taken into custody. They are here. As are the ones that were at their base. The females too.”
Erin’s eyes closed. “Do you know what will happen to them?”
“No, I don’t,” Crystal confessed. “The council had been deliberating. Endlessly. I’ve hardly seen Cruxan the past few days.”
Erin nodded. She needed to talk to Privanax as soon as she could. She needed to tell him what the vaccine had done to Laccara, the pain she’d felt. Though the vaccine had obviously worked with Kossira, she wondered if it was truly safe.
“And,” she started again, “what about the Jetutians? Their ship?”
“Those that survived have already been shipped off to the Uranian Federation. I think that’s what it’s called. It’s this separate governing body, overseeing politics and war matters for the universe. Can you imagine the headache of working there?” Crystal tried to joke.
Erin conjured a small laugh, though it made the wound over her chest pull sharply.
“Luxiria gets to keep their spaceship though,” Crystal added. “One less spaceship in the universe that can travel to the Fourth Quadrant, at least. That’s a silver lining.”
Erin nodded.
“Bianca will be leaving soon,” Crystal said softly. “If you’re staying, there’s no reason to delay her departure.”
Erin gave her a small smile. “They recovered the Luxirian crystal?”
The blonde nodded. “At the Mevirax base. They were just waiting for your decision.”
A tear escaped, tracking down Erin’s temple. She didn’t think she’d cried so much in her life, much less in front of another. But she couldn’t help it. Knowing that Bianca would be reunited with her family, knowing that she herself would never be reunited with her own, was a bittersweet feeling. It choked her. The pain of it was hard to swallow.
“Tell them to go,” Erin whispered, squeezing Crystal’s hand, looking at her through watery eyes. “She shouldn’t have to wait any longer.”
Bianca had a family of her own, a daughter, a husband she loved dearly. She had waited long enough to see them again.
“I wrote a letter to Lauren, to my sister,” Crystal said softly. “All of us have written letters and given them to Bianca to deliver. I thought you’d want to do the same too.”
A sob rose in Erin’s throat and she nodded. “Y-yes, I’ll do that. I’ll do that now.”
When she struggled to rise, Crystal pressed her back and said, “Bianca won’t leave until she knows you’re fully recovered, that you’re okay. You don’t need to do it now. Give yourself time, Erin. You were kept as a prisoner for over a week and stabbed for God’s sake.”
Erin drew in a long, slow breath.
Crystal stroked her hair, sitting quietly beside her.
Then she said, “Jaxor’an has been asking about you. Almost every moment. I think Vaxa’an is going to have him gagged soon because he’s been driving his guards crazy.”
Erin’s lips pressed together. She wished she didn’t feel the flutter in her belly at the thought that he wanted to see her. She hated that she felt it.
“Do you want me to,” Crystal took in a deep breath, “send for him? So you two can talk?” When she didn’t reply, Crystal bit her lip again, her gaze dropping to her belly. “Does he know you’re pregnant?”
“No,” Erin whispered.
“Do you want to see him?”
Erin huffed out a small laugh, but she felt no amusement. Did she want to see him?
Yes. She wanted to see him so she could look him in the eye and ask why he’d betrayed her, why he’d lied to her at every turn. She wanted to see him to ensure that he was alive and unharmed, even though she wished she could hurt him. She wanted to see him to ask if he’d ever had any feelings for her, or if he’d just been lying about that too.
Mostly, she wanted to see him because she longed to see him and she hated that desperate need inside her. She longed to see those blue eyes, hear that dark voice.
What she needed was the truth, however.
“Yes,” she whispered to Crystal. “I need to see him.”
Chapter Forty-Three
His rixella was watching him as Vaxa’an led him into the room. She was small and observant and beautiful.
And though his wrists were chained, it didn’t stop him from crossing the short distance to her, his heartbeat thrumming in his chest wildly, and dropping his forehead to hers.
Her skin was warm. For spans, he’d been haunted by the memory of her lying on the forest floor, Po’grak on top of her, a blade jutting from her chest. He hadn’t