What?
WHAT?!
I’d had no idea he couldn’t access his tendrils this whole time, and a fresh wave of anxiety bubbled up in my chest.
How powerfulisthis witchy bitch?
“The precautions were forourprotection,” Uulvin sighed, as if what they’d done wasn’t completely uncalled for. “We shouldalltrust each other, we suppose…”
They must have released whatever—possibly mental—hold they had on him, as Ziggy unleashed his tendrils with an unearthly growl, aiming two dozen razor-sharp points at the Hydrassian and theDionaea muscipula.
“Zig, no!” I hollered, unleashingmytendrils as well.
Before I could stop him from inflicting unnecessary violence once again, Ziggy froze and then retracted his tendrils until they hovered around me and Pedro like a barbed wire fence.
Jesus…
The oversized plants were flapping their leaves and snapping their jaws but blessedlynotmoving their roots to attack us. Uulvin, on the other hand, looked as unbothered as they’d been when we first walked into the room.
Bish probably saw this coming.
The seer coolly addressed Ziggy. “After you leave here today, we want you to remember how it felt to be trapped within this room—within your vessel—unable to connect to your true purpose or to your stellar collision.Thatis how your fellow Stellarians felt as they blindly went about their lives beneath the old Astrum Force rule, except they wereunawareof their bondage until you came along to liberate them. You may be able to topple regimes, Stellarian, but you cannot fight destiny. Embrace it. Otherwise, it will eat you alive from the inside out.”
Tough love from the queen.
Ziggy wisely retracted his tendrils and kept his trap shut, so Uulvin refocused on me.
On where Pedro was still hidden.
“Show us the child,” the Hydrassian soothed, only marginally easing my anxiety. “Let us tell you what the stars have to say about their destiny.”
With a deep breath, I reached into the baby sling and lifted Pedro out of their hiding place, hoping I wasn’t about to ruin everything.
Please don’t let this be a mistake…
19
ZIGGY
This was a mistake.
The instant Micah dropped Pedro’s shields, I couldfeelthe karniliancalling to me, and Uulvin reacted in kind.
The seer gasped, flinching backwards in alarm. “Where did you find that?” they hissed, their many eyes darting around, as if suspecting we’d smuggled more in. “How do you have a Trol in your possession—anewbornTrol?!”
I lessened my sleep powers so Pedro could awaken and be aware of the situation, in case we needed to fight our way out of here. Unsurprisingly, the little Trol squeaked in surprise to find themselves in such a strange environment, and they immediately wiggled out of Micah’s hold to scamper onto my back.
Mine.
True to form, my mate jumped in as peacemaker. “An anonymous tip sent us to Marox to rescue the egg. It hatched on the way to Stellaria, but then the Irathians attacked our planet, so back into space we went.”
This shockingly succinct summary provided me with the perfect opportunity to get answers of my own. “Yes, and it still hasn’t been explained howthe Irathians knew we had the Trol… although therewasa Hydrassian coincidentally harassing gem vendors about karniliana day prior. Apparently, your kind has taken to mercenary work lately?—”
“We havenevercondoned using our unique skills to acquire karnilianfor our clients,” Uulvin huffed. “Those who do so are defying destiny itself.”
TheDionaea muscipulabegan rustling their leaves again, and Uulvin half-turned to listen while Micah frowned and fiddled with his translator device.
“A strong possibility…” the Hydrassian murmured before facing us again. “They say, perhaps the Irathians knew their limits, so they sent the Stellarians to Marox to do the dirty work for them.”
