Page 39

Trex

REKNA WAS BY MY SIDE when I woke up, his face showing deep concern. “You’re finally conscious,” he said, stating the obvious, but his tone conveyed his sense of relief.

I winced and shifted my injured shoulder. It was tender, but the wound had been closed and it was healing rapidly thanks to our medical technology.

I sat up and looked around the room. Two guards stood at the entrance to the infirmary, but Rekna was the only medic in sight.

He took a step back. “You will be fine, but should take it easy with that shoulder for a while. The wound was severe and done at close range. You are lucky the monk was a poor shot. Any closer to your heart and you would have been in trouble.” His face belied how close I’d come to death.

I swallowed and my thoughts turned to Grace.

“Your K’sha is waiting in your room,” said Rekna.

With a nod, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stood. “Is the monk in a cell? Has anyone interrogated him?” I asked, glancing at Rekna.

“He is being held, but Commander Krin thought it best to wait until you were ready to speak with the suspect yourself.”

“Fine.” I headed for the door. First, I needed to see my K’sha and let her know I was okay.

GRACE’S FACE IMMEDIATELY brightened when she saw me in the main room of my suite. She rushed over to me, embracing me tightly and resting her head on my chest. My heart warmed at the contact.

I wrapped my good arm around her and stroked her back with my wounded arm.

“I was so worried.” Her voice was muffled as she pressed against my chest.

She let go of me and took a step back, her eyes fixed on me. “You never told me I’d be able to feel your physical pain.”

My brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I felt it when you were shot. I felt your pain,” she insisted.

“Gods, Grace. Are you okay?” I examined her, pushing aside the tunic to see her shoulder. She laughed. “I’m fine. It was a shock, though.”

“I didn’t know our connection was that strong or that we would experience such a thing. But it makes sense. An Alaran’s connection with our K’sha is the strongest bond there is.” I rubbed her shoulders and leaned my forehead against hers.

“I searched for you in my mind, but when I couldn’t find you I feared the worst.” Her eyes glassed over with unshed tears.

Stroking the side of her head, I gave her a small smile. “It was only because I was unconscious. Don’t worry, I have no intention of leaving you, ever.” I kissed her forehead then took her face in my hands and pressed my lips against hers.

“ARE YOU SURE YOU ARE up to this?” Krin asked me when I approached him about interrogating the prisoner.

“The sooner the better. Maybe he knows who poisoned my father.”

We entered the prisoner section and walked to the cell where the monk sat with his eyes closed as if in silent prayer.

When I looked in at him, he opened his eyes and stared at me. “I see you survived,” he stated matter-of-factly.

I held my lips together and kept my focus on him. He was one of the monks who proposed that their cult govern Alara.

He blinked once, then again before standing.

“I did not kill the King if that is what you are going to ask me.” His lips curled in the corners.

I reached out my mind to tap into his thoughts and found he was not able to sense me. Testing my theory, I spoke into his mind. Again, no response. He watched me with a look of confusion.

‘Krin, see if you are picking up the same thing as me from his mind.’

It took a moment before Krin responded. “He is not an Alaran.”

I glared at the prisoner. “Who are you?”

The monk was taken aback. “Wh-what do you mean?” he stuttered.

“I know you aren’t from Alara. Who or what are you?” He wasn’t so cocky now that we’d figured out his ruse.

He looked like an Alaran right down to our skin and eye color yet he was not one of us.

The monk undid his robe while ripping at the lining of it.

Sensing trouble, I opened the cell and hurried inside. He reached toward his mouth with something in his hand, but I managed to knock it to the floor.

Krin bent to pick up a small vial of green liquid.

I gripped the monk by the throat and immediately his body changed form in my hands. No longer was he seven foot tall. His skin was now a shade of beige.

His face was emaciated and his bones protruded at awkward angles. The being was not a species I recognized.

He put up his hands, and I saw panic on his face. The creature had meant to kill himself with whatever was in the vial.

“Who are you working with?” I shook him with my hand still around his throat.

He gagged and now his skin was turning even more pale.

Krin’s outer voice reached my ears with a hint of amusement. “I don’t think he can breathe let alone talk.”

I dropped my hand from the being’s throat. “Speak.” I commanded.

He swallowed and took a couple of steps back. “I...I can’t.”

“You tried to take your own life. Why?”

Krin and I both took menacing steps toward him.

He exuded cowardice and weakness, evident in his now timid voice and averted gaze. “Speak or I will have our medics make you talk.”

He put up his hands. “Fine. Fine. Look, I’m not strong enough to fight you. I don’t want to fight you. I was just doing my job. If I was caught, I was supposed to take that vial. We mustn’t allow ourselves to be interrogated.” He motioned with his head toward the vial in Krin’s hand.

