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Tears Of Truth

éLISA

A ll day long, élisa had been tormented by Ribau.

By his long, muscled legs, his nimble hands, and evocative essence.

What perplexed her was that his spirit did not match his appearance.

He had a coiled strength, almost like a serpent about to strike, watchful and never missing any detail or every little sound.

His eyes, too, were fierce and unfathomable, with navy dark and light depths that told of a lived experience that far surpassed the image he wanted her to believe of him.

She swore the energy around him shifted every so often, and a shadow lurked underneath his aura. One of another man—an achingly familiar figure.

It can’t be, she’d told herself. I must be projecting.

Riv Sable was so far in her past he’d become a fragment of her imagination.

While she kept just one image of them in an old-fashioned locket, she’d hidden it away and stopped looking at it. Unwilling to go through the keening pain that would engulf her for days afterwards when she did.

Ribau was a mystery, that was for sure. She was conflating her dreams and need for her one and only lover onto this rugged, much older Galician bounty hunter.

Yet the niggling suspicion would not leave her that Ribau was not who he said he was.

Her skepticism grew when he read from his fokkin ’ poetry book.

When the remnants of the hawkstone on her temple vibrated and throbbed in his presence, sending waves of painful pleasure through her.

Something about him didn’t add up.

Try as she may, she’d not managed to burrow under his veil.

As she worked through her unbidden tears at his enchanting voice, she wondered whether he was Katánian, in changed form, sent to seduce her before capturing her.

The thought had sent waves of panic through her until Killen’s unmistakable presence enveloped her, even from so far away.

He can be trusted, Mother.

It was the same statement he’d made when he devised their plan many moons ago, soon after one of his many walkabouts when he’d purported to have u’Kweli to share with her.

‘I’ve seen the man who will help us in our plight,’ Killen said. ‘He appeared in a hereafter vision.’

No sane creature argued with the hawkstone’s u’Kweli . It never lied.

It had urged her to take note of the khōra who’d appeared on Eden II a few nights before her wedding to Riv.

Sending her a flurry of hereafter warning visions, it had given insight into how to escape the rock. Taking heed, she’d fled with it and the son in her womb, driven by the fear of death.

Her flight had led her to a medical ship where she had given birth in secrecy, where the hawkstone had transmuted from her forehead to Killen’s in childbirth.

The remnants of it on her forehead had led them to various hiding places throughout the outer reaches of Pegasi. Until they guided mother and son to Devansi, where she’d sheltered with the monks at first, then later with just Killen.

In isolation, she’d come to terms with her heritage, which she’d loathed for so long.

Now, she contemplated returning to the clutches of its twisted darkness. Prompted by her lodestone for the sake of keeping Killen alive.

‘Have you heard from him?’

She dragged her eyes back to Ribau. It was as if he’d read her thoughts.

‘We’re connected all the time.’

Ribau raised a brow. ‘How does Killen reach you?’

‘We can speak telepathically. It’s a Katánian trait. One that can be helpful at times and at others vexing.’

Ribau’s lips turned up. ‘I can imagine.’

She tilted her head, curious. ‘You can?’

He deflected with a smile. ‘Why are you fleeing your people?’ he rasped, ‘and I want right answers only this time.’

She shot him a warning look. ‘What does it matter?’

‘Did you steal, kill or -?’ he pushed further.

‘I fled so we wouldn’t be destroyed if that’s what you want to know.’

He leaned in, his face hardening. ‘Your people were going to attack you? Why?’

She caught the menacing edge in his voice, a rage that sent a shiver down her spine, and looked away from him. ‘Drop it, Ribau. I’m not prepared to share.’

‘Yet you still sound terrified of them. That irks me.’

‘Why would you care?’ she shot out with a sigh.

‘I do care, élisa.’

‘Why?’ she challenged, her heart pounding for unknown reasons.

He flicked his eyes over her face, and they darted like his mind racing as if toying with what he felt comfortable imparting.

‘You’ve gold I intend to take possession of. Until then, you’re in my care, and should anyone try anything, they’ll have to come through me.’

She jolted at the fierceness in his words. ‘How gallant of you, Ribau. However, you’re not kith or kin, so why put your life on the line for us?’

He gave her a look under his hooded eyes, and for a moment, she glimpsed a cold, icy danger within their depths that sent a frisson of terror through her.

Again, she sensed he was not all that he purported to be.

Too much lethal energy abounded in him, and for a moment, she shivered.

Just then, Ribau reached a hand and touched her arm. ‘I would never harm you, élisa. Never, Ever.’

Her entire existence narrowed to focus on the cool hand resting on her. An arc of energy crackled between them, and her eyes tracked up to his.

Her throat went dry because she found a fervent earnestness, a promise in his expression that was rock solid to the core.

It came laced with a naked desire that she swayed into.

One so raw it ignited the same furnace inside her that surged through her loneliness.

Who would know it if she allowed him to take her and make passionate love to her here in this isolated place?

It was all she thought of as her lips parted and she leaned into him.

His eyes glittered like he sensed her need was arcing as he, too, came closer, devouring her with his fierce gaze.

