Chance of Stardust

Stardust (ch 21)

Revelin tucked the blanket around Llyr’s sleeping form and eased from the room. He’d been expecting this, he just hadn’t thought it would happen so soon. With a sigh, he turned and went in search of Cassie. He needed to feel her touch, to hold her and just know that she lived.


He found her in the bedroom as she had promised, pacing rather than napping, but he wasn’t going to argue with her over it. Not when the instant her eyes lit on him, they were filled with worry, the first words out of her mouth proving it.


“How’s Llyr? What happened?”


He crossed the distance, pulling her into his arms to kiss her soft and deep, drawing her scent into his lungs until he was dizzy with it. Stars and deities, what this woman did to him. He drew back, stroking a hand over her braid as he urged her back until her knees hit the bed and she sat with a thump.


Kneeling in front of her, he held her still with his hands on her thighs. Not that she struggled. She only scooted closer to him, capturing him between her legs and resting her hands on his shoulders. Where others had failed to chain him with cages and pain, she held him with a gentle touch.


“Llyr is fine,” he assured her. “He’s resting.”


“What happened?” She stroked the longer strands of hair beside his face, an absent affection he didn’t think she was aware of. She did that a lot, touching him if only to brush her fingers against his skin. It settled him, eased something inside him he was only just beginning to understand.


“Llyr has flashes of foresight,” he reminded her. She nodded, still petting him. He didn’t stop her. He needed to feel that acceptance as much as she needed to give it. “His mother had more than glimpses; she had visions. We’ve always planned for a time when he might inherit the full range of her gifts. I just never expected the visions to start until he was in puberty.”


“He had a vision?” The thought brought the crinkle of a frown between her eyes and he leaned in to kiss it away. “But he’s all right?”


“Troubled. Tired.” And he had reason to be, Revelin thought.


Cassie had touched them all.


He didn’t think she knew how deeply she had embedded herself in their lives. Llyr had seen flashes of war and death since he could walk. He’d dreamed of blood and broken bodies as a small child. The horrors life could hold had been his companions his entire childhood. It wasn’t what he’d seen in the vision that had him curled in a ball, crying himself to sleep. It was what he’d seen about Cassie.


She has three choices to make, Rev. The death of someone she loves or blood. She made that choice already. Next will be the death of someone she loves or pain. Torture. Horrible screaming. The third is the choice between death and life. I can’t tell her. If I do, we all die.


The boy had sobbed, broken hearted at the thought. The only reason he’d told Revelin of the vision was because it didn’t directly affect him. But Cassie could never know. To tell her would alter the vision from a choice into fate. She had to choose and she had to do it freely.


Revelin closed his eyes and leaned into her, soaking her up. She faced things he couldn’t protect her from. He couldn’t shield her or warn her. He could only stand at her side and hope he could somehow save her some of the misery headed her way.


“Talk to me,” she murmured, still stroking his hair.


“Thank you for what you did for Davi today.” He nuzzled into her, relishing the feel of her arms as they closed around him. “I haven’t ever seen him so happy.”


“Revelin.” A warning tone and a light tug on his hair. “What aren’t you telling me?”


It hurt not to tell her, but he swallowed the truth and gave her what he could.


“A lifetime of memories and tomes of secrets that aren’t mine to tell.” He rubbed his face against her. “I am going to miss you when we leave.”


The tug became a caress, the glide of her fingers through his hair.


“We really do need to work on finding you that part.” She sounded sad at the thought. “I need to get with Kyall and see what we can find out about that boneyard. It’s military controlled and dangerous, but it’s our best shot at getting you what you need.”


He nudged her back and joined her on the bed, shoulder to shoulder, leaning against the wall. “Why didn’t you tell me you waited for me? That the Gurot caught you because you were worried about me?”


She had chosen to bleed for him. If Llyr was to be believed, he would have died if she hadn’t. The possibility made being angry with her impossible.


She didn’t look at him but scowled at her knees. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”


He could sense the lie. He leaned over to press a kiss to the soft skin just below her ear and felt her shiver.


“Cassie, I would rather die a hundred times over than see you hurt as you did that day. You understand that?”


