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“Good. You moved fast enough today.” He chuckled and pulled her to him, burying his face in her neck and shoulders, inhaling deeply.

  She felt the shudder that ran through him.

  “I have missed you. We had one night together and I have missed you.”

  The puzzled tone in his voice made her smile as she threaded her fingers through his hair. “The feeling is mutual. I thought about you most days and every night.”

  He chuckled and kissed the side of her neck, working his way up until she sighed and surrendered.

  He eased her to her back in the shade of the tree and rocked his hips into hers. When she came, flowers bloomed and the tree creaked; when he joined her, shadows cooled her skin.

  He lay on his side, curled around her and tracing patterns on her skin. “I suppose I should return to the festival.”

  She grinned. “I suppose you should. I am going to find that fountain and clean up a little before I call Rekfa for a ride home.”

  He paused. “I will take you.”

  “I know you will take me, but my home is not on your mountaintop.”

  He stroked her jawline. “Why not?”

  “I need green space. I need light. Your shadows are fine for a while, but they don’t let the light in.”

  He sighed and tightened his fingers on her waist. “I don’t want to spend another night without you.”

  “Then, ask Rekfa if you can come and enter his territory. The house he has provided me with is very pleasant in the middle of a huge garden.”

  “The Rekfa valley. He put you in the middle of the Rekfa valley.” Yodin snarled.

  “It is his world, literally. If you want something from him, don’t demand it. Ask him.”

  “Easy for you to say. You didn’t know Jurad before he became the Avatar.”

  She laughed and threaded her fingers with his. “Then, ask nicely, and if you have to, ask him to bring me in for the consult. I like to think we have become friends over the last few months.”

  “Just friends?”

  “I crawled into your lap in a public orgy. Yes. Just friends. Anything else and I would never have gone near you.”

  He pressed a kiss to her shoulder and let out a deep sigh. “I don’t want to leave you.”

  “You have something to do, and I don’t really want to know what it is. I suspect it is jerking off in public, but I can’t be sure.” She giggled.

  He rolled her to her back and narrowed his eyes. “That is either a very good guess or someone told you.”

  She grinned and yelped when he pinched her butt. “It was the logical conclusion to a daytime orgy. You had better get back there before they are all chafed to blisters.”

  He got to his feet, and she rolled to her belly in the grass, watching him go.

  He turned just as he left the garden, and his clothing was picked up by shadows and held away from him. Apparently, whatever he was about to do could be done while nude.

  Aster groaned and stretched. She hadn’t been joking; she really did need that fountain. Being sticky was her least favourite feeling.

  She got to her feet and sought out the fountain, smiling at the merry sound of the water. Without hesitation, she walked into the icy cascade and bathed.

  When she finished, she turned and jumped, “Arez. I thought you were watching the couples cavorting.”

  He shrugged and held out her dress. “It got boring after a while. I see you and Yodin have managed to reconnect. The new curves look good on you.”

  “Um, thank you.”

  She slipped the dress back on and fastened the closures at each side of ribs and waist.

  “You shouldn’t leave him again.”

  “I am not leaving him; he knows precisely where to find me.” She smiled.

  “I can’t let you leave. You will stay here until he returns.” Arez went from polite to pugnacious in a moment.

  “I will not.”

  His insistence irritated her.

  She called Rekfa with the silent summons he had taught her.

  She took steps toward the gate of the garden, and Arez moved to block her.

  She laughed and continued to move toward him. He raised his hand, and she stopped him with ease. He moved again, and she blocked him again.

  It was so simple now that she was in tune with what she had become. When he kicked out, she moved aside and their battle continued on.

  * * * *

  Rekfa looked to Yodin as they watched the battle on the green. Aster was toying with Arez; there was no other word for it.

  “You know they are fighting over you, don’t you?” Rekfa sighed.

  Yodin looked uncomfortable. “I have never had that relationship with Arez.”

  “Not that, you moron. He wishes for her to remain with you so that you won’t spend your nights pining away for her.”

  Yodin looked uncomfortable. “I would not call it pining.”

  “I have felt you at my gates, trying to push through to touch her.”

  “I was just testing your security to make sure she was safe.”

  “Idiot. You could just ask. I would have let you in.”

  Rekfa could see Yodin’s frustration.

  “Tell me what you need, Yodin.”

  “She wants light. She wants space. She needs to grow things, apparently.” He sounded resigned.

  Rekfa chuckled. “She does. I could feel it when she arrived. So much life came with her. I could not let you warp her to the darkness and waste all of that potential. Now, we will have a goddess of birth, growth and battle to go with the god of war, death and sex. I think it is a good match.”

  “You? You think it is a good match?”

  Rekfa inclined his head. “Of course. You may have sought her out, but I did the research and got Abrieth to ask for a bodyguard. I signed the authorization to have an untested powerful talent on my world, and I agreed to let her stay if she put down roots. Yes, you are welcome.”

  Yodin blinked. “Thank you.”

  Rekfa looked at the fight and the fun Aster was having with the increasingly frustrated Arez. “One of us should break that up.”

