Page 65 of Alien Prince Fake Fiancé

“There is nothing to forgive. She made her choice freely. If she is going to survive, she must have an anchor now. We must initiate a Yielding.” Bren reached behind his shoulder and pulled his sword from its scabbard. The ancient Lumerian runes etched along the blade flashed with blue light.

He quickly positioned the sword so that he could make a small cut on the palm of his hand. A single drop of blood beaded on his palm. Collecting the blood, he wiped the liquid across a small digital display on his armored forearm and tapped in a series of Lumerian symbols.

“Identify,” said a disembodied voice.

“Brennar Phavaen.”

“Scanning,” said the voice. A blue sheet of light scanned Bren from head to toe.

“Artifact?”

“Lumerian Orb.”

“Retrieving.”

As they waited for the orb to appear, they gathered closer. Dagan growled, “This better work, Lumerian. I was told this ceremony required us to be awake.”

Bren’s lips thinned. “The couple is required to yield all that they are, their hearts, their minds, their souls, their very lives, to become something more. Stronger together. Two become one. Have they not already done so? First, Zade sacrificed himself to save Ashlyn, and now she has done the same for him. They will have to find one another through the veil. There is no other way now. They are both out of time.”

Bren held up his hand, and in it appeared a pebble. Within a few seconds, the pebble expanded into a crystalline ball the size of his fist. Inside it, sparkling silver and gray mist swirled as if directed by an unseen force.

“Everyone step back.” He held the orb aloft, centered over Zade and Ashlyn. The orb, as if by magic, levitated over their stillforms. Slowly, the orb’s impenetrable shell liquefied, expanding in size until the three of them were encased within its misty interior. Bren and Ashlyn’s breath mixed with the cold mist, fogging the interior even further.

With all his might, Bren drove the tip of his blade into the table between the two lovers, deep enough so the blade would remain upright. Drawing his dagger, he made a tiny cut on the palm of Zade’s hand, then wiped the welling drop of blood over the divot in the hilt of the sword. Before repeating the process with Ashlyn, he murmured, “I do not know if this will work. Listen to my words. Know this; you have already yielded. Both have sacrificed. Good or bad, you have made choices that will last forever. Zade, if you can hear me, Ashlyn has taken an irreversible path. You must find her, anchor her to this life, or she will die. A Yielding is not like your binding ceremony. Part of the yielding is experiencing one another’s memories, their pain.”

With a flick of his wrist, he made a tiny cut on Ashlyn’s palm and smeared her blood on top of Zade’s, over the same divot in his sword, then quickly removed himself from the confines of the orb as the air became charged with electricity and the outer edges hardened like the shell of an egg.

“Now what?” asked Rachel.

As if rehearsed, Sasha, Dagan and Bren spoke in unison. “Now we wait.”

Several minutes passed in deafening silence. Nothing happened. No spark of light, no movement. Still, they waited. And waited. No one said the words, they didn’t need to speak them, it was written on their faces––Stunned disbelief. Sorrow. Failure.

One by one, they began to fidget, a shifting of the feet, a hand through the hair, pacing, rocking back and forth. Rachel sobbed quietly in Cam’s arms. Bren slammed a fist into a support beam, shaking the entire room.

Finally, Sasha made her way over to the orb, standing directly in front of it. Dagan joined her a moment later.

“I know that look. What are you thinking?” asked Dagan.

“I was remembering our Yielding. There was an electrical current connecting us to Falden’s sword. Do you remember?”

Dagan peered through the orb, squinting to see past the swirling mist inside. “I don’t see it.”

Nodding, Sasha removed one of the sparkling crystal bracelets that always adorned her. As she removed it, her markings grew brighter.

“What are you doing, little one? You know you can’t remove those. They’re the only thing keeping the energy you generate from overpowering you.”

“The crystals merely siphon the energy before it can leave my body and harm others. It is always there, my love.”

He growled. “It’s too dangerous. What about the baby?”

She placed her hand on her growing waistline. “We have this energy inside us all the time. She will be fine if you help us.”

“I don’t like this idea.”

“What good are these powers if I can never use them?”

Dagan breathed deeply. “I can feel your determination. You’re killing me.”

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