Naeris' stance didn't change, but she didn't stop her either. Ella took a breath. "Do the names Caelor and Ashera mean anything to you?"
The reaction was instant. Naeris froze. There was a sharp intake of breath. A sudden tension in her shoulders. For one heartbeat, genuine shock flashed across her face before she buried it beneath cold discipline. "We're done here for today."
She turned away. But it was too late. Every one of us had seen it. Silence settled over the cell after she disappeared behind the privacy screen. No one spoke. No one needed to. Because the question wasn't whether she knew those names. She did.
The question was how. How, by all the stars, had a civilization that somehow remained hidden from the Pandraxians, the GTU, and every major power in known space preserved names that should have been lost millions of years ago? Names that had only survived as fragmented myths among the Arkhevari themselves. Names tied to the First Fracture. To Earth. To the Dark Abyss.
My stomach tightened. Because suddenly, I wasn't sure Naeris had come looking for Earth. I was starting to wonder if she'd come looking for something else entirely. And if she had...
What in all the stars was she not telling us?
I woke tangledin silver sheets that did not belong to me, with the taste of Thyros still lingering on my tongue. For one disorienting moment, I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Because the dream clung too tightly.
No, not a dream. This had been so much more. A memory.
The certainty of it settled unpleasantly beneath my ribs. Heat still ghosted across my skin where his hands had touched me. Large hands. Rough hands. Reverent hands. I could still feel the weight of him behind me, his mouth against my throat while stars burned overhead in endless spirals of gold and black.
Mine.
The word echoed through me again, low and possessive enough to send heat curling traitorously through my stomach. By the three suns. I pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes. Absolutely not.
I had spent years fighting my way out of one system that believed destiny mattered more than choice. I had clawed my way free from priests, bloodlines, sacred breeding rituals, and every carefully polished cage the Sythari built around females like me. I was not about to throw myself willingly into another. I didn't care if this new cage came wrapped in amber eyes and enough raw power to make my pulse stumble every time he looked at me.
Especially not then.
That wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was that it didn’t feel new. The closeness. The bond.Him. That was what unsettled me most.
Attraction, I understood. Lust too. I wasn’t naïve enough to pretend Thyros wasn’t devastatingly male. Massive. Dangerous. Beautiful in the sort of way storms and collapsing stars were beautiful.
But this, I shook my head as if that would help. This felt ancient. As though somewhere deep inside me, something was stirring that had already known him long before we met. Long before I boarded this ship. Long before I was born—a feeling which was supported by the visions and dreams that had haunted me for years. Like I had spent entire lifetimes searching for him without realizing it.
The thought made my stomach twist.
No.
I refused to romanticize biological manipulation simply because the universe apparently had a sense of humor.
The Temple had taught me enough about engineered devotion to last several lifetimes.
On the other side of the cell, through a viewport, Earth slowly rotated in endless darkness. The ship hummed softly around me, powerful enough that I could feel it beneath the floor.
Footsteps coming down the corridor made me jump out of bed. I didn't need any psychic abilities to know who was walking down the hallway. The same group who’d come yesterday.
I sat up immediately, every instinct sharpened. Strange how quickly I had learned the cadence of them.
Xandros moved like a war machine, every step heavy and deliberate enough to make the deck subtly vibrate. Zapharos walked quieter, despite being even more massive than him, controlled power wrapped in cold precision. Dravok barely made noise at all. If not for the occasional whisper of fabric or shift of air, I doubted most beings would notice him until it was too late.
And Thyros? Gods. I always knew when he was near. Not by sound. By awareness. Something inside me reacted to his presence before my mind caught up; my body recognized him on a level I deeply distrusted. He was such an infuriating man.
But it was the human women who intrigued me the most. Ella, Ashley, and Nadine were unmistakably human, and yet… not entirely like the humans I knew. There was strength in them. A strange steadiness. They stood beside warriors and gods without shrinking from them. Spoke to them as equals. Argued with them. There were few women in the rebellion, but every single one was just as tough as these three.
Ella rolled her eyes at Zapharos like he was merely an overprotective annoyance instead of what he clearly was: something ancient and terrifying enough to unmake armies. Ashley outright mocked Xandros to his face.
And Nadine? Nadine looked at gods the way scientists looked at particularly interesting explosions. I didn’t know what to make of any of them.
Which probably explained why I found myself wanting to.
Ella stepped forward, carrying two steaming cups. She smiled sheepishly when she saw me tense.
