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The love of her life stared at her with venomous hatred. Kara sagged against the wall where he’d thrown her.

“Vahn…”

“Do not dare to address me that way, human.”

The Vraxian sat up in bed, his ridged forehead creased in an expression of undisguised contempt. “Why are you in my chambers? What is the meaning of this?”

He doesn’t know who I am.

She searched his face desperately for any sign of recognition, for even the tiniest hint that he remembered her. His kalehsha. His fated one.

But there was nothing. Just the deep loathing that humans and Vraxians had shared for the past twenty years.

Panic welled in her chest. She was aware of his two closest friends, Lord Rhyndar Davorrian and General Elaryx Solarun converging on the bed. But she kept her eyes on Vahn.

“Listen to me. There’s been an accident but you’re okay. We’re both okay. Your memory must have been affected but…”

“Shut your mouth, Terran.”

Vahn touched the cut on his cheek, examined the bruising on one of his serpetri. “In the name of Ayanlesh, will someone tell me what the drek is going on?”

Ela tried to calm him, her voice matter-of-fact.

“There was an assassination attempt. You suffered some injuries but nothing too serious. Do you remember anything of the past few hours?”

“An assassination attempt?”

Vahn turned back to Kara and the expression in his yellow stare chilled her to the bone. “You tried to kill me?”

“No! I…”

But it was too late. With a snarl, he snapped out his one good serpetrus towards her and she saw the dendra glistening with arak. A toxin fatal to humans.

She froze, unable to believe what was happening. That her kalehshun, her soul-mate, wanted her dead. It was only because Rhyn stepped in front of her that she wasn’t.

The Vraxian took the full force of the blow on his arm.

“Drek’aa beresh! Vannla’s Sword, that smarts.”

“Rhyn!”

Vahn tried to stand and staggered against Ela. “Holy Zandarr, why did you do that?”

“Because she wasn’t the one who tried to kill you, you bloody great yantha.”

Rhyn’s scales changed from their usual pale blue to a sickly grey as his body reacted to the poison. Arak wasn’t fatal to his kind but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. “Trust me, you’ll thank me later.”

“Get back into bed,”

Ela said briskly, pushing Vahn down onto the mattress. “We’ll explain everything.”

“If the human didn’t try to kill me, who did?”

“We’re not a hundred per cent sure. But we think it was Baelon.”

Vahn looked at Ela in astonishment.

“Baelon? That is absurd. Why would Baelon try to assassinate me?”

“Among other things, he wants the throne.”

“The throne?”

The contours of Vahn’s bony forehead deepened in consternation. “But why target me? Why not my father?”

His eyes widened and he struggled up again. “Is my father all right? Has he been hurt?”

Silence descended. Kara looked helplessly at the others. Vahn’s amnesia was even worse than she’d thought.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

she asked him. His expression darkened.

“I told you to be quiet, human. I still do not know what you are doing here. Are you part of the assassination plot?”

“Just answer her question,”

said Ela sharply. “It’s important.”

Vahn gritted his teeth but he took the time to think it over. What had he been doing before he woke up?

“I was in battle,”

he said slowly. “In combat with an SDF pilot. Both of us had separated from our fleets but neither was prepared to give up. He took out my stabilizers. The Viper started spiraling and I must have lost consciousness.”

He frowned. “I don’t remember anything else.”

Kara could scarcely breathe.

“She,”

she said quietly. Everyone looked at her. “She took out your stabilizers. Not he. It was me.”

As long as she lived, she would never forget the loathing on his face.

“I will ask one more time, and then I will call for the guards and have the whole drek’aa lot of you thrown in the cells.”

He enunciated each word with cold ferocity. “Why. Is. That. Thing. Here?”

Rhyn sighed. His scales had regained a healthier hue and he took a moment to organize his thoughts.

“So, a few things have happened since that space battle, my friend. For a start, it was half a cycle ago.”

Vahn paled.

“You jest.”

“I assure you, I am deadly serious. We now have a ceasefire with the Terrans – a ceasefire you helped to broker.”

“I… I do not understand. Ela, is this some kind of joke?”

“It is not. I would not be as blunt as Lord Davorrian…”

her eyes flashed at Rhyn, “…but he speaks the truth. We are on the cusp of an historic peace deal with our former enemies, and it is thanks to you and Kara.”

Kara. That name…

Vahn’s reptilian eyes rested on the human. It struck him that neither Rhyn nor Ela had treated her as a threat. She wasn’t in chains, in fact she wasn’t restrained in any way. Indeed, Rhyn had protected her when he had lashed out with his poison.

His gaze traveled down her body. For the first time he noticed she was wearing a glamorous gown. Or rather, a gown that had once been glamorous but was now smudged and creased. Nevertheless, it had clearly been tailored to her shorter frame. That in itself was unexpected. Not a prisoner, then.

He pinned her with his stare.

“Why are you here, human?”

She didn’t know how to answer. Impatiently, he asked again.

“Speak. Why are you on Vraxos?”

Rhyn saw she was tongue-tied and answered for her.

“It’s simple really, Vahn. She’s your wife.”