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“She’s gone.” She pushed out a breath. “Died ten years ago.”
I squeezed her hand. “You must have been young when she passed.” My heart ached thinking of my own parents’ death. And how grieved my brother and sister must have been to hear the news and believed I was slain too.
She nodded. “I was. She was a single mom. Dad got wasted all the time and we never saw him after my first birthday. My mom worked two jobs and even a third on weekends and holidays to pay for a roof and food.” A shadow crossed over her face. “She didn’t want me working when I did. Said I was too young, and she wanted me to go back to school and graduate and then go to University and get a fancy degree.”
“And did you?” I prompted.
“No.” She swallowed, shaking her head, and staring down at our joined hands. “I found my talent at fourteen and started working immediately. Finished school the next year and never went back.” She looked up into my eyes. “But sometimes I think about it, you know, for her sake. A way of thanking her for trying her hardest to take such good care of me when it seemed like the world was against us.”
“She is proud of you.” I straightened. “We believe our loved ones watch us in our dreams. That they can come to us in visions—do you ever dream of her?”
Riley’s face lit up. “All the time. And I talk to her, just like when she was alive.” She wiped at her eyes. “Do you really think her spirit visits me?”
I nodded, smiling.
“What about you?” She cocked her head to the side. “How was your family growing up?”
I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled my hand from hers, tightening my fists. “Both my mother and father died in the battle mere minutes before I was struck down. Every time I close my eyes, their bloody faces staring at the sun haunt me.”
“Xaden.” She reached out and placed her hand over mine. “I’m so sorry. The Roulex must pay for what they’ve done to you and your people.”
“I hold onto that hope.” That I would smash Roulex’s heads together and rid my world of them. Hell, the whole fucking universe. They were nothing but parasites. “And to one day be free of this prison. To feel the sun on my face again and the wind under my wings.” I picked up our hands, brushing my lips across her knuckles. “And to show you the beauty of my world and not this nightmare.”
“I can’t wait, and I want to meet Jax and Ximena.”
“You remembered.” My siblings had to be okay. They had to be alive and safe. “They'd been too young to fight when the Roulexes had come and I pray every day that they are sheltered along with the rest of my people.”
“Why are the Roulex after you?” She frowned. “I mean, I know they want your offspring, but why? They have spaceships, don’t they, so it wouldn’t be your wings.”
“It’s our healing ability. Remember?” I looked away from her. Other species had a hard time with our abilities. Some called it magic or sorcery and I guessed it had been hard for Riley to fully understand as well.
“Right. So, they want to do experiments?” She shuddered. “Like reverse engineer your ability so they can have it too? On babies?”
I don’t know what twisted ways the Roulex had, but I wasn’t going to add to the growing terror in Riley’s voice either. “Let’s get some sleep, okay? We’ll talk more in the morning about how to escape.”
“Will you hold me?” Her brow furrowed and she looked at me with such vulnerability that it squeezed my chest. “I-I don’t want to be alone tonight. I know, it’s weird, cause we’re never truly alone in our cell, but—”
I placed my finger over her lips, recalling when we first met how she talked a lot when she was nervous. “It would be my honor to hold you through the night.”
And even if my body sank into the abyss of a healing sleep, I would wake if she stirred or if the Roulex tried to take her away from me. When she was in trouble before, I had awoken, and I trusted I would again. But there were other ways the Roulex could torture me and remove her using their fucking tractor beams.
I ground my teeth but pulled Riley to me. Because my wings were shredded, I couldn’t cover us with them, but I could keep her close and keep her warm.
And as much as I wanted to kiss her again, holding her was enough for now. But this wouldn’t last. One way or another the Roulex would either discover she was pregnant or that we’d mated. Either way, we were fucked.
15
Riley
Ifelt so warm and safe in Xaden’s arms, the constant rhythm of his breathing soothing me despite my insides twisted with the panic of the thought of being pregnant.
A baby.
Was this how my mom felt when she found out about me? I chewed on my lip, wishing more than anything to talk with her one last time. Was she as terrified as me?
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Xaden’s chest rumbled with his voice.
It was pitch-black with the Roulex having turned off the scant fluorescent lights in the hallway, but I could sense Xaden’s concern in his words.
