Page 6 of Her Lawless Prince

“You live here, too?” Nyle glanced around in surprise.

Payton shrugged. “Consider it my second palace. What do you want?”

“To plug a hole,” Nyle answered. “Reverse time. Fix a mistake that cannot be fixed.”

Payton’s gun lowered, and she frowned. He realized she wasn’t serious about shooting him.

“Are you…unwell in the mind? Perhaps you are in need of medical supervision?”

“I feel like a man who’s traveled a long way for a short conversation.”

Payton re-aimed her weapon. “Who are you?”

“Cysgodian Nyle, bastard son of an unknown off-worlder and Diana,” Yevgen answered. The cyborg finally showed himself.

Nyle flinched at the formal Cysgodian descriptor. It had been a long time since he’d heard it. “I prefer Nyle.”

“You do not belong here,” Yevgen answered. “You are supposed to be dead. Shoot him, my love. Set the universe to right. He is a traitor.”

Nyle gently waved his hand to stop Payton but was distracted by Yevgen’s words. He wasn’t worried as he studied the cyborg. Yevgen didn’t have it in his programming to attack. “My love? You think you love her? Do you think she can love you? A machine?”

Payton made a small noise. “He’s not just a machine.”

“I assure you, he mostly is.” Nyle had built that machine. “The rest is just blood and tissue.”

Yevgen furrowed his brow. “This is her palace. She is my wife, and so I declare it out loud by Var half-mating tradition as taught to me by Prince Roderic of the Var during our information exchanges. The data says she is for me, and we are well suited.”

Payton gasped and started to speak. “Whoa—”

Love? Nyle couldn’t help his burst of laughter as he cut her off.

“What happened to your wiring since you left the quarantine lab?” Nyle asked. “It’s fascinating. You were supposed to monitor these people, not declare love for the natives.”

Yevgen’s irises contracted, and his eyes flashed with blue light. His head lowered, and his mechanical legs shifted back and forth in agitation.

“Hey!” Payton demanded, stepping toward the cyborg as if to physically protect him from the ridicule. “Don’t laugh at him. He’s a hero. He’s helped save this city more times than I can count. And so what if he’s my half mate? What do you care? You better get on your knees and bow to the Prince of Shelter City before I have you thrown into a prison ward for trespassing on Qurilixen, you traitorous pile of prongin droppings.”

Nyle wasn’t sure what a prongin was, but it didn’t sound flattering.

“He’s not capable of…” Nyle let his words trail off at Payton’s expression. Though her words had been forceful and angry, they did not match her eyes. Her gaze begged him to stop talking.

His tracker gave a low, long tone, and he instantly reached for his wrist, only to realize Payton still had it.

“You need to hand that to me—” Nyle ordered.

“You heard my wife.” Yevgen suddenly charged forward, swinging his arm. “On your knees.”

Nyle lifted his hands in surprise to defend himself, but the cyborg struck him on the side of the head. As he crumpled to the ground, all he could think was that the attack should not have been possible.

3

“Yevgen, what have you done?”Payton shoved the blaster to Yevgen and kneeled by Nyle to check his pulse. “He’s alive. Get me the handheld medic.”

“He is not supposed to be alive.” Yevgen didn’t move. The light from the monitors flashed behind him.

Payton frowned, not understanding all that was happening. Yevgen had never seemed the murderous type. Nyle was Cysgodian, but not from Shelter City. That shouldn’t have been possible. They’d been told all the others were dead. Maybe a few had been off-world when the Cysgod outbreak happened? It’s not like there had been time to do a proper census when trying to evacuate an entire planet.

“We cannot be seen abusing Cysgodians when we just ran off the Federation for that exact transgression.” The device in her hand gave another low tone. She handed it to Yevgen. “Deal with this thing.”

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