Fated Mate Conquered - Luna Voss Page 0,55

the display in front of him. “Let’s give it another couple minutes. Just to be sure.”

Ten minutes later, he disengages the hyperspace engine, and I go into an empty cabin to send a private message to the Butarza Family underboss.

Kora

Another knock on my door. I sigh. “What is it?”

It’s Turan. “I just wanted to let you know that we have a destination,” he says through the door. “We’re heading to Turvada, a Vostra planet controlled by the Butarza Family. We’re going to meet with the underboss and decide what we want to do with Rizban next.”

“Okay, thanks,” I reply flatly.

I wait for the sound of Turan walking away from the door, but I don’t hear it. He must still be standing there, waiting for me to say something else or trying to think of something to say himself. I stay quiet, barely even breathing. I can wait longer than he can. Eventually, I hear his footsteps moving on.

21

Kora

We reach Turvada six days later. Things between Turan and I haven’t improved at all: at this point, he’s basically given up trying to talk to me, and we’ve also stopped having sex. I can’t say I don’t miss it, but I just feel so emotionally distant from him. Most of the journey is spent in my room, avoiding the others and practicing using my power. And by the time we reach our destination, even that has started to fade. Before, I was able to move my pillow across the room and control it with an increasing degree of accuracy. I was even starting to pick up heavier objects like my suitcase and having success. Now it feels like a distant memory. My last attempt, yesterday, I couldn’t even lift my pillow off the bed.

I feel pathetic.

“We’re starting to enter Turvada’s atmosphere,” Turan tells me as I sit in the mess room. “Do you want to come to the bridge while we touch down?”

“I can see it fine from here,” I tell him, gesturing to the viewport next to me.

He returns to the bridge looking disappointed.

I watch through the viewport as we descend. It’s day on this side of the planet. Soon, I can see the topography of the world below us. The environment at first looks very open, with lots of green fields, and then turns urban as the rapidly-approaching thing in the distance reveals itself to be a giant, sprawling city. The place we dock our ship this time is in the open air, rather than a closed hangar.

I only go out to join Turan, Geddion, and Rojan on the bridge as the ship touches down. When we open the door to the outside, we’re greeted immediately by four intimidating-looking Voorians carrying rifles.

“Rizban Gordulla is on your ship?” one of them asks. Turan nods. Two of them immediately climb on board.

“This way,” says another, gesturing for us to follow. “Metturion will see you immediately.”

Turan

I’ve never met Metturion Butarza before. I’ve only ever talked to him over private comm channels. As the underboss of the Butarza Family, he’s the second most powerful man in our entire organization, and as close to the actual boss as I’ve ever come. The way our Family is structured, Metturion is the only one who knows our leader’s true identity.

I’ve also never been to Turvada before. Turvada is one of our oldest planets, one of the first to be fully controlled by Butarza. Technically, it lies within Imperial space, but the local government officials have a history and culture of corruption that goes back centuries. They’ve been in the pocket of one Vostra family or another since before their territory even became a part of the Empire. As a result, we’re safer here then we are in many systems outside of Imperial control.

“Did you say this was a subject planet?” I hear Kora asking Geddion as we walk, following the two armed guards.

“Technically,” he replies, “but Vostra planets aren’t like other subject planets. The Empire doesn’t rule here, we do. At least unofficially. And we take care of things. On Vostra planets, the citizens don’t spend their whole lives teetering on the edge of poverty. And they don’t have to worry about crime, either. We make sure of that.”

“You mean they don’t have to worry about crime that isn’t committed by the Vostra.”

“I suppose that’s true,” says Geddion, sounding amused. “But in our culture, we look at things differently. The Vostra has existed for hundreds of years, since the days of the old Voorian Empire. We took