Chapter Fifteen: Tajriba
The hot sun beat down on Kia’s head, sweat dripped down her neck, and she breathed in the thick humid air as she waited on the landing field with Nagavi, behind Rial, watching the shuttle, emblazoned with the emperor’s emblem, settle onto its landing pod.
The doors slid open, the stairs extended, and a dozen of the emperor’s personal guard descended before Teyrn emerged into the sunlight.
Her heart danced a mad rhythm.
“Check,” muttered Nagavi through closed lips.
Kia’s ingrained response to the command calmed the stampeding wild animals trampling her innards within minutes.
Before they’d boarded the shuttle, Rial tilted her face upward and kissed her, a gentle lingering of his lips on hers. He told her he wouldn’t acknowledge her once they left the flagship,
