Page 19 of Scars & Starlight
“Kairen,” she grumbles. “Are we gonna stand here like this all day?”
“Tell them I’ll move when I’m sure they won’t shoot at you,” I say calmly, uncaring that she’s now tugging on my jacket.
Her motions cease, but I notice she’s not letting go. “Oh. Right,” she murmurs. “I forgot they can’t understand you.” She chuckles nervously, then raises her voice. “It really is me. Um, the color of the day was purple yesterday.”
She presses closer, as if seeking shelter, and I wonder what the humans will think if my penis bursts through my pants this first time they see me. Probably that the Avaren are sex-crazed animals. Which is not far from how I’m feeling right now.
“This is Kairen,” Tara continues. “He can understand you, and they made it so I can understand them. He says I can pass once he’s sure you won’t shoot. Oh, and,” she adds after a beat, “there’s a robot behind me too. His name is Kiko. Well, it’s actually something a lot longer than that, but I shortened it to Kiko.”
After a moment of stunned silence, a female from the human camp speaks up. “That’s definitely Tara. They can’t fake that adorable awkwardness.”
The sides of my lips twitch up into a smile. Adorable awkwardness, indeed.
“Also,” Tara speaks up again, ignoring her colleague. “Shooting at him isn’t going to do a damn thing, but it might hurt me.”
At the reminder, the smile melts off my face. No one, and I mean no one, is going to hurt my princess. Wisely, the humans finally put their weapons away, and the man who spoke up first takes a few strides closer. When he’s close enough to see Tara, who’s still clutching at my jacket like a child at the marketplace with their parents, he stops and levels a serious look at her.
“You let him put something inside you?” he asks.
Not yet, I think.
I can hear Tara’s boots squeak against the ramp as she fidgets. “Technically, they had to put the mites inside me because the Ghorvek rang my bell. I just let them put some more in so I could understand them without Kiko.”
The man’s pale blue eyes narrow in confusion. “Mites? And the Ghorvek?”
Holding on to my arms for balance, Tara peeks out, obviously tired of having her vision blocked by my back. “They’re actually nano robots – nanites – but I think of them as mites. And the Ghorvek are what the Avaren call the ugly aliens. And the Avaren are Kairen’s people. Well, he’s their commander. I think, at least…”
The more she says, the wider my grin turns.
“I am the fleet commander of the Avaren space forces,” I tell her. “And also the crown prince of Avaris.” When she says nothing to myproclamation, I turn around, worried. She looks so small like that, staring up at me with wide eyes and a slack jaw. “Are you okay?” I prompt, wincing. Did I break her?
“What is it saying?” the human male asks, a little impatiently.
Tara swallows and looks at him. “He’s obviously a he, Sergeant Potts,” she admonishes gently. “And he’s telling me that he’s royalty.” She turns those beautiful eyes my way again. “Should I call you Your Highness now?” There’s a little bit of sarcasm in her voice.
Only in bed, I think, but what I say is: “Not unless you want me to call you that too.”
She snickers at that. “Yeah, right. Can’t believe you were a prince this whole time and didn’t tell me.” She goes to punch my arm, obviously changes her mind mid-swing, and aborts the motion adorably.
I hope you feel as lenient about me keeping things a secret in a couple of moonfalls when I tell you that you were literally made for me.
Kiko makes a chirping series of beeps as if he’s reading my mind. He'd better keep what’s by now probably known to every Avaren to himself.
“And what’s that again?” the older human asks, pointing his chin at the small mech.
Kiko answers before Tara does, eager to join the conversation as any assistive unit. “I am an S-class autonomous assistive unit equipped with adaptive artificial intelligence.”
Tara crouches so she’s closer to the mech’s height. “This is my robot, Kiko.”
The soldier raises a graying eyebrow. “Your robot, eh?”
“Stop bugging them, Dad,” a younger version of the man says from the line of humans. “Let Tara come inside and explain.”
Sighing, the man my match called Sergeant Potts, turns around and waves for us to follow. “Well, go on then,” he says over his shoulder. “I’m guessing if he wanted to kill us all, he’d do so from the sky.”
“If I wanted to kill you, I’d do so from orbit,” I murmur. Tara gives me a wide-eyed look. “What?” I mouth, even though the humanscan’t understand me. “We could release nano-bots into your atmosphere and have them bind to the oxygen particles in the air you breathe.”
My princess shudders and places a hand on her neck, maybe imagining being unable to breathe. I hate that I caused her distress, but the humans need to know we’re not a threat to them.
