Page 53 of Veiled Vixen

“Reasonable.”

She purses her lips and lies back on the grass. “A lot has happened while you were in cryosleep. Everything is different and my priorities have changed.”

“The babies.”

“Babies. Yes. They are all I care about anymore. But assuming I can bring them to term I have another problem.”

“What’s that?” I sigh, lying back on the grass. So fucking tired already and I’ve only been awake half a spin.

“The girl twin inside me. She will be Akeelian if I don’t intervene. The babies always take on the race of the father when Akeelians are involved. And that means she will be used up in gestation if I don’t intervene.”

“Shit. I forgot about that.” And then I get sad all over again because Luck’s babies will have the same problem.

“I won’t allow it.”

“Can you even stop that?” I ask. “Isn’t it just… nature?”

“That’s another reason why I need to get to Earth. Otherwise the only way to preserve her is to take her mind near the end and put it in storage.”

“Make her into a ship.”

“I will not allow that, either. I think it’s a barbaric practice that should be stopped.”

“Oh, that’s funny. Considering you did that to Brigit.”

“I didn’t steal Brigit’s mind. I put her somewhere safe. I’d have done it for all of them, if I had the opportunity back then.”

“Veila,” I say, scoffing. “You’re an evil, murderous cunt of a woman. You have done some of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been a lot of places and witnessed more atrocities than I can count. So if your new plan is to convince me that you’re somehow innocent and everything you did has some greater, altruistic purpose, then—just don’t fucking insult me like that. OK? I might not be the smartest Harem brother, but I’m not the dumbest one, either.”

She huffs. “Which one of you is the dumb one?”

“I dunno. Luck, I guess.” And then I smile and say, “He’s not really dumb. He’s just smart in a different way.”

“Cunning,” she says.

“Sure. Why not. He’s cunning. And fearless. That’s what makes him both smart and stupid at the same time. He’s brave in a way only ignorant people can be.”

“Agreed.” She sighs.

“And he’s not going to give up. He won’t. He will find a way to get what he wants no matter what kind of danger he has to face to do that. That’s his superpower.”

“What’s your superpower, Valor?”

“I don’t know,” I whisper. “I’m not sure I have one, to be honest. Crux is the leader. Jimmy is all personality. Serpint is stubborn. Tray is smart. Luck is courageous and I’m… I’m just here because I had violet eyes the day Corla asked Crux to shoot her through a spin node twenty-one years ago.”

She plucks a blade of grass and twirls it in her fingers. “Somehow I doubt that.”

“Well, I’m an OK salvager, I guess. And I’m loyal.”

She nods. “Yeah. I think that’s it then. You are loyal.” She side-eyes me. “Just not to me.”

I laugh. “Why the hell would I be loyal to you?”

“Because you are my soulmate.”

“You’d prefer anyone over me. You wanted Jimmy, remember?”

“I need Jimmy. I never wanted him.”