Marked Prince Page 5

  Fiora was grateful for the interruption. When she started to lift her hand in a silent plea to stop him from continuing the conversation, a wave of awareness came over her. She turned more fully toward him. She’d been confused before when all the death and destruction hit her, but she felt the man’s future clearly now. No wonder she was sick to her stomach when she was around him.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked, frowning.

  “I’m so sorry.” Fiora hated that she was compelled to answer honestly. Tears brimmed her eyes. When she looked at him, all she saw was emptiness. That is why she’d confused him for Death. He wasn’t Death. He was destined to die. “You have a death mark.”

  The man stiffened. Could she blame him?

  Fiora had learned very quickly as a young girl that people didn’t necessarily want the truth. They said they did. They said they wanted to know the future, but it wasn’t true. They wanted her to tell them the future they wanted to hear, not what really would come to pass.

  Could she blame them? When the futures of so many were about to be cut short? Why would they want to hear how painful the end would be?

  It never stopped.

  Grier escorted Salena toward them. Her sister’s hair was a tangled mess, and she wore Fiora’s white tunic. Grier was covered in clumps of dried mud. The disguise had been somewhat more convincing when he’d arrived at the facility, but now he looked like he’d been traveling for days without access to a decontaminator.

  Salena approached, only to stop near the monster statue. She leaned against it, taking a deep breath as she clung to a stone shoulder.

  Grier appeared concerned. “Salena?”

  “Move me and I’m throwing up on one of you, Grier,” Salena answered. “I need the world to stop spinning first.”

  Fiora tried to keep her head from whirling. She pressed her hands to her forehead. The marked man touched her arm gently to turn her toward him. She was sure he meant well, but the slight jolt of her body sent a shockwave through her, and she ended up heaving a stomach full of nutrient paste onto the man’s crotch.

  He jerked his hand back.

  Fiora covered her mouth, mortified by what she’d done. The man stood frozen with his hands to his sides as if he wasn’t sure what to do about the mess. When she opened her mouth to apologize, another wave of nausea hit her, and she covered her lips in an attempt to stop a repeat performance. She swayed slightly on her feet.

  “Let’s get you ladies someplace where you can rest.” Grier motioned that Fiora should walk with Salena away from the statue.

  Fiora sidestepped the mess, glancing up at the marked man in apology. Salena stayed close to her side.

  “Jaxx, Kane should be home,” Grier said. “You can bathe there. He’ll have something you can wear. And call a servant to send a cleaning droid to help with this, please.”

  Jaxx. The marked man had a name.

  Fiora took hold of her sister’s arm, leaning into Salena for support. All she wanted was to get away from everyone.

  “I promise you’ll be safe here,” Grier said. It took her a moment to realize he spoke to her. “No one can get to you while you are in the palace.”

  “They’ll come,” Fiora whispered. Even though he didn’t ask the question, she felt compelled to warn him. At least he’d be able to keep Salena safe. That’s the best she could hope for. “It won’t take them long to figure it out who took us. Two beasts in the sky will not go unnoticed.”

  “They’re called dragons,” Salena corrected.

  “You have many fights ahead.” Fiora needed them to understand what she’d seen, even as she didn’t understand it all herself. “I see red and violet—”

  “Shh, you don’t have to speak now.” Salena shushed her as she patted her back. “You don’t have to look at the future. We’re safe now.”

  Grier went ahead of them to open a thick wooden door and then waited for them to enter before him.

  Fiora paused before stepping through the door. Her mind was a jumbled mess. “Two is stronger.” She grabbed her sister’s hand and held tight. “Together, we might be able to find our missing piece.”

  Piera. They still needed to find Piera. She couldn’t forget. Her head filled with so many timelines that it would be easy to lose herself.

  “Do you know anything?” Fiora insisted.

  “No, and I’ve searched many places.” Salena guided her into a home.

