Page 86 of Keran's Dawn

Jaek hurried to my hygiene room only to return moments later with a washcloth. He dipped it in the glass, the fabric absorbing most of the remaining liquid. With the same swift efficiency, he wrapped the cloth around the flat end of the makeshift blade, shaping it like a handle. However, he seemed to struggle towards the end, frequently flexing his fingers as he did so. It dawned on me then that the substance on his gloves was also attempting to harden them. By the time he finished, he had to tear the gloves off his hands as they had grown too hard to be simply pulled off.

“It is important that you do not give anything away, just like you have been doing so far,” Jaek said, as I swallowed my final bite.

“I won’t,” I said, rising to my feet.

Jaek gave me an assessing once over and frowned at the short skirt of my dress. “I’m guessing they didn’t provide you with any pants?”

I shook my head with an apologetic look.

“Figures,” he said, dejectedly.

He carefully poked at the makeshift blade with the tip of his finger, undoubtedly checking that it was properly dry. Apparently satisfied, he picked it up and extended it to me.

“How’s that?” he asked.

I took the weapon from him, impressed by how sturdy and light it felt, while also reasonably balanced for something whipped together under these conditions.

“It’s awesome,” I said, genuinely awed.

He helped me secure the blade in the folds of my dress and made me walk and move around to make sure no one would notice my weapon.

“You’re so incredibly brilliant,” I said in a breathy voice once we were ready to go.

Our gazes locked, and a silent communication passed between us. The love in his eyes was seriously messing with my head. Even though I’d been battling the indoctrination embedded in the training modules Deimos had imposed on me, some of it had stuck with me. They only reinforced the fact that I always had deep feelings for Jaek.

He cupped my cheeks with both hands and studied my face with such longing, tears pricked my eyes. This man truly loved me. Why was there still a wall between us? Seeing that love suddenly replaced by sorrow crushed me.

“I love you, Dawn. I’ve loved you my whole life. Even though you can never be mine, know that everything I do is for you… is out of love for you.”

When he drew my face towards his, I expected him to kiss me. He did, but not on the lips as I had both expected and feared. Instead, he pressed his lips to my forehead with a reverence that wrecked me. Why couldn’t I reciprocate his feelings? Deimos claimed we were soulmates. My heart was bursting with love for Jaek. And yet, even with the conditioning to dislike purebloods, whenever I considered giving in to my feelings for him, Keran’s face always flashed before my eyes. There had to be something more…

Jaek released me as if touching my skin was burning his hands. Averting his gaze, he spun on his heel and headed for the door.

“Let’s go,” he said.

By his stoic and determined expression, you’d never guess this moment of tender vulnerability and heartfelt confession had just happened. Casting aside the miasma of confusion and inner turmoil thinking of Keran and Jaek always stirred within me, I set my mind on the task at hand.

As I replayed Jaek’s instructions in my mind, a sense of elation and hope warred with too many fears to count. The main concern dominating my every thought was whether Keran and his men would make it to the meeting hall.

Although he hadn’t gone into many details, Jaek had confirmed that Keran had been implanted with Kranax Beetle eggs, and that he still had larvae trying to chew their way out of him. If he got dragged into a fight, he might not be able to defend himself—assuming he was even healthy enough to run out of this prison on his own power.

I also didn’t know how much the indoctrination had taken root in the other hybrids. In all likelihood, they had remained under the Sarenians’ compulsion this entire time. How deep did their resentment of purebloods run at this point? Granted, Deimos hadn’t tried to get us to hate them, only to feel a sense of superiority laced with a certain amount of disdain. I only hoped it wouldn’t make them reluctant to side with Keran and his men once things turned ugly during our escape.

But my greatest fear was that—assuming everything else worked out, and we managed to escape this building—the remaining Sarenian-Guldan crew would come after us with a vengeance. From what Jaek had explained, the ship split in three parts. We were currently in the central module, the only one of the three that would land. That one had no weapon and no defense system worth mentioning. The other two modules rivaled a battle chaser. Considering they had managed to take down Keran’s frigate, we wouldn’t stand a chance if they attacked us.

Therefore, we needed to keep Deimos and the handful of crewmates in our module from sounding the alarm.

As we traipsed through the hallways leading to the meeting room, I marveled at the way Jaek made small talk like we didn’t have a care in the world. It made it easier for me to play along. But I knew him well enough to see the tension stiffening his muscular back and broad shoulders.

On more than one occasion, I caught myself straining my ears in the hopes of catching some indication that the men had escaped. But that wouldn’t be good. Although we had landed a few minutes ago, we needed the module to complete its on-ground deployment first. If the Sarenians discovered our plot too early, they would likely take flight and head back towards the other modules. Then we’d be screwed.

I could only pray that everything would go according to plan.

Chapter 25

Keran

Eyes glued to the clock, I battled the growing fear that this had indeed been a cruel joke. The minutes kept ticking by without the metal straps binding us automatically unlocking as Jaek had promised. It had been thirty-two minutes, two more than when we should have been freed. The heating blanket on Baldur had returned to its white color, indicating it had stopped working—its timer having likely expired.

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