Alien General's Bride (Brion Brides 3)(20)

In the back of his mind, he remembered training together with the twins, feeling proud of each other when they were given their commands. He didn’t know if they had ever been friends – perhaps that was too much to say about so broken individuals – but he couldn’t deny the regret in his heart that it had come to this. He thought of Isolde’s smile and the way it had sounded when she spoke his name.

Gawen caught his first blow on the edge of his handguard, using his momentum to push Diego back. He knew the outcome of the fight would depend largely on two things: the first was whether he’d manage to kill Gawen before he could reach for his guns, and the second was whose side Faren would take.#p#分页标题#e#

All Brions were as one. The twins were always spoken of as nearly the same, but Diego knew better. A lot connected Faren to him as well, the only thing they didn’t share was their blood. And behind his solid, cold façade, Diego hoped Faren would see his reasoning. Fighting two of the twins was suicide even by his standards, not that he would have backed away.

In the searing brightness, he could make out Gawen, poised to accept his next attack, gun aimed at him. He heard the shot so loudly, every sense heightened by the battle hormones in his veins, that he nearly went deaf for a moment. He could hear Isolde screaming his name.

Through the haze of the blinding light, he dashed forward, dodging Gawen’s shots with speed unmatched by any Brion. He had always been told the dark days spoke through him – either a compliment or a curse depending on who said it. One, two, three steps took him to Gawen, and then they were locked in close combat, Diego trying to block Gawen from shooting him point blank, and Gawen attempting not to give Diego room to cut his head clean from his shoulders.

For several long moments stretching like hours they fought each other off, escaping death by inches and heartbeats. One of the shots grazed Diego’s shoulder, and he heard Isolde scream again. The thought of her filled his heart, sharpening his focus instead of distracting him. If he had to kill both twins, he would. Fury surged forward, and he gave it full control.

He pushed Gawen back, slamming the butt of his spear in the other general’s face. The moment of pain that made Gawen wince was all he needed, the spear twisted around in his hands and cut through Gawen’s chest before Isolde’s scream had finished echoing in the great hall. Diego watched the surprise on Gawen’s face as his lifeless body slumped to the ground before his feet. His honor guard retrieved his body.

There would be a choosing, and likely his second-in-command would take his place, rising to be a general without having to defeat the previous one as per usual custom. He would not seek revenge; Gawen had been defeated in an honest fight.

Spear still in hand, Diego turned to Faren.

“I expected you to agree with me,” he said simply, without judgement.

Faren looked at him impassively, so much so as to appear eerie as they took his twin brother’s body. He spared it one equally emotionless look.

“I did,” Faren said, watching his brother’s corpse.

Diego nodded, accepting the very typical offer of help that in Faren’s case often took the form of simply not interfering.

Then Faren spoke the longest sentences Diego had heard from him in ages.

“I always hated the name of his ship. The Fearless. Not to fear anything is foolish enough, displaying it for all to see another.”

“Will you accompany me to Briolina?” Diego asked in response. “The Elders have to set this thing straight.”

Faren nodded, seemingly done with words for a while.





CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Isolde



Isolde paced in her room, trying to figure out why it hadn’t felt so constrictive before. Every step she took made it feel smaller and smaller.

Deliya and Narath had quickly escorted her back to her room when the bloodshed began, but since it happened so quickly – Brion fights never seemed to last long – Isolde had still seen everything. She scolded herself for actually believing Brion generals might talk it out, but no, Diego had just almost died for her. The shot had passed so close…

The mere thought sent cold spikes running down her spine, making her tear up even if she knew perfectly well that Diego was fine. He would come to her right after he had settled things with the Fearless, no doubt a bit touchy after the death of their commander. The other general, the scary one in Isolde’s mind, was back on his ship, which was silent like him.