“Too late for that. What was your mission?” I asked.

“My mission was to infiltrate the cult of Tenage and pose as a member. The intention is to create conflict among them, ultimately resulting in them wanting to overthrow the Alaran Empire. When the chance came, I was supposed to kill you.”

Krin grabbed the scrawny alien by the scruff of his thin top. “Why? Who the flutz are you?” he spat through clenched teeth.

The alien’s eyes rounded. “Who I am is irrelevant.”

I growled and stepped closer to the alien, sneering. “Tell me who you are working with? And why are you against the Empire’s rule?”

He gulped. “Well, I’m not allowed to disclose this information to you.”

Anger caused my chest to vibrate. “You’ll either tell me or I’ll extract the information forcefully.” I sneered. “Are you working with the Krilex?”

The look of recognition on his face indicated he knew who they were.

“Are you working for them?” I demanded.

He shook his head. “No. We would never work for anyone, especially the Kreelex, such a greedy and disgusting race. The way he pronounced our enemy’s name made me curious about his identity and origin.

“Are you from this sector of space?”

He opened his mouth to speak, then stopped and bowed his head in defeat. “We are now.”

The quick change in his demeanor concerned me. “You are a shapeshifter, correct?” I asked.

He nodded once.

“I know of no shapeshifting races in our section of space.”

He shook his head and his lipless mouth frowned. “No. I don’t suspect you do.”

I had managed to keep my temper in check and was putting in my utmost effort to make him feel safe and comfortable enough to carry on with the conversation.

The alien continued. “We come from another universe.”

My brows shot up.

Krin and I both watched him in amazement.

“Universe?” This was the first I’d ever heard of such a thing.

The being’s voice softened. “For a long time, we were at war with another race. We needed to defeat them, so we created a technology that we hoped would allow us to escape when under threat. We are scientists, not warriors, nor did we have any army. Our only way to defeat them was if we could create something to stop them from catching us.”

“What was this experimental tech you created?”

“It opened up wormholes within our universe...but our scientists miscalculated.”

His tone betrayed him, suggesting he was lying about not being warriors or having an army. Their association with the Krilex ships made it clear.

“So you ended up here? You still haven’t explained why you’re working with the Krilex.”

“We were attacked by them. Our fleet was discovered by them on an uninhabited moon. Above the planet, we had cloaked ships and fought back using our superior weapons. They didn’t stand a chance against us,” he boasted.

The flutzing grik had the audacity to lie to my face. “I thought you didn’t consider yourselves warriors?”

“We have weapons. Our lack lies in our fighting skills.”

“You claim not to be warriors, but you possess weapons. Is your purpose here to invade planets?”

“We do not plan to invade.”

Once again, a lie. Annoyance flared, causing my shoulders to tense.

“You still haven’t explained why the Krilex work for you. Were you the ones who organized their visits to Alara and Graacux? Was the purpose of it to scout? What are you trying to find?”

The alien put up his hands his eyes wide.

“We need certain resources. Our ships require a special source of power that we are low on. That is all.”

I huffed out some air through my nostrils. “What is it you need?”

He cleared his throat. “A combination of rare minerals, praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium and gadolinium. They combine to make Flonium.”

“That’s a lot of minerals some of which are only available on Alara and Graacux. Is that why you sent the Krilex to our planets instead of contacting us directly?”

He acknowledged with a nod. “The Krilex can process the raw materials into Flonium, but we cannot. They offered a trade involving their mines. They advised us against negotiating with both you and the Ixul.”

Of course they did. Their desire is for The Alaran system to become more easily pilfered. I clenched my jaw. They will face consequences.

If it was the last thing I did, I would force them out of Alaran space.

“You should have come to us for help.” I stood up tall and ran a palm across my chin.

The monk whimpered. “The Krilex are the ones who are power hungry. We only seek to survive. Their leader, ‘Yaz the strong,’ decided it would benefit them to align with us in exchange for certain weapons.”

Krin and I shared an amused look. His brows raised. “Yaz the strong?” he smirked.

Bloody devaras. “The Krilex are forbidden from entering Alaran space and they know it. You have aligned yourselves with the wrong people.” I growled through clenched teeth.

The alien glanced between us before resuming his stammering.

“We also require the Krilex to provide us with another critical resource. Something only they can provide.”

I had a feeling that whatever the reptilians were offering would be detrimental to us in Alaran space. “What other kinds of resources do you need? Something that would help you reopen a wormhole to go home?”

“No. We cannot ever go home. But we also do not wish to become extinct. Although we have superior weapons on our ships. We are a dying race. If we returned home, our enemy would destroy us.”

“What then? What is it you want?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

“Your females.”