Page 18 of Barbarian Daddies

“Right, because General Kaspian’s death toll is lower Selina’s. He kills fewer civilians,” Maur scoffs, then takes a long sip of his tea. He scrunches his nose ever so slightly but says nothing of the drink, not wanting to offend our hosts, but I know he’s not a fan of sweet drinks. He is, however, a good guest, and I like him even more for this.

I drink from my cup, loving the peppered sweetness, and decide to offer my own input on the matter. “You know, back on Earth, we had two World Wars.”

“Oh, yes, Alicia has taught hours’ worth of courses to our soldiers about your World Wars,” Helios replies. “An interesting affair, to say the least.”

“A horrible affair as far as humanity is concerned,” I say, “but there are precious lessons to be learned from those conflicts in terms of casualties. You see, we were supposed to be the good guys. The Americans, I mean. We avoided getting involved when the Nazis started invading and mass-murdering their way through Europe. We advocated for peace, but we did send arms and supplies to the Allied Forces. The Nazis were bad, and the Allies were good. It’s how we remember the story.” I shrug. “But then the Japanese bombed one of our islands, and the gloves came off. The good guys had to become the very monsters they’d sworn to destroy. With just two atomic bombs, we wiped out two of the Japanese Empire’s cities off the face of the Earth. The death toll was atrocious, civilians obliterated in mere seconds. Not to mention the many more who perished in the fallout.”

Alicia nods in agreement, saddened by our own history of mindless violence. “It kick started an even greater alliance, though, and when the Americans joined the war effort of the Allied Forces against the Nazis, it was game over. We won. We were the good guys, but at what cost? That question lingers even in this day and age.”

“What is your point, exactly?” Maur asks, slowly losing his patience. He can be an irritable hothead when he doesn’t manage to get his arguments across—though not for lack of trying. It’s challenging and exciting to wrestle with different viewpoints. “I don’t mean to sound ignorant, of course. I’m just trying to understand.”

“We’re all monsters in war,” I say. “Some of us are less than others, but we are still monsters. And if we can reach out to General Kaspian to sway him into peace talks and perhaps even stop Selina’s efforts in their tracks, why not give it a try? She’s the biggest, baddest monster in this story, don’t you think?”

The collective nod around the table gives me a smidge of satisfaction, and Alicia is quick to pick up the thread and drive the point farther forward. “Cynthia has a point. We should try every and all strategies in the coming weeks and months. At least then our conscience will be at ease when or if we have to resort to the less palatable solutions we’ve already discussed.”

“In that case, we’ll use some of mine too,” Maur quips, half-smiling.

“We’re not killing Sapphire City civilians,” Kai cuts in, arms crossed with frustration.

Maur shakes his head again. “I wasn’t talking about that, brother. I was talking about blowing up another starship.”

“We don’t know where the rest of them are,” Kharo reminds us.

“Oh, but we do,” Maur says, a satisfied grin stretching across his handsome face. I knew he had a hidden card he was ready to play for this meeting. He was way too accommodating to Kai’s requests for peace talks—they usually butt heads more before he bitterly relents and lets Kai have his way. “I’ve spoken to the Kreek boys. There’s one hangar northwest of Ruby City confirmed to have a starship inside.”

Kai gives him a confused look. “When did you speak to the Kreek boys?”

“A few days ago.” Maur brushes the question off, but I know they’ll have a heated conversation about it later. He didn’t tell Kai about it, that much is obvious. “Point is, we know where one starship is. And the Kreek brothers need our help to blow it up.”

“The Yellow Bunch,” Alicia and I gasp at the same time. “Jewel’s buddies!”

“Already dispatched them over to Kreek territory,” Maur tells us, beaming like a star.

Kai isn’t happy about this at all, yet I don’t want tension between them, so I calmly reach under the table and give his thigh a gentle squeeze, whispering in his ear. “The Yellow Bunch are very good at this sort of stuff, Kai. Their talents would be wasted elsewhere, and if we can blow up another starship while we’re infiltrating Sapphire City, why not do it, my darling?”

“Your what?” he mutters, giving me a brief side-eye, his voice lower than usual.

Only now do I register the words that came out of my mouth. It’s too late to take them back, though, so I double down and give his leg another squeeze. “My darling.”

“I’ll want to hear you say that again. Later. Tonight,” he replies.

As the Fire Tribe chiefs continue their talks and Alicia occasionally shares thoughts of her own for several possible strategies, I sink back into my chair and gulp more of my black honey tea, my insides quivering with anticipation. The twins and I are sharing one of the Tallas guest houses at the top of the plateau wall.

I know precisely how much sleep we’ll get after we wrap up here.

Just enough to keep us awake so we don’t collapse on the road to Sapphire City tomorrow. We are insatiable, I’ll admit, and terribly addicted in the face of great danger. Our mission might blow up in our faces, after all, so we might as well make the most of every moment we do get to spend together. I think that’s the one thing I’ve learned to do more of since I was dragged across galaxies to Sunna.

Live in the moment.

Tomorrow is never guaranteed. The past cannot be changed. But today matters most. So, every second counts, and the more seconds I get to spend making mad love to Kai and Maur, the happier I’ll die when it’s my time.

7

Cynthia

The next day, we meet up with the rest of our mission party on the other side of the Crimson River. Dahlen is visibly nervous but also grateful for the opportunity to prove himself again.

There are twenty of us in total. We leave our raft on the riverbank and make our way on foot across the plains. The northern region of the continent is covered in purple grass fields and rolling hills with red and black-leaf trees, wild orchards, and roaming herds of endemic horses that graze all day in the hot sun. Beyond the eastern black-stone mountain range, there’s a sprawling, rocky shoreline opening out to the Crimson Sea, a mass of red, warm water rich in salt and minerals, riddled with underwater volcanoes that constantly erupt.

---