Page 96 of I Married Kayog
“You have visitors,” the guard told Malaya in a clipped tone that had me itching to peck his eyes out.
I wasn’t the violent type, but seeing an innocent person being mistreated pissed me off to no end. The second guard placed a couple of stools across from the bed where Malaya was sitting. Kayog thanked him politely then, with his usual infinite tenderness, my mate gestured for me to sit first before taking the second stool. Both Obosians walked out of the room and closed the door behind them. The light on the lock turned red.
“Oh, my God!” Malaya exclaimed with a shaky voice. “I could hug you both right now. I thought you’d forgotten about me.”
“No, my dear. We had not forgotten you,” I said while removing a small sphere from the pouch hanging on the discreet belt around my waist.
Once I activated it, the sphere hovered a meter over our heads, and a beam of light surrounded us, forming a cone of silence.
“A scrambler?” Malaya asked, stunned.
“To make sure no one is eavesdropping,” I said, my voice hardening. “You’ve made a powerful enemy who is highly displeased to see us getting involved.”
“But youaregetting involved,” Malaya repeated, her voice thick with hope. “Your presence here means good news, right? You found a workaround?”
I hesitated before answering. “Not exactly. As Torgal informed you, there’s no way around you going to Molvi. Our only hope is to pair you with someone on that planet.”
She recoiled and stared in turn at me then at Kayog in horror.
“Paired with a prisoner?! How the hell is that going to help me?”
“Not a prisoner,” Kayog corrected in a gentle, almost paternal tone that took me aback. “The goal is to match you with an Obosian or one of the employees on Molvi. But ideally, it would be with an Obosian.”
As expected, Malaya rebelled at that prospect. After all, they were trying to send her to a certain death, even knowing that she was innocent. But once we explained how a union with a Hell Lord could give her the necessary means to prove her innocence, she reluctantly warmed up to the idea.
“Okay. I see your point. Does that mean you already have someone in mind?” Malaya asked, feeling both hopeful and dejected.
I glanced at Kayog, who shook his head.
“I have spoken with a few potential candidates to assess their willingness to consider such an unusual pairing,” Kayog said carefully. “I have not found your soulmate, although I’m getting a bit of a hunch. My presence here was merely to assess yourpersonality to have a better sense of who could make a successful pairing for you.”
Malaya waved a dismissive hand. “He doesn’t have to be a soulmate match. After six months, we can just divorce, and I’ll be free.”
As one, Kayog and I shook our heads.
“You got a life sentence,” I reminded her in a gentle but firm tone. “The only thing that can overturn your sentence and give you back your freedom is Wuras’s demise.”
“This also means that it is imperative that you find a way to please whoever you are paired with,” Kayog cautioned her.
“What does that mean?” she asked, worry seeping back into her voice.
Once again, the powerful need to protect and comfort her surged within me with a violence that left me reeling. Why was she stirring such strong responses from me? Malaya wasn’t the first person in desperate need of help that I had assisted. None had ever affected me so deeply.
“It means that your mate is the only one who can terminate your union after the six-month trial, if he is displeased with you,” Kayog explained. “Should that happen, you will be sent to one of the prison Sectors below to serve the rest of your sentence. Therefore, my priority is to find your soulmate. But failing that, I want someone who you can have a good life with for the long term.”
She stared at us in shock. Obviously, this wasn’t what she’d hoped to hear from us. But Malaya needed to understand the reality of her precarious situation and be ready for the tough battle ahead.
“You think I will fail in my efforts to find proof,” Malaya whispered, crestfallen.
Kayog shook his head with far more confidence than I felt. “We think taking down Wuras will be hard and will take a longtime. Chances are, it will take longer than those six months. For this reason, I’d rather you spend this long time with someone who makes you happy and who won’t divorce you as soon as the trial period has ended.”
“We just need you to continue to have faith,” I added in a reassuring tone. “We’re fighting for you. On the day of your transfer, we promise it will be for you to meet your chosen mate.”
As we rose to leave the room, I barely stopped myself from drawing her into a comforting embrace. Beyond the fact that it was an odd behavior from me, it would also have the Obosian guards coming down on us in a fury. There were strict guidelines where our interactions with prisoners were concerned. And absolutely no touching featured high on that list. They were already showing us an extremely high level of courtesy by leaving us alone in the room with Malaya.
My chest constricted, I watched as Kayog knocked on the door for the guards to let us out. The speed with which they opened hinted that they felt we’d overstayed our welcome. As we made our way out of the detention center connected to the Obosian courthouse, I kept stealing glances at my husband. He was still blocking me out. Despite that, I had felt the tension bubbling inside him during the entire interview, although he did a fantastic job of hiding it.
He walked at a brisk pace back to our shuttle. To my shock, as soon as we boarded and the doors closed behind us, Kayog abruptly dropped his mask of stoicism. He leaned against the wall as if he feared collapsing without that support. His wings sagged, and his face took on an expression that I couldn’t define. Shock, distress, sorrow, but oddly also joy battled for dominance on his features.