“Yes.” She scraped at her pants and sighed. “I’m sorry.” Silence hung between them, thick with unspoken words. A breath burst from her. “Did it ever occur to you that I might feel the same way about you?”


He caught the nervous, tangling fingers and laced them with his. “Yes. You wouldn’t have shared your body with me if you didn’t have strong feelings about me.”


The thought of her caring so deeply for him overwhelmed him, terrified him. Thrilled him to core. No one had cared about him that way. Not since he had been a small child and his mother had died trying to protect him.


And he’d given his word to let her go.


Cassie shifted up on her knees, swinging a leg across his to settle in his lap. He let her. Gazing into her face, so solemn and beautiful, he wondered if keeping his honor was worth the price. The thought barely congealed before he banished it. If he broke his word to her, he wouldn’t be a man worthy to keep her.


“What are we going to do?” Her words echoed his thoughts. 


“We are going to find a way to repair the engines and then you will return to your family and I will return Llyr to his. It’s the only choice we have.”


She leaned into him, their fingers still entangled, and rested her cheek against his shoulder. Her breath brushed soft against the skin of his throat in a warm caress. Revelin closed his eyes and breathed her in. His body reacted to hers as it always did leaving him hard and aching. He hadn’t touched her since the meadow out of care for her healing, and his body was telling him about.


Peace stole over him, a blanket of quiet joy in the moment. Whatever happened, he would never forget this. Never forget her. For the moment, he was home in her arms.


She rubbed her cheek against him, a contented sound sighing from her. A purr rumbled to life in his chest and a smile curved her mouth as she shifted against him, discovering the effect she had on his body.


“I was beginning to think you’d changed your mind and didn’t want me,” she murmured, her eyes still closed.


“You nearly died.” The reminder came out on a growl. “You need to heal.”


“I’m healed.”


He would have to be dead to miss the suggestion in her tone and he was very much alive. He held her still she tried to move against him. There was only so much temptation a man could endure after all.


“Not enough. You should be sleeping, not thinking up ways to seduce me.”


Soft, husky laughter caressed him. “It’s all your fault. You overloaded my neurological components.”


The Universal’s ability to translate could be too literal at times. His confusion must have shown.


“What exactly did I say to put that look on your face?”


He repeated it back, careful to use the same words and she dissolved against his chest in a fit of giggles.


“Let me try that again. You overloaded my sensory receptors.”


That was probably closer to a true translation. Putting the two phrases together, he nodded.


“I blew your circuits?”


She laughed again and kissed him. “Out of curiosity, how often do I sound demented?”


“Not as often as you might imagine. However, I am still trying to figure out how corrupting a judicial body has anything to do with fixing our engines.”


“I wondered if that translated. It used to be a practice of bad law keepers to put a less than legitimate decision maker at a trial. They would tilt the decision in favor of the law keeper.”


He worked through that. Although the court would follow protocol, the outcome would be skewed in favor of the bad law keeper. Applying that to engine repair, she was saying they could place a piece that didn’t belong to skew the process into a favorable outcome.


He held her close, not wanting to give up the feel of her in his arms just yet. Her scent filled his head, soft and warm as sunshine. He pulled the feel of her deeper, into the dark, shriveled places inside him. He could spend a lifetime holding her like this and be content. Her warmth, the trusting weight of her, made the moment perfect.


A soft knock at the door brought his head up.


“Yes?”


“Rev? Arno wants to speak with you.” Ari didn’t sound happy about it either.


He sighed. For the first time in memory, duty was a cold choice and one he was reluctant to make. Arno would want his son home as soon as they could make it and would not be pleased when he learned they still hadn’t managed to repair the ship. Mostly, he didn’t want to think of losing Cassie.


“I’ll be there in a moment.”


Cassie made to move off his lap, but he held her still, stealing another kiss.


“Do you want to come with me?”


She made a face at him. “I’m hardly dressed to meet a king.”


“Arno won’t notice. He’s not one to stand on ceremony.” He stood, still holding her and smiled at her squeak of surprise. “He was a mine slave for far longer than he’s been a king and I think you would like him.”


