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Lion

A lot can go wrong when you visit another planet. You can get captured, tortured, or killed. You can get eaten alive. You can get chased into a desert and starve to death. You can fall in love, too, and in my opinion, that’s the most dangerous possibility of all.

Oceaile was the kind of planet you could fall in love on. It was the type of place people went for honeymoons and romantic kid-free getaways. Nobody went there for work or business – it was all pleasure, all the time.

Except, of course, for my visit.

When I arrived on Oceaile, I hadn’t planned on getting swept up in any romantic moments. I hadn’t planned on falling in love with anyone. The only plan I’d had was returning Dex to his mother and then going back to Malum. There I’d serve my king and my people. There I’d do whatever it took to keep my planet safe.

The problem was that reality didn’t exactly care about my plans.

I found myself sitting in an antechamber staring at a young woman who was guarding the entrance to an office where the queen was waiting for me. The lady was staring at me like I was supposed to know who she was – I didn’t – and she was acting like she was the one in charge – she wasn’t. I was the one in charge here. She’d do well to remember that.

“Excuse me,” I said, starting to push my way past the small Oceailean woman, but she reached out and touched my arm as I tried to get by. Her dark purple fingers wrapped around the white tattoos that laced my blue skin. Despite her tiny frame, her grip was firm and strong. It was enough to surprise me, so I paused and looked over at her.

“You seem confused that I would dare touch you,” she said, raising an eyebrow. Like the rest of her body, the eyebrow was sculpted to perfection. We were on Oceaile, which meant that most of the women here were curvy, plump, and delicious. The woman before me was no exception. She was smaller than someone from Malum, but I didn’t mind. Her pretty neck led down to two big, beautiful breasts that were practically hanging out of the white gown she was wearing.

Seriously, why was she wearing that dress?

It had long sleeves that stretched down to her wrists, and the slits in the side revealed her pretty calves. I was certain that if she twisted just so, I’d be able to catch a glimpse of her thighs. Maybe more. Wouldn’t that be a treat?

“Are you in the habit of touching strangers?” I asked the woman. Surely, she wasn’t. It was a bad idea to touch people you didn’t know. Everyone knew that. Even my best friend, Alixei, knew not to touch random people if you weren’t gearing up for a fight. If this lady thought touching a man was a safe thing to do, then she’d never been to Dreagle. Oceaile might be safe enough, but there were plenty of planets in the universe that weren’t safe. There were plenty of places where you couldn’t just do what you pleased.

“I’m not sure that’s any of your business.”

“I’m not sure that you touching me is any of my business, either, yet here we are.” Irritation washed over me. I was a patient person, but this was getting to be a bit much. Who was this woman that she thought it was okay to just go grabbing a random person’s arm? I disliked being touched by strangers almost as much as I disliked this silly errand.

It made no sense to me that I should have to do this on my own. Alixei was an asshole, but he was also my friend. He shouldn’t have gone running back to Malum without explaining what he was doing. I’d known the man long enough to know that he probably had a good reason. He had better have a good reason.

“You said you’re meeting with the queen,” the woman continued slowly.

“Yes, and I’m going to be late if you don’t let me pass.”

“The queen isn’t coming,” she blurted out. The woman’s deep purple eyes seemed to get even darker as she raised a gentle hand to her lips. Had she surprised herself? It certainly appeared that way.

“What do you mean? We have a meeting.” An important one, too. I needed to return her son to her. I needed to explain what was going on.

“She can’t make it,” the woman said again. “I’ll be meeting with you instead.”

“You?” It was my turn to raise a brow. It was my turn to be surprised, but only for a moment. If she was meeting with me in the queen’s place, then she wasn’t simply a secretary or a clerk as I’d assumed.

That was when I started noticing the similarities between her and Dex, between her and the queen. She had the same high, pointy nose. She had the same cheekbones. Even her hairline seemed to resemble her brother’s, didn’t it?

I was a fool.

I should have seen this sooner.

Oceaile was a lovely water planet where most business was conducted beneath the surface of the water. The people here loved to swim, they loved to be wet, and they loved to explore. They were ruled by a queen, who would one day very soon – if I didn’t stop it – be replaced by her son. That was because the princess wasn’t eligible to become the monarch of the planet. The ruler had to be a boy: Dex. He had a sister, though, and I realized that I was staring her in the face.

