Page 99 of Stars in Halo

With another jerk of his jaw, he turned away and kept walking.

She stared at his lithe, muscled beauty and took a breath.

Was he her portion or not?

She had no idea how to navigate the next few days with him.

But fokk, she already missed him and longed for the touch of his lips on hers, his lean fingers stroking and bringing her to incandescence once more.

A woman could dream. She sighed as she shifted towards the stairs leading to House DKRT’s private suites.

Where she found a little girl curled up on a bed.

She shucked her boots and power suit and slid under the covers, careful not to wake the slumbering child.

She wrapped her arms around her most precious treasure.

‘Mama,’ the toddler whispered, patting her face.

The sweet utterance broke Katya, and she closed her eyes as tears fell over her cheeks.

A few hours later, night had passed, and dawn was slipping its purple threads of light over the dark sky.

In a lush bedroom deep within the opulent palace, an older woman with silver hair woke to the shake of a hand on her upper arm.

‘Mada, it’s me,’ Katya said, smiling down at her mother, Kiko D’Hanna.

‘What time is it?’ Kiko yawned.

‘6 AM, just after sunrise.’

‘Kaaia OK?’ Kiko asked.

‘She’s still sleeping,’ Katya confirmed.

The pair glanced over to the second bed in the room where the young girl was nestled.

Kiko let her daughter slip a shawl around her shoulder and lead her into the small living room of the bedroom suite that the Khosana had assigned them.

‘Mada, sorry to wake you.’

‘De nada, my love. In the forthcoming days or weeks, I’ll have all the time to sleep in a comfortable bed again.

‘I must leave you again,’ Katya breathed.

The softhearted woman gave her daughter a long hug.

‘There’s no need for thanks,’ Kiko replied, barely a whisper. ‘As your mother, I must look after my only child and her kids.’

‘Nada, I should be their primary carer, but in recent months -’ her voice trailed off.

They shared a moment of silence, and then Katya pulled away. ‘I’ll never stop thanking you,’ she murmured. ‘You’ve always been there for me, Mada. And for that, I will always be grateful. Yet again, I feel guilty leaving you all on a mission to save the Iccythria from the clutches of K’Sumi’s madness.’

‘You’ve no choice, my girl. If you don’t save the planet, you can’t save us, so go. We’ll be fine.’

‘Will you? Even without father?’

Kiko’s face hardened. ‘He bartered with our lives and those of your kids in particular. I’ve loathed the man for many years and do not intend to love him or devote myself to your brothers any further. I’ll be a grey rock to them like you’ve done yourself.’

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