Page 21 of Unfinished

Sienna felt her mouth tip up at the side as he walked them further into the ship. She wasn’t sure exactly what Lady Kayla’s story was, but she’d obviously made an impression on the gruff alien in front of her.

“Are there a lot of humans on Xithilene now?” she asked.

The further they walked, the more it felt as if she were being swallowed up by some giant beast. It was too dark for her inside the ship. The walls were a muted green that glowed with a soft radiance. Even the air tasted different on her tongue, crisper, cleaner with a sharp edge she couldn’t identify. Was that what Xithilene smelled like? Even through all the cleansing cycles and filters, was it alien air that filled her lungs, that lit up her skin, its chill cascading pinpricks across her arms?

“Perhaps in Verkissat, but no, overall humans remain rare on Xithilene. Do you know where your mate resides?” K’avith didn’t look back as he answered.

“Evathi, a temple in the Northern Continent.” She let her arm stretch to the side so her fingertips could trail over the wall. It was warm to the touch, smoother than she’d expected.

“I’m not familiar with it.” K’avith made a deep sound that seemed to vibrate out from his chest. “Northern Continent.” He hissed, and she about jumped out of her skin, glad he couldn’t see her. “Is your mate a priest, then?”

“Yes,” she said. He certainly didn’t sound impressed. She thought the Xithilene were all supposed to be religious, that the fact their revered Lady was human was what made them so fascinated with humans.

He glanced back at her. “We’ve almost arrived. I hope this proves to be the beginning of a long and successful union between you and your Xithilene mate.” K’avith stopped in front of a wide doorway and dipped one knee down as he bowed his head. “Well met, lady,” he said before he rose and turned away, leaving her alone in the hall.

Sienna turned towards the large room through the open door. A dark haired woman waved, a broad smile on her face, and several others joined in, calling for her to come inside. She took a deep breath and waved back as she stepped over the threshold. As she joined the twenty or so other humans sitting at a long table, Sienna felt some of the tension banding across her chest snap and release. She exhaled, slow and easy.

Two days aboard this ship—just two days until she’d meet R’kash in person and start her new life.

13

Dear R’kash,

I’ve never done anything like this before. I hope I won’t disappoint you. I’m not an exciting person, and I’ve never even left the city I was born in, but I can’t let that stop me from taking this chance. When I read your messages, I feel like I have permission to dream for the first time in my life. I’ve always done what was expected of me, and I thought I was too old to change. Then I received your first letter, and changing became a necessity. How could I stay the same if it meant forgetting you? How could I stay still, trapped in my little world, when you were a whole world away?

My fingers tremble as I write to you today. Six months isn’t long, not in the grand scheme of things, but it’s long enough that two days should feel like nothing. I’ll be leaving my home to step aboard a Xithilene ship in a few hours, but it feels like a lifetime until I’ll see you for the first time. Some people have told me it’s impossible to love someone you’ve never met in person, but I know now that they’re wrong. I don’t need to touch you or see you to feel what I feel for you, but I can’t wait until I know what it’s like to hold you in my arms.

I love you,

Sienna

R’kash tossedthe still active record-tablet to the side and groaned. The small flyer carrying him to Verkissat would land soon. He’d spent the last day and the journey frantically reading through the human woman’s messages. His men hadn’t lied. There were so many messages, almost one for every day, for just short of six Xithilene moon cycles. He’d read all of their correspondence twice through, from the first letter to the last.

The woman—Sienna—loved a man that didn’t exist.

His body didn’t know whether to shiver or burn, to thrill to the prospect of such a humble, perfect mate, or to wither beneath the shame of it all. That man she wrote to, the imaginary one with his name, he wasn’t R’kash. He hadn’t written a single one of those messages, hadn’t even known there was a human named Sienna Prescott, one with pale hair and a small pink mouth, with soft looking smooth skin and wide green eyes, with kind words and a welcoming, generous spirit.

She thought he was real, but it was all a lie.

He pressed a hand to his chest before lowering it to his stomach. He hadn’t eaten since he’d started reading the messages the day before. He couldn’t bear the thought of food, but R’kash didn’t think avoiding a meal had mattered. He still felt ill at the prospect of their imminent meeting. He’d have to tell her the truth, and then she’d turn around and travel right back to her planet.

It’d be better that way. If he waited and let himself hope the situation could be salvaged, it’d just be that much worse when she left later on. She’d learn, one way or another, that he wasn’t the man she thought he was.

His eyes cut across the flyer to the edge of the seat. The tablet was facedown and inconspicuous looking, but he knew better. If only his priests hadn’t made him seem so perfect. They’d made him sound strong, determined and professional, wise in the ways of the priesthood, yet warm and affectionate. Sienna would be expecting a man who knew how to welcome a mate—a lover. She’d look for the kind of man who knew just how to embrace her, who made raising a child he’d only known for half a year look easy. The R’kash in those messages was irritatingly competent and infuriatingly stoic. In reality, his mind was a raging storm.

He smoothed his hands over his robes where they lay folded against his thighs. He wore the short kilt meant for high ceremonies, the one with gilt embroidery along the hem and the center fold. His finest Lady’s talisman lay warm against his chest, flecks of quartz in the carved stone glinting like the star it resembled. He’d tied his feathers back in a queue that morning, but quickly unraveled the leather knot. R’kash had been far too agitated for his feathers to stay down against his scalp, and he’d known the attempt would be futile, not to mention painful.

Here he was, hovering over Xithilene’s capital, the shining buildings of Verkissat in sight, away from the Northern Continent for the first time in his entire life. That Sienna would thinkhemight find her unsatisfactory when he’d traveled no further afield than her was mystifying. She was the one brave enough to make the journey to another world. He doubted he would’ve ever even considered such a risk. Another pulse of shame fluttered through his body, making the muscles of his stomach quiver and the small guard feathers lining the outside edge of his forearms lift.

Honor demanded he be the one to reveal his men’s deception, but that wouldn’t make the coming confrontation any easier. He doubted she would yell or strike him, but already he knew her rage would be easier to bear than her pain.

Clear, concise, controlled—he would be all of those things, even if it sickened him. She deserved no less.

The flyer lowered as he approached the city. R’kash rose and moved to the front compartment to take the pilot’s chair. The flyer would land on its own, but the transportation center would expect him to confirm his entry into their airspace. He may not have explored much, but he’d traveled enough between temples in the north to be familiar with the protocol.

Verkissat was even larger than he’d anticipated. If looking out over that river-wide flow of buildings made his stomach twist and turn, what would Sienna think when she saw it for the first time? She’d be stepping off of a Xithilene ship believing this land was her new home, but he’d be ripping that dream from her—one of the dreams she’d credited to him. He cursed Jesthi for the hundredth time as the buzzing transportation center came into view.

His flyer was one of many crafts, and they drifted and glided between each other likel’iesthisearching for a branch on which to rest their feet.

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