“Yes,” Manus turns to me. “You need to get some rest, Kricket. You look tired.”
Straightening my shoulders, I nod to Manus before following the attendant. I don’t see anything as I’m led to the bedroom that adjoins with Manus’s room. As soon as I’m alone, I crawl into the enormous bed and cry myself to sleep.
CHAPTER 20
SWANKS AND TANKS
I stay in my new room for most of the next rotation, feeling fragile and upset about my forced engagement to Manus. But hiding is not my style, so the following morning I dress in a riding outfit and ask Aella to cancel all my scheduled meetings. Walking through the halls of the palace, my guards trailing me, I have to contend with the well wishes and congratulations of the staff. Manus must’ve already announced his intentions to them, so I grit my teeth and plaster a crocodile smile on my face.
I head to the stables and number twenty-two is saddled for me. Riding out with my guards, I ignore them, trying to concentrate on finding a strategy to get out of committing to Manus. Several options come to mind, everything from sneaking out and joining the Cavars to escaping back to Earth, but all of these options have desperate consequences for Trey.
“I wish I knew a way out of this,” I mumble to myself.
“What?” Ustus asks, riding next to me.
“Nothing,” I sigh. Then searing heat, like sparks of molten dust from a white-hot sun, passes over my skin. Fear and pain erupt in me as I try to clutch the reigns in my hand tighter. A part of me ascends into the air as my body slips from the spix and falls limply to the ground. Thrusting forward, I travel ahead in time while my guards scramble off their spixes to crowd around my body on the ground.
**
Waking up in Ustus’s arms, I shy away from him, feeling deathly cold in body and spirit. “Fay Kricket! How do you feel?” he asks anxiously.
My hands tremble along with my entire body as I just shake my head mutely. His expression changes to one of determination. Standing up, he hands me up to Fex who holds me on his spix while wheeling it around and taking me back to the stables. Once there, they transport me via skiff to the palace.
Tofer and Yaser meet us at the entrance, hovering over me while I insist on walking to my room. They do a complete physical on me, listening to the details that Ustus provides.
“Was it a seizure?” Tofer asks Yaser, puzzling over what just occurred.
“It wasn’t a seizure,” I say at last, finding my voice. “I need to speak to Manus. Please just…can somebody get him?” My throat sounds gravelly.
Waiting impatiently for Manus to arrive, I try to think of what I can tell him about what I saw in the future. I have to make him believe me, or he’s dead. “Manus!” I say in a rush as he enters my room. “I have to speak with you.”
“I was informed that you fell from your spix. Are you well?” he asks. Putting his arm around my shoulder, Manus pulls me to his side.
Yaser rushes to reassure him. “She is quite well—”
“I have to talk to you. Alone,” I say, my eyes going to Yaser and Tofer and the attendants in the room.
“I would like to speak with you as well. Leave us,” he orders. Watching everyone in the room clear out, I pull away from Manus’s side, wringing my hands. When they’re gone, Manus sits in the high-backed chair by the fireplace. I take the soft chair across from it. Manus frowns, “I’ve had time to think about our last conversation. I lost my temper…with you…I’m not used to anyone saying no to me and I could have been more persuasive when I told you that you will commit to me—”
Holding my breath through his dissertation of the events of our last meeting, I finally interrupt him, “I don’t care about any of that right now, Manus.”
His eyebrows rise in surprise. “You don’t?” Manus asks, watching me shake my head no. “Then, you’ve decided to comply willingly with my wishes?” His face lights up with pleasure.
“Manus, if I comply with your wishes, Kyon will kill you.”
“How is that possible when Kyon is currently in a military prison near the Comantre boarder?” Manus asks me softly, his face falling a little.
“I don’t know, but when he gets here, he’s gonna be really annoyed with you.”
“And when will that be?” Manus asks in a calm tone, looking stony.
“Tomorrow night, at the swank. He knows about it, it’s been planned from the first day I arrived here,” I explain, watching his face.
“And he will, what? Show up and kill me?” Manus sounds doubtful.
“You, your guards, your friends, your enemies, your staff…everyone standing around,” I reply, remembering the bloody terror of the future.
“And you? Do you survive?” he wonders, raising his brow.
“Yes,” I nod. “He has special plans for me.” My face grows pale.
“Kricket, really, this is absurd. I know that you have a special talent, but to try to lie to me like this is really beneath you,” Manus says, rising from his seat.
“I’m not lying!”
“By tomorrow morning, Kyon will be executed for his escape attempt and his subversion against Rafe,” Manus informs me coldly. “He cannot kill me if he’s dead.”
“He’s not dead yet,” I point out, feeling ill. “You and I know that his escape is possible. It nearly happened the other night. I’m begging you to stop this. Committing to me makes you and everyone around you a target.”
“You’re very convincing, Kricket—such passion. I cannot wait to taste it,” he smiles, reaching out and cupping my chin. “I’ll move up Kyon’s execution. He dies tonight instead. Does that please you?”
“No,” I answer, my voice cracking as I cover his hand with my own. “Manus,” I plead, “he kills everyone—none of you get away. They have people everywhere. It’s an invasion.”
“Alameeda is in no way ready to invade Rafe.”
“They’re more than ready. Peney must’ve sided with them, like Kyon said.”
“Peney hasn’t sided with the Alameeda. Kyon was playing you. He understands your gift.”
“What if you’re wrong?”
“The events can’t happen as you describe because Kyon will be dead,” Manus says, like it’s a foregone conclusion.
“That’s too simple of a solution. Someone else could lead the invasion—you can’t take that chance.”
“This is about my plans to announce our engagement, isn’t it?” Manus says sourly, dropping his hand from my face in anger. “That plan isn’t going to change, Kricket. I admire your ability to manipulate others; I find it to be your most attractive quality, but don’t think to ever manipulate me.”
With my hands in fists, I nearly growl at him, “I’m not trying to manipulate you! I’m trying to save you! If you make this announcement, you’re dead. This is called survival, Manus—yours and mine. We need to inform Skye so that they can protect the city—”
“I’m not bringing Skye here. This is about your Cavar,” Manus says, like it all makes sense to him. “He’s already forgotten about you, Kricket. You know soldiers—they do their jobs and then they go home...to their families. I meant to tell you before the swank that ours will not be the only engagement announced that night,” he says, looking into my eyes.