No, he watches me with a curious expression.

It’s been like a never-ending slumber party with him, one filled with touching and kissing. My face heats just to think about it.

I’ve been trying so hard to ignore my feelings about him, but as Roth grows larger and larger, as we approach our ultimate destination… I wonder if I’m being an idiot.

Nydo is… complicated, yes.

Nydo isn’t what I expected at all.

But we’re by ourselves on the ship, no one else around for him to impress or manipulate, and I wonder if this is just some false moment, and the guard he’s seemingly let down will be firmly back in place once there are other Roth around. If he’ll turn back into the asshole he was.

He’s put me first the entire time we’ve been in flight. Made me food, washed me, comforted me. Talked through strategy with me, made me his confidant. Held me close in the small, dark hours of the night, made me laugh with a dry sense of humor I never would have guessed he possessed.

It feels like a dream.

And with Roth on the horizon, I know it’s time to wake up.

“Are you ready?” he asks me, for the one hundredth time. I think he knows, too, that this has been a strange diversion, that what we’ve had here on the ship isn’t real.

I smile at him, and it’s sad. I feel sad. “Let’s go get your throne,” I tell him. “And then I’ll go back to Earth.”

He contemplates me, his jaw twitching. “Right,” he manages.

The ship whines a warning, the proximity alarms wailing. I reach up, turning off the sound. “Looks like they found us,” I say.

We’ve been ready for this. We knew they would.

I adjust the black crown on my head, arranging my hair over one shoulder, sitting up straight and putting on the resting bitch face that Nydo laughed at yesterday and told me was perfect.

It doesn’t seem funny anymore.

Two Roth destroyers appear, and I glance over at Nydo.

For support, I realize. He reaches a hand over, and then my knuckles are against his lips.

“I will keep you safe, my flame.” He kisses my hand, and my heart squeezes with sudden affection. His nickname for me is the cutest thing ever, and way better than any other nickname I’ve had. I love it.

He lets my hand go, and I tug my gown into place, making sure everything’s where it’s supposed to be.

One of the destroyers hails us, and Nydo shoots me one last, unidentifiable look before accepting their ship’s comm.

“Identification,” the Roth captain immediately barks, filling the window with his image.

“Nydo, the King of Roth, and his queen, Leigh of Earth,” he says crisply. “We’re here to bring Roth to heel, whether peacefully or not is your choice.”

The captain stares. He laughs, and the ship beeps a warning of incoming missiles. I flip the switch, the bracelets wrapped around my bicep jingling as they move against each other.

Nydo ignites, his control over his fire and energy manipulation more precise than ever. I asked him about it yesterday, how he does it, and he just smiled at me, full of mystery. He’s a thing of beauty, the flames cascading all around him, his eyes bright orange, his hair rising on an unseen wind. A flail made of pure flame appears in his hand.

I smile, and it’s bitchy and mean.

We spent yesterday afternoon with him making up weapons out of his fire, which was cool as hell. He cycled through swords and all kinds of weird things before we decided on this one. It looks badass, and based on what he told me, it’s going to pack a real fucking punch when it comes to a fight.

Maybe I am as bloodthirsty as he says, because I love it.

It might be petty of me, but I’m enjoying the shocked look on the Roth’s face on our comm a little too much.

“You access the power of the gods?” he breathes, his face ashen. “No one has been able to tap into our primal power in centuries.”

Nydo simply glowers —and glows—and I try to pretend like this isn’t news to me. Like, yeah, of course he accesses godly powers, why wouldn’t he?

But he didn’t tell me that. He didn’t tell me that they would welcome him as not only a returning king but also a… king tapping into godly powers… and that feels, well, it doesn’t feel great.

What else hasn’t he told me?

“You took a human as queen?”

“I am his mate,” I tell him, and out of the corner of my eye, I see Nydo’s mouth twitch into a possessive smile.

“You are a human,” he says. “You cannot be our queen. You do not bear the marks of matehood.”

“Speak to my mate again and I will destroy your ship where you stand.”

He drops his gaze, and my heart beats faster. That’s not the first time someone has brought up mating marks, or whatever. Roghat at the settlement did, too. The warning light that signals their ships are targeting us stops blinking.

They’re not going to blow us out of the sky. Nydo told me he could blow up their plas missiles before they even left their silos, but I’m not sure I believe him.

If he was able to do that, then why did he let the destroyer at Ikkox get so close? He could have just blown it out of the sky, without my one-in-a-million crack shot at the auto-aim.

Nydo shoots a glance my way, and I nod once, swiping the comms tablet and alerting Roghat’s ships that they’re clear to uncloak. They wink into being all around, about fifty strong, all equipped with Roth weapons tech.

The other settlements Lyko and Ayro are trying to drum up support at will be key in taking down the Overlord’s massive warship, but it’s a sign of how few Roth are left that this is all we need to take Nydo’s home planet.

“This is my honor guard,” Nydo says, his voice dripping with disdain. “We will land on Roth now.”

“But the Overlord—”

“The Overlord’s days are numbered,” I say. “We are here to cement our place as king and queen, to honor the old ways and the gods of Roth, and then we will take care of the Overlord.”

“Do you doubt us?” Nydo finishes, our carefully planned speech going just as we rehearsed.

The ball on the end of the fire flail glows white-hot, and I squint at the comms screen.

“If you do,” Nydo continues, his lazy, self-satisfied drawl returning. I haven’t heard him like this in days, I realize. I try to hide my surprise, shifting in my seat. “If you do doubt us, we can make sure you never doubt anything ever again.”

“You are cleared for entry,” the Roth officer on the screen says. “We honor the old ways,” he adds, now staring openly at me. “We will welcome your future queen and mate.”

The comms drop, and I’m left alone with Nydo.

“Strap in,” he says gruffly, his flail and flames disappearing.

“What, exactly, are the old ways? You told me it was just a ceremony,” I say, suspicion growing, a knotty, thorny ball of it making my stomach roil. “You told me they would give me a crown and put me on a throne. You didn’t say anything about mating marks. Or that they thought your powers were holy. Those are both kind of big things to leave out.”

His jaw twitches, and I’m full of doubt.

I hadn’t realized how much I was starting to trust him until this moment, when it’s been ripped away from me.

Nydo’s fingers flick across the control board, and then we’re soaring to Roth, which looms larger and larger, much like the pit in my stomach.

I pull the safety webbing over myself, preparing for landing.

And preparing for the inevitable possibility that I’ve let my emotions, my barest trust in a Roth, lead to my own downfall.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

OceanofPDF.com

NYDO

She suspects. My little flame, my red-haired mate, is stiff and nervous next to me. We descend from the ship into the once-bustling heart of Roth.