{Enki | Tumu’s Sanctum}
Everyone around Xelan looked tired of revelations, but he held back more questions. What sort of plague wiped out the Tritan homeworld? How many other species were capable of space travel, given the Aegis prepared a variety of docking facilities? Was Imminent aware of how to operate the Chorus?
The last posed a terrible risk to their current plans.
Xelan, Pablo, and Lynn finished vaccinating members of the Shadow hiding in Tumu’s sanctum. Each of them had closed their eyes and spared a silent prayer to Elden that they worked. Meanwhile, Lance finished describing the most dangerous plan Xelan had ever heard.
It was exactly what they needed.
“Can you handle it, Fury?” Xelan hoped his grin infused his voice. There was no mistaking how Tameka would answer.
“Hell. Yes.”
“That’s right,” Lynn murmured across the way with her own grin lighting up the room.
Pablo shot her a thumbs up from the other side.
Kyle took his joint from his mouth to say, “As if Tameka would answer any other way,” on a cloud of smoke.
Andrew rounded the corner from the kitchen to say, “In all the Probabilities which lead to this moment, Tameka answers the same. There’s a reason she’s one of my pillars.”
“We’re heading back,” Sagan announced over the earpiece before a conduit split the space.
As people filed through, Lucy waved through the Seam at Xelan with her entire body thrown into the gesture.
He waved back, calling “Hey Morning Star! I’m so proud of your team!”
“I know, that’s why I’m grinning so big! We’ll see y’all soon!”
Xelan liked when Lucy smiled like that. It was the only time her eyes held any shine. That and when she stood anywhere near Matt. With Korac as the last one out, the conduit closed on Lucy’s hopeful face.
Without a second wasted, Xelan approached Tumu and opened his arms. “It’s been a while, Primary.”
“I never thought I’d hear you call me that again.” The Tritan compressed further from his thirteen-foot height to seven feet, and they embraced, with Xelan speaking into the other man’s chest.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
Sagan nudged them both, unsteadying them. “Because Tumu wants to write a Verse.”
Tameka laughed. “That would be one massive tome.”
Tumu ruined Sagan’s structured curls by ruffling her short hair. “Only if you—”
“Hey!”
“—took my dictation, Star.” He let go of Xelan, and they both smiled down at her nose, scrunched in anger.
Korac answered for her. “No way I’d let you keep her for so long.”
That’s right. If everything goes like they’d hoped, Korac and Sagan would raise a little girl soon. Xelan wanted to see it happen. He wanted to see their daughter playing with his son and the dozens of children Pablo and Lynn would no doubt have once everything calmed down. Swing sets and forts—
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Xelan frowned while Tumu and Korac fought over Sagan’s free time beside him. Pax was building a fort with Bones when Imminent took him. Para said she remembered falling asleep before Celindria captured her, Karter, and Chris. Imminent mercifully left Pax then, but why…
“What’s wrong?” Tameka’s warm hand slipped into his. Smaller with softer skin in the most beautiful complexion.
Quietly, so the others wouldn’t hear, Xelan confessed, “I worry about the mechanism Celindria’s employing to abduct our people.” He bit his thumbnail as he thought more on it.
Tameka nodded and confirmed, “Falling asleep and feeling drained when they wake. It’s almost like my ability.”
Xelan smashed his fist into his other palm. “Exactly. Is it artificial? And if so, why does Celindria insist you’re ‘the key to Ishkur’ when she may already possess a semblance of your ability?”
“Are you sure Merit was a null?” Tameka used the word Xelan gave for the inert Progeny descendants.
It was a good question, given what Tameka knew, but Xelan was sure. “Completely. If Celindria weaponized your ability, she must have manufactured it without a source. I think that’s why it’s only good in small doses—Can I just say how impressed I am with how you handled Lance?”
Xelan liked the pretty way Tameka blinked at the sudden change in subject. With them one step closer to finding Pax, some of the anxiety had lifted from her face. After a second, she beamed at him. “Yeah?”
“You make one hell of a galactic leader, Fury.”
There she went again. Tameka frowned anytime someone mentioned leadership or an upgrade in her status. Was she really unaware—
“I volunteer for the rescue.” Para had changed into a combat jumpsuit and armed herself with psi daggers. “I want to get Karter and Chris back. And Andrius, too. He doesn’t deserve to spend his life in a cage.”
Tameka asked the right question. “Are you sure you want to put yourself in Imminent’s sights again?”
Xelan’s chest warmed with pride for his girl.
Para, ever the lethal warrior, spun the psi daggers and holstered them. “You’re damn right I do. I want a shot at the Primary. And Abresson.”
“Get in line.” Caedes stepped up to the group, looking ever the gruff killing machine. Xelan wondered how much of it was Korac’s camp and how much of it was simply Caedes’ nature. The gruff Icarus said, “Pablo and Lynn asked Twenty-One, Miy, and I to cover them here at the sanctum. Bethany is helping them prepare supplies for the wounded.”
Tameka took Caedes’ hand and ignored the blue flush all the way to the top of his bald head. “We’ll get Pax back to his Uncle.”
The blushing Icarus cleared his throat as an acknowledgment and politely withdrew his hand. He and Para left with a nod to prepare for their respective missions.
There were so many good people here and on the way. Xelan’s heart swelled with it. They would win this day.
“So that makes me, Bones, Devis, Para, T.a.o., Ross, and Jack.” Tameka counted the souls off on her fingers before frowning at him. “You know, Rayne would kill us for letting her brother risk himself.”
Xelan was ready for this counterpoint. “Jack Callahan will make all the difference. Mark my words.”
That shade of sorrow appeared behind Tameka’s eyes again, the lost look in them. Xelan cursed Celindria for bringing it on. Cursed her for so many reasons. Tameka asked, “What about your team?”
Xelan pulled Tameka over to a ledge, sat on it, and positioned her between his knees. All the while, she followed on autopilot, focusing only on the mission ahead. Xelan kissed her wrist, and she looked at him, this time actually seeing him. He answered, “Our Generals will escort us—Kyle, Andrew, Lamassau, and Tumu—to Cinder’s shrine. From there, we’ll ferry F8 and our troops to the Pantheon. We’ll wait for your signal.”
“If we do our jobs right, my signal will be a lot of non-responsive static and clear skies, but I know I’ll deliver.”
Xelan appreciated that even with the last twenty-four hours, Tameka still soldiered on. He cupped her cheek and smiled when she leaned into it. “I know you will.” Her makeup dramatically accentuated her green eyes and glossed her full lips. He wanted to kiss her, but buried the impulse. Not with Pax missing. Making Tameka more uncomfortable was the last—
She leaned forward and sealed his lips with hers, seeking comfort. Comfort Xelan easily gave. It was nearly chaste and purely warm. When Tameka broke it, she buried her face in his neck, and Xelan enveloped her in his arms. He wanted to offer words that helped with the anxiety. Reassurance.
“Tameka.”
“Yes?” She kept hold of him.
Xelan swallowed before confessing, “You’ve been patient with me about the Weapon project. I only wanted to assure you I didn’t know what it was or how they would use it.” Or who they would test it on, but mentioning this would simply raise more anxieties.
Tameka pulled back to search his eyes. Hers shone with understanding and love. “I believe you, and thank you for telling me. You want to explain some things in mass. I get it, but it means a lot to me that you confided in just me.”
“I love you, Fury.”
“I love you, Wingmaster.”
After they rescued Pax and saved the Vast Collective, when she was ready, Xelan would explain to Tameka about the galaxy’s plan for them.
A tall agenda, but Xelan knew they could accomplish anything together.
Even unification.