Page 119 of Sway's Peace
“Let me go!” She yelled again, trying to dig her feet in as he pulled. Aiming for the lift off to the side so he could take her away.
He didn’t care about her. Only the possible babe she might have conceived.
“I’m not pregnant!” She yelled, ripping at more of his feathers. If she caused enough pain, he’d have to let her go, right? “I turned off my ovulation! I can’t be pregnant right now!”
He scoffed. “Convenient. But I won’t take that chance. If you’re not pregnant, I’ll deal with it later. But I won’t risk losing the only offspring I have left.”
“You should have thought of that before you exiled Sway! Now! Let! Go!”
He ignored her, still pulling. His grip was firm, definitely bruising, but he clearly didn’t care that he was breaking his pacifism. ‘Saving’ his grandchild was more important. Even more important than the fact that he was, at this moment, kidnapping her.
Instead of trying to pull back, Grace suddenly threw herself forward. She grabbed the feathers of his crest, proudly lifted into the air, and pulled. Yanking so hard and suddenly, his head jerked back and his grip loosened. Just enough for her to twist free and stumble backwards.
He recovered quickly, whipping around to face her with a snarl.
“Female, I am not-”
He cut himself off. Staring past her. An unreadable expression on his face.
Grace didn’t get the chance to turn. Arms wrapped around her from behind. Familiar, warm, strong, and blue. One arm banded around her belly. The other swept up so he could put his hand around her neck. Holding her there. Not squeezing, not even tight, but just holding on, keeping her in place as his body pressed against hers from behind.
A crooning voice, rough and all the more beautiful for it, whispered in her ear. “Grace.”
“Sway…” She breathed, stunned, heart pounding.
Chapter 31
Sway
For the first time since Sway had agreed to work with Tanin, he was walking around comfortable in his own skin. In his own power. It wasn’t just freeing. It feltright. Like finally he was who he was supposed to be.
That night, Sway and Loyalty snuck back into the city. Loyalty couldn’t control the glow of his eyes or his quills, but he could be slathered in mud, hiding at least the latter.
The door they had come through to escape had been fixed since they left. However, the fix was a temporary one until proper maintenance and repair could be done. They had boarded it up from the other side. An obstacle a combined kick and body ram from Sway and Loyalty respectively was able to take down after a few hits.
His people were peaceful, and they were the only ones on this planet. The only thing they had to fear from the wild was the wild itself, and the beasts were far too frightened of the city to approach. And, as a consequence, the security of the surrounding wall was lazy and ineffective. No one tried to stop them, or even came to investigate, when they broke through.
The two of them snuck into the city easily, aiming for the inn they’d stayed at. They really were convinced of their own superiority. So accustomed to being peaceful, they had become useless.
Sway didn’t know where Grace was being held. Otherwise, he’d go to her immediately. But Veesway could have hidden her anywhere in the Song. A smart, experienced male would put her in a random place that held no significance and could be closely but surreptitiously guarded. Veesway might be intelligent, but Sway didn’t know how far that extended into practical, underhanded things.
Though, if the wall security was anything to go by, the answer was not at all.
Regardless, he’d have to track her down somehow. But first, he needed his family.
The inn might be part of the Song, but it was a business. Sway had paid for his room in advance, which meant the door locks were keyed only to him. The inn staff wouldn’t be able to open them until his paid time ran out or unless there was a legal override.
He supposed Veesway could use his position as leader of the Song to command the override, but that seemed underhanded. And, as Sway hoped, he hadn’t actually done it. When he and Loyalty snuck into the back of the inn and up to his room, the door opened as it should and everything was where he last put it.
Of course, Veesway wouldn’t consider that Sway might return. As far as he was concerned, the problem had been thrown away, and there was no problem anymore. He likely didn’t even consider Sway’s belongings as something to deal with. It was theinn’s problem and they’d discard them as they willed once his paid time had run out.
“He may be my father,” Sway mumbled, picking up his bag. “But it doesn’t appear that I’ve inherited much from him.”
Loyalty snickered as he walked past him to the privy – no doubt to wash off the mud dampening his quills. “You’re the exact same shade of blue that he is, but that’s about it. You must take after your mother.”
“Perhaps,” Sway muttered, upending the contents of the bag on the bed. He didn’t really have many memories left of his mother. Like his father, he’d locked them away in the deepest part of himself, buried them and left them there.
Well, stirring up the dirt on that grave had earned him nothing from his father. He’d rather just let the childish, innocent feelings of warm, motherly love lie there undisturbed. A fragment of a dream to be remembered when he was older.
