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The hour was early with Oyaz’s sleep elusive. His bed was cold and his arms empty. His thoughts were far away, replaying every moment with Izabelle he could recall. Her sweet smile, her energy, her sassiness, and kindness vibrated outward, announcing her presence. Her resilience and determination jutting out her jaw. Her inner strength surpassed his. As he cycled through the play of emotions on her face, he couldn’t avoid her sadness, her belief that life had cursed her.
“Supreme Commander Oyaz, what are you doing?” Brynr slid onto a seat in front of Oyaz, who nursed a cup of coffee.
“Drinking coffee?” He flashed a smile, but it lacked warmth. Because he lacked warmth.
“Why are you not with Lady Izzy?”
“She is not mine,” Oyaz released a long-drawn-out sigh.
“I saw the Ethera take you down, Oyaz, and the latest med scans showed your body still experiencing the effects.”
Oyaz frowned. “But my eyes—”
“Fluctuate as I look at you.” Brynr drew in a deep breath. “She is human, Oyaz.”
Oyaz’s head shot up to look at Brynr, his eyes widening at his words.
He spun his head, searching for her or Garix in the morning crowd. He’d seen her earlier, seated next to Garix and attempting to stab his food with a fork. Oyaz closed his eyes and focused his senses, hoping to scent or hear her. Yet silence reigned with no damu-like arguing. The last time she’d gazed at him when he’d entered the common, her face had paled, and she’d curled into herself before giving Garix a small smile.
“Supreme Commander Oyaz.” Pilot Vyar’s voice echoed through the common. “Queen Macera is on comm. Patching it through to your quarters.”
Oyaz bolted, abandoning his coffee on the table. He skidded into his quarters and touched the display vid. When Macy’s face formed, his shoulders dipped. How he missed her, needed her joy, her sweetness.
She smiled. “Oyaz, so glad I caught you.”
Happiness warmed her brown eyes where once sorrow had lingered. Her cheeks were pink, and as she peered at him across the many comm stations between them, she glowed as if the magnus sun kissed her face.
“It is good to see you, my queen.”
She peered at him. “You’re not angry that I only called now?”
He chuckled, but it ended too swiftly. His ability to laugh had abandoned him days ago. “No.”
“Then what’s the problem? Your brow’s furrowed, your lips are pursed, and—”
He shuddered, wishing he could convey the turmoil he endured. “I had a Dar Eth for a morning.” One glorious, memorable morning.
“What?” she squeaked, and her eyebrows rose.
He spilled the story, revealing far more than he wanted to but unable to halt the words. If anyone could understand what he was going through, it was Macy.
“Oh, shit, Oyaz. You had her, and those effing Yithians stole her from you.” She raised her hand, halting him mid-gape. “Losing memories of someone is worse. Thankfully, you have those back, sort of. Can’t you fight for her anyway? Don’t you want to?”
“Without the Ethera, claiming Izabelle would be akin to stealing another male’s salvation. I could not live with that on my conscience.”
She flicked her fingers. “Step closer to the screen.”
He did so but frowned at the command. Had she not been his queen, he might not have obeyed.
“Your eyes swirl from blue to ice blue, Oyaz. That has to mean something.”
Brynr said the same thing. “I am overly emotional. That is to be expected.”
She tapped her chin. “And would the Ethera bend your knee twice? Surely, it would assume the connection made? So, not chasing after Izabelle might mean dooming yourself and her to a life of celibacy?”
A life of celibacy for them both and him circling the void until he died?
I wanted someone to love. Someone who’d love me. Izabelle’s words slammed into him, and he grimaced.
“She’s not Etterian, Oyaz. She chose you. Do you think your eye color matters to her?”
Hope struck and exploded in his chest like a supernova. “You mean, I can choose her, and the Ethera will follow?” He’d never considered that. Could it be that simple? Maker, I hope so. He ached for her. Memories tormented him. Sleep was elusive, peace more so, and yet his void remained dormant.
