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“But you do need something from me.” Alistair’s tone turned sly and a smirk spread across his lips. He pulled a chair out from the table and lounged back in it like a throne. “Despite my son’s best efforts, I’m not powerless yet. You need my votes.”
“I need the votes of the people too afraid to oppose you.” Prince Hyg snapped his wings, but the corner of his lip twitched up. “But with your corporate advantage erased and your assets ruined, how long do you think their fear will last?”
Alistair’s smirk spread. “The question isn’t how long it’ll last, but whether or not your people will last longer.”
Nam clashed her mandibles and started forward. “You vile?—”
Prince Hyg lay a hand on her arm but kept his gaze on Alistair. “You want your son saved.”
Alistair flicked his fingers. “Hardly, I don’t?—”
“You do,” Prince Hyg overrode him smoothly. “Or you wouldn’t be sitting there, and you wouldn’t be offering the votes you’ve been withholding in the hopes of far better rewards.”
“I haven’t offered them yet.” Alistair narrowed his eyes.
But Prince Hyg turned to Sazahk instead. “And you want something, too.”
Sazahk nodded, his heart pounding in his chest. “I want your people to have a home and I want an opportunity to study your kind and your culture and your technology.”
“I believe you, but you wanted that when you landed on my ship three months ago.” Prince Hyg tilted his head as he studied Sazahk. “Then, you were nothing but curiosity and excitement. Now, you’re anxious and terrified.”
Sazahk pressed his lips together. He couldn’t deny it, but he hadn’t expected Prince Hyg to see through him so clearly.
Prince Hyg tilted his head the other way. “Does this Dominic Turner mean so much to you?”
Sazahk’s chest twisted. “There’s another man with him. A man who would die before Dominic did and I—” Sazahk’s throat seized, and he swallowed through it. “I don’t want him to.”
“I see,” Prince Hyg murmured.
Then he said nothing for a long time. He looked between Alistair and Sazahk, his hands in front of him and his fingers laced together, one slender forefinger tapping along the back of his hand.
After the silence had dragged on and the air in the room grew so thick it was hard to breathe, Prince Hyg stepped back and reached with his antennae to tangle it with Nam’s.
The Drone gasped and chittered, her mandibles clicking. “No, surely nothing so drastic.”
Prince Hyg withdrew his antennae. “It is not drastic.”
“It is, my Prince, there are other ways.” Nam reached for Prince Hyg with hands and antennae but stopped before she made contact.
“If there are, we haven’t found them.” Prince Hyg offered her a small smile, then turned back to the room. “Alistair Turner, I have a proposal for you.”
The fuzz around the edges of Garin’s vision concerned him.
It concerned him more than the blood staining his midriff and hands, because a man could fight through being covered in blood, but he couldn’t fight through being unconscious.
“Garin?” Dom thrust his face into Garin’s for the sixth time in as many minutes.
“I’m still here, Dom,” Garin sighed. He was pretty sure the black playing around his peripheral vision wasn’t something Dom could see, but Dom’s hovering was starting to make him doubt that.
“Can I take a look?” Dom reached for Garin’s middle, but Garin batted him away with the hand he wasn’t using to apply pressure.
“No. I’m fine, just let it be.” Garin scooted back to sit up more against the wall, and adjusted the haphazard bandage job he’d done with his small medical kit. He’d only had one pack of gauze big enough to plug a bullet hole, but it was one more than he would have had if he hadn’t taken Professor Jerry’s class at the academy. That man had drilled the importance of preparation into his head deeper than anyone else before or since. He wondered how the old guy was doing these days…
“Garin?” Dom’s blue eyes appeared before him again.
“Still here.”
Dom sat back on his heels and scratched his nails against the fabric stretched over his thighs. “I think I should open the door.”
