Page 80 of Alien Assassin's Heir

The Coalition comm center is down. Dead as a husk.

Sabotage. Inside job. Targen’s furious.

They say he’s coming himself.

My stomach knots so tight I can barely breathe. If Targen’s coming here, to Wildwood, then the noose is already around our necks.

Kael’s hand squeezes mine hard enough to bruise. He doesn’t speak, doesn’t have to. I can see it in his eyes: this is exactly what he wanted. He baited the trap, and Targen took the hook. But baiting a predator doesn’t mean you survive the strike.

That night, Solie falls asleep curled between us, thumb back in her mouth, her little body radiating warmth. The lamplightflickers soft over Kael’s scales, throwing golden shadows across the walls. I lie awake, staring at them, listening to the steady sound of her breathing and the heavier rumble of his.

He has his arm curled around her, claws sheathed, body wrapped protectively as if nothing in the universe could breach that barrier. His other hand rests on my hip, anchoring me there beside them.

And I wonder—is this what safety feels like?

Or is it just the calm before the storm breaks?

I press a hand to my lips, feeling the ghost of his kiss still there, and whisper to the dark, “Is it possible to truly escape the past?”

Neither of them stirs.

But the silence that answers feels like a warning.

The lamps burn low, casting soft halos across the walls, but I don’t feel tired. Not with Solie tucked warm between us, and Kael lying close enough that his heat seeps into my bones. The outpost outside has gone quiet, though every so often a tram rattles faintly in the distance, like a memory of life carrying on. Here inside this fragile bubble, it’s just us.

Kael’s golden eyes catch the lamplight, gleaming like coals. He hasn’t spoken in a long time, just stared at the ceiling, jaw tight. I know that look. The weight pressing down on him.

“Tell me,” I whisper, fingers brushing over his scaled arm.

His chest rises sharp, then falls slow. For a moment I think he won’t answer. Then his voice comes low, rough, as though it scrapes against the back of his throat.

“The dreams don’t stop.”

I blink. “Dreams?”

“Nightmares,” he corrects. His claws twitch once, retracting, like even the memory of them frightens him. “I see every face. Every soldier. Every villager. Doesn’t matter if they were enemyor ally. When I close my eyes, they’re there. Staring. Asking why.”

I squeeze his arm, grounding him. “And what do you tell them?”

His eyes flick to mine, raw and hollow. “That I don’t know. That I was told to. That survival mattered more than mercy. That’s the lie, isn’t it? You tell yourself it was duty, but duty doesn’t follow you into sleep. Guilt does.”

The air feels heavy between us. I swallow hard, tasting the metallic tang of fear—fear not of him, but of the black pit he carries inside. “Kael…”

“I killed for flags, Luna,” he growls softly. “For symbols I didn’t even believe in. And when the killing stopped, I killed to cover it. To bury the truth. I told myself I was sparing others, that maybe the lies protected someone. But all I was doing was stacking more bodies under my feet.”

He turns on his side, facing me now. His gaze is desperate, pleading. “I don’t know how to lay it down. I don’t know if I ever can.”

For a long moment, I can’t breathe. The silence stretches, broken only by Solie’s quiet breaths between us. She rolls slightly, thumb in her mouth, her little body pressed against my chest. My throat aches as I stroke her hair, my voice barely above a whisper.

“You know what the hardest day of my life was?”

His brows draw together. “Leaving me?”

I let out a humorless laugh. “Finding out I was pregnant.”

He stiffens, claws digging faintly into the blanket. I press on. “I was on the station when the med-scan told me. Alone. The IHC had already cut me loose. Your ghost was everywhere, but you weren’t. And I had this thing growing inside me, and all I could think was—how could I love part of a man I hated so much?”

Kael flinches. “Luna…”