  Fiora saw a circular couch and walked toward it. Her mouth tasted awful. Her stomach churned. She sat hard against the cushions, tipping to her side while her feet were still on the floor. It wasn’t comfortable, but she didn’t care.

  Let the darkness come.

  For the love of everything, please let the darkness take me.

  6

  “What is that smell?” Kane flinched as he held open the door to his home. He glanced over his cousin and automatically started to close his door without inviting him inside.

  Several members of the Draig royal family lived in the mountain palace. The front was carved so that it blended into the side of the mountain, hiding it from above. Well, at least that was the original intent. The small village and surrounding valley with worn paths leading to the palace gave away the location, as did the barracks and training yard along the side.

  Inside the mountain, there was plenty of space for expansion. If Jaxx wanted, he could’ve had apartments in the palace like his cousins. Like his father, Prince Yusef, Jaxx much preferred to live in the forest surrounded by the ancient trees bigger than his home.

  Jaxx placed his hand on the door and grumbled, “I need to borrow some clothes.”

  Kane let him push the door open with a small laugh. “Not before you bathe.” He glanced down and grimaced. “Is that—?”

  “You need to have a cleaning droid sent to the hall near Grier’s dragon statue,” Jaxx said.

  “A droid? What by all the gods is going on?” Kane still seemed more amused than alarmed. “Is there a celebration someone forgot to invite me to?”

  “Hardly,” Jaxx grumbled, forcing his way inside.

  Kane had been training to take over his father’s position as the royal Draig ambassador, so it made sense that he lived in the palace. The home looked like many of the others. Light came from a series of tubes inside the ceiling, shining through holes. The open space had a couch around a firepit. There was a food simulator next to a table, although most of the palace meals were taken in the main hall as a group. Tapestries depicting scenes from the past hung on the wall next to banners. The palace hadn’t changed much since they were children.

  “What are you staring at?” Kane asked, his tone more concerned than before. “Seriously, Jaxx, you’re starting to worry me.”

  Jaxx realized he’d been staring at a tapestry depicting a battle between the Draig and Var. “Do you ever think about how much simpler it was back then? When we only had to fight each other and not the rest of the universe?”

  “The Federation is hardly the rest of the universe,” Kane dismissed. “And if you tell me you’re longing for the old cat-shifter wars, I’m going to say you’ve been spending too much time with Grace. She was just asking me about some old law she found to dissolve her marriage treaty.”

  “She doesn’t want to dissolve the treaty to go back to war. She wants the freedom to choose who she marries,” Jaxx defended his cousin. He’d always felt bad for her. Grace had been born into a treaty between the cats and dragons. As far as the planet was concerned, her destiny was to unite the two kingdoms. The betrothal was a symbol of unity that had helped sustain peace their entire lives. It went against everything dragon-shifters believed in when it came to finding mates.

  On the day each dragon child was born their fathers went to a lake, dove beneath the surface, and mined a crystal from the bottom. The dragon children then wore these crystals until the day it started to glow. This is how the gods communicated with them. When the crystal glowed, that meant they had found their
mate. It was never wrong.

  Prince Zoran and Princess Pia, Grace’s parents, had not intended for the betrothal to stand for so many years. None of the elders had. In fact, because female shifter births were so rare, none of them thought they’d have to go through with a marriage. The proposed betrothment was to be symbolic, a show that both sides were willing to make peace. What the elders hadn’t counted on was the romanticized view that had taken hold amongst the people when Grace was born.

  Grace’s crystal had been a torment to her. It represented a path she was not supposed to take—one to true love and happiness. In that, she was alone. Jaxx had made a pact with his cousin. He’d hid her crystal, and she’d hid his. On the day she was freed from her betrothal would be the day they returned the stones. As long as she was held from her future, he would wait for his. That way she was not alone.

  That had been years ago.

  Jaxx moved toward the decontaminator room to clean up, knowing his cousin wouldn’t follow him inside. He ignored the water bath that drew from the hot springs in the mountain and always bubbled at a pleasant temperature. Instead, he stepped into a decontaminator and let the lasers efficiently clean him. He closed his eyes as the lights danced over his naked body.

