Page 35 of Stars in Umbra (The Sable Riders #8)

A Crystalline Stallion

MOLAN

‘ Y ou’re coming home with me.’

Mo resisted at first, out of pride.

His broad shoulders stiffened, his jaw set as if carved from granite.

His eyes, still holding the echoes of the chaos they’d just escaped, fixed on some distant point beyond the city’s glittering skyline.

He was a creature of the shadows, a man forged in solitude and violence, and the idea of being taken care of chafed against his core.

Rina, ever firm beneath her gentleness, insisted, her voice a soft, unwavering current resistant to the tide of his resistance.

‘I’m not letting you out of my sight,’ she stated, her hand resting on his arm, a touch that seemed to both ground and ignite him. ‘You’re also in no shape to argue, soldier.’

He gave in with a weary nod.

Throughout the journey to her residence, Mo maintained a dark, reticent, brooding energy beside her in the sleek flyer.

His gaze remained fixed on the blurring cityscape outside, a look of withdrawal.

He scarcely took note when they landed on the roof of a townhouse duplex.

So internalized were his thoughts that he had no clue where he was.

Until Rina let them into her apartment, the automated door hissed behind them, sealing them away from the clamor of the city.

He blinked at his new surroundings.

The room was a sanctuary of soft lighting and warm, natural textures.

She led him through the living area, with its plush, oversized sofas and walls adorned with vibrant, abstract art, then gestured toward her bedroom, the door left invitingly ajar. ‘Make yourself comfortable,’ she offered, her voice gentle, trying to bridge the chasm of his withdrawal.

He remained standing, a statue carved from shadow and reticence, his movements stiff, almost wooden.

He surveyed her home with clinical detachment, his eyes sweeping over the personal touches and chosen comforts, as if assessing a potential threat.

When she fussed over him, offering him a fresh change of clothes, a hot drink, anything to ease the tension radiating from him, he snapped.

‘Just stop,’ he growled, the sound hoarse and rough, like a cornered animal.

RINA

Mo’s eyes were intense, clouded with a raw, desperate agitation.

The rebuke stung, and Rina flinched.

While she understood his turmoil intellectually, the bluntness of his rejection still pricked.

To give him the space he desired, she retreated.

‘Alright,’ she murmured, ‘settle in. I’m going to take a stroll to clear my head.’

He didn’t seem to hear her, lost in his fierce brooding as he returned to staring outside.

She also needed to walk it all off, to process the whirlwind of emotions and revelations that consumed her since their escape.

She descended to the bustling avenues, the metropolis a vibrant, overwhelming assault on her senses.

Dunia Prime City was a sprawling metropolis, a gleaming testament to human ambition. Towering skyscrapers of chrome and glass pierced the twilight sky, their upper floors disappearing into the haze above.

Below, the streets teemed with a kaleidoscope of life: sleek, silent hover-cars glided along designated lanes, their lights blurring into streaks of color.

Pedestrian walkways pulsed with a river of humanity, citizens in iridescent synth-silk, augmented workers with glowing cybernetic limbs, tourists with awe-struck eyes.

Drones flitted through the sky, delivering packages, broadcasting news, or monitoring the endless flow through the municipality’s security network.

Holographic advertisements flickered on every available surface, projecting impossibly perfect faces and enticing products, their bright, ephemeral images dancing in her peripheral vision.

The air hummed with the thrum of countless unseen machines, a constant, pervasive drone.

Rina walked, her pace quickening with each block.

A deep pensiveness consumed her, fueled by the sheer, bewildering reality of Mo’s revealed identity as a scion of a Sacran deity.

Yet, this same man, this being of divine lineage, was a trained assassin, a weapon honed to kill.

He had been poised to off her friends, the people she cherished.

The paradox was a cruel twist of fate.

Mo, the dangerous stranger who had entered her life like a cataclysm, was now her haven, the one person who saw her, beneath all the layers.

Yet, she and he sensed a perilous, untamed shared and exhilarating attraction.

He was her weakness.

She couldn’t get enough of him in and out of bed.

She wasn’t shy to admit it to herself, not anymore.

He stirred a raw, undeniable desire in her.

Add to that the intoxicating thrill of his presence, and she was confident she wanted to explore more.

To delve deeper into the wild, uncharted territory of their connection, while helping him find justice for being used and controlled to commit the worst atrocities.

A chill went down her spine, raising goosebumps on her arms despite the city’s artificial warmth.

