Page 19 of Captured By The Alien (Starbound #2)

She stared at her reflection in the mirror. It looked like her, but a better, glossier, AI-improved version of her. She turned her head from side to side, watching her hair swish and tumble around her face in gorgeous, shiny waves.

Her eyes looked bigger and darker, her lashes impossibly long. Her cheeks and forehead were adorned with tiny glittering crystals which sparkled whenever she moved. Her lips were just the right shade of kissable red. Her skin glowed.

The two Vraxian servants who’d shown up at her door had worked silently for more than an hour. Kara had tried to engage them in conversation but they refused to bite. She got the impression they’d devised a plan and weren’t going to be derailed from it. Probably they’d drawn the short straw and were just making the best of a bad job.

But given they’d absolutely one hundred percent never done make-up on a human before, the results were pretty good.

Finally, after putting her into the dress whilst managing not to look too horrified by her strange human body, they’d stood back and nodded in satisfaction.

And then they’d left, still without saying a single word.

“Um, thank you,” Kara had called after them. The door closed decisively.

Kara took a few experimental steps. The gown was easier to walk in than she had imagined, and somehow the way it swirled around her gave the impression she was far more graceful than she actually was.

“Daa’sten, you clever old bugger,” she murmured. And she was right about the boots. No-one would notice she wasn’t wearing heels.

A subtle sound at the edge of her hearing made her glance round. There was nothing there. She was about to turn back to the mirror when she heard it again.

A soft creak. As if someone was trying to move quietly.

She looked again, the hairs standing up on the back of her neck.

Back on Minerva-6, she’d learned to trust her instincts. If a space looked empty but didn’t feel it, it was because it wasn’t.

There was someone in the bathroom.

Silently, she got up and moved towards it, picking up a vase on the way. She was almost there when a shadow emerged from the doorway.

“Kara . ”

The soft whisper almost made her drop the vase.

“Vahn!” He put a finger to his lips and she lowered her voice. “What are you… how did you get in here?”

“My predecessors built hidden doorways into all the Potential rooms. How better to personally vet them?” There was laughter in his voice which died away as he stepped into the room. His eyes gleamed. “Vannla’s Sword. You look…”

He couldn’t complete the sentence. He just stared.

A slow blush started somewhere around Kara’s ankles and extended upwards. She smoothed down the dress.

“Oh, this old thing?” she said shakily. “I just threw it on.”

Vahn inhaled deeply, willing his heart to slow down.

“Kara, may I show you something?”

“Now? But what about the ceremony?”

“We have time. And they won’t start without me.” He held out his hand. “Please.”

She looked at it guardedly.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He sighed.

“Kara, I know you don’t trust me any more. But have I ever given you any reason to believe I don’t care about you?”

She knew he cared about her. And he was wrong about her not trusting him. No matter how mad she was with him, she would always, always, trust him with her life. Without further hesitation she put her hand in his.

He led her back into the bathroom where she saw the towel cabinet had swung away from the wall, revealing a passageway behind.

“Are these in every Potential’s room?” she asked.

“Don’t be jealous. Yours is the only one I’ve ever used.”

“I’m not jealous,” she said hotly, before realizing he was teasing her. “Jerk.”

She followed him through to a vestibule, a mirror image of the one which led to the Potentials’ bedrooms. There were other doors there, doors which she guessed corresponded to the other secret passageways. Vahn steered her away.

At the end of the room was a large painting of some long-ago ancestor. Vahn pressed his palm to a particular spot on the frame. The canvas slid back, revealing a narrow cubicle.

He stepped in, making room for Kara. She tried to keep distance between them but it was a small space. The cubicle suddenly jolted upwards, throwing her against him.

He reacted instinctively, curling a serpetrus around her to steady her, and the unexpected intimacy brought heat to her cheeks.

“Where are we going?” she asked as a distraction.

“You’ll see.”

When the lift stopped, he took her hand again and led her through a final doorway. They stepped out onto a balcony and Kara gasped.

They were at the very top of the Imperial Palace, looking out over the towers of Taa’riz, the night-sky bright with the silver illumination of the four moons of Vraxos.