Page 58 of Saved By Starlight
“Please don’t make me hurt you,” Lyro begs in my ear.
The shards of my heart cut and cut inside my chest. “Too late, you already did.”
The binding of his arms loosens the slightest bit, but that’s not what I meant, and he knows it.
“Release her!” General Raknu shouts over the blaring alarm. He holds up his fist, and the clamor stops. Behind him, Harl runs into the hangar, followed closely by Oljin and Rose, their faces going tight and grim when they see me and Lyro and thecrowd of armed Frathiks surrounding us. “Release her now, or we’ll use force.”
“Any force you use on me, you’ll use on her,” Lyro snaps, squeezing my ribs so tight, it forces the air out of my chest. I don’t even think he knows he’s doing it until I squeak, and he adjusts a tiny amount. “Wouldn’t want to damage your precious pet, would you?”
Oljin steps forward, a head taller than the leathery Frathiks, looking regal like the Emperor he should have been. “This is pointless, Lyro. The hangar door won’t open for you, so even if you get her in your ship, you can’t leave. Let her go, and we can work this out without anyone getting hurt.”
Lyro laughs, sounding a little manic. “You can’t lie to a liar and expect to get away with it. You know as well as I do that they’ll kill me the second I let her go.”
Oljin makes a dismissive noise. “I doubt it. You’ll be more useful alive.”
Lyro makes a strangled noise of triumph, then murmurs quietly, just for me, “I told you, didn’t I? They haveusesfor us, that’s all. I want you to speak for us both. Tell them to open the hangar doors and let us leave peacefully.”
My jaw clenches. I’m not helping him kidnap me. “I don’t want to go. That’s why they’re doing this. It’s not to keep me prisoner. They’re protecting me fromyou.”
“Let it be a test,” he begs. “If they open the door, it will prove your freedom. If they open the door, we’ll stay.”
“You expect me to believe that? You must think I’m stupid.”
He gives a choked, bitter laugh. “I’ve told you so many times. Stupid to trust them. To trust me. But now you have a choice: who do you trust more?”
For some reason, my eyes go to Harl, the only Frathik in the room who doesn’t have a weapon drawn. The creases in his forehead deepen as we make eye contact, all eight eyes wide anddesperate. His child is on the line. His only chance at being a father.
Beside him, Rose, his song-mother, reaches out to hold his hand. This is her life’s work at risk. Oljin glowers, arms crossed, his chance at restitution for his brother’s bad acts slipping through his fingers.
They’re just as desperate as Lyro. Just as untrustworthy. The only one in the room I can trust is myself. Well, and Elvis. I’m glad he’s here. A little voice in my head reminds me that he wouldn’t be if Lyro hadn’t suggested I wear his shell today.
That’s the truth of him. The cynical, sweet man I fell in love with is the one who has secret conversations with my pet. Who bitches and moans as he does the most caring, thoughtful things for me. Not this man, the liar and the bully.
If he wants to be with me, he needs to be better. My cheeks heat. “I choose them.”
“Fine,” Lyro spits. “Them tell them they’ll never get what they want. If they won’t open the hangar door and let us go, I’ll kill you now in front of them. I’ll snap your neck.”
He’s telling the truth. He’s lied about a lot of things, but not about this.
The Frathik guards edge closer, and he tenses, giving me a small shake, muttering, “Tell them.”
“Fine.” I lift my chin and clear my throat. “He says to tell you that he’ll kill me if you don’t open the hangar doors.”
One of Lyro’s hands moves to my neck, gripping.Dragonfly. Our connection is still a promise, just not the one I thought it was.
Rose’s sob rings through the silence. She and Harl lean together, hugging each other, and I catch the glint of tears running down her face. Oljin rests his hand on her shoulder, giving a comforting squeeze. He’ll do anything to make her happy.
As someone whose fated mate has his hand around her neck and just made a serious threat to end her life, I’m jealous.
General Raknu glances at him questioningly, and Oljin gives a curt shake of his head. “Ignore his demands. He won’t hurt his Alara.”
I wish I was as confident.
“He will,” I say, feeling wrung out by the knowledge that the one person who’s mandated to love me forever is willing to throw me away to prove a point. It’s not like they’ll let him go if he kills me. Everyone is going to lose.
His hostage-grip is the only thing holding me up right now.
Oljin ignores me. “Go ahead and take them. She’ll survive a shock or two,” he says to the general, who motions to his guards to close in.
