Page 76 of Fractured Souls

“Hey,” Alexis said in greeting. She’d obviously never met Noali before, but she didn’t appear in the least bit surprised.

Nothing could faze his mate anymore. Goddess, she was magnificent.

“Hello.” Noa held out a hand in that strange human way of greeting and took Alexis’s obsidian-coated hand without looking twice. “You must be Alexis. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Noa, also known as his better half.” She nodded in Ashrael’s direction, and a strange expression came across his face, a mixture of fierceness and warmth and something depthless and intangible and more than a little terrifying, because Nythian didn’t understand the Silent One at all.

It was almost as if they were different species sometimes.

In that moment, Ashrael’s eyes were only for his mate.

His aura flared, and for a heartbeat, it was so powerful it almost made Nythian flick out his claws and fight something.

Goddess almighty, were they all like this now, himself included?

“Let’s get going,” he said hoarsely.

“Yeah, let’s get moving. ” Alexis stared up into the dark, gaping maw of Mhyndin’s lower hatch.

Goddess, she was so fucking gorgeous it made his cold black heart ache.

He’d go to war for her. He’d destroy worlds for her. He would even disobey orders…

She looked back at him, and there was no fear in her eyes, only trust.

How in the Nine Hells could he resist that?

Twenty

Tharos was beautiful.

That was Alexis’s first thought as she stared out the viewport, watching the endless landscape of peaked copper-red sand dunes. Every now and then, she’d spot a startling cerulean lake amongst the dunes, the blue color so intense that it looked like some sort of abstract painting.

There were oases in the desert too, big, verdant patches of vegetation that made her want to go down and explore the hidden secrets inside.

They were officially on the descent now. It was a long, smooth descent, because they were also carrying out surveillance, searching for any signs of hostile activity. According to Nythian, their ship was cloaked, almost impossible to detect. She’d met the pilot briefly, a cheerful-but-intense Kordolian named Lodan. Alexis was surprised to learn that he was Nythian’s battle-partner, but the more she looked at him, the more it made sense.

At first glance, Lodan and Nythian were like chalk and cheese. Nythian—her Nythian; she could still hardly believe it—was big and rough and physically imposing. In contrast, Lodan was lean and elegant-featured; almost delicate looking, except that he moved with the same deadly grace. There was an uncanny stillness about him, reminding her of a resting predator.

No, Lodan could never be mistaken for delicate.

He radiated the same dangerous aura as the others.

A feeling of awe came over her as she watched the landscape below, catching sight of a dramatic black rock formation that rose out of the red dust like some mythical stone city.

The planet of Tharos looked ancient and barren; she hadn’t seen a single sign of civilization since they’d entered its clear skies. There were no rivers, no oceans, no clouds, no roads, no cities, no towns… only endless miles of stunning red desert. How different it was to planet Earth, which was marked by the scars and triumphs of human civilization.

Suddenly, she felt tiny, microscopic, nanoscopic, a speck of insignificant dust in the infinite Universe.

She sat alone in a dark chair, with safety restraints crisscrossing her body, but she hardly felt them as the bottom of the seat fell away. Suddenly, she was weightless, and all she could see was the endless desert below, and she was nothing.

Nythian’s big hands weren’t there to anchor her. He’d gone off to do something or other in one of the ship’s dark chambers. The Kordolian warriors that accompanied them had similarly disappeared. Ashrael was on another vessel, and Noa was up in Tharos’s orbit, because there was no way the former assassin was letting her set foot on any hostile planet, apparently.

She took a deep breath and swallowed her fear, and suddenly the warm, familiar hands she yearned for were on the back of her neck, kneading her shoulders, making her feel real again.

Am I hallucinating?

“What’s troubling you, hmm?” Nythian stood behind her. She glanced up at him, but his face was concealed by the shadows. All she saw was a faint outline of silver and the snowy shock of his hair, but it didn’t matter. The warm, protective cocoon of his presence surrounded her.

His addictive scent washed over her. She inhaled it, letting it ground her.

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