Page 141 of Starborn Husbands

If that’s true he would have had to be in another galaxy, or in a completely different timeline.

“Anyway, you need to come with me, or let me come with you.”

“We’re going to the hawthors.”

“You’re not,” he says. He opens his mouth to say something else, but a blast of blue lights up his chest. He drops to the ground like a bag of meaty muscular rocks.

I turn to my brother who finally unhitches his rifle from his shoulder.

“Did you shoot him?”

“Yep. Was the only chance I was gonna get. Something’s not right about him,” Atlanta says.

“How did you know that would work on him?” I ask.

“Didn’t, but it was a chance I was willing to take. Help me get him into the brig. This guy has to weigh a ship’s worth.”

Dragging him into the brig isn’t easy. It takes three of us, and when he’s locked behind sturdy bars of diamond and titanium, I sink to the floor wiping sweat off my brow. “That was fun. What now?”

“You three go. I’ll stand guard,” Atlanta says.

“At least something worked out,” Zhang says.

“You really that worried the hawthors are going to take him?” I ask. Zhang can’t talk about our life on earth, but he can talk around it. Maybe we should pay more attention.

“The hawthors speak directly to the Goddesses.”

“But the Goddesses are good.”

“The Goddesses are still Goddesses.” His words are firm, and now that I’m paying attention, I hear the warning in them.

“Do we need to go? This guy might have all the information we need,” I say. “Maybe we avoid the hawthors altogether.”

“He isn’t trustworthy,” Zhang says.

“We can make him. Atlanta’s not opposed to torture,” I say.

“Let’s consult with the hawthors,” Gem says, reaching for Atlanta’s hand. “Will those bars hold him, Zhang?”

Zhang nods. “They should. He’s another kind of human, an evolved one, but still human.”

Humans that evolved to travel through space and time? What next? Everything’s too weird.

“How were you able to say that?” I ask.

“What he is doesn’t relate directly to you. He always was what he is. It’s harder with you because the spell is wrapped around you. It can manipulate itself and change to suit.”

“You’re making it sound conscious.”

“That’s because it is. But the more you remember, the more it loses its power.”

“I remembered Boone.”

Zhang wrinkles his nose. “You did,” he snaps.

“Jealous, Centaurus?” He shouldn’t say yes. I’m so gonna use that against him when he annoys me. Usually, that’s all the time, but this past week has been the equivalent of a human honeymoon.

“You can’t remember me, but you remember him?” he says, his voice rising.