Page 176 of Starborn Husbands
“I’m about to show you barbarian. You enlisted my son for slavery.”
Dammit, now I have to stay and listen. I can’t miss what the king will say about that.
“It was the best I could do, especially with it riding the coattails of your other son’s disaster.”
“Your son was involved in that too,” he says. There’s more kissing and as much as I don’t want to hear my father make out with the king, this information could be valuable. Plus, it’s damn interesting.
“As I told Atlanta, he can work off his debt. It’s not forever. You must have noticed that I didn’t banish him.”
“I did, but Rock People don’t like losing slaves.”
“Atlanta’s smart, he’ll figure it out,” the king says.
“Or you could have let the boys marry in the first place.”
“Mmm. There. Right there. Fuck, Rigel. You know that I can’t do that. Okay, fuck who sees us. Stick your fat cock?—”
La la la la.I cover my ears and step from the shadows to try the lock on Gem’s door again. I tap into the vibration of the palace. I know its heartbeat. Memories of me and Gem are woven into this heartbeat. Young us climbing trees all over the palace grounds. Young me piggybacking him over muddy grass so his nice shoes wouldn’t get dirty. Young me stabbing lurking palace monsters back to their place in the darkness, far away from Gem.
All of that happened with the palace vibration beating around me. I know this place, and I let the essence of my star join with it. That’s step one. Picking a lock made with vibration requires some amount of stealth. The palace will know that I’m not the one who set it. I have to match the intention of the person who did.
So, was it his father? A guardian? Palace guard?
Why didn’t Gemini pick it himself?
“Lant-Lanta, is that you?” Gem’s broken voice warbles through the stone. Zhang said he can feel me. I don’t know how it happened, but we bonded.
“It’s me, baby. Told you I’d come for you, didn’t I?”
He laughs softly and it heals my broken heart. “You did. I believed you, but you felt so demoralized.”
Dammit. That can’t happen again. “Feel me now, Gem. What do I feel like?”
“Like … like that time you were jealous of that prince from Ataria, mixed with the time you fought a horde of shadow demons for me.”
“You’re not making sense, Gem,” I say. I’m not jealous.
“Just get in here, Atlanta.”
There’s aclickon the inside of me, and I grab for it with my mind. The door slides open. Gem falls into my arms. His eyes are bloodshot, and his wispy hair’s a mess. “Gem.”
“Atlanta,” he breathes out.
I kiss his lips, but it’s quick. Not the reunion I want, but we have to get out of here. The distraction they created for me is a good one, but it won’t last long. I lift him and carry him into the room. The first thing I notice is his neck.
“My handprint, it’s?—”
“Lighter, but not gone,” he says. “They tried to take it from me, but this was as faint as they could get the scar.”
Fuckers. “We’ll have a lot of fun redoing it.” His wrists are bare. No stargate. “Where is it, Gem? The stargate.”
“It’s in … in one of my shoes, Lanta.”
I head to his closet with him wrapped around me.
“Can’t use it, though,” he whispers in my ear.
“Why the fuck not? We need you to use it.” I’ll carry him out of here if I have to, but I’d rather not. That’s going to eat up time we don’t have. The palace is on a node. Gem should be able to open a portal from just about anywhere on the grounds.
