Free Daughters of Lyra: Heart of a Prince by Felicity Heaton Page B

clothing and the way his
eyes raked over her bare body. As much as she wanted it, this was
no time for an encore and she didn’t want to hurt Tres again. He
stood and held his hand out to her, clearly thinking the same
thing. She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet.

    Renie dressed quickly,
partly because she was cold and partly because she felt embarrassed
being the only one half-naked. Tres watched her the whole time. She
could feel his eyes on her, following her hands and sometimes on
her face. A little smile kept touching her lips, a secret one that
he had brought out.

    It wasn’t just because
they had acted on their mutual desires.

    It was because he had
given her a sign that she wasn’t the only one feeling this
way.

    Now she had to find out
the depth of his feelings. Now she had to find a way to ask him to
come with her. She didn’t want to explore the galaxy without him.
Whenever she thought about it now, she could only picture her, Tres
and Rezic in their small battered ship.

    She was almost finished
fastening her shirt when there was a noise. Tres pressed his finger
against his lips and edged towards the opening of the small dark
recess they were in. She frowned, her heart pounding with
adrenaline when she heard voices. Two males.

    Tres moved back to her,
guiding her into the shadows, and wrapped his arms around her. The
warmth she felt whenever he touched her tempered her fear. She
rested her cheek against his chest, facing the walkway around the
room.

    Her breath hitched in her
throat when two Vegans passed the opening to the recess and
disappeared from view. Tres held her closer, his arms like steel
bands around her. When another noise sounded, he released her and
went to the end of the recess again. He waved her over.

    She poked her head around
and looked both ways along the walkway before stepping out to join
Tres.

    Her eyes widened when she
looked over the edge of the walkway and down towards where the blue
light was coming from. The height of the drop was stomach turning
and there were no railings to stop someone from falling
in.

    Far below her was a bright
blue twisting orb. A large ring encircled it, with a smaller ring
inside. Both were spinning fast and in opposing directions. She
stared at it, fascinated and trying to get a clear glimpse of the
core of the rotating rings.

    “ What is it?”
she said, leaning forward to get a better look.

    “ The reactor
core of the ship,” Tres said without a trace of emotion. He seemed
to know a lot about these vessels. “Come away from the
edge.”

    Renie looked up at him and
went to take a step towards him. The moment she raised her foot, a
shrieking alarm filled the room, so loud that it startled her. She
jumped and put her foot down behind her to steady
herself.

    It slipped off the edge of
the walkway.

    ****

    Chapter
7

    Renie twisted in the air
as she fell. Air rushed against her face and she found herself
staring at the reactor core of the ship. The fall seemed to be
taking forever and she lost her ability to scream when she clearly
saw the centre of the blue orb she was falling into. It was
beautiful. It sparkled as though it held a billion stars in its
bright depths.

    She gasped when something
touched her and then her eyes shot wide when she realised it was
Tres.

    He had jumped after her.
He would die too.

    “ I will not let
you die... trust me,” he whispered into her hair and held her
close, so her cheek was against his. She wrapped her arms around
his waist. They turned in the air and then suddenly they were going
up instead of down.

    Pulling away from him
slightly, Renie gasped again when she saw that Tres had wings,
white leathery wings that were tinted blue in places. They carried
her upwards and then he spread them wide and they began to glide
down.

    Her brows
furrowed.

    He couldn’t be.

    He just
couldn’t.

    She clung to him as they
steadily dropped towards the ground far from the reactor
core.

    “ I will