“No. You will not die tomorrow. Your punishment will be tough to get through and truly, it’s out of our hands. You’ve angered a lot of powerful Vakarrans with your actions, but I want to tell you something. It’ll make it easier for you tomorrow. Are you listening, Kira?”
I nodded, biting my lip nervously.
“I want you to submit to the punishment. Don’t fight it as it happens. If you begin to panic, I want you to look at me. I want you to trust me. Submit. It’ll make things so much easier for you,” he said.
“And if I don’t?” I ventured.
“If you fight the four of us tomorrow, Commander Strohass will punish you himself, and it will be infinitely worse than anything we will do to you, that much I am sure of.”
I was silent for a long time, but Coltan never left me. I gripped his hands in my own.
Tears threatened to fall.
Why wasn’t I strong? Why couldn’t I get a grip?
The unknown scared me. I could fight an enemy head on, kill anyone that came at me, but not the unknown. My beating heart pounded in my chest.
“Please, let me out,” I begged. “I need to get out. Just for a little while. Please.”
“I can’t do that, Kira,” he answered. “You know that.”
I gripped the bars.
He stood beside the cage and sighed. His eyes were indecisive.
“I’ll let you out for a few minutes, but you’re going to wear the cuffs. Will you promise to behave if I do that?”
I nodded.
“Please,” I begged.
He was only wearing a cotton shirt and a pair of dark slacks. His belt, including his dagger, was nowhere to be seen.
He unlocked the door of the cage.
“Back to me. Wrists crossed behind your back,” he said quietly.
I did as I was told.
He cuffed me, and I didn’t fight him. He gently turned me around and helped me step out of the cage. I knew I should be using this chance to escape, to try to fight, but I was tired, mentally exhausted at that moment and just didn’t have it in me to put up any great resistance.
His huge frame took me in his arms and I couldn’t help but melt just a little bit. He sat down on a chair beside the table and drew me in his lap. I allowed him to.
“Kira?”
“Mmhhmm?” I murmured, snuggling into his shoulder.
“Tomorrow, I won’t be able to be like this with you, especially with all the other Vakarrans and my commander watching. I need you to be prepared for that.”
Nodding into his shoulder, I knew he was correct.
This moment of weakness, between the two of us, would be forgotten as soon as the sun rose. I understood it, as well as he. This was something that could only happen in private. I knew that, but I didn’t hate it any less.
Coltan’s arms tightened around me.
I pulled back and stared into his bright copper irises. Had I had access to my hands, I would have touched his face and pulled him into a kiss. Almost as if he could read my thoughts, he took a hold of my chin and pulled me in close, claiming me with his lips in a kiss that left me trembling.
Something was wrong with me, it had to be. How could I be sitting here kissing an alien?