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Sazahk’s breath caught, and his gaze flicked to Garin’s lips, then back up into his eyes. “That’s a bold hypothesis.”
“I know.” Garin smiled ruefully. “And I know that after a lifetime of ignoring my own needs, there is very little evidence to support I have any idea what they even are.”
Yellow, brown, and green blushed across Sazahk’s nose as he chuckled. “You’re a very intelligent man, Garin, but I’m afraid that’s true. However…” Sazahk wrapped his long fingers around Garin’s wrist and turned his face into his palm. “There are strategies for testing bold hypotheses.”
“There are.” Garin inhaled deeply. He’d never been so ready to jump off a precipice. “Sazahk, I would like to test whether spending every waking second with you makes me happier than I have ever been in my entire life.”
Sazahk laughed, the bright sound and the yellow spreading across his nose giving him a radiance that rivaled any star in the galaxy. He flung his arms around Garin’s neck and pulled him close until their lips brushed. “I will gladly conduct that experiment with you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
One Month Later
Sazahk stared at the image projected onto the back of his eyelids.
The young qeshian woman in the picture smiled radiantly at the camera as she clutched an infant to her chest. When Sazahk had last seen her, she’d been ten years younger, and he’d been sliding an IV into her vein.
But she had smiled at him then, just as radiantly.
Sazahk had thought of her often in his first years of exile before archiving the memories away in a dusty, avoided corner of his mind. He had assumed she’d perished like all the children before her.
She hadn’t.
“Interesting data?”
Sazahk opened his eyes as Garin entered the lab, dressed in the same suit he’d worn to the gala. Sazahk loved him in that suit, but then Sazahk loved him in anything, everything, and nothing.
“I’ve finished with the data, actually, and while I did find it interesting, I’ve been more focused on this.” Sazahk tossed the image of the girl up onto his lab’s main screen. “The Qeshian Institute released the results of my experiments to me.”
“Is that…?” Garin’s mouth fell open as he approached.
Sazahk nodded. “The last girl I administered treatment to.”
Garin spun toward him, beaming. “She survived?”
“Thrived, even.” Sazahk smiled tentatively. “She grew up, got married, gave birth to a healthy child.”
“Sazahk, that’s amazing.” Garin swept Sazahk into his arms. He wrapped them around Sazahk’s waist, pulling his back to Garin’s chest, and rested his chin on Sazahk’s shoulder as they both stared at the screen. “You saved her.”
“Not just her.” Sazahk leaned his cheek against Garin’s. He’d become accustomed to their casual intimacy far more quickly than he’d anticipated. He even craved it now. “The Senate may have hated my research, but they took it seriously. They undertook a major infrastructure project to safeguard the community. They moved half the town and piped in water from hundreds of miles away. If their records are to be believed, and the Qesh are good at nothing if not record-keeping, there have been no more cases of the condition I was working to treat.”
Garin tightened his arm around Sazahk’s waist and pressed a kiss to his jaw. “I’m so proud of you.”
Sazahk relaxed into Garin’s hold. “Thank you.”
The image of the happy, healthy woman closed a chapter on Sazahk’s life that he was more than ready to complete. He was proud of the work he had done and the people that he’d helped, and proud of withstanding the fallout of his actions.
But he was in a new chapter now, a far less lonely one.
He nuzzled his nose into Garin’s hair and snickered. “You are proud, but also impatient with the fact that I am not dressed.”
Garin laughed and released Sazahk’s waist. “Well, I don’t think your lab coat is appropriate attire for Dom’s royal wedding.”
“I highly doubt Dominic cares what I wear to his wedding.” Sazahk crossed his arms, though he had no true intention of arguing.
“No, but Prince Hyg might.” Garin puttered around the lab, replacing samples of mycelium and Insect growths. “And your brother definitely will.”
“And goddess forbid we should upset the delicate Emissary Serihk.” Sazahk rolled his eyes and perched himself on a stool, enjoying the view of Garin in his lab too much to leave quite yet.
