Adamant Spirits

Tarak

Tarak

In the deepest part of the night, I hear her.

First, it is the rustle of sheets. Then a soft yawn. A quickening of breath; a shuffle of feet.

She does not cry out. She is not afraid, because she can sense me. She knows we are in the room beside hers.

Still, she comes.

I detect a soft patter of tiny feet on the floor.

Then she is at the door, peering inside, her eyes wide and bright.

Like me, she can see perfectly well in darkness. She sees me awake and opens her mouth, mischief hovering on her lips.

I put a finger to my lips and narrow my eyes. Quiet.

She goes still, c***s her head, and nods. Defying me has become a little game to her of late, but she knows when I am being serious. A smile curves her mouth as she bounds to my side and clambers into our bed, using me as a climbing frame.

Her sweet, innocent scent surrounds me. It calms me and stirs my deepest protective instincts.

I fear myself for what I would do if anyone tried to harm her or my mate.

I truly do.

I catch my daughter, wrapping my arm around her warm, wriggling little body just as she is about to launch herself across to the other side of the bed, where her mother lies asleep, wrapped in a cocoon of thick covers.

“Don’t wake your mother,” I whisper in Kordolian.

“Mommy,” Ami blurts, before opening her tiny mouth wide and letting out a sleepy yawn.

I put a finger to my lips. “Shh.”

Warmth fills my chest as I glance across at my mate.

In sleep, she is gloriously disheveled. Her hair spills across the pillow like a wild crown. Her eyelashes flutter ever so slightly; perhaps she is dreaming. Her lips are parted, tempting me even now.

She is curled tightly in the covers like a hibernating szkazajik.

She is perfectly imperfect; human, real.

And unlike me, she absolutely needs her sleep.

Otherwise, she will become a terrible tyrant in the morning. She gets even more annoyed whenever I inform her that she is especially cute when she is cranky.

Ami flops belly down onto my chest, arranging her arms and legs into a position that Abbey calls *little frog*.

“Cuddle,” she demands, throwing her arms around my neck. I curl my arm around her squirming little body. She shifts this way and that, trying to get comfortable. Her rapid heartbeat reverberates through my chest. She is a tiny bundle of energy, caught halfway between sleep and frantic activity.

She is confused. She is tired, but she wants to play.

But she needs to sleep so she can grow strong.

Together with my mate, I will rear my child to be strong.

After all, she is my offspring.

She has to become strong.

I place my hand on her back, caressing her back through the thin material of her shirt. “Shh, child,” I whisper. “There will be time for play in the morning.”

She stiffens, on the brink of throwing the Universe into chaos.

I run my hand over her silken hair, stroking it gently. “Shh, Ami. Sleep. I am here.”

After a tense moment, she relents, much to my relief.

Her breathing deepens.

Her body relaxes.

And just like that, she is asleep on my bare chest.

Her warmth seeps into my skin, evoking powerful emotions within me, emotions I never would have thought myself capable of.

My child.

My mate.

Mine.

But entwined with my fierce love is a thread of disquiet.

The night on Earth may be peaceful, but there have been distant rumblings in the Nine Galaxies.

War is coming.

I may have smashed the Empire, but it has split into millions of tiny fragments that have scattered across the Universe.

Some have become deeply embedded. Like poisonous seeds, they are starting to grow. My people are not so easily put down.

I know that.

I am one of them, after all.

Soon, I will have to take my family away from this Earth they call home. I will do anything to keep them safe.

Anything.

Even if it means showing Abbey a side of me that she will surely despise.

I close my eyes and listen to the rhythm of Ami’s breathing. I feel her chest rise and fall beneath my hand. I feel the gentle puff of her breath against my bare skin.

For a moment, I allow myself to forget the darkness.

For a moment, I am perfectly at peace.

If only I could capture this feeling and make it last forever.