“You’re the princess.”

She nodded so slightly that it was almost imperceptible. Years of living on Oceaile, and I’d never actually met the princess. I’d been so absorbed with my family that I hadn’t bothered to pay attention to the news or the things that were happening on the planet. Then my wife had died, and I’d left. I’d never even looked back. My heart had been filled with pain that wreaked havoc on my soul, and I hadn’t bothered to even think about returning.

Now I was paying the price.

Immediately, I dropped to my knees and bowed my head. I hoped she would forgive me for my rudeness. During all of my years as a pirate and all of my years as a guardian of King Andryssi of Malum, I never felt like meeting royals got any easier. They always seemed so above me, so strong. Powerful.

I never really felt worthy.

“Your Highness,” I said. “Forgive me.”

I hated that I’d been so rude to her. Even if she hadn’t been a princess, there was no excuse for my behavior. She didn’t deserve to have someone talking to her in a rude or uncouth way. She was a damn royal. She deserved to be treated like one. She deserved to be treated like she mattered.

It didn’t matter who her little brother was or what he had done. Dex may have caused an interplanetary issue, but that wasn’t her. She hadn’t done that. She hadn’t asked for that.

I closed my eyes. A second later, I felt her hand on my shoulder. I opened my eyes, but kept my face downward, eyes staring at the floor. I could see the white lace of her dress falling over the white leather of her boots. Then I looked up. Our eyes locked.

Fuck, she was pretty.

“Get up,” she whispered. Her words came across as so gentle and understanding that it hurt my heart a little bit. She wanted me to get up. She wanted me to rise up. She believed in me. Either that, or she saw something good in me. I’d take either option, to be honest.

I got up, standing. I looked down at the woman before me. What the hell kind of strength did this woman possess? Everyone knew the story of the Princess Ashera. We all knew she’d gotten married to a prince from another planet, and he’d died shortly after their wedding. It had been a tragedy that had shaken everyone and everything. Even though I’d already been working with Alixei and Andryssi at that time, I’d seen the news. Everyone had.

The poor broken princess. People had called her the Disappointed Princess and the Princess of Heartbreak. They were both stupid names for something that was nothing short of a life-altering tragedy.

Yet here she was.

She stood there staring at me for what felt like an eternity. I studied her eyes, her nose, her mouth. She was really lovely. It was easy to see how people could look at her and trust her, how she could smile at them, and they would feel safe. I didn’t like being aware of the things people nicknamed her behind her back...or to her face. She didn’t deserve that kind of disrespect.

When she spoke, her voice didn’t quake. I had a feeling this wasn’t something she wanted to say, but she had to. She was dealing with her mother’s affairs, so she had to ask and answer questions like a queen.

“You’re here about my brother, aren’t you?” Asherah spoke firmly. She already knew. Perhaps she wasn’t sure exactly what he did, but she knew there was no other legitimate reason an official from Malum would come to Oceaile like this.

I nodded. “He betrayed Malum.” That was a bit of an understatement. In my opinion, he’d betrayed Oceaile, as well, but that wasn’t up to me to decide.

“What do you mean? Can you explain it to me?” She spoke gently. I understood that she wanted more details, and I wanted to offer them to her. Not here, though. I glanced around. We weren’t in a secure area. Anyone could just walk by and overhear what we were talking about. Unfortunately, I was certain the prince had people who were desperately loyal to him. I couldn’t accept the idea that they might interfere with what was happening.

I looked back at her. Fuck, she was so damn pretty. She probably didn’t even know it. The prettiest girls never had a clue just how lovely they were.

“Is there somewhere private we can speak?” I didn’t want to reveal too much out here in the open. If someone knew what I was going to say and word got around, people might think I was here to damage the prince’s reputation. If that happened, I’d be labeled a traitor to the planet. My tattoos spoke for themselves. I was allowed to be here. I was welcomed, even. My blue skin told a different tale, though, and if I wasn’t careful, I’d be outcast.

I wasn’t from Oceaile originally. I’d grown up on other planets, traveling around with my parents. It wasn’t until I met Zara that everything changed for me. She was the one who invited me back to Oceaile. She was the one who made sure I got my tattoos. It was all her.

