“I’m not a curer—”
“Do it!” Kyon barks. “Call your people. I know they’re stationed all around here. There’s no stealth in any of them. I allowed them to get close so they could witness something for me. I’ve been watching them since before you landed.”
Chandrum swears under his breath, and then says, “I’m under orders to protect the priestess.” It’s the truth. They want me alive for now.
“I’ll remember that the next time I’m asked to intervene with Nezra.” I don’t get to assess the impact my half sister’s name has on Chandrum, because Kyon points me at the stairs and ushers me down them.
It seems as if it’s only ten steps later and I’m in the bedroom I share with Kyon. Am I in shock? He leads me to my dressing room. Opening the doors for me, he guides me to the automated seamstress. The cylinder rises up from the floor, trapping me inside.
“Please make a selection,” Oscil requests.
He speaks to the seamstress program. “Number one.”
My clothing is cut from me and shredded at my feet. The softest fabric I’ve ever felt touches my skin, weaving around me in silvery tat patterns of lace and cloud. The collar forms a high, stiff arc behind my neck, forcing my hair to fall over my shoulders and rest on each of my breasts. A deep V forms in front of the intricate, long-flowing gown. The bare skin between my breasts is exposed. Seeing it, my heart beats a misbegotten rhythm.
The sleeves of the gown come to a point over my hands and loop around my index fingers to hold them in place. I hardly blink when a shimmering silver veil falls over my eyes, clouding my vision. The walls of the automated cylinder disappear. A warm hand takes mine. Gently, Kyon guides me toward the doors.
“My shoes,” I murmur, trying to pull away from Kyon to retrieve them.
“We’ll come back for them later. You won’t need them now.”
Kyon takes me out through the bedroom to the beach. The warm air catches the thin veil covering my hair and face, making it dance around me in shimmering folds. Nearing the water, Kyon stops close to Chandrum, who looks on with mild annoyance. “He is not going to like this,” Chandrum says in a warning tone.
“He doesn’t have to like it. He just has to respect the claim.” Chandrum still looks irritated, but he gives a curt nod to Kyon. Kyon takes something from the pocket of his uniform as he turns to me. He’s no longer angry—at least I don’t think he is. He wears a calm expression that has my numb brain tumbling over itself to decipher what is happening.
Seabirds fly overhead. Kyon’s eyes, the bluest of blue, stare down at me. He reaches for the nape of my neck and ties a red flower around my throat. It’s a black-ribboned choker. His elegant black dress uniform seems out of place in the fading light of the setting sun upon the water. With sand between my toes, I stare at the lapping waves on the beach. Gold and silver shines in the tide along the shoreline, a seaside with all the stars of the heavens captured within it. The thin veil covering my eyes parts. His eyes lean to me, bringing with them havoc within my bones. I stifle my instinct to recoil. “With this flower,” Kyon says, smiling down upon me, “I keep thee to me . . . always. Welcome home, Kricket.”
CHAPTER 10
DELEGATION
Chandrum slaps Kyon on the back, unaware of Kyon’s distinct scowl at being touched by him. “I never thought I’d see the day that Kyon Ensin would claim anyone. If I hadn’t just witnessed it for myself, I would call it a ridiculous rumor.”
Kyon doesn’t respond. He’s watching me—gauging my reaction. I continue to stare back at him, giving him nothing. The air around us is tense.
Chandrum doesn’t notice the silent war going on between Kyon and me. “I will ready the trift. We’re to be there by nightfall.”
“I have arranged for an escort for us,” Kyon replies. “Excelsior’s wounded men can ride with them. They’ll be tended to on board.”
“I will see to it,” Chandrum replies. One more clasp on the back to Kyon and he leaves us.
“This changes nothing!” I say with a hollow voice. I pull the veil off of my head, tossing it away from me. It’s caught in the wind and blows away down the beach.
Kyon narrows his eyes at me. “You’re right. You were mine already. This just unites us in the eyes of the Brotherhood. You belong to me.”
“I belong to me.” I point at my own chest.
He points at his chest. “The only way you survive is with me. Your right to exist will not go unchallenged. Your blood is impure. You need me by your by side.”
“Because I have Rafe blood?”
“Yes.”
“That just means I dodged the insanity gene that seems to run so strong in your kind.”
His jaw tenses. “Blood is an issue, especially since you’ve displayed strong precognitive abilities. It makes the science look wrong.”
“What science?”
“The genetic science they’re going to want to study using you as a baseline.”
“They want me as a lab rat?”
“Some do. Some want you for what you can do—to tell them the future—to manipulate it to their favor. But some don’t want you at all.”
“What do you want?” I ask.
“I want you to obey me,” he replies.
He can’t be serious, even though I know he is. “I thought you were going to shoot me—in the hallway outside your office.” My hand gestures in the direction of the house.
“Did I scare you?”
I place my hands on my hips. “You know you did.”
“Would you rather I smother you in false security like everyone else?”
“I would rather you were not a monster.”
“What I did is send a message to the ones who sent the soldiers. No one disrespects you in front of me. Neither of us should permit any dissension from others. Like it or not, we’re together—a unit. You’re only as strong as me, and I, you. I won’t tolerate weakness or disloyalty. Think about that—your survival relies on it.”
He takes my elbow none too lightly and escorts me from the beach to the house. We stop briefly to gather the exquisite shoes that go along with my gown. I slip them on, and he ushers me through the house. When we reach the stairs, he places his hand on the small of my back as we climb them together.
Rounding the landing near the second floor, I ask, “You were supposed to kill me, weren’t you?” He pauses. Glancing at me, he loses some of his scowl. “At the palace,” I continue, “and again when you found me aboard the Ship of Skye. They wanted me dead from the beginning and they told you to do it.”
His hand grips the wrought-iron balustrade tight. “I was to kill you if I couldn’t claim you for Alameeda. Your potential to rule frightens many, especially Excelsior.”
A disbelieving laugh trickles from me. “You’re not serious?” Kyon takes my hand in exasperation and continues climbing the stairs. I tug on it, trying to get him to stop again. “Wait! You are serious!”
“When have you ever known me not to be serious?” he growls.
“When you say rule, you mean rule Alameeda?”