“Harht,” Ksar said. “Breathe. Harry!”
The command in his brother’s voice made him realize his lungs hurt. Harry opened his mouth and closed it. He breathed. He tried to.
Ksar’s expression softened. In a few long strides, he was by Harry’s side. And then his arms were around Harry.
Harry clung to his brother, his eyes squeezed shut. Ksar hadn’t hugged him in years.
When Ksar pulled back, his expression was grim and hard. He tipped Harry’s face up and looked him in the eye.
“I can’t promise you that it will be easy, Harry,” Ksar said. “It won’t be. But I promise you that I will find a solution.” Something cold and ugly flickered in his eyes. “By any means necessary.”
CHAPTER 24
Ksar was more or less satisfied as he left the Queen’s office. He was pleasantly surprised that he hadn’t had to influence his parents’ minds to make them more… open-minded about Harht’s situation. It seemed he wasn’t the only one in the family with a soft spot for their youngest member. Granted, the Queen hadn’t been happy to hear the news, but all in all, it had gone smoother than Ksar had expected. Their parents’ concern for Harht had outweighed their dismay by the situation. Harht was going to need their parents’ unconditional support while Ksar solved the problem of Harry’s bond to Leylen’shni’gul and the fact that legally Harry couldn’t have a relationship with the human.
Ksar pressed his lips together. He still couldn’t say he was happy with the fact that Harry literally needed his human.
Initially, he had been skeptical of Borg’gorn’s assessment of the situation until he checked Harry’s mind himself.
What he had seen in Harry’s mind was beyond disturbing. Harry’s mind had always been warm and bright, full of happy, if naive, thoughts. Now it was dull and gloomy, lifeless and devoid of any excitement. Harry’s brain was confused and sluggish, his core pulsing with such raw need that it nearly made Ksar sick. Harry was also in immense pain, but his brain didn’t seem to work correctly for him to feel it fully. The bond around Harry’s telepathic core didn’t make matters better, messing with the already suffering mind and body. Ksar couldn’t imagine constantly living with that kind of pain and unsatisfied need. He didn’t think Harry could last long without going insane or his brain finally shutting down.
So regardless of his own thoughts on the matter, he would have to get Harry what he needed: that human of his.
Ksar gritted his teeth and strode toward his office.
He was annoyed by the situation. Though, perhaps annoyance wasn’t the correct word. Cold rage fit better. He wanted to kill that human. Harht was still a kid. It wasn’t Harht’s age that was the problem—Ksar had been on hundreds of planets and was well aware that the Calluvian age of majority was considered rather old by most races’ standards. Harht was twenty-three, old enough to make his own decisions. No, the problem wasn’t Harht’s age, per se; it was Harht’s naivety and trustfulness. Harht had been too sheltered all his life. He hadn’t even attended an off-planet school, as most Calluvian princes did. Their parents had always babied Harht too much and he had grown up disgustingly naive and nice.
Ksar hadn’t had an opportunity to observe Adam Crawford for long, but he was familiar with the type: the handsome, confident type that fucked every attractive thing. Harht deserved better.
But it didn’t matter now, did it?
Ksar pressed his hand against the scanner and the door to his office whooshed open.
“Borg’gorn, the information I requested,” he said, seating himself behind his desk.
A hologram appeared in front of him.
The AI replied, “The data is not complete, but the initial research indicates that twenty-three percent of the Ministry’s Lord Chancellors would like for the laws regarding pre-TNIT races to be softened. Forty-six percent do not have particularly strong feelings on the matter. Thirty-one percent firmly agree with the law.”
Ksar hummed thoughtfully. Twenty-three percent was better than expected. He could work with that.
“Has the Queen-Consort of the Sixth Grand Clan accepted my invitation?”
“Yes, Your Highness. She’ll be here shortly.”
“Good.” Ksar leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. His mind raced with possibilities, considering and discarding them quickly.
He wished he didn’t have to choose that route.
For a moment, he wondered again if it would have been easier to simply smuggle Harht to Earth as Seyn had suggested, but he dismissed the idea again. To do that, he would have had to completely subdue the teleporter technicians’ wills, erasing their memories again and again each time they saw in the teleporter’s history that Harht had teleported to Earth. Even if it were feasible—which it wasn’t, since Ksar was too busy—there was nothing he could have done to keep the technicians’ bondmates out of their minds; they would have noticed immediately that something was amiss.