Now that Erin was studying her with new eyes, she saw it. She was radiating happiness and contentment. Her whole face was glowing with it.
“Oh, Crystal,” Erin whispered, happy for her friend, even though a treacherous little ache threatened to spoil it. Tears welled in her eyes and she struggled to breathe through a tight throat.
“It’s still new, but I’ve decided to stay,” Crystal confessed softly, squeezing her hand.
“You too?” Erin questioned. Only Bianca would be going home now, it seemed. Back to her family on Earth.
Crystal’s lips quirked a bit. “Aren’t you staying too?”
There was a knowing smile in her voice and Erin wondered what she knew. Did Privanax tell her that she was pregnant? Is that why she assumed Erin would stay?
“I’m sure the council will let the charges go,” Crystal continued, her voice soft yet strong. “You don’t have to worry for him.”
Erin’s brow furrowed. “What charges? What are you talking about?”
“Well…Jaxor’an’s charges,” Crystal said, nibbling her lip.
That was when Erin remembered Privanax saying something about a cell. Jaxor was being kept in a cell.
“You…” Erin was breathing a little heavier now. “You think I’m staying because of him?”
Crystal stilled, peering at her, suddenly unsure. “Aren’t you? I thought…I thought you were his mate. I mean, it was obvious when he first saw you in the Golden City. I was there. I saw how he looked at you.”
Erin remembered it well. But she also remembered everything that came after it too.
She recalled Tavar’s mocking voice as he said, “How do you think you are here, female? Jaxor gave you over to us. As he promised he would.”
She remembered Jaxor’s lies. The lies he’d told right to her face. His cutting betrayal. The heartbreak she felt, the numbness that followed. She remembered the darkness, the feel of the earth beneath her fingernails as she retched into the basin Kossira had left for her.
“I’m not staying for Jaxor,” she whispered. “I’m staying for my child.”
Crystal’s face went slack. For a moment, joy sprang up on her features, but when she saw the look in Erin’s eyes, that joy slowly disappeared.
“You know I can’t raise a half-human, half-Luxirian child on Earth,” Erin said, her voice ragged. She tried to lighten the mood with a small, quirked smile she didn’t feel. “I have to stay now.”
She would never see Jake or Ellora or her mother or her other friends again. She’d never see her students again. She’d never see her home, her town, the little park across the street where she took her morning walks again. All the little things she’d taken for granted…
Erin realized all this with a small, bitter ache, even as she pressed her fingers to her belly.
Erin licked her lips. “He betrayed me. He gave me over to the Mevirax, knowing that they had a deal in place with the Jetutians. He was going to knowingly send me back to the Pit.”
Crystal gasped, the color draining from her features even as she shook her head. “No, Erin, he wouldn’t do that. He’s your mate. You should have seen him when he came back here with you. When Privanax tried to keep him from you, they had to sedate him to get him back to his room.”
Erin was shaking her head. Maybe it was guilt that drove him to that. She remembered the hilt of the sword, gleaming from Po’grak’s body in the moonlight, right before she passed out. He’d gotten his revenge, finally. Maybe now that it was done, he was trying to make amends. But his revenge had always come first.
“What happened?” Erin asked, changing the subject, not wanting to think about Jaxor because it hurt too much, like her heart was this shredded thing barely hanging on. “Did…did they get the vaccine?”
“Yes,” Crystal said softly, squeezing her hand. “Thanks to you.”
“There were more vials,” Erin said, a small headache blooming when she pressed herself to remember. “In the medical bay. Did they find those?”
“Cruxan said Po’grak took them. Vaxa’an searched all over the spaceship for them, but Po’grak must’ve gotten rid of them. Or destroyed them. The only vaccine that remained was with you. And because of you, there…there might be hope for the Luxirian females. Privanax is already trying to create more. He’s barely rested at all.”
“And…and Kossira? Laccara? The Mevirax?” Erin asked, faces flashing in her mind.
“The Mevirax warriors that survived the battle were