Page 91 of Saved By the Alien Hybrid
“No,” someone echoed.
Cordelia whirled, narrowing a glare on Nyx. She opened her mouth, but before she could argue, there was another voice.
“No.” Eunha met her angry look steadily.
“No,” said Pandora, then Sophia, and, after a long pause, even Seren.
Cordelia scrubbed her hands over her face. “What is wrong with all of you?” She let her hands drop. “I am not fit for my post. Is that not abundantly clear to you right now? I’m trying to protect you!”
“You always are,” Eunha said, crossing her arms over her chest and standing straighter. “That’s the point. That’s why you’re in charge.”
“You were gonna burn for us that day,” Nyx said. “You were gonna crash that bitch as far away from us as you could get after making sure we didn’t wind up in the ocean. Do you think we don’t know that? Lidan told us all about how he took control of the ship. We all know you never meant to land it.”
Cordelia shrugged, her throat tightening painfully. She met Eunha’s gaze. Eunha who had fought her at the console, who had wanted her to get in her pod even if it lessened everyone else’s chance for survival.
“And then you risked yourself to search for us,” Sophia said softly. “Fresh off of cryo sickness, barely able to speak to the aliens, you went out into those woods on foot to find us. That sounds like a leader to me.”
“Stop,” Cordelia said, pacing away from them. “Just stop. I’m telling you, I can’t do this.”
“You already have,” Lyra said. “That’s what your crew is telling you. Is there some reason you’re not listening?”
Cordelia slapped her palm down on the dresser, grounding herself in the stinging pain. She did it again and again, until someone came up to her and caught her wrist. Tawny fingers with shiny, carefully manicured nails. Sophia rested her chin on Cordelia’s shoulder. She said nothing, just stood there, holding her wrist and pressing into her side.
Cordelia’s throat tightened until she couldn’t breathe. “You don’t understand,” she whispered.
Sophia nodded against her. “I don’t. That’s okay. I still know I’m right. We all are.”
“I’m cursed,” she said, her voice tiny as a child’s. The same words she’d said to Rentir, just before he’d proven them true. She should tell them, should let them know that she’d once again failed to judge the character of her allies correctly, that she’d likely put them all in danger over some strange crush, but the words would not come. The wound was too raw, the shame too fresh.
“There’s no such thing,” Pandora said gently, running her hand over Cordelia’s back.
“I’m going to get you killed,” she said in a pleading tone. “All of you.All of you!I can’t—I cant?—”
“Shut up,” Nyx said, yanking her away from the dresser by her elbow and throwing her arms around her. “You’re such an idiot.”
Sophia came back to her shoulder, sliding her arms over Nyx’s, and then Pandora was there, and Eunha at her back, and Seren slid her hand between the tangle of bodies to find Cordelia’s shoulder. The dam broke for the second time in as many days, until she was sobbing so hard she thought her ribs would break.
Some women shushed her while others cried softly with her, and in the haze, she couldn’t distinguish who was who. She let them take her weight as she sagged, giving herself over to the pain, to the betrayal, to the fear of what came next and how she would fail them. In the warmth of their comfort, freely given and wholly undeserved, the thought of losing them became intolerable.
Her tears dried as fear hardened into the unstoppable drive to protect these women at any cost. Her eyes found Lyra’s over the shoulders of the others, standing in the doorway with an inscrutable, hard look on her face. Cordelia dipped her headtightly, and Lyra mirrored the gesture before she trailed away, letting the door hiss shut behind her.
CHAPTER 37
“Elten?”Rentir echoed, disbelieving. “You cannot be serious.”
Haerune made a sound of agreement from where he stood near the window of the meeting room. It was an opulently appointed office of creams and whites, once reserved for the auretians to conduct their business. Now Thalen sat at the head of the ornately carved table in their place.
Rentir shifted in his own seat, wincing at the twinge of pain that raced up his back. His right eye had swollen shut and his kidneys ached so bad he was sure he’d be pissing blood. He would be in the medpod himself, but Yelir’s damage had been extensive enough that the device needed hours to knit him back together.
“It was Elten,” Thalen said, leaning back in his chair. He was healed but still struggling with weariness. “He was raving, fanatical. Said we had made a mistake in turning against the Aurillon, but they were willing to rectify it. They’d promised to take him to the homeland of his majority donor if he helped them.”
“What would make him believe such a ridiculous thing?” Rentir muttered.
“He lost his brother during the revolt,” Haerune commented quietly. “A blood brother, as Ven is to you, Thalen. I fear he has not been in his right mind for some time.”
Thalen and his brother, seated directly to his right, shared a knowing look. Thalen sighed, scrubbing a hand over his jaw.
“Elten was ateseriumprocessor, wasn’t he?” Ven asked. “Think I saw one who looked like him in the lower quarters, always tinkering on that experimental equipment they were hoping to replace us with.”