The princess, for all of her faults, seemed to understand my concern. She didn’t introduce herself further. She didn’t have to. I knew that she was Asherah. I knew that she had wanted to rule the planet but was unable to due to an outdated law which stated a male heir had to rule.

Her mother was in charge now, but only temporarily until Dex was old enough. Then she’d be pushed out of her own crown. Her own kingdom. She’d lose everything she had worked for to a child who didn’t appreciate her – to a man who wanted to destroy everything that stood in his way.

Asherah reached for my arm again. This time, I didn’t resist when she placed her soft hand against my skin and tugged, gently leading me down a side hallway which led to a mazelike series of other halls. Eventually, the walls faded away and soon we were walking down glass hallways. Deep in the Oceaile ocean, I tried not to stare as fish and sea creatures swam around the glass. Every once in a while, a fish would accidentally swim into the glass and bounce back as it was forced to find a different path.

It was hard not to feel overwhelmed in a place like this.

It was hard not to just stop walking and admire the beauty.

She glanced over at me as we walked, but she was silent, lost in her own thoughts. What was going through Asherah’s head? Was she wondering exactly what her brother had done? Maybe she was curious as to how it would affect her. There was a part of me that hoped she was curious about me, too. I found myself drawn to her in a way I hadn’t felt drawn to anyone in a very, very long time.

A moment later, Asherah stopped walking in the center of the glass hall. The floor beneath us was solid, but I could see the ocean to either side of us, as well as above. A large purple fish swam above us. It was a species I didn’t recognize, but it was lovely. Asherah turned to me and took my hand. She smiled gently.

“Don’t be scared, Lion,” she said.

I wasn’t sure how she knew my name. I hadn’t told her. Still, I nodded and waited to see what the princess was going to do next. She reached out and placed her hand on the glass wall beside us. I hadn’t noticed a small series of nearly invisible buttons on the wall, but she knew where they were. She traced her finger over the buttons, obviously pushing a few of them. Then the floor beneath us began to lower until we were beneath the floor of the hallway. We stepped off the little platform and it went back up. She snapped her fingers and light appeared all around us. We were essentially in a small, isolated box beneath the sea. It was invisible from the hallway above, but we could look up and see anyone who walked over the spot in the hall. Incredible. This was the kind of place my companion, Alixei, would love. His sister, Grixei, would adore it, too. Grixei was a bounty hunter who always had a penchant for the dramatic. She’d love being able to hide and eavesdrop in a place like this.

“You were saying something about my brother,” she said quietly. I had a feeling the princess was a little shy. That wasn’t a terrible shock to me. She basically spent her entire life in her little brother’s shadow. Considering that she was the older sibling, that was saying quite a bit. Even during the time that she’d been engaged and then married, she wasn’t known for making a lot of public appearances. By all accounts, the princess was a quiet person who led a mysterious life.

Was I saying something about her brother?

Yes.

“Your brother is a terrible man.”

There.

I said it.

He’d tried to assassinate the king of my planet. He’d tried to send someone to do his dirty work for him, actually. The prince was a complete and total dick, and it was about time that the princess knew this. She needed to know that Dex was someone dangerous. He needed to be locked away or killed – whichever she preferred. If the princess was the kind of person who wanted to show compassion and she was headstrong enough to lock him up, then sure, she could do that. Otherwise, he needed to be put out of his misery for the safety of all of the other planets.

To my surprise, she didn’t react to my comment at all. She just stared at me, blinking. Asherah didn’t look angry or shocked or even surprised. She just looked...well, a little bit sad.

“What?” I was nervous at her lack of reaction. Was she broken? Had she not heard me? Certainly, I didn’t need to repeat myself when it came to this kind of issue.

“You wanted to speak in private to tell me that my brother sucks. That’s it?” The princess started laughing. “You could have told me that in the main hall, my friend. Of course, he sucks. We all know this.” Ashera shook her head, as though this was the stupidest waste of her time. Her reaction caught me completely off-guard. I’d expected her to defend him, for some reason. I’d expected her to show a little bit of loyalty. That, I would have completely understood.

This, though?

This confused me.

If the princess knew her brother was terrible, how was he still allowed to reign? How had nobody stopped it before? It seemed to me that if the princess knew her brother was a terrible person, then she should have done something to stop his chaotic rule. She hadn’t, though.

