Page 10 of Risking Her Heart

“You should pack,” Nyanna says.

Pack? What? Oh. Shit. Damn it.

“Yeah,” I agree as Zas’tu closes his wings.

Everyone is looking at us. My face and chest flush so hot I’m almost surprised my shirt doesn’t catch on fire. What do they think we were doing in there?

“I’ll help you to pack,” Nyanna offers.

“Uh, thanks,” I say.

“I… pack?” Zas’tu asks, then says something in Zmaj.

The Zmaj have a discussion amongst themselves. I assume they’re talking about what to take or where to go. It doesn’t matter because I can’t understand a damn word they’re saying anyway.

Nyanna takes my hand and leads me away. Before I walk out the door I look back over my shoulder. Zas’tu knows, however it is he does this thing where he knows I’m looking, because he jerks his head right to meet my gaze. He smiles and damn it, but I really like that crooked grin and broken tooth. It gives his face so much character. He’s a really good looking guy, uhm, no, alien. A really good looking alien.

Nyanna grabs my hand and pulls me through the door.

5

ZAS’TU

“We need them to ally with us,” Angota says. “Anything less and I do not know how we will resist the Order’s forces. The Eye is going to come. For us, for them.”

“How do we keep them from self-destructing?” I ask.

“That is why we are sending you alone,” Shukach says. “Less of a threat than if more than one of us went.”

“And the human,” Angota says. “Her presence should be enough for them to let you inside.”

“How many are there?” I ask, the bijass surging in my head. “How much danger will she be in?”

Angota and Shukach exchange a look and there is no mistaking the implication.

“I will go, but she must stay,” I say. “I will not put my treasure in danger.” They look at each other again, but neither of them speak. “No. I will not do this. Find another.”

Angota places his hand on my shoulder. A calming gesture that also lets me know both that he understands and that he senses my bijass rising. A simple gesture but it quietly tells me to get myself under control.

I try. But the idea of her being in danger gives the bijass power I have never experienced before. All of the training I received while in the Order is barely enough for me to keep it at bay. I am ready to throw down with both of them if it means she will be safe. Nothing can threaten her.

“There is no one, brother,” Angota says.

His voice is steady and calm. Certain. I stare, trying not to growl, trying not to jerk my shoulder free of his grip, and trying harder still not to punch him.

“Angota,” I say, my throat is tight, making my voice huskier and deeper than normal, “I just found her.”

“I know,” he says.

There is so much understanding in his voice that it cuts through the red haze of the bijass, slicing it to shreds. The remnants of the primal anger, the need to dominate and prove my superiority while protecting my treasure falls to tatters.

In my head, I feel naked and alone without the anger. In the light of cold calculation, knowing our resources to hand and the threat we face, everything makes sense. I do not want it to, though. I want to fight, to protect, to keep her safe.

But that is a lie. There is no safety here. My dreams have told me and now my brothers see it too. The Eye is coming for us. No matter he gave his word, which is worth no more than one grain of sand from the desert as my father would say.

I am the one who must go and as that is so, what would I do with her? Leave her behind, and hope that the Eye doesn’t choose that time to attack? She will be safer at my side, I hope. Though I do not like this idea of using her to gain entrance to the Order's stronghold, it is smart.

The Eye will have told all of the outposts about the human females by now. The one we captured said as much. They are to capture them because the Eye wants them still for his nefarious purposes. That will get me in the door. Then it will be on me to either convince them of the Eye’s treachery, or to defeat them.

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