Page 24 of Unfinished

Gods above and below, she was so different from anyone or anything he’d ever seen, that he’d ever touched before. That skin of hers was so strangely smooth, like the most exquisite woven cloth. Everything about her was delicate and finely wrought.

“You wish to see Evathi?” His voice sounded like he’d swallowed gravel, and his crown feathers were extended so stiffly around his face that they wavered beneath the strain.

“Yes. I’ve dreamed of Evathi. This place is fine, but it’s not your home, and it’s not what I pictured. I want to see your temple and the plains and meet Veesha. I can’t wait to see it all. Can you believe it’s all finally happening?” Sienna asked happily.

There was still time for him to say something, to tell her the truth.

“I’m attempting to believe it,” he answered instead. “Are you free to leave?”

“Yes. They fitted us with Xithilene communication devices,” she said as she shook her wrist, displaying a thin gold bangle. “They also interviewed us while we were aboard to record where we’ll be living. Don’t worry—they won’t lose us. I guess they take follow-up on these matches seriously.” Her mouth opened and a bright, joyful sound spilled out, followed by her smile. Human laughter was a thing of beauty, so different from his own breathy hisses.

“As they should. Matehood is sacred,” he said as he reluctantly stepped back, releasing his hands and putting some space between them. “We’ll need to return to the city’s transportation center to access the temple’s flyer and begin our journey back to Evathi.”

Sienna simply smiled, and his stomach clenched at his own duplicity. His men would be thrilled with his weakness, but he knew this was selfishness. A better man would’ve been beseeching the Lady for strength.

He turned his arm upwards, offering Sienna his forearm. Her eyebrows drew together as she looked at his arm, but then she reached out towards him, and he took her hand, pressing their forearms together from wrist to elbow.

Her hand looked so small as her slender fingers tangled with his own. She wasn’t as long-limbed as their own women, and the top of her head only reached his chest when he stood at his full height, but the enticing sweep of her hips dispelled any notion that her figure was childlike. It was only too easy to imagine the feel of those lush curves moving beneath his hands.

“This is the headquarters for our military, the Fleet. Most of us prefer to remain on-planet. I’ve heard there are some smaller merchant class ships that are spacefaring, but a project as large as the Mate Portal requires the capacity and reach of the Fleet’s ships. We’ll need to leave through that gate—you can see some of the others are already there. We won’t see much of the city. I hope that won’t disappoint you,” he told her as he lifted his arm slightly, urging her to move to the right as they passed around the nose of another Fleet ship. He had no interest in coming too close to one of the great, beastly crafts.

“I didn’t come here to see Verkissat. Like I said before, I’m happy to head straight to Evathi, but maybe in the future we could do some traveling together. That’s something I never did much of back on Earth. My life was pretty settled where I was, and traveling outside of our region could be difficult,” Sienna told him. She kept turning her head, her eyes roving left to right as if she were trying to observe the entirety of their surroundings at once.

“Traveling has been difficult in my life, as well. My first obligation has always been to the temple no matter where I served. Now that Veesha is living under my care, I’m doubly bound to Evathi.”

He watched her face to see how she’d react. It was one thing for her to accept his duty to Veesha through written messages. Whether she’d still feel the same way now that she’d journeyed all the way to Xithilene was another thing altogether.

“I know, R’kash.” She glanced up at him with a wry smile. “We’ve discussed this. Veesha is your priority, as she should be.” Sienna looked away, and her dull teeth bit at her full bottom lip. “Have you told her about me? Does she know I’m coming?”

His arm stiffened beneath hers. “No.”

“Oh.” That little sound turned like a knife beneath his flesh.

“I had to be certain you’d be returning with me. I couldn’t risk telling her anything false. Veesha has adjusted well, but she lost her mother, and she is only slowly growing accustomed to me.”

“It’s fine—really. Of course you wouldn’t want to make promises when she’s already gone through so much. Forgive me if it seemed like I was upset. I understand completely. I don’t want to take her mother’s place, but I do hope to become someone she views as family.”

They’d almost reached the gate leading to the street. He didn’t want to speak of Veesha in front of the guards, and he drew Sienna closer to his side as one of the black-uniformed Fleet members inclined his head, signaling for them to pass through.

“I would be honored for you to be part of Veesha’s life. It’s just difficult for me to accept that you’re willing to take on a child from another’s blood so easily,” he told her as they stepped onto a broad walkway. He could already see a platform up ahead where they could board a pod that’d take them directly back to the transportation center and his flyer home. His feet kept moving forward, leading her towards the platform, just as his mouth kept speaking traitorous words.

“It doesn’t matter to me. She doesn’t need to be my blood for me to care about her.” They walked a little ways more. “So you feel it, too?” Sienna asked.

He turned his head to look down at her face. “It?” he repeated.

“That even though we wrote to each other so much and so often, it still feels like we’re getting to know each other all over again. On the way to Xithilene, I kept having to remind myself it wasn’t all a dream, and that this was really happening. I meant everything I wrote to you, though. I have a lot of love to give, plenty for a child who needs it. Don’t worry, I would never lie about that.”

R’kash swallowed down the hiss of distress that almost escaped him. They hadn’t gone far yet. He could still take her back to the ship after he explained what his men had done, and that their falsehoods hadn’t been maliciously meant.

“Thank you for your honesty,” he said. His gaze fell to her face again, and he almost mustered the strength to tell her, but in the end, he didn’t turn them back towards the gate.

Her eyes really were the most unusual shade of green. He’d never met a Xithilene with eyes so pale. Their color reminded him of the first shoots of plants emerging after the winter frosts. No snow touched Evathi’s soil—only the mountain peaks received that adornment, but the temple was far enough north that the air sometimes froze during the deep winter nights. He remembered the first time he’d seen the spoiled plants, the brown, withered ruins of what had once been verdant life. Then the warmer winds had come and the new growth had emerged, fragile and startling amid the sere, colorless landscape.

Sienna’s arm shifted, and he could feel her start to pull away. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

“No. I’m afraid I was lost in my thoughts. I was thinking about the beauty of your eyes.”

The skin between her eyebrows twitched as if she’d wanted to frown. “Hmm. It didn’t look like that’s what you were thinking. You told me before that you hadn’t met any other humans before. Do I look strange to you? Is it weird being around an alien? I know from the information the Mate Portal Program provided that there isn’t much of an alien presence on Xithilene—outside of humans, that is.”

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