Page 143 of Starborn Husbands

“Well yeah, hardly. We’re just getting warmed up. I bet we’ll be the kind to have huge blowouts. The make-up sex will be epic.” I’m horny just thinking about it.

“Shh,” Gem warns, holding a hand up, freezing in place. Gods. What now? “Fuck.”

That can’t be good. Zhang’s got both swords out, but I’m not sure it matters. Women make their way out of the trees, several even rise from the water. These aren’t just any women, they’re the warriors of Alcyone. Cutthroat bringers of death. There are many reasons they have peace on this planet, and that no one’s stupid enough to fuck with these warrior women is just one of them.

I count fifty-four. Each one is tall—taller than my giant husband—and dripping with carved muscles covered in opaque armor. They’re equipped with wide-bladed swords, and all of them are covered in long scars. I know they haven’t been to war in some time. With that many scars, they have to come from each other, likely from long days of practice to keep their fighting form.

Gods, I’d love to train with them for a day.

“The hawthors will see you. We are your escort,” the tallest one with black hair says. Her voice is enough to send shivers down my spine.

“May we use our stargate?” Gem says, his voice steady. Gods, he’s brave.

“You’ll use ours. Come.”

We follow her down a path that lights up with a moon-like glow as her bare feet grace the path. Such a delicate walk for someone who would slice me in half without compunction. It only proves that you can have elegance and violence wrapped up in one creature. If I were into women, she would be my type, but I’m not, so I admire her in a way I hope doesn’t get my head cut off.

Their stargate turns out to be an archway to nowhere at the edge of the lake we’d been walking the perimeter of. Darkness ascends over us, but the world around us is lit up with the lunar glow that seems to live in everything here, infused into the leaves, the trees, and every dewdrop flower bowing its head along the path. The water shimmers with sparkles that travel across the surface in wide strokes.

Something’s under there, and like everything else here it might look pretty, but I’ll bet it’s deadly. My body’s going wild with the beat of adrenaline. I fucking love this dangerous place. Maybe I can talk the hawthors into talking the Goddesses into letting Zhang and I live here.

* * *

The temple sits directly under the light of the moon, a wide stone monument with pillars reminiscent of Pleiadian construction. Water travels along the temple’s many vein-like crevices, sparkling in the same dangerous way the lake did, and pulsing like a heartbeat. It fits because Alcyone is an important heartbeat of the Nebuli.

We’re not invited inside. Six women in long white dresses span the length of the temple wall at the top of a long staircase as one descends toward us. The hawthors. The seven sisters. The wise women. They go by several names in the Nebuli. Each is of a different species and or race, from various places throughout the galaxy. They speak directly with the Goddesses. At each of their feet is a man or a woman, gracefully knelt and at attention.

The one approaching us has a dark complexion and her black hair surrounds her in waves as silky as her dress. Even her skin sparkles with a diamond-esque sheen. A man follows behind her and kneels at her feet when she stops.

The warrior women spread out, but it’s clear they’re here to watch over the proceedings.

I feel like we should bow or something, but the woman lifts her hand.

“Hello, Treyu,” she says. “I am Nulaxy. We hear you ran into some trouble with Heaven?”

Motherfucker. Daniel has been gossiping, hasn’t he? “Yes, ma’am. Any chance you can help with that? Um, make me not an angel anymore?”

She shakes her head. “We can’t remove what you are. We do advise you to remove that bracelet,” she says.

“You don’t think that I would if I could?”

“You can.”

“Do me a solid and tell me how. Uh, please?”

She shakes her head. “It is your calling to figure it out, but when you do, things will be a lot easier for you.”

Yeah, no shit. “Guess you want to know why we came knocking?”

“We have an idea, but why don’t you tell us in your words?”

She’s kinda cool for an ancient creature. “My enlightenment journey was erased from memory. Or most everyone’s at least. My husband remembers, but he can’t speak of it. Apparently, it was my doing, but there’s some controversy over that.” I leave Boone out because he’s too much of a wild card to mention. “Anything you can tell us about that?”

“Your memory isn’t gone, just hidden. You have to find your way back to it. That’s the best way, but we can tell you why we believe this happened.”

“Yeah, that’d be great, ma’am.”

She turns to her sisters, they all nod. “We believe it’s a matter of the heart.”