Page 35 of Fated to the Dragon Alien
“I’m not going to.”
Cerani couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. The walls felt too small, too close. She lay there motionless. Her breath caught somewhere in her throat, but she didn’t know what to do with it. The room felt too bright. Cold in all the wrong places. She pressed her hand into the gel bed like it might help her body remember where she was.
It didn’t work.
Stavian didn’t move either. He just stood there, his eyes locked on her like she’d said something deep enough to shift the ground under them. The silence stretched. She could hear the soft mechanical pulse of the med bed, like it was counting her heartbeats.
Then he shifted forward.
She tensed—for what, she didn’t even know. But his hand didn’t lift in warning or hesitation. He reached up, slow, almost careful, and placed his palm against her cheek.
Warmth spread across her skin, soft and jarring at the same time. His skin was dry, a little rough along the base of his fingers, but solid. Real. She blinked up at him.
“I dreamed of this.” His voice was quiet. “Of seeing your hair. Touching your skin.”
Cerani’s breathing slipped out too fast. She tried to make sense of something—anything—but her brain was just noise now. A buzz that blocked out the state of her leg, the grief in her chest, the fear in her gut.
“You dream of me?” she whispered.
He nodded, his thumb brushing the side of her face as if he’d done it a thousand times in his mind. “Every time I close my eyes.”
She swallowed and leaned into his touch, just a little. Not because she wanted to let go, not yet, but because it had been so long since someone touched her like she was something worth holding. She closed her eyes. Just for a second.
“I don’t want these feelings.” Cerani opened her eyes and found him looking at her like he was trying to read something just beyond the front of her face. “I don’t know what to do with them. This is impossible, Stavian.”
His brow lowered, but he didn’t back down. “I don’t think it is. I see you, Cerani. Not a worker. Not a number. Just you.”
Her throat worked from the rush of feelings that crowded her mind, but no words came out. Her fingers twisted in the thin blanket covering her, like they needed something solid to hold on to. Her whole body went tense all over again, but it wasn’t from pain this time.
A long breath escaped her lips. She nodded, not looking away from him. “Okay.”
“Okay,” he repeated, and he let out a quiet breath like all of his air had been trapped since the moment he entered the room.
Cerani didn’t move as he pulled a stool next to the bed and sat, not touching her, not speaking, just being close.
She looked down at his hand resting on his thigh. Her own hand, bruised and stained, slid across the edge of the bed and out from under the blanket. She turned her palm upward. He looked at it for a moment, then placed his gently in her hand. Warm strong fingers curled around hers—just enough to hold, but not enough to push. Everything about it felt right. As if her hand had waited her whole life to be held by his.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” he said.
“What?”
“I spoke to Lieutenant Darven, my second in command at this facility,” he said. “He informed me that there have been incidents—rebellions. A penal colony collapse, a brothel riot, a full arena breakout.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Is that unusual?”
“Axis networks are starting to flag patterns,” he replied. “The problem with that is… All of the incidents had Zaruxians and Terians at the center of the damage.”
Cerani’s grip tightened over his. “The Terians—could they be my friends who were taken with me?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t have access to any of this information. They’re locking more records by the cycle.”
Her throat worked hard. “They might be out there.” Her voice cracked with sudden hope. “They might be alive.”
“I can’t verify anything,” he said. “And I just learned of this myself. They’re watching me. Probably you, too.”
Silence settled between them again. It was heavy with possibility and a thread neither of them wanted to pull unless they were ready for what unraveled.
“Then you really shouldn’t be here with me.” She looked at their joined hands. “The Axis don’t play games.”