She nodded finally but wriggled to be put down. He complied with reluctance. He liked holding her, carrying her close.


“If I’m going to meet a king wearing your nightclothes, I’m going to do it with a little dignity.”


As if clothing could detract from her natural grace.


Without a word, he took her hand and led her from the room. Ari waited in the hall, his expression morose. The look he swept over Cassie spoke volumes. Revelin wasn’t the only one dreading the day they let her go. Arno’s contact was the whisper of wind before the storm.


The others waited in the control room. Leiv leaned against the wall, his arms crossed and expressionless. Kyall sat at the controls, sensor readouts moving across a small screen to his left. Davi stood as they entered, motioning Cassie into his seat. She glanced at Revelin and he nodded, seating her as if she were royalty herself.


Arno watched the byplay from the large screen, his green eyes noting every detail as Ari took up a flanking position with Davi behind Cassie’s seat but he said nothing.


“Arno.”


“Where is my son, Revelin?”


“Sleeping.” Revelin took his place at the fore. “He had a vision today.”


Arno frowned. “A full vision? Is he all right?”


“Tired. Troubled.”


“Bring him home. I will work with him once you arrive.” The command was that of a worried father more than a king. “I will expect you in a few days. There are still a few pockets of fighting that require my attention but we should have them cleared out before you arrive.”


“We won’t be able to leave here that soon.” Arno frowned but Revelin cut him off. “We have found a possible location to get the part we need, but it is controlled by a military faction. We will be moving on them at first light. I will let you know as soon as we have affected the repairs we need.”


“My son needs to come home.” The words were bit off, sharp with worry. A slash of his hand in Cassie’s direction. “Perhaps instead of playing with the indigenous population, you should have been repairing your ship.”


Leiv growled, scowling at the king. “Don’t offer her disrespect, Arno. She’s helping us find what we need. She’s healed us, cared for us, and even risked her own life to protect us—all of us, including your son. I will hear nothing against her.”


More growls filled the air in agreement. Cassie’s eyes went wide, glancing between the hirrient in surprise. Arno settled back, his gaze solemn as he studied them.


“I see.” A small smile played around the corners of his mouth and then faded. “My apologies. However, my son needs to come home. Make sure he gets here as soon as possible. The visions will only get worse from here if he isn’t taught to control them.”


“You know this?” Revelin couldn’t help his frown. Arno was not prescient. His wife, an off-worlder, had been.


“Aseria gave me instructions how to train Llyr if this should happen.” Arno shook his head. “Rev? Are you sure about this?”


He made no indication toward Cassie, but there was no mistaking his meaning.


“Dead certain.”


The king sighed. “I don’t like it. Not with the Amalgamation peering over my shoulder these days. They sit in judgment but won’t lift a finger until their assessments have been satisfied.”


“We’re all still proscribed,” Kyall pointed out in a mild tone, still scanning the readouts. “Hirrient were never confirmed and the Amalgamation can still use that to apply pressure if they choose and refuse to allow you entry until we are returned to our home world.”


Which would leave Llyr vulnerable while Gael was still without Amalgamation protection. A perfect opportunity for the Gurot to strike. From his expression, Arno hadn’t considered that and didn’t like what he was thinking.


“That won’t happen. You have more than proven your friendship and I won’t forget that, Amalgamation be damned. I give you my word on that. Bring my son home and we will weather the rest as it comes.”


“I will contact you as soon as we are able to leave,” Revelin promised. He hesitated, a question pushing at him, but he forced it away. No matter his wishes, it could never happen and he wouldn’t raise hope in the others. It was clear that they were as attached to Cassie as he was. “Be safe, Arno.”


“You as well. And, Rev?” Arno’s smile was back. “The answer is yes. I would approve should you make that choice.”


The contact ended before he could think of a reply. Cassie stared at the screen, perplexed while four pairs of eye swung his direction. He gave a small shake of his head and touched Cassie’s shoulder, motioning for her to rise and ignoring the scent of disapproval that spilled into the air.


His desires. Arno’s approval. The other’s wishes. None of it mattered. He would not steal Cassie’s home from her.