“All I’m saying is try, if you love her.”
“Love?” Was love this intense sadness and extreme elation merging to press on his soul?
“Your eyes could be healing, and once enough time has passed, the ice blue color of the Ethera may return.” Her eyes twinkled with mischief. “Tell me, how do you feel if I say another male has claimed her?”
Red burst across Oyaz’s vision, and the urge to rip things apart twitched his arms. He gritted his teeth to swallow a growl.
Macy laughed. “I rest my case. Go get her, Tiger.” The screen faded to black.
“Mirror,” he commanded the bulkheads and waited for them to alter into reflective surfaces. His eyes did swirl, flashing between dark and ice blue. “Pilot Vyar?” He didn’t have an O.D.I. And porting anywhere without one wasn’t wise. Never did he want to be so vulnerable again, but he was if he thought long and hard about it. Without Izabelle, he was raw, like an open wound that would never heal. “Where is Izabelle?”
“She ported to her housing unit yesterday. Elite Warrior Garix did so as well and requested permission to follow Lady Izzy on her travels,” Vyar said. “The request is urgent, Supreme Commander. Lady Izzy leaves this morning.”
Oyaz clenched his jaw, then forced himself to relax. “Port me now.”
“Yes, Supreme Commander.”
He appeared on an enclosed balcony and paused to listen, praying she was home.
“This is insane, Izzy. Come back.”
“You know I love you, Garix, but this is best for everyone. My place’s yours for as long as you want to stay.”
She was leaving like she said she would. And the promise Oyaz made himself flashed across his thoughts. He ran, nudging Garix through the door he blocked. Oyaz jerked to a halt, stunned at her strolling along the corridor. Determination squared her shoulders. Her leggings clung to thighs he knew well. Her tunic was white, triggering memories of her damp breasts and sucking a nipple through the thin fabric.
“Izabelle.” His voice hoarsened with need.
She stilled, her posture drooped, and she shook her head. “Goodbye, Oyaz.”
He lunged forward but stopped an inch from touching her. The darkness crushing his chest, the void expanding said it all. She was his. And if she left him, he’d die.
“Where you go, I go.” He prayed she remembered she had once said those words to him.
She turned on a heel to face him. Tears shimmered on her lashes, and the gray of her eyes shone like Maloidian steel. “You’re better off not knowing me, Oyaz. Go, find your Dar Eth.” Her breath shuddered out, and pain twisted her delicate features.
“I have found her.”
Her cheeks paled, and a tear slipped free. “Good.” She pasted on a smile, one that didn’t touch her eyes except to crinkle the edges. “I wish you all the happiness.”
He swallowed past the lump in his throat, aching to hold her. “She will not have me.”
“What?” She jerked back, and her cheeks flushed. “Why not? You’re perf—” She bit her lip, lowered her gaze, then offered a stiff shrug. “Send my love to Simmy.” Her curls bounced as she stomped off. A whisper of a sob reached his sensitive ears.
“Why will you not send your love to me?” Could she not see how much he longed for her? How much she meant to him? “Do you not...love me?” Ice engulfed his body, his blood, freezing each muscle, the air in his lungs, and time around him. He waited.
A sob jerked her shoulders. “Of course...” She sniffed. “I love you, just as I love Garix.”
Oyaz growled, not liking that every tactic he tried failed. “Why do you not ask if I love you?”
She laughed and flashed him a smile despite her tear-stained cheeks. “Etterians can’t love. I told Caro you bottle it all inside and feel things intensely. I lied.” She closed her eyes while she drew in long breaths.
He pounced, taking the opportunity to approach her. Inches from her, he cupped her cheeks, catching her tears on his thumbs. “I love you, Izabelle.”
She opened her eyes to meet his. Joy curled her lips and pinkened her cheeks, then darkness prevailed. “You don’t. I’m just a foolish female you accidentally fucked.” Yanking out of his arms, she stormed off, her shoes slapping the patterned floor.
