our brave warriors and the power of the divine goddesses, I am ready.”
Since the day her family had been taken, she’d been rushing toward an unknown destiny with her eyes closed. Now, for the first time, her eyes were open wide. It was time to rid the palace of its traitors and hold the Empire at bay, confining it to the infested corner of the galaxy where it belonged. “I’m going to tell them what happened today, and that it was the second time someone has tried to take my beloved husband from me. I will give that person or persons the chance to confess and avoid the worst of punishments. If they don’t—and I doubt they will—they will soon wish they were dead.”
Keira shed her clothes quickly. It was difficult to summon patience as the eunuchs slipped on her dress and adorned her hair and wrists with sapphires to match a ceremonial gown of royal blue.
With attendants milling around them, she walked up to Jared and worriedly smoothed his Earth tie. He wore the dark suit she liked best. It emphasized his broad shoulders and narrow waist. Too bad it did little to show off his tight ass and rock-hard thighs, but he would not be pleased about appearing in public in a loincloth. He would not even do it for her in private—and she’d asked.
A surge of emotion filled her chest. In the midst of the chaos, she wasn’t alone. She had her adorable, sexy, maddening, deliciously barbaric Terran to depend on. She leaned closer. “In the dark, you are my light,” she said. “Your arms are my safe haven; your heart is my strength. With you at my side I feel as if I can fly. I love you, Jared of Earth.”
He looked so shocked by her poetic profession that she laughed as she came up on her toes to kiss him. “I love you, I love you,” she murmured against his parted lips. “You see, I cannot stop saying it, so you will have to get used to it.”
She took a step back, a little unsure of his expression. She had no doubt that he loved her back; he showed it in so many ways. But he had never told her in words. She realized now on this important evening how much she wanted to hear those words.
She pouted. “You do not feel the same?”
He captured her face in his hands. “Of course, I do. But, Keira, I—”
“Supreme-second Fair Cirrus sent me, Your Highness,” a security officer called out to Jared. “Your weapon, Prince Jared.”
He seemed to wince at the officer’s use of his official title. Her husband was acting strangely.
She pondered him as he armed himself with a military-grade weapons belt, complete with a pistol, a dagger, and a shock-grenade to temporarily disable an attacker. She tamped down on a surge of the old fear. If she wanted to save his life, she had to be strong.
Jared shrugged his suit over the weapons, hiding them. “Armed and ready,” he said. Together they returned to the corridor.
She loves you. Jared felt like the biggest jerk in the galaxy as he walked next to his wife. The biggest jerk and the biggest fake.
He loved her with everything he had, but he hadn’t wanted to say it until she was fully aware of his identity. He rehearsed in his mind how he’d break the news.
But not yet, not now. She’d need all her focus to address her government. As soon as the session was over and they were in their private quarters, he’d tell her everything.
People had come from all over the palace to glimpse the queen. As Keira assumed her royal stance and moved through the crowd, some touched her, some simply stared; still others dropped down on one knee, hands clasped under their chins.
She touched those who dropped in supplication. “Go with the goddess,” she told them. Still more bowed, paying homage.
Within seconds, they were surrounded by the pale blue robes of her attendants, who formed a protective barrier between her and her subjects. But hands slipped through the bodies to touch Keira’s sleeves or some other part of her.
Serene, she smiled. Now he knew why the traitors had raised her to be afraid of appearing in public—it was so she wouldn’t venture out and discover her power. This power. These people loved her. They’d do anything for her.
Outside the parliamentary chambers, an enormous media screen displayed a crowd that was swiftly gathering to get a