{Reipon}

Pehton slammed into the floor. The breath left her this time, replaced with little black spots in her vision. Caedes took both her wrists in one hand and pinned her roughly to the hardwood. Sweat dripped from his bare shoulders when he lay down the length of her. She gasped at the intrusion.

A knife in her side.

Before he drew blood yet again, the kerosene of her boiled blood filled the air with smoke and fumes.

“I will not relent to your Siren’s Gale.” The gravel in his voice gave weight to the undiluted death in his dark green eyes. His opened wings cast them in shadow against the roaring firelight. “Are you prepared to kill me, Pehton?”

Pehton spared a glance at their silhouettes on the wall. They looked engaged in far more pleasant activities. This was life or death. A better warrior than she, his eyes never left hers through the roiling haze of her ability. His hands held her wrists steady despite the sear of his flesh. All the way to his bones.

The flames erupted with a scream from Pehton. A scream of frustration as she shoved her foot into his middle and flipped him over her head. Caedes took her with him, and Pehton landed on top.

Not all was well.

They both locked their eyes on the knife in her ribs, and she gasped for air around it. Such specific pain. Like a bruise that throbbed in her lungs—

“Ah!” Pehton shrieked when Caedes withdrew the blade from her and pushed her off of him.

She lay on her back, staring at the ceiling while he poured them both a drink. Unable to move until her soft tissue repair system kicked in, Pehton listened to his words. “You’re quicker. Stronger. Have you noticed a difference?”

Yes. The pain hurt more.

Pehton’s electric blue armor, grown from herself, covered her skin in a mesh weave. With expert precision, Caedes managed to insert the blade between the organic material, soaked now in her orange blood.

At least he wasn’t without injury.

Only one of his hands committed their post-workout drink ritual. The other rested at his side, blackened to the exposed bones. Oleen’s charred remains flashed in Pehton’s vision until it blurred.

“Caedes.”

He didn’t bother turning around. “It’ll heal. How is your wound?”

Pehton drew breath for the first time in five minutes without an agonizing suction. “Better.” She could almost get up—

{After our “success” at L. Capra, the Lyriks arrived. Back then, there were thousands of them across the Vast Collective.

But only one mattered.

Sorry, Pehton. I hope this story doesn’t break your heart too much.

Me at seventeen, Nox at eighteen, and Xelan at thirteen. We attended the banquet to celebrate our new guests. One struck a curiosity in me. Black eyes. Orange feathers. She was their leader.

Gale.}

Caedes finally turned and met Pehton’s gaze with a quizzically raised brow.

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“Yes. I like him. Okay?! Not only is he frightfully pretty to look at, but he also makes for a decent friend.” Pehton hazarded to sit up and accepted Caedes’ hand when he offered it. That well-honed arm lifted her with ease. She only moaned once from the recovering wound. It no longer sucked her breath away, and the pain dulled to a sharp ache. “Drink me.”

Although Caedes acquiesced by handing her the glass, he hid a cheeky smirk at her poor choice of words. Some men were only charming when they were shirtless and bearing gorgeous wings.

Pehton made an exaggerated show of rolling her eyes as she snarked into her sip, “Icari. Elden, help me.”

“You know your cheeks glow orange when you blush.”

She choked on her orange juice. Oh, but the men in this house—her face was on fire.

Caedes chuckled into his milk. It was a warm sound filled with gravelly mirth. This was the first time she’d heard his laughter since Abresson murdered John—Caedes’ best friend and brother-in-arms.

Ignoring Caedes, Pehton wandered onto the veranda in time for one of Reipon’s suns to set. The other would take another four hours in this seventy-two hour day cycle. But already the third moon ascended, reflected in the calm waters of a forgotten sea where Xelan made their home.

Caedes followed her with his stoic presence.

What was with Pehton and taciturn men? She did like him. He was intelligent, respectful, and quite the physical specimen. These sessions were the closest thing to intimacy for her in millions of years. Not since Remorse fed her the dram and rendered her unconscious for his idea of breeding.

So many regrets, but never her children. Twins, a boy and a girl. Despite her perfect nacre memory, she couldn’t recall their faces or the warmth from their hands. Razor took that away from her. Took them both away from her.

Pehton’s heart ached enough to make her gasp, and a tear fell before she could compose herself.

Caedes lingered unaware behind her, taking in the scene. The sky above was a star-studded green to match his eyes. It faded to chartreuse until it blended with an orange-red on the sun’s setting horizon.

Eventually, he broke the silence. “You’re improving exponentially.”

“Will we move to the training ground soon?” Pehton kept the disappointment out of her voice. She liked the privacy afforded them here.

He leaned on the banister beside her and answered in his way, “No.”

Yes. That one word answered everything just fine.

A knock sounded, and he turned for the door, offering, “Miy’s here.”

“Miy?” Did Pehton sound as startled as she felt? When he paused with a frown, she assumed so. “Sorry. I didn’t realize you were training with her as well.”

Caedes’ feathers rustled as his pinions closed. “I’m not. She asked to eat dinner with me tonight. Is that a problem?”

What was in his voice? Other than gravel. Something else knocked around in there. Sadness maybe?

Pehton ruminated longer than necessary, at a loss for words. “I… uh…”

Everything about him softened. Oh. Did Caedes figure it out? He rubbed the back of his neck in an awkward gesture that made Pehton cringe at her own vulnerability. “I thought… When we moved here, you grew distant. And with Oleen…”

Pehton squeezed her eyes shut and looked away.

His voice continued reasoning in that soft bass. A good bedroom voice. “I respect that you’re not ready for… dinner with me.”

That didn’t mean others weren’t in line and damn it, Caedes deserved someone after carrying a torch for Tameka for several years. Elden knew Pehton wished she was the one, but…

So long.

It had been so long for her, and now she felt exposed. Raw. She was afraid—

“I can ask her to leave, Pehton.”

How pathetic she must come across to Caedes. With her voice thick from a bad fucking day, Pehton assured him, “You are absolutely right.” When she took his hand to squeeze it, she ignored the strength in it. “Miy makes for truly stimulating company, and I’m sure she could use someone right now. She knew Oleen longer than I. Be a gentleman and walk me out?”

Pehton bolstered her facade with a smile to hide the wincing. Even with Caedes’ unconvinced glances, she held her head high. Even through the blatant concern in Miy’s voice—of all people. They got not one tear shed or word from a broken voice.

Not until the door closed on Pehton.

Miy and Caedes’ voices mingled together in muffled conversation. The flirtatious Lyrik laughed, and he joined the chorus from his rumbling chest.

With one desperate glance ceiling-ward for strength, Pehton rushed down the hall to her room. She wasn’t crying because she felt more than warm camaraderie for Caedes. That was enough for them to share a few amazing days in bed together—Weeks, even. The Icarus had stamina.

No.

Pehton was crying because Remorse and Razor damaged her in every irrevocable measure. They took from her. Children, friendship, hope, and understanding—two million years of her life. Only now did she realize how little she had left to offer another.

Maybe that’s why her crush on Korac felt so safe. He was perfectly in love with someone else, and therefore unattainable.

If that wasn’t worth shedding tears for, Pehton didn’t know what was.