Page 50 of Taken to Voraxia
Svera makes a face and crosses her arms tight over her chest. “It is. I don’t like it, but I don’t have much of a choice.”
“You do. I could speak to Xoran. He assigned you to Krisxox because he’s convinced that Krisxox is the best warrior for the job. I’m sure there’s another to rival him in skill though. Maybe a female.”
“Maybe.” We both look towards Krisxox, who has moved to Xoran’s side and speaks to him in low tones. His gaze, like Xoran’s, still flicks over to us every few moments. “He is a bit of a brute, but he hasn’t done anything untoward. He’s kept his distance. And he refuses to get a translator, which annoyed me at first, but it’s actually helping my Dra’Kesh along. I’ve even learned a few Voraxian words too.”
“I’m serious, Svera. I can ask…”A Rakukanna doesn’t ask permission.“I mean, I cangetyou a new guard. You don’t need to be made uncomfortable during your time here.”
Svera shrugs. “It’s really alright. He’s kept true to his word. He hasn’t let anything hurt me. If we can somehow work out a more separate sleeping arrangement then everything would be perfect. Well…as perfect as can be when waiting to be tried in an alien court.”
I grab her shoulder and give her a little shake. “How are you smiling right now? This is serious.”
She laughs. “Because of you. You’re glowing. I was going to ask if you were okay but…” Her gaze flashes down my torso, bare beneath the hide and plush, soft fur that swaddles me, and her cheeks flare a wild and illustrious pink. “I see you’ve already adapted to the wardrobe.”
I laugh and, pivoting my body away from Xoran so he won’t be able to hear or read my lips if he tries, I confess, “I think I’m starting to actuallylikeRaku.”
“I saw you during the ceremony. I know.” She wrinkles her nose. “But are you sure? After what he made you do, aren’t you…” She doesn’t finish. She doesn’t need to.
My mouth opens and I consider trying to explain to her that I don’t feel forced. That the pact was just that, a pact. A trade. And that we won’t be making anymore trades and that I’m hoping, because of that, we’ll be able to start over on an even, equal foundation.
Instead, I just say, “Yes.”
Svera blinks brightly. “Really? Are you sure Miari?”
“I think we’re starting to understand each other, and what we need from each other to get over our differences. I think we can actually even…” I swallow hard and glance over my shoulder at him. I whisper, “we might be able to…I don’t know…make this work.”
Svera claps a hand over her mouth comically in a way that makes me laugh even harder, but before she can ask a follow up, I quickly redirect. “I’ve even started building again, and I want you to have access to a holoscreen so we can talk, even when you’re on Qath, for however long you’ll be there, and then back on the colony.”
“Will that be acceptable? I’m still a traitor in his eyes…” Svera’s hazel gaze is hesitant. She bites her bottom lip. I take her hand, surprised by how soft it is compared to Xoran’s and the other Voraxians — and how used to that roughness I’ve gotten.
“According to him, I have just as much of a right to make decisions around here as he does. If I say you get a holoscreen, then you get a holoscreen. And even then, he was the one who invited you here. I didn’t ask him to do that.”
Her eyebrows lift and her full, pale pink lips quirk up. “Really?”
“Really really.” I smile because even though I know that answer would never in a thousand years appease Kiki, everyone really is good in Svera’s eyes.
“Well that’s something, at least. He must really like you too then.”
“Yes, I think so. Stars, I’msureof it.”
“And Kiki? How is she?”
“She’s still in the merillian tub. They say she might be there for a few more solars, maybe even more. It’s slow work, the merillian, but when she gets out she’ll be totally healed up. I get reports from a young girl that comes by called Tet Tet whenever anything changes. I didn’t ask for that either. She just showed up the other morning. Said Raku sent her.”
The molten gold in my chest rattles and shivers. Svera must notice because she’s staring at my chest, but when I glance at her, she quickly looks away.
Her blush is back full force and I laugh again, wondering how horrified her mother and father would be if they could see me here now, tits out, standing at the side of a Voraxian. Feeling strangelyproud.
“Well, I’m happy that you’re making the most of it and that you’re…getting along.”
“I know it’s weird to think, but he’s been kind, and whatever this thing is inside that made him act like such a madman in the beginning…I’m starting to feel it too. It’s a wild sensation. Hard to resist, even if I wanted to. And I don’t so much. Not anymore.”
Svera shakes her head, reaches forward and grips my shoulders. “Trust your insides. They will guide you.”
“I thought you were going to tell me that God will guide me,” I tease.
She only smiles, that beautiful, soft smile she seems to wear perpetually. “He will. God is everywhere.”
“Svera, come,” Krisxox barks and the way he pronounces her name makes me beam. The way his tongue rips through the R and hisses the V so severely turns the name into something provocative and sensual.