  Yodin crossed his arms. “I am not getting in there. She looks like she wants to keep hitting things.”

  Rekfa cleared his throat. “It is beyond my dignity to break up a brawl.”

  Yodin chuckled. “You don’t want to get in there either.”

  “I will hide behind dignity. Go get her.”

  Yodin whistled sharply. “Aster, wrap it up.”

  A moment later, Arez was on the ground, bound with vines and Aster was dusting her hands and smiling.

  Rekfa muttered as she approached. “She is all yours.”

  Yodin muttered back, “That sounds suspiciously like a curse.”

  Chapter Eight

  Aster put her arms around Yodin’s neck, and he took off with his shadows covering her from sight.

  She didn’t ask where they were going; she just hung on in case her words distracted him to a dangerous level.

  When the shadows receded, they were standing in front of her home.

  Yodin smiled, “I asked Rekfa if I could visit, and he said yes. I am guessing that it is temporary until I manage to find another suitable lair to make our home.”

  “Our home?”

  “When I have found a particularly attractive spot, I will ask Rekfa for permission to build on it and we can move in.” He stroked her cheek. “If you are willing.”

  “I will think about it.” Aster smiled. “You will have to do some convincing.”

  “I shall. Now, tell me about your people and the event that brought you to this point.”

  She blinked at the change in tactic from seduction to conversation. “Um, do you want to do this here or out on the back porch?”

  “Would you make some tea?”

  The sun was setting and she nodded. “Sure. Please, welcome to my home.”

  She got together a tray with tea and snacks and led the way to the conversational patio that overlooked the expanded gardens.

  “Before I tell you my short story, what about you? Yodin, how did you come to be here in your current long-lived state?”

  She poured and arched her brow at him, flipping her bangs out of her eyes. Her hair was longer now, and it was a relief. After her head had been shaved, she had missed her long locks.

  “I was born to Azon and Wyoran colonists on Westican. I was nearly an adult when the scouts for the arena arrived. My parents refused to let me enter of my own free will and the scouts left. They returned that night, butchered my family and hauled me away from all I had known. I was trained, beaten and forced to fight. I survived for seven years, going from star system to star system, fighting for my life.”

  He paused and sipped at his tea. “And then one day, I died. I was killed in five-on-one combat, and my body was dragged to medical for harvesting. I came to with a scream and the medics began to run endless tests.”

  She shuddered at what some of those tests could have been.

  “They made the mistake of halting their research in order to wait for additional butchers to arrive. I woke my shadows and moved through the station, setting fighters free and ripping the station apart. Once the survivors were together, we took a shuttle and dropped to the surface of Rekfa. We flailed around and tried to survive, but it wasn’t until the dying Jurad offered himself to something we couldn’t see that things changed and we could speak with Rekfa.”

  Yodin nibbled at a cake. “He taught us what we could and could not eat, helped us craft shelter and worked with us to create a settlement. Others came and we blended with them. The world went from lush but empty, to alive and thriving. I continued to develop both skills and appetites that would have stunned my family, and I never aged. I remained as I am now. Nine hundred years and counting and not a single change.”

  Aster remembered to drink her tea. “Right.”

  “Now, your tale.”

  She shrugged. “No drama compared to that. I worked at a store, I was on a loading dock, a co-worker struck me with a forklift and I fell eleven feet to the pavement, landing on my head. My skull cracked, my brain bled and my body shut down. To the doctors’ amazement, it started up again. I was in a coma for a while and my family signed me over to the state, but when I woke, I kept my intelligence and ability to speak.”

  Aster dragged in a deep breath. “I was wiped clean. My mind could recognize faces, but there was no emotional attachment. My body didn’t know how to work, so it had to be retrained. I started over with an adult body and no memories of how I had gotten there. The term is a blank slate, and it described me perfectly. Every memory was simply an empty image in my mind. Even my family meant nothing, so it was logical to leave and start over. My presence was painful for them.”

  “They gave you to the state.”

  She grunted. “Medical treatment near my home was not free. My prolonged coma would have put them into crippling debt from which they would not recover. It was correct for them to do what they did.”

  He blinked. “You forgive them?”

  She gave him a bland look. “I don’t remember them. They are simply people I once met.”

  He leaned back. “That does explain it. You seem to be one who wants to build memories and a life. To simply give up your previous one did have me confused.”

  “It was not given up by choice but by circumstance. When my recovery caught the news’ attention, the Volunteer Program was right behind them. They measured everything, and I mean everything, before agreeing to let me leave, and after that, it was months of training at Luna Base before they swathed me up in the hidden-one clothing and sent me out here. The rest I think you know.”

  “Bits of it. Abrieth was apparently pressured into asking for a bodyguard and Rekfa lined it up. When I added my two cents, the fix was already in.”

  “So, my appearance on Rekfa was certain.”

  “As certain as we could make it. I was not aware of Rekfa’s manipulation of the system until he just told me. Apparently, he does not want me preying on his poor colonists anymore.”

