“They can’t do anything to us now, Kricket, because you’re going to tell me everything you know that will happen and I’m going to take care of the rest.”
Panic overwhelms me. He still doesn’t get it! “There are too many of them! They’re sent by the Brotherhood—by Excelsior!”
“I know. You scare them.”
“I scare them?” I laugh humorlessly.
My incredulous response is met by unflagging stoicism. “More than anything in this world,” he replies.
“Why haven’t you handed me over to him?”
His expression turns angry. What I just said to him is something he finds completely offensive. “I told you—you’re mine.”
I shiver. “They want me dead.”
“They want to kill anything they can’t control.”
“Well, they’re gonna do it tonight,” I promise as I look up at the exposed beams of the boathouse ceiling. The water makes diamond patterns on the wood. Normally it’s hypnotic and beautiful, but now I find no pleasure in it.
Kyon’s hand reaches over and cups my cheek. Turning my face toward his again, he says, “If we’re to die tonight, then I want one last kiss.”
Before I can react, he covers my lips with his own. It’s not a last kiss—there’s no desperation in it. Instead, his body grows closer to mine, as if magnetically pulled to me. As his lips move over mine, my skin erupts with fresh goose bumps. I want to fight him, but there’s something in his kiss that I desperately need at the moment—an assurance that we’ll live. My traitorous body reacts to his, to the safety he offers in this moment. The moment passes, though, and I wrench my lips away from his. My heart pounds hard against the cage of my chest. His breathing is heavy against my neck.
“We’re going to live, aren’t we?” I ask with a shaky voice, touching my fingers to my swollen lips, which still feel his against them.
He smiles against my skin. “That I can promise you,” he says softly, “at least for tonight.” He lifts his head to look at me. His blue eyes make me think he can see inside my soul. He lets go of me and gets up from the boathouse floor, then extends his hand. “I need you to show me exactly where they come ashore.”
I grasp his hand and he helps me to my feet. I feel dizzy. He holds me close, but I push away from him. “I’m fine now,” I grumble. I feel awkward. I just want to put some space between us.
“You need me, Kricket.” He reaches for my hand again.
I snatch it back from him. “No, I don’t.”
He frowns, but he doesn’t try to take my hand again. Instead, he gestures toward the door. I precede him to it. Outside in the sunlight, everything feels more unreal. How can anything be wrong in this place—this tropical paradise?
“It’s this way to the beach cottages.” He walks along a small, sandy path through the palm trees. I follow him, and he slows until we walk beside each other on the path. I wrap my arms around myself in a protective way. My thoughts are consumed with the imminent attack. When we reach the other side of the island, I show him the precise point where the soldiers will make it onto the beach. We discuss the type of weaponry they’ll possess. I tell him about the squelch trackers.
Kyon listens to every detail, making me go over things several times. Then he says, “I’ll set more squelch trackers to accommodate their numbers.”
“I hate squelch trackers,” I mutter, remembering the one that almost killed me.
“None of the squelch trackers I’ll set will hunt you, Kricket. If one comes across you here, it will ignore you. They’re programmed for specific targets. They’ll be unable to hurt you.”
“One was set for me at the palace.”
“Two were set for you at the palace. I found and destroyed the second one.”
“Who set them?”
“I suspect it was Em Nark,” he replies honestly.
I remember him. I called him “the Narc.” He hated me. He was the pudgy-faced ambassador from Alameeda who tried to negotiate my release from Manus’s custody on behalf of the Alameeda Brotherhood.
“Did you kill him? His trift blew up before he left Rafe territory.”
Kyon shakes his head. “I planned to.” He smiles wickedly. “He would’ve been dead the moment he landed at his estate in Alameeda. I had my people on it, but he never made it there.”
“Then who killed him?”
“Manus,” he says matter-of-factly.
“Manus? Why?” I wonder.
“He didn’t want Em Nark relaying to anyone your specific gift as a soothsayer—a diviner of truth. If others knew you could tell when they were lying, it would make your gift somewhat moot. They would simply refuse to speak in your presence. Manus killed Em Nark so your secret would remain intact. It made your gift valuable. We had a conversation about it—the Regent and I. We both agreed that it was in our best interests that the Brothers knew nothing about it.”
“You spoke to Manus about me?” The information makes my heart lurch in my throat for some reason.
“I spent every single rotation that you were a captive in Rafe trying to negotiate your release from Manus’s custody. That is, until he arrested me and nearly executed me. But, we both know how that turned out for him. Manus was not nearly strong enough to protect you from the Brotherhood.”
“And you are?”
“I’m your only hope. You realize that the Brotherhood is trying to kill you during your claiming? They’re required to respect this time between us as part of the contract that I made with them.”
“My claiming? What are you talking about?”
“It’s the time we are to spend together after a commitment is made,” he struggles to explain, looking at me like I should know what he’s talking about.
I think for a second, my nose wrinkles like I just smelled something bad. “You don’t mean honeymoon, do you?” I look sidelong at him while I frown. That thought is unsettling.
“Honeymoon?” he says the word like he has no idea what it means. “We’re supposed to spend time together—alone—in order to get to know each other as a couple.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “We’re not a couple.”
He frowns. “We are a couple.”
“I don’t want to be claimed.”
“You have no say in the matter.”
He’s primed for a fight. He looks very muscly all of a sudden. I ignore his insanity for a moment, because we can fight about that later if we live. Instead, I ask, “So the Brotherhood didn’t approve of this?” I move my pointed finger back and forth between us.
He frowns. “The Brotherhood promised you to me. We have a contract. They want to void the contract. They always secretly planned to rescind it.”
“Aren’t you part of the Brotherhood?”
“I am,” he says, nodding.
“Then don’t you have a say it what happens?”
“I have a vote. I have some influence, but I can’t always control what they do. They’re a vicious, snarling group of politicians who’ll smile to your face while they’re plotting your death.”
“Super. Nice club you’re in. Why don’t they want you to claim me?”