“My mother was a radical. She thought that we needed to abandon our war-mongering ways. That’s why we were in hiding. She stole away with the three of us after our father, the king, was slayed in trial by combat by my uncle.”

“The Overlord,” I say, and my chest aches at the thought of his poor mother, forced into hiding because she wanted to change the Roth to be gentler.

He dips his head in acknowledgment. “My mother… was different. She abhorred bloodshed of any kind, thought we were setting ourselves up for failure. She thought our ways were wrong, that the virus cropping up and decimating our females was a sign of the gods’ wrath towards us. She told us the gods used to give messages and speak with us, but that had not happened in many, many years, as the Roth grew more and more warlike. She taught us to fight because she wanted us to survive. My mother knew we would need those skills, along with the other things she taught us, like how to care for one another. How to look out for each other, to think for ourselves. She wanted the world to be different, wanted us to be the reason it changed. I have… I have failed her.”

He drops my hands, and his own fist at his sides. His flames die, the orange in his eyes replaced by full black.

“No, you haven’t. Look at what you’re doing.” But he doesn’t seem relieved. No, on the contrary, he seems even more upset.

“She sounds like a special person. Roth.” I shrug, feeling like an idiot, struggling with the fact that his mother wasn’t a person, but an alien. The alien species that killed my own family. “Thank you for saying she would like me. That was kind of you.”

“I am not a kind male. Nor a good one.” He gives me a heated look that makes my toes curl.

“No, that’s not what I said. Do I think you’re evil and cruel? The villain?” I tilt my head and purse my lips, pretending to mull it over. To my delight, he laughs, just a little. I take one of his hands again, holding it tight, needing him to understand what I’m trying to say, to feel my sincerity. “Are you perfect? No. No one is. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t kindness in you. Besides, you’re taking me back to Earth. Right? That’s pretty kind. You have given me choices, whereas with the other Roth? I never had a choice. Ever.”

A guilty look plays across face. “I told you that, yes. It does not mean I want to.”

“Doing the right thing even when you don’t want to is the height of decency and honor,” I tell him, and for some reason, a lump forms in my throat.

He grunts and starts to open his mouth when the comms tablet dings, a shrill noise that shocks me back to reality.

“Shit.” I scrub a hand down my face. “I forgot to comm Sueva and let the warlords there know I’m safe.”

“I am not afraid of the Suevans,” he growls, his eyes pricking with fiery light again.

“No one said you were, Smokey the Bear,” I tell him, annoyed. “But I don’t want them risking themselves on some hare-brained mission to save me when I’m here by choice.”

He studies me, then hands me the comms tablet from where it’s tucked in a pocket.

I stretch my neck, then tap the sequence that will accept the comm.

Niki’s face fills the screen.

“Leigh,” she says, and her face turns slack with relief. “You’re alright?”

“Hi, Captain Jacks,” I tell her. “I am. I’m fine.”

“Did Nydo coerce you into going with him?” she asks bluntly.

“Well, he said that once I helped him, he would take me back to Earth. So here we are. I left a note.”

“Back to Earth?” She blinks, as though this hasn’t even occurred to her, like none of us could possibly want to go back to Earth.

“Yeah,” I say tartly. “Some of us actually want to go back, you know? Some of us aren’t happy cozying up to an alien warlord and playing house.” I’m surprised at the venom in my own voice.

Niki’s mouth makes a thin line, and she lifts her chin up. “I understand. But you could have told us —told me—you wanted to return to Earth. We would have eventually figured out a way to negotiate your return. You didn’t have to take off and leave us wondering if you’d been coerced or hurt. We’ve now sent valuable resources after you, to ensure your safety.”

Guilt rises in me, a tidal wave of it, threatening to pull me under.

“I left a note,” I say stubbornly.

“Your resources are unnecessary,” Nydo interrupts. “We are safest alone. We are carrying out the mission you wanted us to, to divert the Overlord’s attention from Earth and Sueva. Leigh and the other women are of utmost importance to our plan. Would you like to hear it, Captain Jacks?”

Her gaze turns wary and calculating, and Nydo slips an arm around my waist as he shares the small comm screen with me. Butterflies flutter in my stomach at the easy, familiar contact.

“Yes,” she says flatly.

“The Overlord thinks to sell the idea of humans to be bred, as breeders only, to the rest of the remaining Roth. He knows as well as I do that our species is dying, and quickly. He knows that the key to remaining a power in this universe is increasing our numbers, and quickly. But the way he wants to do it, by forcing human females to breed, is repugnant, is it not?”

Niki nods, her eyes still narrowed in suspicion.

“So I will show the Roth that there is another way. That human females can be mated, and not just to be bred. They are strong, and capable, and smart, and to look at them only as vessels for our young is to do ourselves a disservice. We must not force them into anything, but treat them like the queens they are. Like our queen.” His fingers squeeze my back, and I clear my throat, nervous, trying not to think too hard about what he’s saying.

Niki’s eyes dart between us, and I just know, I just know, she’s thinking the same thing I am. That he doesn’t sound like he’s going to let me go.

But I have to believe him.

I have to.

“And when Leigh returns to Earth… you think they will just accept this?”

“I think that Roth are smart enough to understand that even if I do not have my mate with me, they are lucky to have theirs. I am not simply speaking about making more young. I am speaking about an alliance that will keep everyone safe. The human females from being sold into the worst imaginable circumstance, and the Roth, to stop our marauding ways that end up in death and death alone.”

“Hmm,” Niki says, and her expression barely changes. “I see.”

“I have no need of a Suevan escort to Roth,” Nydo continues, his eyes flaring hot enough that the orange reflects off the comms tablet surface. “I am powerful enough on my own.”

“You’re taking her to Roth?” Niki’s wary expression turns to pure surprise. “And you don’t want help?”

Nydo leans forward, his teeth audibly grinding. “And you think the Suevans are the sign I need to send my people that this is best? The Suevans and the Roth do not get along. We never have. My species has a long memory, and the settlement wars were not long ago at all.”

“You got along well enough when you were here. Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you came to be with us, Nydo,” Niki bares her teeth at him, the expression feral. “Don’t think that just because you spin a good story now, with Leigh at your side, I trust you will do what’s best for her. I know who you are.”

“You think you know. You know nothing,” he sneers, every inch the imperious jerk.

“Okay.” I put my hands up, annoyed. “I know you don’t like how he treated you and Draz, but he was low on options.”

“Do you know what he did to us?” Niki asks me, the veneer of command slipping away as worry—real, unfeigned worry—turns her mouth down. “Do you know who you’re with? He’ll do anything to get his way. I don’t trust him, and I’m worried about you.”

Nydo’s huge shoulders tense, and his hand drops away from my side. I bite my lip.

“I trust him.”

Do I? Do I really though? Well, I’ve made my bed, and I better fucking lie in it.