  She smiled. “I think it might be concern for your welfare. Jurad will not last much longer, and though you have issues, his is the face you are used to seeing every time you deal with Rekfa.”

  Yodin blinked. “What do you mean?”

  She realised she may have stumbled into exposing something he was not consciously aware of. “Avatars have a limited life. If their species are not properly compatible, the mind of the world will erode them. Even if it is a good match, five hundred years is usually the maximum time that someone can host the mind of a world. There are exceptions, but I do not believe that Jurad can remain much longer. Rekfa will need to seek out another host.”

  He set his cup down with deliberate control. “Are you volunteering for that?”

  “No. Our kind do not make good Avatars. We constantly put out energy instead of containing it.” She sighed in resignation. She had fucked this up royally.

  He nodded, got to his feet and inclined his head. “Please excuse me.”

  He wrapped himself in shadows and streaked upward through the sky.

  Aster sighed and brought out the spare teacup. “Rekfa, you can come out now.”

  He crept around the corner and took the seat that Yodin had just vacated. “How long did you know I was there?”

  “Since I finished making the tea. I thought you might want me to tell him something, and since I don’t have any secrets, I told him yours.”

  “Thank you.” He took the teacup from her. “I have been unable to tell him the truth for the last two hundred years.”

  “Jurad has been gone that long?”

  “He held on as long as he could, but his mind joined his ancestors on one bright night two centuries ago. I had been speaking exclusively for three hundred years prior to that, so no one noticed the change.”

  She sighed, “Yodin will be very upset when he finds out how long his friend has been gone.”

  “Jurad picked a fight with him when he felt himself weakening, for that very purpose.”

  Aster rubbed her temples. “That was both kind and cruel. He never had a chance to say goodbye.”

  “Jurad left him a message, but I would have to tell Yodin in order for him to view it. I just didn’t want to hurt him like that.” Rekfa sighed.

  “You think he wouldn’t notice when you took a new Avatar?”

  Rekfa shrugged. “I thought he would have to speak with the stronger host and I could hide.”

  “You have been friends with him nearly the same amount of time as Jurad was. You owe him a direct conversation. I am not going to let you hide behind me.” Aster made a face.

  “You are right. I do not like it, but I will have to tell him.” Rekfa set the cup down and he took off in a blaze of light and wind.

  After holding the tea set and cookies in place against the rapid movement of air, Aster sat back and finished her tea. It seemed that all the men in her life were going to fly away this evening. With a sigh, she got to her feet and took a walk in the gardens, smiling at the night illumination of the phosphorescent plants that lit her path.

  Her smile faded when she felt and heard the bellow of pain. It echoed in her mind as power rippled through her. She wanted to go to Yodin, but propulsion was the one thing she hadn’t yet managed and Rekfa was with him as he learned of the loss of Jurad.

  With nothing else to do, she went to work in the garden with a blade tucked in her belt, shaping a flower out of light and night. Jurad’s rose was lovely, and it had a scent reminiscent of the berries that Rekfa had mentioned his Avatar had enjoyed.

  It wasn’t a hybrid rose, but a wild rose with black petals and a glowing center. She wondered how it would look in the daylight, but she loved the look of it at night. Time would have to pass to see if it could survive and thrive, but she liked the current design.

  She took a few cuttings and walked back toward her home.

  The tea set was gone, and she looked at her kitchen, noting that everything had been rinsed and put away. Rekfa wasn’t there. There was no humming of power in the air.

  In her bedroom, a bundle of shadows was on the bed. Aster put the flowers in water and removed her gown, edging into the shadows and putting her arm around the mass.

  Yodin put his arms around her and pressed his head to her shoulder. He didn’t say anything and neither did she. She held him through the night and into the following day.

  They clung together, and when he finally lifted his head and breathed deeply and calmly, she smiled softly. “I sympathise with your grief.”

  “We need to become used to it. We will outlive all of our friends. Rekfa is a constant, but his body needs to change every five hundred years, or so he just told me.” Yodin smiled sadly. “I never even guessed that Jurad had left.”

  “You were not supposed to. He wanted you to remain as you were, and he took steps to ensure it.” She stroked his shoulder.

  “You knew that Jurad was no longer there.” He wasn’t accusing but musing.

  “No, I just knew that there was only one person I had ever spoken to in that body. I didn’t know who it was, not until he told me last night. That is when I was sure, not before.”

  “Do not worry. I am not upset with you. I am upset that I did not notice that the last person I knew before I changed had moved off this world.” He dragged in a deep breath.

  She didn’t say anything, nothing needed to be said. She held him and his breathing eased.

  He kissed her shoulder and looked around. “What is that scent?”

  She blinked and turned, inhaling the sweet scent of berries and flowers. “I made a rose for Jurad. I didn’t know if I could do it, but if it lives, it glows at night with dark petals.”

  “If it lives?”

  “I made flower bushes out in the gardens. My experiments over the last few months have not all been successful. Sometimes, the plants do not like the changes and they die.”

  He smiled. “It looks very pretty.”

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