He abandoned the beer in his hand and knelt, his burly, weathered form looming before her.

She lost herself in surrender as their bodies came closer.

‘Kiss me, élisa.’

He blew the words onto her lips, and she whimpered as she gave in.

With hands so gentle, he cradled her head and bent, taking her mouth in a slow, firm motion. One that pried her open to the penetration of his tongue.

The kiss was long and sweeping, so powerful and unexpected that she clasped his shoulders for support.

Its tenderness burned its way through her until an inferno began to blaze between her legs, a sweet, throbbing ache that needed release.

élisa melted, submitting to his delicious, sultry ministrations.

She breathed in his scent as his tongue grew more insistent, and she parted her lips to let him in.

Banding her in his strong arms, his kiss grew more urgent, more passionate.

He pulled her close as he tongue- fokked her, his hands raking over her body and pinching her hard nipples through her jumpsuit.

She, in turn, clutched at him, threading her hands in Ribau’s hair, whimpering, twisting against him, her arousal pulsating through her and oozing from every pore.

It felt like coming home. To heaven, to a paradise she’d always dreamed of.

RIV

He smelled her arousal, got love drunk on it, and inhaled it with fervor.

He grasped her waist, pulling her close, his cock hard enough to cut xentium rocks.

He ground it against her, relieved she was wearing something so soft that every curve of her body molded against his hard planes.

It only wanted to make him tear her jumpsuit off and his kit and sink into her depths where he’d lose himself for eternity.

He was about to come, just by kissing her, when he tore his lips from her and rose to his feet, striding to the edge of the wrap-around stone balcony.

When she moaned behind him, his fingers dug into the rock balustrade. His meta strength almost crumbled apart from the force it took to control himself.

Damn you, élisa!

He didn’t dare look back at her, or he’d be lost.

Riv’s spine electrified, feeling her eyes on him.

Breathing hard, his chest rising and falling, he turned to grab the icy-cold beer on the table and took a long gulp of it, still unable to meet her bewildered gaze.

The kiss had taken the edge off, but he still yearned for her in a way he had never longed for anyone else. He wanted to feel her every surface, to explore her every facet of body and fokkin ’ make her cry out his name.

Finally, when he gathered courage and turned to flick his eyes at her, his breath caught in his throat. The air between them grew thick with sexual tension.

He couldn’t let himself make love to her.

Not as Ribau.

The grizzled Galician would not be her lover when they reunited for the first time after decades of being apart.

It had to be Riv who made love to her after all these years.

Riv, who’d hold her in his arms, caress her, and make her scream. Riv, who’d bend her over a bed, rip off her clothes, and expose that alluring skin.

Riv, who’d take her over and over again in every freakin’ room of this house.

Riv, who’d have her screaming for more.

Riv, who’d wake up with her for the rest of their damn life together every morning to repeat it all over again.

It took his ever-loving pre-potency, using every last atom of his natural body and noids, to bring him back to control.

That’s when he noticed élisa slumped back against the cushions, staring at the darkened horizon with a wooden expression.

‘We shouldn’t have done that,’ she whispered, turning her face away from him.

He flinched, wracked with remorse. She, too, was feeling deep and flailing. ‘I apologize if I took things too far, my lady. However, some things are beyond our control, élisa.’

‘We still shouldn’t have.’

‘Why?’ he probed, unable to stop himself. ‘Are you promised to another?’

She shifted to face him, tears shimmering in her eyes. ‘My heart was. The problem was I was too naive to love him right.’

Only élisa could land him with a gut punch that was potent as well as exhilarating. ‘Lucky man,’ he breathed, his voice hoarse and yearning.

She gave a wry grimace. ‘It’s irrelevant to dwell on the past. I’m responsible for why we’re not together.’

‘Do you want another chance with him?’

She shot him a surprised look. ‘That’s very personal, Ribau.’

‘Do you want another chance?’ he found himself insisting, his voice low and husky.

She closed her eyes and swayed, lost in memories. ‘ Naam . I keep praying for another opportunity to have him back and to call him mine again. I wake up yearning after nights of dreaming of him, reliving his presence, and revisiting our love. Life is cruel, Ribau, because it’ll never come true. Yet I can’t erase my feelings, for he was my heart.’

His own lurched, with such hope and sweet melancholy, he bit his lip to stop from crying out.

With that, she rose to her feet and stalked towards the kitchen, almost blinded by the moisture she was dashing from her eyes.

She paused midstep, not looking back at him. ‘Goodnight, Ribau. Let’s hope our rest resets whateverthefokk this is between us.’

With savagery, he blinked away the moisture threatening from under his eyes, watching as she swayed away.

‘Sleep well, my love,’ he whispered in a raw whisper, one so low she didn’t hear him.

Riv spent the next few hours in flux.

When the frustration and unrequited desire boiling under his Galician disguise heralded an explosion, he strode out of his room. He leapt out of the rock house through one of its large openings and vaulted over its energized fence.

He wandered down the darkened hill, searching for answers in the stillness of the wild veld before him.