  Why was he thinking about his crystal? Unless his mother brought up her wish to see him married, he rarely thought about the stone.

  Fiora.

  There was something special about her. He’d felt it the second she’d landed in his arms. Maybe before that. It wasn’t attraction—not to her morphed body, anyway. And it would be strange to say he was attracted to her when he hadn’t been attracted to her sister, Salena. They looked fairly identical.

  Still, even now, he could feel the awareness of her in his arms.

  Was it merely circumstances that made him think so?

  Jaxx had a death mark. It didn’t take much imagination to deduce what that probably meant. Was the knowledge causing his mind to toss out regrets? He had no wife, no children. He had never been in love.

  He had no reason to mistrust the woman when she said he was death marked. He had already witnessed Salena’s power to force the truth out of people. It stood to reason Fiora’s abilities would be just as strong.

  Fiora’s gaze had been so apologetic and sad when she’d looked at him. He wondered what details she saw but was too afraid to ask. No one wanted to hear how or when they were going to die, him included.

  Death.

  The woman’s face haunted him. Those eyes, so sad, so troubled.

  In the abstract, he’d always been ready for death. If he died fighting for the people of Shelter City, or for his fellow shifters, so be it. He wasn’t afraid of fate.

  Yet, part of the appeal had always been the not knowing. Each time he snuck into Shelter City, or smuggled decontaminators, he did so with the belief that he would come out alive. Hope was a great thing.

  But take that hope away, only to replace it with certainty? That only left death.

  The laser decontaminator had finished by the time he came back from his thoughts. His vision focused. Jaxx wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing in the inactive unit.

  He stepped out of the decontaminator and went to the living room. Kane shoved clothes at his chest as Jaxx walked out the door.

  “I ordered a cleaning droid sent to the statue,” Kane said.

  Jaxx nodded. He dropped a tunic shirt on the floor and pulled on the pair of loose pants. Then, leaning over, he swiped the shirt from the floor. He held it in his fist.

  “Can I stay here?” Jaxx asked.

  “You never have to ask, cousin,” Kane said. “All that I have is yours. Except for my bed.”

  Jaxx nodded.

  Kane moved to his table. Parchment was piled neatly into five stacks next to an electronic clipboard. “Hungry?”

  “No.” Jaxx couldn’t think of eating when his mind was full. He sat across from his cousin. He pulled a stack of documents toward him and read, “Syog negotiation guidelines. What are we negotiating?”

  “Nothing, ever, if I can help it.” Kane leaned forward and put his finger on the second paragraph.

  Jaxx read, “Each negotiator will be allowed three strikes upon the other’s man…” He lifted his head and grimaced. “They negotiate by kicking each other in the manhood?” He slowly shook his head. “And you want to be an ambassador?”

  Kane gave a wry laugh. “The day those aliens come to visit might be the day I join you hiding in the forest.”

  “I’m hardly hiding,” Jaxx grumbled. He gestured at the papers. “What is all this anyway?”

  “I’m rescanning documents that were lost when the palace databases went down.” Kane crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s as thrilling as it sounds.”

  Jaxx’s eyes went to his cousin’s wrist. Kane’s crystal was sewn into place on the leather band.

  “What happened?” Kane asked.

  “I’ll tell you later.” Jaxx pried his eyes away from Kane’s dormant mating crystal. He pushed up from the table and moved to rest on the couch. “I need to sleep.”

  It was a lame excuse, but it was the only thing he could think of to avoid Kane’s direct questions. He wasn’t ready to talk about the death mark.

  As he lay down, hiding his face from his cousin’s view, his thoughts turned to Fiora and the struggle in her eyes. They stirred an ache deep inside him. He wanted to find her and protect her.

  The impulse might prove necessary soon enough. The Federation would know that she was missing, and they’d come looking. Maybe that is how he died. Perhaps it was his fate to protect her from going back.

