Tool? The frygging bastard was just like the frygging Ohrurs, using me for his own sick endgame.
"You little—" I started, but he was gone.
Silence crashed down around me.
I exhaled sharply, my muscles coiled, and my mind raced. I didn’t want to believe him, but by the Black Abyss, I did. I wanted to cling to the anger he had awakened inside me. But deep down, I already knew. Alice was more than my mate, and Darlam was more than a lost world.
The Ohrurs had stolen my past.
But I would fight for our future.
ALICE
The days passedwithout us being able to further sort any of the puzzle pieces that still refused to fit together. When we came closer to Darlam, a woman named Hannah made contact with us. She claimed to be the mate of one of the other Space Guardians, Tharaax. Xyrek kept me a secret from her; neither one of us trusted her words. What if this was another trap the Ohrurs had laid?
"For what it's worth, I think she is genuine," Xyrek said after ending another comm with her.
"I hope so," I agreed. Without Hannah knowing, I had watched their conversation, and I liked her. She, too, had been close-mouthed, as if uncertain Xyrek was telling the truth.
"I'm going to meet her and find out if what she says is true," Xyrek said when we were only a day's journey from Darlam.
She had warned us about the forcefield surrounding the planet and the possibility of a strong Ohrur presence. The other Space Guardians and their mates were waiting for someone named Vraax and another human woman named Sloane, who, according to Hannah, had someimportant cargoaboard. It seemed like we would arrive only a day or so after them.
"I won't let you go alone," I argued.
He shook his head. "It might be a trap." His eyes fell on one of the cleaning drones. "What in the name of the Black Abyss did you do to it?"
"Do you like it?" I beamed, taking in my latest invention—well,inventionmight be pushing it; I had only slightly enhanced it. The drone hovered over the ground as we watched it, lifting up like a helicopter.
"Now it can clean the ceilings, too."
"It was already able to do that by crawling up the wall, Alice," Xyrek huffed, shaking his head. "And why does it have to have eyes? It's creepy."
"It was creepy before. Now it's cute. And watch this," I turned my head. "Hey, Lux, when will we arrive at Darlam?"
"In twenty-two hours, fifteen minutes, and four seconds," Lux replied.
"Isn't she great?" I beamed.
"How does she know this?" Xyrek's brows moved together as he regarded me suspiciously.
"Because I gave her the gift of intelligence," I hedged.
"You wired it to the ship's main interface?" he accused.
I shrugged. "It's handy."
"It's going to get us crashed," he grumbled. "Disconnect it."
"Killjoy." I glared at him.
"Now, Alice," he insisted.
"Where's your trust?"
"Oh, I have trust. But I'm not willing to risk your life," he retorted. "I remember everything about you, Allisaahn."
I wasn't sure I liked it when he called me byhername. I still hadn't quite made peace with the whole reincarnation thing. There were parts I might have been able to believe in, but some of the others only created more questions. Like, why did we always have the same names? And if we did, why in the hell didn't we remember who our partner was and put an ad in the paper like:Allisaahn looking for Xyrek? Xyrek had explained how the names of Darlam males indicated their town. Like Xyrek was Xy of Rek. So, did that mean he would always be reincarnated into the same town? What if he decided to move to like Ax, would he then go by Xyax? These questions alone were confusing enough, but when you added that I had been born on Earth… it reached a whole new level of weird.
