The L'Auraly Crystal Chronicles by Jessa Slade

Author:Jessa Slade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The L'Auraly Crystal Chronicles: SheerSpace Books 1-3 boxset, science fiction romance, futuristic romance, space opera, alpha male, hot sexy, Firefly spaceship captain, Linna Sinclair, Susan Grant, Nalini Singh, Ann Aguirre
Publisher: Red Circle Ink
Published: 2016-03-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Though he was still dripping on the floor, Icere swallowed against the sudden dryness in his throat. He barely noticed Luac and Kylara leave at their mother’s bidding. He had eyes only for her.

In the light of the rising sun, she seemed even smaller than he knew her to be, more fragile. He needed to go to her, to put his hands on her and assure himself that she would not fade on him like some lovely dream.

But when he took a step toward her, she abruptly handed him the tablet and stepped away. “Send the message.”

Someone was trying to send a message, all right.

“Saya.” His words were rough, as if someone less practiced spoke with his voice. “We’ll call the Asphodel and have them wait in orbit. When the festival is over and the storms abate, we can let Omel and her crew escape without opposition. Let the Asphodel take them.”

“I’m relieved you have such faith in your friends. That gives me hope we will win the day.”

“Rynn—”

“No. As you said, if the raiders get offworld, we may lose them. And then we may lose the sheerways.”

“But you may lose this place too, your island.” His fingers tightened on the screen as the conflict within him tore at his convictions. For so long, he’d been focused on his hunt to stop the raiders; he couldn’t believe he’d want anything besides that. And yet he also knew—too well, too painfully—what it meant to face exile. “You might forfeit your throne.”

She gave him a smile as twisted and sharp as the edge of a malac shell. “Maybe I just won’t give it up. That would please my great-grandfather.” The smile vanished. “You came here with a purpose, l’auralyo. Don’t abandon it now, or you will have nothing to show for all your own loss, and you might as well have disappeared along with your crystal.”

He stiffened at the cruel reminder. And the implicit rejection. “I’d have nothing?” Letting the tablet fall to the chair where Luac had sat, he stalked her toward the window. Beyond, the water was still deep indigo, as if it held the last of the night. He stepped into her space. “I would have you.”

When she tilted her head to look up at him, her pale eyes glittered. “We shared an evening of pleasure. Don’t confuse the two.”

He stiffened, as if a malac had caught him between its crushing, edged lips. “For l’auraly, pleasure and possession are synonymous.”

“This is a vacation world. Pleasure lasts only until the storms end on the morning the ship comes to take you home.”

A faint mournful note in her words pierced him, but he wasn’t sure if it was for his own sake or hers. The l’auraly bond was forged in forever, deep as bedrock, strong as stone.

But she was the inexorable water that could wear him down and wash him away.

The l’auraly were no more—the legend of their ardent devotion to their one perfect lover diminished now to a one-night drunken encounter—and he couldn’t risk what little he had left.

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