She could barely think. On Terra, words were usually just words. But the Brions lived and breathed their beliefs. Diego had just killed a man for her sake and been nearly killed himself in the process. Deliya had said something about that on their hurried way back, about it never being really certain whose side Commander Faren was on, but since Diego trusted him, so would she.

And if Deliya, who seemed to think every word out of Diego’s mouth was pure gold, didn’t know if he was right about that one, then Isolde felt she was entitled to have been afraid for his life.

Funny how it made all the arguments in her mind go away, or suddenly seem petty and irrelevant. Every time Diego had entered her room, she had felt the kind of elevation he was talking about, but put it down more to a familiar face than anything else. In those brief seconds when she thought she’d lost him… it hadn’t even occurred to her to fear for her own life. She’d just kept screaming, unable to do anything else, anything useful at all.#p#分页标题#e#

Deliya said she’d screamed his name, but Isolde hardly remembered it. It seemed likely, though. All she had been able to think about was that she didn’t want to be without him, could no longer imagine her day without waiting for him to come and kiss her.

When her door beeped, it was the sweetest sound she had ever heard. Diego’s image flashed for a mere second when Isolde had already opened the door and was in his arms. She thought she could see the knowing smile on Deliya’s face as Diego stepped in with Isolde practically in his lap and the door closed behind him.

No words were needed. Terror did what no amount of lust or rationale had been able to – her hands, still shaking, caught the front of his shirt in her fists, kissing him frantically. For a moment, he seemed startled, then only pleasantly surprised. A satisfied hum escaped his lips, Isolde was sure no one else had ever heard that sound from him. He kissed her back, hands in her long hair, both of them not caring about the bothersome need to breathe.

She liked it. No, she loved the feel of being in arms so strong and muscled like the rest of him, smooth to her touch. Only when they ran out of air Isolde pulled back reluctantly. Diego was looking at her with the quiet smirk she’d come to think of as hers. The way he held her gently, as if afraid he’d accidentally cause her pain was so in contrast with what she’d seen in the arena she barely believed it was the same person. But he was, and if all the arguments and logic hadn’t been able to make her say no to this man, surely there was no way now.

Not with how she’d felt at the arena, the mere idea of never seeing him again the most painful thing she’d ever experienced. On Terra, she’d heard of the broken heart syndrome, of people being able to be physically hurt from heartache. Even if doctors treated it as a real disease, Isolde had always found it hard to comprehend. She understood now.

“Don’t take this as an insult, grothan,” she said, trying to make it sound more like a joke and less like a terrified whimper, but she could not stop the tears. Her voice broke, stumbling over the words. “But I was so afraid. You were so… I thought he’d… if he’d only moved the gun a bit, you’d be…”

Diego hugged her closer, seemingly unaware that the gesture made human females cry even harder, which Isolde proved to him right away. She felt a kiss pressed on her hair. “Do no fear,” he said. “Do not cry. Gawen was a great warrior. I am greater. If he had moved the gun a bit, I would have been a bit further from him. He did not stand a chance, Isolde. Not once.”

No one had told Diego that it was also very human to keep focusing on all the things that could have gone wrong. Isolde went on, “But if Faren… Even Deliya…”

She bit her lip not to get her guard into trouble, but Diego just chuckled.

“Faren is what he is. He chose me, that is all there is to it.”

Isolde didn’t want to argue, to point out she didn’t trust their new ally one bit, but Diego had anticipated that already. “You should meet him, gesha. You would see he means us no harm.”

They said nothing else. Isolde stayed there in his arms, content to just be held by him and out of respect for her, the general didn’t press the matter any further. Even if Isolde felt he would have gladly pressed something against her. The question was not unanswered any more, it just waited for the world to stop beeping and go silent and let them have a moment of peace.





CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Isolde



Meeting Faren was so not her idea of fun things to do, and to be perfectly honest, Isolde had tried to get out of it with all her might after Diego had suggested it.

He creeps me out was the thought she didn’t exactly phrase to Diego, but her general probably understood anyway.