. That night, she said you attacked usbecause of me.I didn’t deny it. Couldn’t. I felt responsible even without her condemnation.” Vessa’s fingers squeezed into a fist so tight her nails bit into her palm. “A traitor’s punishment is death, Kedar. The only reason they banished me instead was because of the respect they had for my parents.”
A Seken without a faction, just like a Xaal without a clan, was considered an outcast. Vessa becamelinnra.A disgrace, shame-bearer, faction traitor. She was dead to the community and to her family. It was forbidden to look upon the face of a linnra. She could never see her parents again, never smell her home’s rich soil, or run through the Minad forest again. It couldn’t be lost on him that she would still have all of that if he’d made a different decision that night.
“Vessa,” he started, that sharp indifference leaving his voice, “I did not enter your faction’s territory to betray you. My intentions—”
“Don’t,” she interrupted. “I don’t want to hear about your fucking intentions.” If she were forced to listen to a lie or excuse, she may very well carve him up in the same way he did that Orcru. She’dwitnessedit. That was why his reasoning didn’t actually matter. The end result was the same.
When the silence became just as uncomfortable to deal with, she gestured to him. “Tell me, what is it thatyoudo, then? What have you done that has made you so honorable these last seven years?”
Kedar had already returned to his bloody task. An eyeball hung from its socket on the Orcru’s face as he scooped the rest of the ligaments out. “Trained and hunted.”
She snorted. “So, the usual.”
The eyeball hit the ground with a wet plop. Kedar looked at her, and she could almost imagine the expression he was making. “Hunted foryou.And trained so that when I found you, I could kill you.”
He’d said the same just last night—that he’d spent the last seven years looking for her. But there was something in the way he said it now that felt more personal. Intimate. Like he’d made her some promise long ago and was just now fulfilling it.
For the briefest of moments, she forced herself to see him as the Xaal she was once comrades with. The one who’d told her a forbidden secret under the cloak of mist and night. The Kedar who’d taught her how to use her strength to her advantage no matter the size of the enemy. The one who had celebrated her first hunting trophy, a great achievement to the Xaal but meaningless to her people. The Kedar that she had once—
A shiver that had nothing to do with the cold went through her. No, some things were too dangerous even to think.
“You must be as eager as I am to get this over with,” she rasped. “We’ll fight tomorrow. Prepare yourself. One way or another, I’ll be done with you then.”
Kedar made a noncommittal sound. His eye shields glowed orange this time as his gaze ran over her. She felt it on her like fingers tracing over her flesh, reaching for her soul. What was it that he could see? Could he see all the things she locked away? All the burning fury and hurt?
“I told you, I’ve been preparing all this time,” he finally said. “You should have killed me. That was the only way that fight could end, Vessa. You disrupted the stars when you didn’t, and it was up to me to set it right. I’d have spent my entire life hunting for you if necessary. It has to end.” Fire lit his words. Passion. And something darker on the edge of it.
This time, she caught it before it consumed her. She tamped that infernal storm down, kept the beast locked away. Instead, she let out a humorless laugh. “We get it. You’ve had one thing on your mind and that’s finding me and killing me. Give it a rest, already. You think you’re the only person with a revenge arc? I’ve seen better ones on the shows I watch. Unless it involves a secret twin or faking deathtwice, I don’t want to hear about it anymore.”
“Do you just watch Galac-com and kill for pay, or have you actually kept up with your training? I’d like a battle that lasts more than a few seconds. Otherwise, it will be most unsatisfying.”
“What does it look like to you?” Vessa flexed her legs. Her thighs were thick and shapely, but muscles shifted beneath. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and spun around in a circle, showing off her form the same way one showed off a new outfit. Vessa had always been equal parts curves and muscles, a dangerous combination for those who looked at her and only saw the fullness of her chest and her shapely backside. People often underestimated her. Her favorite pastime was proving them wrong. Efficiently and permanently.
Kedar, though, had always seen her as a threat and acted accordingly. Even before their first sparring match, he’d known to take her seriously. If anything, he’d overestimated her, believing she could do things that she never thought to try, like climbing the hanging cliffs of Dulen Nar or swimming in the raging black seas on planet Wake. He challenged her,pushedher, believing in her even when she thought she had reached the limit of her abilities.
He’d made her a better fighter.
Now, Vessa trained alone on her ship, pushed her body as hard as she could with weights and endurance training. When she stopped on planets for supplies or work, she would enter a fight house and pick the biggest warriors to spar with, usually earning herself some extra credits in the process. Never mind the amount of fights she ended up in on her job alone.
But she hadn’ttrulytrained. Not in the way she had with Kedar. That, along with everything else she’d ever been, had burned up and turned to ash seven years ago.
“Your body hasn’t changed much,” he admitted, “but do you have a sparring partner? Do you still run through forests every morning? Push your boundaries in new ways?”
If she told him she didn’t, would he try to delay her even longer? Abduct her and make her train with him for seven years or some ridiculous shit that only he would think to do? “Yes,” she lied as she sat down as close as she could manage to the fire. “I found myself another big Xaal to train with. He’smuchstronger than you. And far more loyal.”
Kedar’s dagger scraped against the Orcru’s skull with a sickening noise. “And this Xaal,” he said carefully, “where was he when you were being pulled apart by Orcru?”
She lay back with her hands behind her head. This was safer territory. And far more fun. “Aren’t you a curious littleoolut.” That earned her an annoyed grunt. “Xer is on a mission of his own. He trusts me to get myself out of situations, of course. That’s what makes us so good together.”
“Xer.” He said the name like a curse. “What is his clan? What code does he follow? What Xaal planet is he from, or did he—”
Vessa propped herself up on an elbow. “For fuck’s sake. Would you like a full report on him? Want to know the color of hisplasma dirk, his armor measurements, and the size of his cock, too? I’d say it’s—” She held her hands up and gave him an estimated size, then added a couple more inches while wiggling her fingers.
Kedar snarled. “You are his mate?” There was a barely subdued violence to his tone. His chest rose with a heavy breath before he said, more calmly, “I only ask because, depending on his code, he may be duty-bound to challenge me once I kill you. I’d make myself available.”
