Kept by the Zandian (Zandian Brides 5)

I push aside a comm unit, some techie things I don’t recognize, and there it is—my tiny worn brown satchel.

“Here you are,” I whisper, and tug it from his bag. I tiptoe over to the food prep area, which is hidden from the sleep space by a partition, and silently slide my bag open on top of the counter. Nostalgia hits me hard, because I imagine that the bag smells of firewood and soot, the burnt smell of the harsh wood we used on Romon-3. And that was the smell of Leylah, who spent so much time working in the barracks. For a second I think I’m going to fall over with grief, with the loss. Tears come to my eyes, and then I wipe them away. Take a breath. Leylah wouldn’t want me to lose my focus like this.

“Please, please be there,” I exhort. To my utter relief and gratitude, when I reach down under my spare trousers, there it is. The coin.

“Thank Mother Earth.” I grasp it in my left hand, just as I did back on Romon-3 when Leylah gave it to me. When I thought it spoke to me.

I should hide it anew, put my bag back, and get back into the hoverdisk. But I can’t resist the urge to reach out.

I sit cross-legged on the smooth white marble floor and start to breathe the way Mirelle showed me. Then I remember how Leylah would close her eyes and seem to sway, so I let myself do that too, still clutching the coin hard so its edges dig into my skin.

I blank my mind out and wait, but nothing happens.

Frustrated, I try again. I squeeze the coin and force my mind to empty. I let it fill with stars, with light, with the sound of the waterfall. With life and everything good.

“Teach me about the toxin,” I beg. “Or show me something helpful of any kind. Anything at all.” I wait.

But nothing comes.

Well, I’ll hide the coin and try again. But where? I glance around, and my gaze fixes on the fruit. Use the orange. He will, too. Was this was Leylah meant? It’s odd, and it must be meaningful, because there’s an orange right in front of me. Somewhat rare, too — a special treat sent over from humans who are trying new plants from around the galaxy.

Well, it’s an excellent hiding place, and one Drayk would never check. Since Zandians don’t eat like we humans do, he’ll never examine the foodstuffs here for me.

I rip the skin of the ripe orange with my finger and insert the coin deep into the flesh. I stuff my satchel back into Drayk’s bag and try to arrange things the way they were, and crawl back onto the hoverdisk, my failure pressing on me like a stone. The smell of the orange is like a perfume on my fingers, but it fails to soothe me.

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That glimpse I got of Bayla’s children—was it just my imagination tricking me, wanting to render them in my mind? Like I was creating artwork? I have no way to show her the image and see if they match her real children. Or was it a real message, a gift, something I can strengthen, if I just figure out how?

Maybe I can try again.

Or perhaps I just need to get the coin to Lamira; after all, it’s meant for her, anyway.

I was just hoping I could make the magic work for me, again.

Chapter 14

Zander

“A moment of your time, my lord?” Daneth stands in the doorway of the council room where I was meeting with Seke, my Master at Arms. His dark-haired mate Bayla is tucked under his arm. They’re an unlikely pair. Or at least I thought so when they mated. He’s as old as my father would be, clinical, unemotional. You might even say cold.

Bayla’s everything opposite—vibrantly young and fertile, with a natural emotional buoyancy. She melted my physician’s frozen heart. Brought him to life. Made him a father—twice now.

“Enter.” I fold one hand over the other and rest my chin on my knuckles.

Lamira trails in behind them and I extend my arm out to her. She comes to my side and I tug her onto one knee, my arm around her waist.

Daneth and Bayla sit at the table. Bayla’s milky white skin is paler than usual, her mouth drawn up tight.

I’m already certain I know what this is about. Especially considering Lamira showed up to join the conversation.

“Bayla has heard the news,” he says plainly, not bothering to explain what news.

When Captain Drayk returned with the files on Bayla’s young, Daneth kept the information from his mate until it could be reviewed. He didn’t want her to develop false hope.

“I see.”

The pretty human lifts her large eyes to mine. “My lord, is it possible? To find my children and bring them here, to Zandia?”