Once again, a sense of kinship rose inside me. And once again, I struggled to beat it back. I did not want to think of her as tender-hearted, as someone who loved animals and snow like I did. I wanted her simple. One-note. An unrepentant, belligerent, evil little thief. I wanted her to be someone who deserved everything I could throw at her.

Make me hate you, I hissed inside my own head.

But, as she was wont to do, she disobeyed.

Instead, the tight wariness faded from her face, and the aching hope grew stronger, brighter, until I could no longer deny it.

I fisted the sontanna’s mane – gently, barely even holding the pink strands, a mere illusion of mastery – and uttered a quietly stern command meant to make it look like I was in control of the calm creature when such control was not at all required.

“You’re sure?” Torrance asked, one final brush of hesitation even as her hand rose in the air.

I have been sure of nothing since I found you.

“Yes,” was all I said.

Her hand floated upwards, trembling slightly. Her slender fingers made tentative contact with the sontanna’s mane. The sound of her gasp shot through me, like starlight spearing through water.

“Oh,” she whispered thickly, her other hand rising to stroke the sontanna. “Oh, you’re lovely, aren’t you?” The sontanna snuffled happily, as if in agreement. Her pink tail swished, and she lowered her nose, bumping it to Torrance’s cheek, knocking the hood back and nuzzling inward.

Torrance’s eyes went so wide I worried she’d been injured by the contact. My fist tightened, ready to wrench the sontanna back, but my fingers slackened instantly when Torrance began to laugh. It started as a shaky huffing sound that expanded into something louder, more melodic. Her eyes shone, glimmering with moisture as I’d seen them do before when she was unhappy, and I could not help but wonder what had made her sad even while she laughed.

I want you simple.

Sorrow and laughter. Innocence and treachery. A stolen crystal knife in a soft little hand. A hand that was stroking and petting with such gentleness now, reaching to hug the sontanna’s bent neck.

“Do you want to ride her?” The question was out before I could stop it. Torrance’s laughter ceased.

“I... I don’t know how. I’ve never ridden a horse on Earth.”

“You don’t need to know how. I do.”

“You mean I’d be riding with you?”

She looked at me aslant, rolling her lips between her teeth, clearly weighing whether riding the sontanna would be worth sitting that close to me.

I was about to snatch the offer back, to order her back up to her room, to shove her into her place, the place of a prisoner I could at least try to control and understand.

I opened my mouth to do it, but it was her voice that echoed on the air.

“Fine.”

We watched each other, as if both testing the other’s nerve. I released the sontanna’s mane and grasped Torrance’s waist. Ignoring her cries of, “Just get me a stool! Or stirrups!” I hoisted her upward and set her on the sontanna’s back.

With a beat of my wings, I lifted to join her. I straddled the sontanna, and when I got into position behind Torrance, feeling her narrow hips pressed between my splayed thighs, I knew I’d made a grave error of judgment.

Perhaps she also wondered about my judgment.

“Why are you doing this? Why did you even let me out here?”

The answer was something I would not even attempt to untangle for her. Instead, like my false show with the sontanna a moment ago, I lied.

“I merely thought you’d respond to my interrogation better somewhere other than your room,” I said. I decided that I could make that into something other than a lie and that I would use this time to question her.

“Oh,” she said, the word flat and unreadable. I fought the urge to grab her by the shoulders and twist her so that I could see her face. Her hood was still lowered, her hair warm as a breeze stirred the strands against my chest and neck.

With a Sionnachan command and a tightening of my legs, I urged the sontanna into motion. The jostle of movement made Torrance slide sideways, and my right arm looped around her waist, steadying her. I found I did not know what to do with my other hand, so I curled it into a fist against my thigh.

She was tense as twine pulled too tight in my hold.

But she did not tell me to let go.

I did not need reigns, or even gestures or words to direct the sontanna. I merely had to use my power to clear the snow, like I’d done while we were walking, and the sontanna followed the path. As it walked, I made good on my promise of interrogation and asked Torrance questions of her people, her world, and why they’d ever dared to come here.

“We need resources,” she told me. “Cleaner power sources to fuel our planet to help preserve our environment. At least, that’s what our mission was about. We were studying your trees.”

“Stealing them, you mean,” I butted in, remembering what I’d seen when I’d first returned. Tools and trees all carved up.

She breathed out heavily.

“Yes. I fully admit that. What we were doing was wrong. We came here uninvited and started taking things from your land. I completely understand why you’re angry. I would be, too. I am, in fact.” Her voice turned brittle. “I didn’t want this. None of us did. We were abducted by our own government for the mission. No one on Earth even knows what’s happening. It’s all secret, what they’re doing.” She paused, then quietly said, “I wish I knew what happened to them.”

“To whom?”

“To the other women like me. The women the military brought here. We’re all scientists; we all have different skills that were useful on the mission. But we were too low-ranking on Earth to have the clearance to know the details of the program before we were taken. None of us would have agreed to go anyway, knowing we were essentially invading other worlds. So, instead of asking us to volunteer, or training us, they took us against our will.”

“Why only women?”

Stone sky gods produced only male offspring, which necessitated us finding our mates on other worlds, among other peoples. But I did not believe the humans were this way – I’d thought many of the ones I’d killed were male.

“We have our theories,” she said darkly. She hesitated, then added, “We heard about one mission. To a different planet. The crew was killed and all the women were taken hostage by male aliens. We think that us all being female was on purpose. To maybe use us as leverage, somehow, if needed. To bargain with our bodies.”

My lip curled in disgust at that. If that was true, then I was doubly glad I’d killed so many of the ones with weapons, and only wished I had killed more.

Whether it was true, though, remained to be seen. I still could not tell if she was telling the truth about being a victim or trying to curry some sort of favour with me.

“I wish I could find them,” she sighed, sagging, tension ebbing from her body. “I don’t want to go back to being stuck on the ship against my will, but I just want to make sure my friends are OK.”

Even if I’d wanted to help her in that, I wouldn’t have been able to. I could open doors to other worlds but had to know which world to go to first, and I had no idea where her people’s machine had ended up. It was why I needed the council’s help to find out where Skalla was now, especially since Rúnwebbe would not tell me. They could use one of the relics of Heofonraed to locate people in the sprawling map of the cosmos. They could find Skalla. And her people’s ship.

But that didn’t matter now. The council wouldn’t let me anywhere near them while unmated, and Rúnwebbe’s prophecy forbade me from ever finding my fated bride.

But...

I straightened, the air feeling suddenly colder and sharper as an idea began to take shape inside me. I could not track down my true mate for fear of triggering her death, but the only way to access the Council of the Gods was as a mated male. But what if I married someone who wasn’t my true mate? There was no way to know for sure a male was mated. Not unless you caught him rutting his woman with his knot swollen for her and only her. Although, there was the lingering threat of mate-madness and star-darkness... But neither of those things had touched me yet. If I acted quickly enough, they might hold off long enough for me to join the council. I’d be able to learn what was going on in there and find out where Skalla was.