else has a secret transmitter hidden on us, right?”
“No, my mate.” He looked down at Lily, using her hands to walk the spider up the spout, and frowned. “I do not like to take her out in these conditions.”
“It’s only a little rain.” As if in answer to her words, the drumming on the roof increased and she gave him a rueful smile. “Okay, a lot of rain. But we’ll wrap her up well and you can tuck her against your chest. How long will it take to get to Hrebec?”
“An hour? Perhaps a little less.”
“Then she’ll be fine,” she said firmly, doing her best to hide her own concern. She smiled down at her daughter. “Are you ready to go for a ride with Daddy, Lily?”
“Ride?”
“Yes, baby. On his cycle. It flies in the air and goes vroom, vroom.”
“More like splutter, splutter,” Inzen muttered, but he scooped Lily up and flew her around the room making vroom, vroom noises. She giggled happily, and Jade forced herself out of the warm bed to locate everything she could wrap around her daughter.
Inzen cut head and arm holes in the final two pillowcases and they dropped them over her head, then wrapped her in towels. When he tucked Lily inside his tunic, she started to wiggle and protest, but Jade told her that they were playing kangaroo and Lily accepted it.
“Are you sure about this?” Inzen asked as they walked out onto the porch. From here she could see the muddy water swirling beneath the cabin, indistinguishable from the stream. Only the top of the pink flyer was still visible. The rain continued to beat down around them. Even the leaves of the grassy trees were bending towards the ground.
“I’m sure. Just be careful.” She forced a smile. “If the conditions get worse, and you need to take longer, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”
“My brave letari.” His tail circled around her waist and pulled her closer. “But there is nothing in this world or the next that will stop me from coming back for you.”
He dropped a quick kiss on her lips and turned towards the stairs.
“Mama, come,” Lily demanded, her lip trembling, when she realized that Jade wasn’t following them.
“Not right now, baby. I’ll catch up with you in a little while.”
“Mama!” she wailed, and Jade saw Inzen hesitate. He cast a troubled look at her over his shoulder before he tightened his arms around Lily and descended the steps.
The water reached up to his thighs and her heart skipped a beat as he staggered, but then his tail rose, balancing him, and he hurried up the hill, Lily still protesting. With the wet leaves weighed down by the rain, she could watch them climb aboard the flimsy-looking hovercycle. It looked much too small for Inzen’s big body, and she held her breath until it lifted into the air. He turned towards her and she forced herself to smile and lift a hand in salute. He raised his own hand and then the cycle flew slowly away, leaving her alone with nothing but the pounding of the rain and the rushing water.
Without her daughter or her mate, the small cabin seemed lonely and rather shabby. The remnants of her previous sewing efforts still littered the kitchen table and she picked them up with a sigh. Even if they were no longer necessary, at least it would give her something to do.
The rain continued in a steady downpour while she sewed but it lightened enough that she heard the soft thud of a footstep on the porch and spun around eagerly.
“That didn’t take you long—”
Her words came to an abrupt halt. Instead of Inzen’s big body, the Ruijin filled the doorway. He had found her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Did you expect me to linger? I told you that I would track you down, human.” The Ruijin raised a shaggy brow. “I would have been here sooner if the Trevelorian navigation systems weren’t so primitive. I had to walk in from the road.”
A bead of cold sweat slid down her spine, but she kept her face calm and raised her chin. Thank God Lily was no longer here.
“I was not expecting you at all. I was expecting my mate.”
“Your mate?” He threw back his head and laughed, revealing a disturbing number of gleaming white fangs. “One does not mate with those from the primitive planet. Although, they do have their uses.”
His eyes slid over her with obvious lust and she had to hide a