Page 253 of Scorching the Alien Empire
Only more silence.
“Your death would not extinguish the inferno of pain you lit inside me,” he mutters.
His hand lets go. I collapse. Limp on the bed like a broken, discarded doll.
“Dig deeper, little wyrm,” he says coldly. “So the Gods cannot witness your shame.”
He turns, crouching to exit—and the room buckles under his weight and haste, my soul with it.
I reach out. Not to stop him. Just totouchthe trail of his red rage still curling in the air. Clinging desperately to this fleeting piece of him. I want to pull it into me. One last ember of his heat. One lastanything.
He’s gone.
And I shatter.
Sobs tear from my throat—raw, jagged, uncontrollable. They shake through my ribs like aftershocks. Like I’m screaming into a hole Idug myself.There’s nothing I can do, nothing I can say.
I killed us. Death by Surfer Bro.
I laugh. A sharp, shrill thing.Hysterical.
It’sfunny, isn’t it? I thought I was playing him. But no. He’s the one who’s laughing. He and Bitch Brick. Theyplannedthis. Theybaitedme like I was some big dumb goldfish—and I gulped it like a fucking idiot.
No wonder Dracoth hates me now. I threw him away. The only person who’s stuck by me. The only person who’severtruly seen me. The real Lexie. Not the glitter. Not the snark. Just the mess. Gods know I tried to push him away, when our bond first formed. How naked and exposed I felt. Warts and trauma all hanging out like my tall chubbiness. But he accepted me, encouraged me to embrace who I was—what I was becoming.
And this is it? This is what I became? A shallow, horny bitch who sold out the greatest man in the universe for a salty surfer bro?
With fucking corals.
In his hair.
Seriously? Is that really what I did? I threw away my Chanels... forseaweed.
A fresh round of sobs shakes me until Todd clambers onto my head.
“Chug Bug...” I sniffle, swatting weakly at his plumpness. “Get down, you little menace.” But he clings on like a living fascinator. Then his wee clackers droop over my forehead, dabbing away the tears. “Aww... thanks, you wee sweetheart.” I let him stay. Let him cover my shame like a too-cute crown of kindness.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Knocking. Echoes.
I jolt upright, frantically wiping my eyes and tugging at my robes. I probably look like I was dragged backwards through the ugly-crier factory.
“Off. Todd.Someone’s at the door.” I try to peel him from my scalp, but he clings tighter—needle booties digging into my skin like bug-shaped acupuncture.
“Great. Thanks.” I sigh, heading toward the door. “Now we’re going to look evenmoreridiculous.”
Todd croaks defiantly, showing me the same mercy he shows jelly sticks—none. His mandibles already snapping at the would-be intruder.
“How does this thing work again?” I mumble, sucking my lip as I grope around like a drunk frat boy at a stripper club. “Um... come in?”
The door sighs into liquid, and I brace myself for another helping of cosmic shame pie.
But instead of a towering space-knight or Robo-Nib come to take me to cringe jail, it’s...
A Smurf. I blink.
The little blueberry head waddles in, orange robes swishing, a circular collar framing his head like a coin slot on legs.