He hesitated, gritted his teeth, then trailed her. She hadn’t given up on him in all the time he was injured or captured. “So, where are we going?”
She swung on him with fire in her eyes. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Where my Dar Eth goes, so must I.” He activated her O.D.I. while admiring her upturned face and the heat in her gaze. “Sub-Commander Aaro, I resign from my command—”
“What are you doing?” She slapped her hand over her wrist. “Belay that order, Aaro. I’m not your Dar Eth, Oyaz. Remember?” She stretched onto her toes to touch his temple. “Are you ill?”
He laughed. She cared, his Izabelle. “No, just an Etterian male in love.”
She lowered her arm and stepped back. “Stop it. You don’t say such things unless you mean it, Oyaz.”
“Oh, heart of my heart, Etterians do not lie. It is dishonorable.”
“Well,” she huffed. “You’re deceiving yourself. Your eyes are dark blue.”
“My eyes can be green, purple, orange, the color does not matter.”
“Yes, it does, and you damn well know it.” She darted her gaze everywhere but on him. “Now, I’m going, so quit following me. I didn’t get an O.D.I. for nothing.”
He trailed her down the stairs, and at the first landing, she paused with a hand on the railing. Her pleading gaze wrenched his heart. “Why are you doing this?”
“I love you. I cannot survive another moment without you.”
Her chuckle was self-deprecating. “Right. Out of the blue, you love me.”
“Yes. Macy made me see my eye color does not matter to you. Only the state of my heart.”
Izabelle studied him, and her gaze softened, despite her leaping heartbeat. “You’re serious? You want me?” She gripped the railing with both hands. “I’m trouble, Oyaz. Bad things happen around me.”
“Good things too. And Madyx was not on you, Izabelle.” He skipped the steps to her, then swept her into his arms, relishing her warm softness. “Besides, my heart is yours. I cannot take it back and cannot live without it.” He pressed a kiss to her nose. “You are stuck with me, beloved.”
Color bloomed across her cheeks, and she snatched a kiss. “Want to zap me to your quarters?”
He grinned and buried his nose into the curve of her neck for a deep inhale. “Not yet. You have not said how you feel, and do not dare compare me to Garix again.”
She laughed, the joy bouncing off the walls of the stairwell. “I do love Garix. But...” She licked her lips. “I love you more, and I would never let Garix pin me to a bathroom wall.”
Oyaz growled. “He better not.” Lifting and throwing her over his shoulder, he tapped her O.D.I. “Pilot Krist, two to port to my quarters.”
“Congratulations, Supreme Commander.”
“Oyaz, let me down.” She wiggled, then slapped his backside, drawing a grunt as heat shot to his groin. “Who’s Krist?”
“He pilots the Valiant—my battleship.” When Oyaz lowered her, they were in his quarters on board the Valiant.
As soon as her toes touched the floor, he claimed her mouth. Her lips parted in readiness. Unable to deny himself this craving to taste her, he plunged his tongue in. He drew in a deep and shuddering breath, inhaling her scent, marveling at the softness of her lips, at the exotic, addictive flavor of her mouth. His groan rumbled from deep within him. It was eons old, that sound, of a male desperate for his female. His eyes burned so he closed them. All that mattered was this female in his arms. She threaded her fingers into his hair at the base of his neck. The feeling was sensational, making him shiver with need. Then she slipped her tongue into his mouth, past his lips, and he unraveled.
“Oyaz,” she gasped when he feathered kisses along her jaw. “Please.”
“What is it, beloved?” He raised his head to meet her gaze.
“Don’t go slow, my Eth.” She grinned. “I might explode if you do.”
He jerked back, arching a brow. “Explode?”
“With love for you.” She wrapped her legs around his hips, clung to his neck, and pulled herself up to kiss him. “Lots and lots of mini explosions.” She peppered her words with short kisses. “You call them fulfillments?”
He growled and hurried to their bedroom to the sweetest music of all, her laughter.
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