Chapter One
LORNE
Earth.
13 Years Ago.
Six days before Liberation Week.
* * *
The air whistled past my face, and I fell to the mat, rolling.
Clang.
The metal baton missed me by too little.
I rolled.
Clang. Right by my face.
Rolled.
Clang. I needed to get off the floor.
A hand pinned me, shoving my back hard into the mat. Cool metal touched my neck.
“That’s match.” Rysden didn’t need to say the words, but I hated the finality.
I tapped my hand on the floor, and Rysden let me go.
I’d failed. Again. For the fourth time in twenty minutes.
My breathing was already slowing, but the disappointment lingered.
“Your head’s not present, Lorne.” Rysden sat next to me. His long blond hair was pulled away from his face. It didn’t even have a hint of gray in it yet, but he had scars from hard battles won. We both wore only loose pants, but my chest was covered in sweat while he looked like he’d been having a nice relaxing time.
“You wanted to talk, but you haven’t said anything yet,” Rysden said.
“I’m too angry to talk. I thought sparring first would help gather my thoughts so that we could have a rational discussion, but that’s not working.” I sat up, resting my hands on my knees.
“Because your mind isn’t in tune with your body. You’re thinking about one thing while pushing your body through the paces, but you can’t win if your focus is divided.”
I could beat him. I usually did. But not today.
This room was smaller than our practice room at home, but it was the best Rysden could do on Earth. The black Earther practice mats were more unforgiving than the high-tech flooring at home, but that had improved my fighting. One splat on this floor was enough for me to try harder. He’d set up a forty-foot climbing wall on one side, similar to the one at home, but with the difference in flooring, this one was far more dangerous.
But not even the fear of broken bones would help my focus tonight. Rysden was right about that.
“I know you’re angry with me, Your Highness. But everything will be okay.”
He was reminding me of my status—like I could forget it—but he knew me better than most. And what I had on my mind was something my father would hate. “No. I’m not sure that it will be. I think we should leave all SpaceTech-owned space. All the Aunare. Not just me. Not just Amihanna. Anyone with even a drop of our blood in them should go. Now. Today.”
“Why?” There were warring notes of hope and fear in his voice. “Did Declan say something?”
I wished I had something that concrete. Something that I could take to my father’s advisers, but I didn’t. “My father thinks everything’s fine. That Earthers don’t like the Aunare, but he believes things are stable.” I ran my hand through my hair, pulling it free from the tie. “He doesn’t see the way they look at me or what’s whispered behind my back when I’m in public. They don’t think I speak their language.”
Rysden let out a deep laugh. “They’re idiots if they think that wasn’t the first thing many of us did over a decade ago.”
“They didn’t take the time to learn our language, so they make assumptions.” In this case, their assumption was in my favor. “The reports are getting worse across all the SpaceTech-owned colonies. No matter what Declan thinks, Earthers are getting violent. And you had to have seen what SpaceTech’s fascist CEO and his protégé son said on the news today.” There was no way Rysden missed the call to action the Murtaghs gave the Earthers. I knew he was paying as close attention to it as I was, if not more so.
Things were escalating quickly, but I was leaving tomorrow, with my best friend—and the black sheep of the Murtagh family—Declan. Our fathers cooked up this sham of a treaty as a way to grow a bond between cultures. Our friendship would serve as an example for both our people. It was supposed to be a show of faith between leaders.
For nearly seven years, I’d spent six months on Earth with Declan, and then he’d spent six months with me on Sel’Ani. As far as I could tell, it only cemented a friendship between Declan and me. Everyone else hated each other as much as the day the treaty began, if not more so.
The treaty would end in six months—just a few weeks shy of Declan’s eighteenth birthday. His father wanted him back by then so he could start working up SpaceTech’s ranks, just like his older brother Jason. I was beyond glad that this was the final day of my final stay on Earth. This place would never be home, and I was a couple months shy of my nineteenth birthday. I needed to start focusing on something other than the obligations of the treaty.
Usually, Rysden’s family traveled with me, but tomorrow, he was leaving his wife and daughter behind. If they meant nothing to me, I would fight him on this, but they’d become my family, too. I couldn’t let this happen.
“I know we have six months left in the treaty, but you cannot leave Amihanna here tomorrow. It’s getting bad here. It’s a death sentence for both of them.”
Rysden looked off at something beyond me, and I wondered how much of this he already knew.
“She’s only six years old, and she’s your daughter.” If things went badly—like we both thought they would—then Amihanna was in danger. “Don’t you want to protect her? To protect your wife?”
“Of course I do!” His skin flared bright as he screamed the words. The fao’ana across his chest and arms burned with a bright blue light that was almost too bright to look at.
He clenched his hands tightly and let out a long slow breath. As the air left his lungs, the glow of his skin dimmed a bit, but it didn’t go away. Not entirely.
“By order of your father, the king—I’m to escort you home. As soon as I’ve followed through on that order, I’ll come straight back.” His voice was steady and calm again as if he hadn’t just lost his temper.
“But why?”
“I’m the head of the military. Apparently, I’m supposed to leave my family here as a show of my confidence in our alliance, even during tense times.”
“That’s idiotic. No. Worse. It’s reckless.”
“I had the same reaction you did, but your father worries that if Amihanna came with us, then it would be taken as an insult. It would say that I don’t trust the Earthers enough to leave my only child here.” He breathed out hard—a sign that he was trying to keep his anger in check.
Seeing his struggle calmed me a little. At least we agreed about how stupid my father was.
Rysden covered his mouth with his hand as he took in the rhythmic Aunare breath, slowly gaining his composure. After a moment, he dropped his hand and cleared his throat. “The important thing to remember is that we’ll have Declan with us. SpaceTech won’t act while we have one of its heirs, and if they move against us, at least we’ll have a bargaining chip.”
“We’ll have a bargaining chip? I don’t want it to ever get that far.” That was unacceptable, and clearly he agreed if he needed breathing exercises to maintain his temper. “My father’s a coward. We can’t risk losing my betrothed just to stave off some stupid insult.” I was trying to think this through rationally, but there was no logic here. “I have this feeling that if we leave Amihanna and your wife here…”