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looked at her.
The marks on her neck were deep and sore. He had been a little
harder on her than he had hoped he would but the bloodlust had been
too intense and he hadn’t been able to stop himself from losing
control.

    “ Lied about
what?” he said, his head still reeling. One moment, he was dreaming
about their future family and the next he was being hit with, he
glanced at what she was holding, a book.

    “ You,” she said
and opened the book. She turned it to face him and he stared at the
markings on the page. Perhaps some things about his species were
better documented than he had expected. He hadn’t let slip about
these markings so it must have been his father or one of his other
predecessors. With a sigh, she dropped the book and her shoulders
slumped. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

    He picked the book up and
looked at the drawing of the markings and then at his
arms.

    “ Because I had
to know,” he said and closed the book, placing it down on the bed.
He looked at her, at her sore eyes, and realised that she had been
crying. Why? Was it because of what she had discovered or something
else? His gaze lowered to her stomach and then darted back to her
face.

    “ You had to
know what?” New tears rose into her eyes and he longed to reach out
and wipe them away.

    Was this also love? This
past day had been incredible. He had learnt so much, gained so
much, and now he felt as though he was standing on the edge of the
cliffs of Varka Three, one step away from falling to his lonely
death. If he said the wrong thing now, if he couldn’t convince her
that he hadn’t lied to her, then he would lose
everything.

    Without her, life wasn’t
worth living. Eternity would be a bleak darkness without this ray
of light before him.

    His own shoulders slumped
as he realised that the Terran tale was true. He understood it now.
Love was consuming, beyond mortal control. The star-crossed lovers
had killed themselves—one because they believed the other dead, and
the other because they woke to see their love had died. Neither had
wanted to live without the other. Both had chosen death over life
alone.

    A decision he would gladly
make should Sophia turn her back on him because of his
deception.

    “ It was not
easy. Please believe me, Sophia,” Regis said and took her hand.
When she didn’t snatch it back, he took it as a good sign. This was
all frightening and new. Never before had he been so scared that
someone would leave him. Never had he relied so heavily on one
person for his future happiness. “I desired to tell you at every
turn, with every furtive glance you threw my way, but I had to
resist and see what you would do. When you rejected the emperor
because you could not love him, and when you sought my company, I
knew that you were growing attached to me but I still could not
dare hope or reveal the truth.”

    He sighed and squeezed her
hand.

    “ Sophia, I
admit that while we were en route to Lyra Prime, I decided to
switch with Sirus and see what would happen. You have had many
suitors and rejected them all. I wanted to spend time with you to
discover whether you were only waiting for the right amount of
money, planets or power to come along or whether it was something
else that you were looking for.”

    “ You
lied.”

    He closed his eyes and
raised her hand, pressing it against his cheek. He opened his eyes
again and looked at her. The frown she wore was beginning to
fade.

    “ Know that I
did not mean to deceive you. I only wished to observe proceedings,
hoped that perhaps I was wrong and there was something else you
sought. When you admitted that you wanted to love your future
husband, I wanted to rejoice and cry at the same time. You had
chosen the one thing I could not give and I had begun to long for
your company and the sight of your beautiful face.”

    A blush touched her cheeks
and he stroked her right one with the backs of his
fingers.

    “ But you can
love,” Sophia said and took hold of