Page 99 of Scorching the Alien Empire (The Klendathian Cycle #7)

“Every time I try to talk to you; it’s always ‘ HULK SMASH !’” she snaps, voice deepening mockingly. “You’re making my hands hurt through the bond. My hands, Dracoth. Through. The. Bond!”

I won’t stop. Even if my fists split apart, even if my bones grind to ash—I will break this barrier. I will find a way to bring her back to me.

Arawnoth lend me your strength, gift me your divine fire so I may save her from herself.

I press my palms against the shimmering wall, breathing through the cyclone of fury spiraling between us. The bond blazes like a tornado of crimson and mercury. My fury. Her amusement. Her annoyance.

I pour my will into the prison. Divine power. Purpose. Fire. Flames flicker. For a moment—hope. Then they sputter and die.

Princesa giggles. “Aww. Look at your wee sparklers ... sparking,” she coos, folding over with laughter. “You should’ve seen your face! All serious Mr. Frowny Face, like you were going to actually do something and then—poof! Glow sticks!” Her voice breaks, howling louder.

Her laughter peels the skin from my pride. Every note drives me deeper into blistering rage. An all-encompassing fury that swallows me whole. My fists crash against the barrier, knuckles splitting, green blood smearing across the pristine shimmer.

I snarl. I burn. I bite. But nothing breaks.

Then her head tilts. Her eyes—twin silver stars—dim slightly. She doesn’t mock. Not now. “They always looked down on me,” she murmurs, fingers absentmindedly stroking Todd’s rubbery back. “Thought they were better.”

“I used to cry when I got angry. Remember?” she says, softly now, so softly.

“No one listened. It just made them hate me more. Then they left.” Her lip trembles for the barest second before she seals it with a smirk.

“But my Divine Mother and Father changed all that. Now I’m strong. Revered. Worshipped.”

She rises, ash falling into her hair like crownless snow.

“But you ,” she says, eyes burning again, voice sharp as daggers, “you tried to take that away from me.”

She barks a laugh, bitter and bright. “You think I’m stupid, don’t you?

Just like those bitches at boarding school.

Everyone underestimates me until it’s too late.

It’s my Lexie-specialty .” Her smile twists into a sneer.

She jabs a finger at me. “I should pop your big red grape-self for turning the space-knights against me. I don’t know how you did it, but I won’t let you ruin this for me! ”

Her fingers tighten. The walls slam inward. The air compresses. Pain floods my senses—my arms yanked back, my armor carving into flesh. My lungs seize. My vision swims.

Unable to move. Helpless. Pathetic. I will die here. Die to her derangement.

“I... I give you your power,” I gasp, each word scraping raw. “Me. I elevated you. You turned my warriors against me.”

“Hah. Cute.” She flicks the bonding rings I gave her, twirling them like baubles.

“You know what? I shouldn’t even be mad.

Unlike you hypocrites, I actually follow the sacred words.

The truth is Dracoth, you’re just not strong enough to lead anymore.

I mean, that’s why you’re caged like a red gorilla at the zoo, and I’m. .. well, divine.”

“No,” I breathe, eyes narrowing. “You’re not divine. You’re deranged. You possess power. But I see the fragility underneath. The fear.”

Her gaze falters. Just for a second. A heartbeat. For one breath—one impossibly fleeting breath—the bond between us quivers with something real. A fracture in the divine madness. A crack in the chaos.

Beneath the heat, the divine delusions, the ache of my splintering fists—I feel her. Not the War Chieftainess. Not the Divine Daughter.

Princesa.

She’s scared. Alone. Trapped behind that silver glow. Screaming inside her own skin.

But it’s gone in an instant. A glimmer of hope so fleeting, I wonder if it truly existed. Her silver inferno roars higher, lashing out like a wounded beast.

“Nice try, gaslighter,” she snarls, snapping back to fury.

“Remember that horrible fridge place? You told me to ‘ embrace my inner Lexie .’ Well guess what, babes —this is her. Boss bitch. Cosmic Goddess. You just don’t like it now that I’m better than you.

So you resort to calling me deranged? Really Dracoth? ”

She raises her arms to the broken roof, eyes blazing like twin supernovas.

“This is what Elder Ignixis wanted! Remember? I mean, it was literally scorched into his flesh!” She chants like scripture: “Bathe in the truth. Let it wash away your weakness. You never understood him,” she whispers, her voice suddenly reverent.

“You were always too dull. Too slow. So little jealous Dracoth turned all greeny weeny .” She coos in a loathsome, mocking tone.

“Well, I am the truth, and I’m washing away your weakness. ”

“Silence.” My voice cracks, pain and fury crashing together. “You did not know him as I did. He raised me. You twist his teachings as you twist everything.”

