Page 5 of Gyft

GYFT, HIGH COMMANDERof the Kashian fleet:

“I LOOK FORWARD to meeting you in person, my bride.”

Bridezillais more like it. She is mannerless.

While I chose her for her brightly ruby-jeweled, human equivalent offreeligthat grows from her head, I didn’t expect her face to have black smudged eyes. Or black lips, which made her teeth look oddly yellow. Two slashes underneath her cheekbones of the same darkness make the bones look sharp and prominent. She’s hard, sharp angles everywhere.

She looks like a ghoul that comes to collect souls to take across the deadlands to the ever-after.

She doesn’t bother to respond, though the translation came across in her own language. I’m sure it was explained to her that whatever she speaks is translated across my viewing board written in mine. That the translation works both ways.

Such a barbaric, ill-mannered species, and yet I was forced to choose one. Not much of a choice as our king had stressed the relationship be of either the leader’s daughter or the one of his second-in-command—the female who sobbed with relief during the entire ceremony that she hadn’t been chosen.

But then the lights flash on the viewing screen and human males run for the shuttle she just entered.

I grip the comm controls in front of me, lifting my head just a little for more visibility. Two of the human guards reach the shuttle door andbang on it, but they’re forced to step back when sparks fly from the base.

A siren wails on their end and Prominent Admiral Nash barks a command to shut down the alarm before remembering I’m present.

“What’s going on with the shuttle?” I ask.

Too late, I realize my slip up. Not with my bride. But with the shuttle. No one catches the mistake.

“It appears the coordinates have shifted,” he says, his lips tight. “We’re sending the new destination to you now.”

The final location points flutter across the viewing screen. Quickly, we map out the general area where she’ll arrive on our planet.

The edge of the deadlands, thankfully far enough from the borders for safety... well, unless she shifts with the winds.

“Well.” I frown, even though he can’t see my face. “That’s not good. What in the world went wrong on your end? Is this some sort of trickery?”

“No,” the male splutters. “I would not have offered my own daughter if I suspected any of the safety guards would fail—”

I cut him off. “We’ll be lucky to fish my bride out alive,” I tell him, before ending the viewing with the push of a button.

Idiots.

When the viewing screen goes black, I flip back my hood.

“She’ll be fine,” Minniel says, angling the more scarred side of his face away from me. “The Earthlings assured us the shuttle locks are engaged and the ship will remain with low level power for a week while she sleeps. You will be able to open it when you arrive.” He claps me on the back. “Like a bridal present waiting to be unwrapped.”

Just not to my doorstep.

I wasn’t looking forward to this merger between our planet and Earth. Especially not when I found out I was the offered male. I imagine we’ll consummate once—and hold back my shudder at the thought of those black lips—and I can set her up in her own house.

But in the meantime, we’ll have this technology that a backward planet of insects have managed to develop. Technology that costs us dearly... no one wanted this hideous creature for a bride.

“I guess I’d better prepare for the trip.”

It will take at six or seven rotations to travel, and our cold season arrives. We have ten each year and we’re only in season four. She should arrive when it warms. I have two choices. I can travel there now, and sit and wait through the cold season. Or I can wait out the cold in the luxury of my own home, and travel the day after it ends. Arrive at the deadlands in the warmth of the sun, pack up my sleepingunbeauty, and we’ll board the ship to come back here long before the next cold wave hits.

No sense in suffering through the weather.

“What’s that look on your face?” Minniel says, his eyes narrowing on me. I force my features to relax and grow blank.

“Nothing. I’ll collect her and fulfill my end of the bargain. Once.”

“Once?”

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