Page 16 of Her Scarred Heart

I didn’t tell Riley then because I wasn’t positive, but certainty came quickly. I know from the other humans that it doesn’t work the same for them. They are slow to realize at times. Reluctant to trust in something more than themselves. Hesitant to give themselves over to Tajss and let fate take the lead.

Knowing that I have been patient. I would wait an eternity if that is what is required. As long as she is here, safe, and I can provide what I can for her, then nothing else matters. Of course I want more. Her kiss is… I am no poet and do not have the words to describe it or her for that matter.

My treasure.

Warmth suffuses my core and spreads into my limbs. She is everything. The suns in the sky, the air that I breathe, the reason and purpose for my existence. My duty to the Order comes secondary to her but includes her. Guiding Tajss through these dark times I do and did for her, though I did not know it at the time, now I do.

Her sadness fills the air between us. The pain she carries is so much more than the scars on her face. As she breaks our kiss I pull her into me and wrap myself around her. I hold her until her pain breaks free of the barriers she has built in her soul.

I am familiar with what the humans call tears. A strange and alien reaction. A dangerous thing on Tajss, to waste water in such a way, but then the humans are not designed for survival here. They are, in truth, alien.

Alien. I turn the idea over. How strange that my treasure is an alien. From some far, far distant planet, come here to Tajss by accident or by the hand of fate itself? Such questions are for philosophers. What I believed before has been thrown into doubt by the betrayal of the Eye. Now I do not know what is truth and what is fiction, but this I know. She is mine. And I am hers. In the end, nothing else matters.

She sobs, her tears running down my chest. I wrap my tail around us to pull her even tighter then I close my wings around us. They shield us from the outside world and inside them there is only the two of us. Together.

I know little of fate, or aliens, or anything besides war and preparing for war as that was my duty in the Order. To fight and be ready to fight, but though she may be an alien it doesn’t matter. Her soul and mine are one. We are two halves of the same and that idea fills my head as she lets out her grief.

At last her sobs ease and then she clings to me and I to her. No words are necessary and while my body wants her very much, now is not the time for such. There is, after all, all the time in the world for us. If fate can bring her across the vast emptiness of galaxies to be in my arms, I am certain it will not jerk her away so easily.

Leaning down I kiss the top of her head and hold tight, letting the darkness outside engulf us.

13

KAI

The silence slowly pervades the noise in my head. I don’t know that I’ve ever realized how loud my thoughts tend to be before now. Not words, really, just thoughts. Considerations, negativity and pain form a constant thrumming background that consumes a chunk of my attention.

Now I’m here. Fully in this moment. With him. He holds me tight to his chest with his arms and his tail. His wings block the outside world and create this bubble that is only the two of us. Alone, together, and somehow, for whatever reason, it feels right. As if this is what I’ve been looking for, on some level, all my life.

My tears are dry, not run out, but done. Another thing that is new. I don’t know how much I realized they were always there, ready to burst free without provocation.

I’m not alone.

For the first time since the accident I’m not alone. All this time I’ve been surrounded by the others. Other survivors, all of us bonded by the shared trauma of the crash, but none of them left like me. None of them scarred as I was and that made me different. An object of pity.

“Provyd,” I say, finding my voice at last.

“Yes, treasure?” he asks.

“Why?”

He doesn’t ask me to explain. It’s as if he knows the truth without me saying anything. Understands the question. He kisses the top of my head several times, squeezes me tighter, then shifts his position.

“Treasure,” he says.

“I have heard the others say this, but I do not understand.”

He grumbles. It’s a low rumble that starts deep in his belly, vibrating my head where it rests against his chest.

“Hmm,” he says. “More…”

I wait, letting him figure it out. He may not be fluent in my language but I don’t know a word of his. I’m sure it’s a problem we can overcome, in time.

In time? What am I thinking?

I thought that without consideration but the idea stops everything. In time. As if there is going to be a future with us. Does he want that? Do I?

Yes. Very much yes.

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