“See?” Princesa barks a short, scornful laugh. “Exactly my point. You spent all that time with him—but didn’t have the faintest clue who he really was.” Her tone sours, bright and bitter. “He used you, Dracoth. Used us all. And he was right to do it.”

She paces like a predator, her runic brand flaring like rivulets of lava. Her eyes flash—silver-crimson storms of conviction and rage.

“He was a true prophet of Arawnoth. Not some meathead-jock like you. He found ways for the strong to serve his ends. And he passed that knowledge onto me. Because he saw in me true strength, not just bulging bone-through-the-nose muscles. Something you, and the others could never see.”

Her voice rises, breathless with fervor. “So yeah, Elder Ignixis is smiling down on the Lexie Show. He and Arawnoth want this. They demand I take control.”

My gaze drops to the ash-caked floor. Ignixis did manipulate. But not for glory. Not for his vanity.

He did it for his people.

I remember his words, just before the flames consumed him. Naming me his son. His last breath, not cruel, but kind. Even now, here, amidst divine madness and volcanic fury—my lip trembles at the memory. Those weren’t the words of a tyrant. They were the words of a father .

“Nothing to say after all that?” Princesa steps closer, head tilted, voice sharp. “Ugh. Whatever. Don’t worry your big bore head. I can’t hurt you without our stupid bond returning the favor.” She runs a hand over the shimmer-barrier between us.

“So I think I’ll just keep you like this.

Since you won’t even carry me anymore.” Her eyes roll.

“A big frowny bear in a cage. My personal divine bond juice box.” Suddenly she perks up, grinning.

“Ooooh! A Fashion accessory. Not as cute as too-cute Todd, obviously. More like... murder-statue energy. Still, very on brand.”

I hardly hear her.

Every word is camouflage. Every insult, armor. A thousand barbed hooks flung to keep me at bay. But I know the truth. I feel it. She’s hiding. Beneath all this power—beneath the divinity, the goddess fire— Princesa is still in there. Fragile. Afraid. Alone.

I strain against the prison, muscles trembling, bones on the verge of rupture. My claws gouge nothing. My breath scorches my lungs.

I won’t break it. Not like this. Despite everything, the shields that crushed Voidbanes, haven’t cracked, haven’t budged. Not the faintest ripple. I exhale slowly, my hands falling to my belt, fingers brushing a small pouch I’d forgotten was there—Ignixis’s ashes.

A warmth flows into me. Gentle. Familiar.

I see him again. Towering behind Princesa, cloaked in shadow, green eyes glinting from under his hood.

He smiles, yellow fangs shrouded in darkness, a nightmarish visage.

But I know better. I see the ancient wisdom beneath.

His voice is silent... but a thought rises unbidden.

One of his familiar gas-cloud lectures, after we recovered the Earth females.

“ Anger is a powerful tool, not a master. You must learn to channel it. Use it .”

I’ve lived in rage. Worn it like skin. Let it define me. It brought me this far. But it will not carry me further.

I breathe deep. Closing my eyes. And for the first time in years—I let go.

The change is instant. The bond—my side—the crimson inferno that has raged between us for so long—dims. My power, once divine, trickles away. I can feel it—my senses dulling, the world growing quieter. Simpler. Smaller.

Like waking up from a fever dream. My eyes creak open. The barrier is gone.

“Wow, wow, what the FUCK have you done!?” Princesa shrieks, spinning on me. She stares at her hands like they’re alien appendages, her tone panicked, like a warrior holding a broken arc-blaster. “Why can’t I feel it? Why can’t I feel you ?”

Air rushes into my lungs. The ash-choked stink tastes like nectar—like freedom. I take a step forward, unimpeded. The cage is gone. A fading nightmare.

“Your strength is borrowed.” I growl, eyes locked on hers. “Only through me do the Gods grant favor. Only by my will do you ascend.” My fist clenches before my face, gauntlet groaning like tortured metal.

“No, that’s bullshit.” She staggers back. The silver-crimson haze in her eyes has dulled—replaced by trembling pools of mercury.

“You just... you just dimmed me! You—rude prick,” she mutters, voice dipping into false confidence. “If you don’t stop stomping toward me with those Bobo the clown feet, you’re going to leave me no choice but to lock you up again.” She lifts her arms, half-hearted.

“You have no choice,” I advance, each step crunching ash and slag beneath my boots. “You are no Goddess. Just a frightened mortal—a betrayer.”

She bares her teeth, feral. “ Fuck you, Dracoth!” she hisses, shaking, sweat streaking her face. Her eyes screw shut. She screams—raw and desperate—channeling everything into one final surge. “I am the Divine Daughter!”

Nothing happens.