Lon shook his head. “No. Just you. She has no desire to speak to the crew.” He lifted his hands. “Her words. Not mine.”
“Fine then,” Lira said. “If you’re such a big, terrifying Sentinel now...” She pinched his cheek, forcing the scaled patch to illuminate with a flash of anger. “You’ll have to chase me down there.”
“Lira, I don’t have time to play childhood games.”
But she was already on the move.
“You’re already losing!” She yelled as she dashed past him, deftly slipping through the hole in the ground where the temple ladder led down into the mountain tunnels below, pretending it was a ladder back on the Marauder.
“Lira!”
Lon’s booming growl echoed after her as he tried in vain to catch up.
He didn’t stand a chance.
Chapter Forty-Seven
* * *
VALEN
THE FIRST THING he noticed was the light.
Even with his eyes closed, Valen could sense it shimmering just on the surface of his memories. It reminded him of the short springtime season on Arcardius, his favorite time of the year. On those mornings, he used to love to sleep with his windows open, a soft breeze fluttering in through the curtains.
If he tried hard enough, he could imagine he was lying in his bed, the distant trill of birdsong nudging him awake. The sound of leaves dancing on branches, the gentle patter of feet just outside his door. Likely a servant, coming in to start their workday.
But that was the past. Soon he would wake, and the harshness of reality would take its place.
Lunamere had a way of digging its claws into one’s back and refusing to ever let go.
Valen sighed and rolled over onto his side, wincing as he anticipated the harsh chill of the stones beneath his cheek, the spasm of pain that would slice through his aching body.
But instead of stone, he felt the plushness of a pillow. Instead of pain, he eased into a soft mountain of blankets. The shivering cold of Lunamere was gone, replaced instead by warmth he hadn’t felt in years.
Valen coaxed his eyes, coated with the sticky residue of sleep, open.
He was lying in a bed, his body covered by plush green blankets spun from the softest silk. At the end of the bed, Valen noted with a raised brow, was a ball of orange fur. An animal of some sort, curled up so tightly that he couldn’t tell where its head was, only that its back rose and fell with long, lazy breaths. He hadn’t seen an animal of any kind in years. His gaze swept past the slumbering creature to study the room.
It was a place straight from the storybooks he’d read as a child, and for a moment he wondered if this was his own version of the afterlife. Perhaps he’d finally died, and this was where he’d traveled to. A soul set out among the stars, finally settling on the safest place his subconscious could remember.
The walls were curved and made of rock with vines that snaked their way across its rough surface. His eyes trailed along the vines, following them to where they twisted and curled through a large, elegant window carved from the rock.
Valen’s eyes widened as he glimpsed the world beyond.
Afternoon sunlight winked in through the open window. Far below, an endless, sprawling forest spread for miles, trees so tall they pierced through the clouds in the sky.
Valen could just barely see a massive white waterfall tumbling in the distance, and when the wind blew, he could almost imagine the taste of the water on his lips.
He wished his sister was with him in this moment to drink in such beauty—fresh and cool and so full of life.
This room, these blankets, this view. It was like a painting rendered by an artist far more skilled than he. Valen shifted slightly, wincing as the all-too-real pain of his ruined body finally hit him. If this were a dream, he’d have imagined that pain away. He waited for the darkness to sweep back in and steal him away.
“Marvelous view, isn’t it? There’s nothing like an Adhiran afternoon.”
Valen turned his head at the sound of a woman’s voice.
Behind him, the side of the rock room had seemingly opened up, revealing a hidden doorway he hadn’t seen before. Standing in its opening was a beautiful woman who reminded him of a palette of paints.
Her body was a patchwork of colors all melting together, some an orange as bright as the ball of fur still sleeping at Valen’s feet, others a pink that reminded him of the sunsets that swept across the Arcardian sky. She wore a thin gown of green fabric, the color such a stark contrast to the sunset shades of her skin that Valen nearly sobbed at the beauty of it all.
She was incredible. His fingers twitched with the need to paint her.
But strangest of all...Valen knew this woman.
It all came rushing back to him now. Memories of her face on holos with his father, speaking about trade. Photographs of her in books as he studied the leaders of the other capital planets.
“Your Royal Highness,” Valen said, somehow finding his voice. His throat felt ragged, like he hadn’t used it in weeks. “But...you’re Adhiran. How?”
He’d never been to the terraformed planet of Adhira—strange, that he’d dream it up in his afterlife.
The woman inclined her head, a small smile on her lips like she was holding back a laugh. “I prefer simply Queen Alara, young Mr. Cortas. And to answer your question as to how I am Adhiran...well, I’d imagine that would be akin to me asking you how you’re Arcardian. We simply are who we are. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Valen nodded his head, wincing as he felt a stab of pain.
A strange dream, indeed.
“I meant,” he said, focusing more closely on his words now, “why am I here?”
“You must be confused,” Alara said, smiling gently. She smoothed out a wrinkle on her dress with delicate fingertips. “You’ve been through quite a traumatic experience, Mr. Cortas. It’s lucky your father sent along a medically programmed AI with your rescue crew. Otherwise...” Her hairless brow furrowed. “You and I would not be here having this conversation.”
“My father?” Valen’s stomach turned.
He tried to push himself up from the pillows, but it was as if something tore in his spine. The pain in his back blossomed. Valen closed his eyes and breathed deep, trying to imagine it away. But it didn’t leave.
With each breath, it got worse, and suddenly he found himself groaning, gritting his teeth so he wouldn’t scream.
Alara swept silently across the room and stopped at his bedside. “Oh, dear. It seems you’re overdue for another dose of JemArii. The lacerations on your back were quite deep. The sedative is likely why you slept through the entire crash.”
“What crash?”
“The details don’t matter right now, Valen. What I’d like to know is...what is the last thing you remember?” She stepped closer to him, that cool smile still on her lips. “You were in Lunamere for a very long time.” He felt her cool fingertips on his skin, and suddenly an image of another person flashed into his mind.
A queen of darkness.
A demon wearing a woman’s skin.