  “Jaxx?” Kane’s voice was insistent.

  Jaxx didn’t open his eyes as he gave a monosyllabic moan in response.

  “I’ll bring you a tray back from the dining hall,” he said. The sound of the door opening and closing followed the words.

  7

  All around her was the lingering nightmare of death. The hollowness of it stayed inside her.

  Fiora should have been happy to see her sister, and yet, how could she enjoy the reunion with the predictions peeking at her through her peripheral vision?

  Flames came from the sky. Explosions lit Shelter City. Screams echoed on repeat in her head. The world was on fire, and she could do nothing about it. Well, she could pray no one would ask her a question that made her tell of the upcoming events. Not knowing was better than an entire planet huddling in fear and begging her to find answers.

  Fiora felt a tickle and wiped the back of her hand across her nose. Blood smeared her skin. It reminded her of the prison walls splattered in red. The guards should have let her die.

  Even with a nosebleed, things felt calmer now that she was in a guest suite, away from people. Her sister had arranged the new accommodations. The walls were the same red stone as the rest of the palace she’d seen. Tapestries covered the walls, the woven cloths depicting landscapes from what she guessed were parts of the planet, since she’d only seen the inside of the facility and fragments from other people’s futures.

  Salena would never say it, but Fiora knew she had frightened her sister with talk of upcoming death. She didn’t want to tell her, but Salena kept asking how she was and Fiora was compelled to answer in detail.

  The images in her head were like residual imprints that would grow less insistent in time if she didn’t go back to Shelter City. Today, they were being replaced by visions of an encounter outside the mountain palace of the monster people.

  Draig palace. Dragons. Not monsters. They were men who shifted into dragons or dragons who shifted into men.

  And flew.

  Fiora touched her stomach, remembering the flight all too well. If she never took to the air again, it would be too soon.

  Thinking of the sky moved her mind to Jaxx. A strange tranquility came over her when she thought of him. Maybe because he didn’t have a future. She felt terrible about his fate, but not seeing his tomorrows meant she could consider him without pai
n. He had such a steadying presence.

  Steadying? Who was she kidding? Sexy. He had a sexy presence.

  She’d gotten a pretty good view as he’d led her naked through the halls of the palace. Windblown dark hair and brooding eyes created the perfect balance of man and beast. Within the body of the man, she sensed the animal—caged energy that flowed beneath the surface of his skin.

  When he had been in the form of a dragon, she’d sensed his humanity. The beast had been gentle with her when they’d landed.

  The guest suite was smaller than her sister’s home, but compared to her prison cell, it was a mansion. The ample space made her feel incredibly small. The high ceilings and walls covered in imposing tapestries gave the illusion that she was a child in the land of giants. A massive, winged beast—blast it all, dragon—a massive, winged dragon was depicted in thread with fire shooting from a fang-filled mouth.

  Foolish as it was, she found herself avoiding eye contact with the material creature.

  A light tap sounded. Fiora sat up on the couch and tilted her head to listen in the silence.

  Tap-tap.

  She turned her attention to the door. The tap turned into a louder knock. She frowned, not wanting anyone to come near her.

  Guilt instantly assaulted her at the notion of ignoring whoever sought her attention. She was a guest. They kept her safe from the Federation. Without them, she’d be eating nutrient paste and staring at sterilized walls.

  Fiora stood and moved slowly toward the door, ready to push out any images that tried to reveal themselves to her. A feeling of calm came through the wood as she touched the handle.

  Jaxx.

  Fiora pulled open the door. Jaxx’s back was to her, and he was walking away. He wore a tunic shirt, tight pants, and boots. Her mind automatically offered to compare the image of him in clothing to the one of him naked.

  “Yes?” she asked, her voice not as strong as she would have liked. “Jaxx?”

  He turned, and the depth of his green eyes struck a chord in her.

  “Did you need me for something?” she asked.