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“No I don’t,” Ailyn said, stressing eachword, and then he vanished again.

“Ailyn!” Felix shouted.

“Leave him be,” Shanee said. “He’s sufferedenough because of your mother. Let her pay for what she did to him.”

Chapter Ten

He was waiting for her out in the corridoras she knew he would be. She said nothing as he held out his hand and togetherthey walked toward the elevator. His hand was steady in hers, his flesh warmerthan usual. They waited silently for the elevator to arrive. When it came, shesaw his eyes search the cage before he led her inside and knew from now on thatwould be the case whenever she was with him.

“Two down and one to go,” he said as theelevator doors closed behind them.

“That was a cakewalk compared to what we’regoing to face with my mother,” she told him.

“We’ll see,” he said. His gaze was on thepanel showing the floors they were descending.

“Were those documents real?” she asked.

He nodded. “Only too real.”

“We didn’t know about any of that,” shesaid.

“You didn’t know where to look,” he said.“When we were first brought to Theristes, Tariq asked Bakari for all Alliancedata that had been removed before the shutdown of the Reaper program and theBurgon complied. Tariq told me how to access that data. He thought I shouldknow. He said he believed it would help me make my decision of whether or notto accept what it is I’ve become.”

“And it did,” she said.

“And it did,” he repeated.

“Strom should be given the data,” she said.

“He will be,” her husband agreed.

The elevator settled and they got off totake the tram to the hanger where Shanee’s runabout was docked. It would takethem to her quarters outside the city.

Her runabout was a sleek midnight blueFiach with a dark purple stripe from nose to elevated tail. The ship stood outamong the other runabouts.

“Sweet,” Ailyn said as they neared thegleaming machine.

“If you play your cards right, ehemann,”she said, “I might let you take the controls once we’re out of traffic.”

He snorted. “Don’t trust me in traffic withit, huh?”

“It’s been awhile since you’ve flown, bigboy, and things have changed considerably,” she chastised him.

“Think it, ionúin, and I can fly itwith the best of them,” he reminded her.

She stopped—putting a hand out to halthim—and gave him a challenging look. “You believe that?”

“I know that, little Amazeen,” hereplied confidently.

Her grin was all he needed.

Twenty minutes later he was sailing herprecious little craft into the hanger at the complex where she was quartered.After settling the expensive Gearmánach vessel into its docking harness, heshut down the engine and turned to give her a wink. “How’d I do?” he taunted.

“Ask me that after you’ve survived mymother,” she mumbled.

“Oh,” he said. “Are those Class 10s in yourquarters?”

“Aye.”

“Are they activated?”

“Not yet. Why?”

“Do me a favor and don’t activate themwhile I’m around,” he asked.

Shanee frowned. “All right but why? We mayneed them on our missions, ehemann.”

“On missions, perhaps, but not where I amliving and sleeping, Shanee,” he said. “I hate cybots.”

“Not a problem,” she said.

Queen Polemusa was pacing the floor as thedoor to Shanee’s quarters opened. She whirled around to face the man who camein right behind her daughter. “Ich fordere Sie, Kanaille heraus!” shethrew at him. “Außenseite im Hof!”

“Mother, really,” Shanee said, wincing ather mother’s challenge to Ailyn to meet her in the courtyard and calling him acur. “This is…”

“Wenn Sie bereit sind, Ihren Esel untensich setzen zu lassen, holen Sie ihn an, meckern,” Ailyn said in perfectAmazeen.

Shanee gasped. Her husband had nastilysaid, “If you are ready to have your ass put down, bring it on, bitch.”

Hissing like a cornered viper, Polemusashoved past her daughter and her daughter’s mate and went outside.

“You can’t be serious!” Shanee said thennarrowed her eyes. “When did you learn Amazeen?”

“I learned a lot of things while you wereplaying with Jules’ life,” he told her. “And I’m not going to back down to herchallenge, ionúin.” He spun around on his heel and headed for thecourtyard.

“The gods help me,” Shanee snapped,throwing her hands into the air. She went after them.

Neither Polemusa nor Ailyn were armed. Thedefense queen was wearing a short, white toga-like garment that accentuated thelack of a right breast. She had kicked off her sandals and was standing on thegrass, hands on her shapely hips.

“Come on, Reaper,” she threw at him.

Ailyn swept his hand down his body and theblack silk shirt and black leather pants were replaced by his belovedbreechclout. His boots had disappeared as well.

Shanee saw her mother’s face alter slightlyand knew she was sizing up the man facing her—not from a warrioress’s viewpointbut from that of a woman. She almost smiled as her mother licked her lips untilAilyn spoke.

“Like what you see?” he taunted.

The Amazeen queen yowled with fury. Like anenraged bull, she lowered her head and charged. Her fingers had arched intoclaws. As soon as she reached her opponent, he took hold of her and flipped hereasily over his hip, setting her down almost gently on the grass beforestepping out of her reach.

Scrambling to her feet, Polemusa chargedagain, but this time Ailyn grabbed her arms and fell backward, placing a barefoot against her midriff to cartwheel her over his head. She landed on her backwith the air knocked out of her body.

Shanee grinned when her husband put hispalms flat on the ground behind him and did a back handspring that arched hisback then vaulted him to his feet. She could have hooted with laughter when heput his hands on his hips—not even breathing hard—while her mother lay gaspingfor breath.

“Need some help getting up, old woman?” heinquired.

Polemusa struggled to her feet and stoodthere bent over, hands to her knees. She lifted her head and gave the Reaper ahateful look before launching herself at him again.

Ailyn grinned as he lowered his hands andbraced for her hit. When she collided with him, he wrapped his arms around herthen swept her legs out from under her with his foot. She skidded downwardbetween his legs and landed on the ground with him atop her—pinning her armsand clamping his