Colliding Worlds Trilogy 02 – Implosion by Berinn Rae Read Free Book Online Page B

record. The one in her files belonged to a still-born Sephian baby with the same name. And, since no father was recorded, it became clear her mother had been hiding something.
    Her mother, Nexa, had been a beautiful, petite Sephian, with strong yet feminine features. Nexa had belonged to the Homs house, a Draeken lord Roden had met once in his youth and knew to be a good man. A man known for neither politics nor secrets. But one neighboring house had a far different reputation. That was the Puftan house and childhood home to none other than Hillas Puftan himself. Roden had heard rumors about the Grand Lord’s … appetites, and Nexa fit his tastes perfectly. The poor woman never stood a chance.
    Once Roden rationalized the hard truth, he hated his leader all the more for it. The bastard deserved to die for his crimes. How fitting to have the result of one of his crimes be his undoing.
    While Roden was confident of his theory, he needed proof. The night Nalea came to his room presented the perfect opportunity to confirm his suspicions without her being the wiser. After tranqing her, he scanned her blood for signs of a Draeken heritage. Not only was it proof positive, but her DNA matched the Puftan bloodline. From there, it didn’t take long to find the faintest hairline scars that betrayed her secrets. Nalea’s father was the most powerful of all Draeken.
    Still, there was no way Nexa could’ve forged birth certificates without Draeken help. Homs had put his own life in danger by hiding Nalea. Roden wondered if Nalea knew that the man she killed had risked so much to protect her.
    Nalea had been right about one thing. If Hillas had known about her, she would’ve been killed at birth. Hillas was ruthless at protecting his reign. And the Grand Lord clearly suspected something when it came to Nalea. Roden gambled that it was the inordinate amount of time he’d spent with her that garnered Hillas’s attention. Fortunately, that, too, played into Roden’s plans.
    Allowing Nalea to kill the Grand Lord was the greatest gift he could give her so that she would accept her role in his plans. Nalea was the key to his end game, but he’d have to move quickly. Even though he deleted all of Nalea’s files, including the archives, he’d no doubt Hillas was capable of doing his own deductive reasoning, especially since Nalea bore far too many of her mother’s facial features.
    Roden chuckled when his attention returned to the screen. With every sit-up, Nalea glowered at the camera. It brought comfort to him knowing that he threw her off as much as she did him. He reached for the bottle of spiced rum he’d procured from Club Mayhem before the humans shut it down. The flavor reminded him of
bolgk,
his favorite drink, bringing back memories of home. He unscrewed the cap and paused, then frowned. He sniffed the liquid, but smelled nothing but the sweet smell of sugar alcohol.
    He watched the bottle for a moment. Set it down on the desk and examined it. Dark glass with amber liquid. A pretty package all too easily tainted. “What are you hiding in there?” No matter how tired he was, he was careful in his routines. And leaving the cap only loosely tightened certainly wasn’t one of them. His boots landed on the floor with a solid
thud
as he came to his feet. “I’ll be back for you later, my dear,” he murmured to the woman still doing sit-ups, and then clicked off the screen.
    Grabbing the bottle, he punched the unlock code, stepped into the hallway, waited for the door to close and lock, before heading down the corridor.
    It was late. The base was quiet. His people had quickly grown accustomed to Earth’s orbital schedule, and most would be sleeping at this late hour. He paused at Nalea’s cell. As soon as she saw him, she rolled over to face the wall. He had the sudden urge to enter her cell, to force her to face him, but now wasn’t the time. Pursing his lips, he continued through corridors riddled with sharp turns until