He came to a stand of bushes clustered next to a large boulder. He climbed it and sat at the summit.

Mirage.

The AI was quick to respond. Here.

Anything to share? What have you found?

I chanced on the phenomenon, which seems to be a spiral offshoot of the nebula mist. It is a mystery because I’ve never seen one quite this charged and storm-bound. Lightning flashes from it streak the southern hemisphere with so much illumination that it never darkens into night.

Fascinating, Riv commented.

I’ve found something of note, Mirage intoned. The Ka’SH?rd, as they call it, has become a religious symbol for the locals and the faithful who brave its storms to worship it.

Riv started. The Ka’SH?rd sounds much like the Shard.

Mirage chuckled. I made note of that, too. I can’t see any resemblance in the mist-like storm that churns out of the entity, but there might be a link. From what I gathered, the Ka’SH?rd offers healing each time it surges. The faithful congregate around it, and when it has an efflux, they rush into it and gain the healing they seek. I’m not sure how true this is, but they worship it with a fanatical reverence, as if the nebula drives them mad.

Riv sighed. Interesting. It aligns with what élisa and Killen shared. That said, we must focus on finding Ankis and helping élisa and my son in their quest.

I may have solved your first problem, the AI shared.

How?

I spotted someone, one of the fanatics, raving around the finger of Ka’SH?rd. The person looks very much like the man we seek.

So, is Ankis at the site of the nebula?

It would seem so. The nebula-mist interferes so much with my probes that I cannot be sure. We’ll need visual confirmation from you.

Riv cursed. I can’t leave élisa. Not until Killen returns.

I see.

Mirage, could you keep an eye on the person you think is Ankis? I’ll remain here until Killen returns and perhaps take a detour to confirm this sighting on my way to escort them wherever they need to go.

Sante Riv.

Take care, Mirage.

Riv shut off his node and laid back on the cold rock beneath him.

Gazing up at the star and nebula-filled sky, he searched its unfamiliar scape for answers.

He’d never been so unsettled, so roiled with feeling. He needed to find a way back to élisa and their love, but how?

His pain rolled through his body and carried in the wind, whipping down the hill to the velds below.

There is always a way.

Riv’s body locked, and he sat up with care, his eyes snapping to the darkness around him.

His meta-sight confirmed no one was lurking close by.

Instead, someone had just spoken into his soul, and it wasn’t Mirage.

What the fokk?

It’s me, Father.

Riv sat still, frozen to the boulder. His mind whirled until he chanced a thought. Killen?

None else.

How? Riv shot out.

His son gave a soft chuckle. I speak through the hawkstone into your soul, and neural node.

Riv was floored. You called me -.

I named you what you are to me—my Father.

Tears clouded Riv’s eyes. How did -

Killen’s soul voice came through deep and resonant. I’ve known for some time now.

How?

I told you the hawkstone sees almost everything. It cuts through to the hearts and souls of men.

A long silence fell between them.

Riv was the first to break it. And you’re OK with me, with having a Father, once absent, thrust into your life?

Killen paused for a beat. Y our estrangement from us was Mother’s decision, and she did it for a good cause. I cannot blame her or you. I’ve also been aware of you for some time. Having you here with us was something I was looking forward to.

Riv heaved a deep breath. Does she know? Who I am, that I am Riv, not Ribau?

Nada. But she suspects. It’s hard to keep the truth away from a pure-of-heart Katánian.

The Rider jolted. Can we keep it that way? For now.

Of course. Unless, of course, she comes to the realization herself.

Sante.

So you approve? Of us reuniting? Riv asked, holding his breath.

How could I not?

Riv sighed. You know so little of me.

I know more than I let on. I’ve been studying you since you made the jump into this sector. I sensed your interactions with everyone at the markets you visited, from traders to beggars. Your reputation as a Rider also precedes you and tells me you are a man of honor, Riv Sable. I, in turn, am pre-potency to be your son.

Another short silence fell as unseen birds called over the fissured desert.

Riv took a shaky breath, still not believing he was having a telepathic conversation with the son he’d had no idea existed until these last few days. How are you?

Well. I am coming to terms with what is to come.

And what is that?

A reckoning.

Riv huffed. Can you share what you think that is, son?

Enunciating the word was strange, yet nothing had ever felt more right.

Not yet. Only when I see how all the pieces come together.

Where are you?

Not far. I will return in three days. Until then, I hope you take care of her.

You keep saying that as if I wouldn’t cherish her.

She needs it. Part of this plan was to ensure she found her joy once more.

Riv flinched. Did you orchestrate this?

Let’s say it was a welcome side effect in my cause.

Son -

Killen chuckled. I’ll see you soon. Father.

He emphasized the word as if he, too, was pleased to say it.

Fare thee well was all Riv managed as their connection fell away.

The Rider spent a few minutes absorbing the conversation he’d just shared with Killen.

To his wonder, the encounter had buoyed him up, and his spirits lifted.

Because if his son saw a way forward, so would he.

He returned to the R?k House with a lightness in his heart he hadn’t experienced in years.