Why not?

“He tried to have the King of Malum assassinated,” I continued. Maybe she didn’t know just how serious this was. Perhaps her dislike of her brother fell more along the lines of sibling rivalry than anything else.

“I’m sure he did,” she leaned against the glass wall of the little box we were in. It was barely enough room for the both of us. What was this place used for? I had no idea. It was probably the kind of place a little princess would hide from her brother during games of hide-and-seek. I wondered how many times the princess had been down here. Had she had this place crafted just for herself?

As if reading my mind, she stood up, pushing against the wall. She placed her hands on my stomach and looked up at me. She was so much shorter than me that her fingers only reached the lower part of my chest. The desire to kiss her washed over me, but I steeled myself. I wouldn’t do anything wrong or inappropriate on this visit. I didn’t need anything complicated in my life. I needed simple. Routine. Ordinary. Normal.

I needed things that weren’t bad or crazy or weird.

“You’ve been in our palaces before, Lion. I see the markings. I know what they mean. You’re one of us.” She seemed so certain about this, so sure. She was wrong, though, I wasn’t one of them. I was different. As much as I wanted to believe that I belonged, there had always been a part of me that didn’t. There would always be a part of me that was elsewhere.

“I’m not,” I whispered.

“You are,” she nodded. “Although, judging by the sadness in your eyes, I think it’s fair to say you’ve likely lost the thing that connected you to our planet.”

I was silent.

I had nothing to say about this.

It was true that I’d lost Zara. With the death of my wife had come years of pain and loss. There was a part of me that never wanted to try loving anyone ever again. I was sure, in some ways, that I would always be broken.

Ignoring my silence, Asharah spoke again. “The palace is full of hiding places. Even though this is our secondary palace, our backup home, if you will, it’s still full of secrets. My brother does not need to know about this room. Understand?” She looked nervous, but I understood. I nodded to let her know that her secret was safe with me.

“It seems there are many things you keep from your brother,” I pointed out.

“My brother is a horrible man,” she finally agreed. “I did not know he went off planet, but my mother may know. The two of them are somewhat close.”

“How close?”

“Conniving. Sniveling. Secretive.” Asherah frowned and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, they were almost glowing. “Do any of these words let you know what their relationship looks like?”

“Okay, so it’s unhealthy.”

“That’s putting it lightly.”

“Do you think your mother knows about your brother’s little adventure?”

“Tell me what he did,” she said. It wasn’t exactly an answer, but it was something I could work with.

“He found a woman – April – and tricked her into believing that her family had been killed by King Andryssi of Malum. She attempted to enter the king’s bridal competition and didn’t make it.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she pressed a hand to her chest. “I know who April is, but I hadn’t heard of her death.”

“What? Oh, no,” I blushed, shaking my head. Shit. Okay, so apparently, Alixei did most of the talking in our little duo. Without him here, I was fumbling all of my answers and responses. “She’s not dead.”

“But you said...”

“She didn’t make it to Malum,” I clarified. “She crash-landed on another planet. We found her and brought her back to Malum. My partner and I found out what had actually happened – your brother wanted her to assassinate the king – and we were able to stop him.”

“My brother wanted to assassinate the Malum king,” she whispered, staring at me.

I nodded.

“I know it’s a lot to take in,” I started, but she held up a hand.

“No, it’s not a lot. It’s everything.” Her lips pressed together in a tight frown. “I mean, it’s a lot, but...I mean, it’s Dex. That’s what he does.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that when my brother recently left the planet to visit Malum, I was relieved because I knew it meant he wouldn’t be ‘accidentally’ killing me in the weeks leading up to his birthday.”

“Why would your brother try to kill you?” I asked. I knew Dex was bad news, but the idea of him killing a princess seemed a bit ridiculous. Why kill your own people?

“Because my assistants found a clause,” she said slowly. She shook her head. “It was incredible, really, and I haven’t even had a chance to bring it up to my brother.”

“A clause?”

“A clause. It’s more of a hidden gem tucked away by my father, if I’m being honest. Just prior to his death, dear old Dad changed the law.”

“To what?” I suspected I already knew the answer.

“To say that the throne will go to the firstborn heir: not the firstborn male heir.”

“And that means?”

“It means I can claim the throne,” she said. “All I have to do is find my mother.”