The feeling was unmistakable, a prickling sensation on the back of her neck, an unsettling certainty that she was being observed.

She glanced up, her eyes scanning the dizzying array of drones, the ubiquitous holographic sensors that seemed to peer from every corner.

She couldn’t relax here, not with Mo, not with the target on his back.

His handlers, the shadowy organization that controlled him for so long, would come after him once they found he escaped their grasp.

A cold, clear resolve settled over her.

She decided then and there: she would move Mo and herself to her parents’ farm.

It was remote, secluded, a place where the pervasive hum of the city couldn’t reach, where ancient trees and native birds replaced holographic cameras and the drones.

It was the only location where they would be safe.

Rina returned to her apartment, the hiss of the door closing behind her.

She encountered him pacing her living room, like a caged beast, his movements agitated, his energy restless.

The second she walked in, his head snapped up, his eyes dilated, a flicker of raw panic in their depths.

He gave a guttural growl. ‘Where the fokk did you go?’

‘You needed space, so I provided it to you. What’s wrong?’ she asked, her voice gentle, concerned, but he only growled again, a sound of profound distress.

She crossed the room and wrapped her hands around him from behind.

He stilled, his head falling to his chest as he took ragged breaths.

After a few moments, she sensed his heartbeat slow, and his hitches of breath cease.

She helped him to her couch, where he fell.

His gaze locked onto hers, and the words tumbled out, frayed and desperate. ‘I panicked. I thought you left me alone.’

His voice was thick with a vulnerability she’d never heard from him before.

He ran a hand through his dark locks, agitated.

‘I thought you were just going to toss me aside, because of all that I am.’

She stroked his hair. ‘Honey, I understand the circumstances were out of your control when you acted as you did. There’s nothing to forgive, but you might have to reconsider reparations with the Riders and the authorities when this is over.

However, I’m not going anywhere. I’m here with you until we see this through. ’

He sat back, staring at her in disbelief.

Then he took a ragged breath. ‘I panicked thinking it’s over.

See, mi kaya , my life hasn’t been the same since you walked into it.

You’re the one I confide in now, the one I open to, the one I can be raw and real with.

So forgive me, but I almost broke worrying I might lose you because of who I am, because of who I was. ’

‘You’re not losing me, not at all.’

He took her hand and kissed it.

His voice dropped to a whisper, untamed with emotion.

‘It’s too early to say this, but after the wedding, it’s been more than just ‘I want you for tonight,’ and more ‘I want you for life.’ You caught me by surprise.

Before I knew it, I got lost in all of you.

For so long, I thought I would forever be alone, but woman, you showed me I had a chance at eternity with you. ’

Rina didn’t hesitate. She stepped for him, closing the short distance between them, and kissed him.

In an embrace that melded passion with yearning and their undeniable connection, he hoped to banish all the darkness within him.

Her fingers tangled in his dark hair, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss until the world outside them faded into a distant hum.

She pulled back, breathless, her eyes searching his. ‘Indeed, ‘tis too early,’ she murmured, a soft smirk playing on her lips, ‘but I also have feelings for a dangerous, gun-wielding assassin.’

He quirked his mouth, his eyes molten, flaming with a hint of the wildness that so captivated her from the start.

‘Are you even real? I don’t think I deserve you. Fokk , you’re so beautiful, too wise for me. I never thought I was good enough, not for someone like you. ’

Then, with a sudden movement, he pulled her onto his lap, straddling his thick thighs, his scorching hand sliding down her spine, pressing her impossibly close.

She traced the line of his jaw with her thumb, her gaze steady. ‘Hey, handsome, the truth is out now, there’s no need for getting lost in the past. You’re now free. It’s all gone, what your parents did, it’s all in the past. So for now, baby, let’s take this day by day.’

He buried his head into her nape, inhaling her scent, his voice a rumbling growl against her skin. ‘ Fokk yeah, woman. When day after day becomes forever, it’ll be wildest dreams territory.’

MOLAN

The second they banked across the Dunian foothills, the landscape rolling into neat lines of fencing and paddocks, memories rushed into Mo’s mind.

The farmhouse spanned the crest of a hill, timber-roofed and flanked by a barn, and trees shedding the last of their amber-gold leaves.

Smoke spiraled from a chimney, curling toward the afternoon sky.

‘That’s the stable where we first met,’ he rasped.

Rina glanced over at him from the pilot’s seat as they descended, her voice soft.