Page 116 of Tempting Fate

I smirked at Kira’s wheedling tone, but my stomach soured. Their flirty banter was just as easy as mine with Airida—but they had all of the ease and none of the complications.

Kira pushed her sleeves past her elbows, revealing streaks of deep purple over her olive skin. Mating marks.

My gut churned.

We picked our way downhill, but it was tougher going than before. Some loose scree slipped under my foot, and I fell, scraping my knee.

It wasn’t just me struggling. Kira was shorter than me and had trouble reaching some of the trickier safe points.

When she slipped with a squeak, Reskavi let out a fierce growl. “You stay there. Both of you. I’ll bring the speeder up.”

I expected her to argue, but instead she sat on a springy patch of succulents, pouting.

“But we’re nearly there,” I said. “It will take longer for him to get down and return.”

She shook her head. “Don’t argue with a kri’ith when he’s in protective mode. And he’s right, the steepest bit is the bottom.” Her face lit in a smile. “Watch him, though.”

Reskavi clambered over the rocks as though they were a ladder, fingertips and claws providing more security than it seemed they should, hauling himself round an overhang, holding all his weight like it was nothing.

“He couldn’t take the easier route?” I asked.

“Not when that’s quicker—and more fun.”

The corsair’s now-small figure jogged over the sand to the speeder, and climbed in.

The familiar whine grew louder, and warm air gusted towards us as he approached. Reskavi hovered the craft just below us, over a flatter outcropping.

None too gracefully, we climbed in.

“Thank you, taamthi.” Kira pressed a kiss into his headspines, which shivered at her touch.

Airida’s breath had been warm at my neck as we’d lain in bed together. My skin broke out in goosebumps. He had to leave in a week. Without me. “Can we check it out tomorrow morning? We can take the speeder straight there. Or can we go now? Please?” The sun hadn’t quite set.

Kira must have heard something in my tone. “Come on, Reski, we’re half way up the hill. It won’t take too long. And you wanted to go into town tomorrow morning.”

“No. It’s a new planet. It’s getting dark. We’re leaving,” Reskavi said.

Kira rolled her eyes and stage-whispered, “Protective mode.”

I pushed down my frustration as the big kri’ith took us back to Zyamzh.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Harmonies

Airida

WHAT THE SHAA’ITH proposed might mean war.

I checked the commnet site I frequented daily now, searching for news of Orith, and always it was the same. Diplomacy was failing. People on both kri’ith homeworlds were furious. And the more time passed, the worse it became.

I found it harder to care about my planet of origin as the days wore on. Seeing the villagers going about their days, about their lives, I could imagine they felt as I did—joy at living this wonderful life when, on Orith, it had been denied to us.

Deconstructing truth was hard. “What do you think, Orbit?” I asked the small lizard as she stopped sniffing the plant on my dresser and fluttered over, landing in my lap. “How are the plants here? Are they so very different? Is there anything you’ve had to relearn?”

She’d slipped into life with the flower lizards here, uncaring she was the only one with golden-green wings or an overly domed carapace. And now she had eggs to care for.

My comm chirped, and as I flicked through the pictures Imani had sent, I smiled, imagining I was there too. The setting sun over the still lake. The mountains in the background, all misty greens and hazy greys. A plant about to bloom.