Page 22 of The Price of Peace
Do you know what language he’s speaking in?
Pleiadian.
Oh, fekk.
14
PEACE
Ispun looking for the disembodied voice. Behind us, on a now-working screen was one of the most handsome faces I’d ever seen. My mouth fell open. Xyrox came up behind me, his large, hard body a steadying force surrounding me. As his arms went around my waist, I thought he might be the only thing holding me up.
The stranger flashed a brilliant smile. “Ah, so you can hear me, Peace. It’s excellent to make your acquaintance.”
“Wh—who are you?” I stammered. “How do you know my name?” I leaned back into Xyrox, wishing I could crawl inside him and away from this place where these beings I’d never met seemed to know me.
The handsome figure on the screen chuckled and ran a hair through his dark hair. “Where are my manners? Prince Friðrik Magnússon of Pleiades, at your service. We’ve been searching for you for a long time.”
“Prince?” I croaked. This day was getting weirder and weirder.
“Yes, but please just call me Friðrik. Or Rick if you prefer. Peace One calls me that and I’ve come to like it. Less stuffy, you know.” His perfect smile shone brightly across the screen.
I blinked. “Wait. PeaceOnecalls you that? I don’t understand.“ I glanced up at Xyrox, hoping he could make sense of things. “I’ve never met him before,” I whispered. “I swear.”
“You’re mine, and I’ll protect you,” he whispered back. “I don’t care if he’s a prince. He can’t have you.” His arms tightened around me, and I could feel our identical tattoo heating on his chest. “I think you need to start explaining some things, Your Highness.”
Though most of me was completely gobsmacked by this turn of events, a primal part of me thought his protectiveness was hot. Really hot. I squirmed in his arms.Focus Peace!
Yes, please focus. You are making it difficult to come across as a badass when you are wiggling against my lingams like that.
I bit my lip as the voice in my head admonished me.
“I’m glad to see you found your soul’s mate,” Prince Friðrik said, snagging my attention. “That’s good. You’ll no longer be of interest to Jökull.”
I startled. “What? How do you know that?”
“Your eyes glow when you look at … Sorry, I didn’t catch your name, sir.”
“Xyrox Quorath. And you better start explaining, Your Highness.”
“Peace’s eyes—they’re violet. That’s her Pleiadian genetics. And when we find our soul’s mate, our eyes glow when we look at them. Just as her eyes are glowing right now.”
Peace jerked, snapping her gaze back to the screen. “What? My eyes don’t glow.”
“They do,” I whispered. “We’re fated, just like our matching marks told us.”
You’ll have to show me in a mirror later. Peace silently replied, still glaring at the screen. “What does that have to do with Jökull, and why did that fekking fekk send goons to blow up my ship?”
“We’ll have plenty of time to go over all the details when I get there, but the basic story is that Jökull Ólafsson, who calls himself Regent, but that isn’t an official title—“
“Don’t try to make him sound like anything but a monster, Rick. Is that her?” A woman’s voice sounded from behind the prince.
My breath hitched. It wasmyvoice. Then a face dropped into the picture over his shoulder, and I completely forgot how to breathe. It wasme. My tawny skin, though slightly lighter. My violet eyes. My heart-shaped face with an identical nose, lips, cheekbones, and chin. She even had my platinum hair, though she wore it in a loose, casual style.
While I was bereft of words, I heard Xyrox’s astonished voice in my head.What in all the blazing suns is going on?
Stupidly, my last thought before the little black dots on the edges of my vision coalesced into yawning blackness was,Oh, I forgot to breathe.
***
