Scaled Heart: A SciFi Alien Romance (Project: F5 Book 2) Jade Waltz (good books for high schoolers .txt) 📖

the conversation with Oeta telepathically? Or was she waiting for a reply like we were?

I truly hoped they could resolve their differences.

Oeta was right; something had to change. We couldn’t keep working in this unstable, unhealthy environment I had helped create.

I should’ve spoken up sooner and defended Kaica but instead, I had let my respect for my mentors dictate my actions. I worried I had ruined my chances for a future with her.

“I support Oeta,” I announced. “This isn’t your establishment; even I had to come to terms with the fact that I was no longer in charge but part of a team. Master Scholar Xylo rules this infirmary and the research center attached to the hospital. If you don’t like it, open an office at the hospital or retire, whatever appeals to you. I just can’t stay quiet any longer about this.”

“If you want any sort of future with Kaica, I suggest you hurry to her room,” Oeta’s voice boomed through my head, making me drop my tablet. Her mental thread felt different than I had experienced before; its unique black core and fuchsia coloring seemed designed to hide her emotions from me. “She needs you. Now. Follow the path the Stars have laid before you and hope you aren’t too late for the bright future you wish for.”

“Why would she need me?”

“Do you want to ruin the last chance you have by asking ridiculous questions? Go to her, and everything will become clear.”

Scrambling, I gathered my discarded tablet and tossed it onto my workstation. It skidded across the surface, but I didn’t wait to see where it landed. Closing my datacube, I locked my system’s interface and leapt off my stool.

Surprisingly, the thick, invisible aura suddenly lifted, easing my breathing. Smiling, I shot Oeta a glance and nodded.

“Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. The rest is up to the Fates, Kaica, and you.”

Just like she had entered my mental shields, Oeta left, with a speed only those with significant mental strength and discipline wielded.

“Where are you going?” Usthu asked. Confusion laced his voice.

“Don’t mind him,” Oeta barked. “He has things to do. Your time will come.”

Whatever else they said was lost to me as the infirmary doors slid closed. The humidity of the sanctuary’s nature enclosure hit me as the sunset beamed through the glass dome above.

Oh, how I longed to return to a time where I could enjoy pleasant strolls around the villa’s property or the main island’s beach.

There hasn’t been any time to do anything beyond caring for Odelm and Xylo, trying to figure out the best treatment for their survival. I didn’t want their deaths on my conscience. I feared facing Selena’s utter distress when she returned and found them no longer with us after the Fates and the Stars claimed their souls.

Her depression would cause the princes and, through them, the Circuli within Destima’s mental net, to spiral with her. I worried about what might happen to the nestqueens who were starting to show signs of their heat cycle. Would Selena’s mental state send the moon into utter despair, hampering their fertility?

Circuli females needed constant access to sunlight and a stable life that only the planetside could provide. Destima’s two suns and temperate climate, slightly warmer than Circul, made the moon a perfect location to settle despite its minimal landmass. Our colony was small, so having only three habitable islands to choose from wasn’t an issue.

The lift door opened and I hurried along the sanctuary’s balcony overlooking the small pond-like pool below. Kaica’s room was located above the guest wing, the first door around the corner where she had surprised me.

Stopping in front of her door, I was lost as to what to do and worse, what to say. The villa’s technology was confusing enough. How did I get her attention through a locked door?

Sighing in defeat, I raised my hand to do the most embarrassing thing I had in a long time. Right as my knuckles were about to strike her door, Kaica’s face appeared on the room’s vidscreen.

I hardly recognized her.

Her face was splotchy in abnormal places. The light teal scales around her eyes and along the sides of her face, surrounding her pointed ears and the curve of her neck, highlighted damp red cheeks and dull light-blue eyes. Her hair was a shade of grey reminiscent of angry clouds in intense sea storms—dark gray mixed with black—reflecting how stressed and upset she was.

I didn’t even need to expand my senses to read her emotions through the wall; Kaica complained often enough how much she hated that her changing hair color revealed her emotional state.

“What do you want?” she spat, her voice rough and hollow, unlike the times she had yelled at me. “Haven’t you done enough today? I don’t need you to come over here and tell me—”

“Kaica,” I breathed, not liking what I was hearing or seeing. “I came here to check on you. I hoped you would find the grace to forgive me. I don’t care what my mentors think. You are all that matters to me.”

“I don’t know what game you're playing,” she sniffled, wiping her cheeks. “But I’m not in the mood. You can’t keep making the same mistakes over again, only to beg for my forgiveness. You act caring while you are with me, but you’re silent around the mentors you worship so much. You have respected my work ever since I’ve been here and now it’s not up to your standards because they are here? Who are you trying to impress?” She waves me off. “It doesn’t matter because I won’t allow you to treat me that way. I wasn’t going to report to Z what has happened because he has enough to deal with, but I will if things don’t change.”

“Kaica, please,” I begged, clapping my palms together in front of me like I had seen demihumans do. “Let me in. Let me explain.”

She pursed her lips as she studied me with her dark gaze.

Suddenly,