Lifting his leg, Hale swung around and kicked the K’aldi guard in the chest and knocked them over in one motion. The guard fell backwards and slid across the stone floor of the hallway. In three long steps, Hale caught up to his opponent and held him down with a foot. Hale knelt and slit the guard’s throat with the knife that was practically glued to his palm. Dark blue blood gushed from the artery in their neck.

Hale looked over his shoulder at Zaya who was behind him. The guard she was fighting collapsed on the ground after she kicked them in knees. She then strangled them. Slitting a throat took far less effort than suffocating someone to death, but Zaya had always preferred a more hands on experience. She wiped the sweat off her forehead and looked up at Hale.

“Looks like we have some options here,” Zaya said, gesturing towards the four dead K’aldians around them.

Hale didn’t find her comment humorous in the least bit right now. He was too tired to laugh at a joke. And a little too drunk to be bothered by his own silence. He knelt by the guard who was around his own size and started taking off the thick but light weight silver armor covering the deceased body. The armor suit slid off easily from the feet. Hale had never seen a K’aldian before. They were a muscular humanoid species with lavender blue skin and completely hairless from what Hale could tell. After Hale had completely removed the armored suit, Hale started taking off his own clothes, leaving only his shirt and underwear on. His eyes darted over to Zaya for a moment, and he caught her watching him. He rolled his eyes and turned around while he slipped on the armored suit. She had stripped down to her underwear, which was the sole reason he turned around. He didn’t want her to think he was interested in her right now.

When he faced her again, Zaya was already dressed in the armor. He was surprised that it fit her so well.

“Don’t forget the helmet,” she reminded him.

“Right.” Hale pulled the helmet off one of the other guards at their feet. He covered his head with the helmet. It fit him near perfectly, covering his head and most of his face with silver metal. How convenient.

“Could you help me, Hale? I can’t get this to stick.” She was attempting to reattach the guard’s rife to her back.

Hale took it from her hands and clipped it to the armor covering back. “You’re not going to need it.”

“I wanted it just in case.” She bent over to grab one of the double-sided scythes. “This will be the most useful to me.”

“Great. Let’s go.” Hale decided he would stick to his switchblade. The scythes were too cumbersome for him. He didn’t have much experience with them. Guns and knives were what he had been trained to fight with since his beginning.

They walked side by side back to the ballroom. When they reached the back entrance, Hale leaned against the door to listen in. He heard heavy metallic footsteps inside that sounded exactly like theirs. He could assume only the castle guards remained inside. He identified over twenty individuals in the other room.

“I’m hearing about thirty, give or take five,” Zaya whispered. “Your guess?”

Hale closed his eyes and intensified his focus on what he heard from inside the room. “I think exactly twenty-four.”

Zaya laughed. “You’re going to be wrong.”

Hale shrugged. He used to enjoy playing these games with her in the past. Now, they seemed stupid. He probably needed another drink to find them funny.

“We stay back-to-back and move to the center of the room,” Zaya directed him. “We don’t want to be backed against a wall.”

Hale gave her a thumbs up. Zaya opened the doors and walked in first. They stood in the doorway for a few moments closely observing the room. All the guests had left. The guards were the only people alive in the room. The entire royal family except for the princess lay dead on the shiny stone floor.

“I counted twenty-six guards. You?”

Hale scanned over the room focusing only on the moving bodies. “Yeah, you’re right.” He had been wrong, although the two extras wouldn’t be much of an issue for him.

“Must be the alcohol,” she commented.

“Yeah, I didn’t have enough.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

He knew she was insinuating he drank too much on the job. That wasn’t unusual for him though. She’d given him the liquor. Finished entertaining her, Hale took a step forward and blocked the path of one of K’aldi guards. He was ready to start a fight.

The guard angrily shouted at him in what Hale assumed was the K’aldi language.

Hale took a step back, but only to give himself room to kick the guard’s legs from behind. The guard almost fell backwards on his own. Hale helped him fall faster with a punch to the face. With his switchblade in hand, Hale stabbed the guard’s eye out and removed the blade. He struck the knife deep enough to reach the brain, and the dark blue blood flowed steadily from the wound. Zaya had knocked down the two who approached her. She stabbed them both in the neck with her scythe.

Eight new attackers charged for them. Four for Hale and four for Zaya. Hale sprinted towards the first two and slit each of their throats with his knife, one after the other. The two fell to the ground on their knees, clutching their bleeding throats. Hale turned to see where the other two stood relative to his position. He saw one in front of him. Where was the other though?

Freakishly strong hands gripped his shoulders and lifted him off the ground. So, that’s where the other one went, he thought. Next, Hale was thrown on the ground. He caught himself with one of his hands, and most of that impact was absorbed by his palm. It was his right hand too. How could he have been that careless? How didn’t he know there was someone behind him? He could still move his hand and grip the knife. It wasn’t broken. The two guards remaining began to kick him, and he heard more approaching. If he didn’t get up now, he never would.

Hale rolled away from them and jumped to his feet. The closest one charged for Hale with his scythe. Hale leaped out of the way and managed to grab ahold of the pole. Hale grabbed his end of the scythe with both hands and tried to yank it out of his opponents grasp. The guard’s grip was too strong for him to overpower. Suddenly, Hale let go, and the guard’s body launched forward into Hale’s knife, perfectly aligned with the main artery in his throat.

Hale cast aside the now deceased guard. He picked up his rifle and began to fire it at the surrounding soldiers. The gun scattered white beams of energy every time he pulled the trigger. While the beams weren’t powerful enough to pass through the armor, they were effective in keeping his enemies a comfortable distance away. Taking a few steps in retreat, Hale returned to his position at Zaya’s back.

There were three soldiers surrounding her. Quickly, they swapped positions. She shot the phaser rifle to keep the numerous soldiers at bay, and Hale took care of the ones close to them. The tallest, most muscular of the guards near to him threw his left fist to Hale’s head. Hale leaned to the right, out of the way to avoid impact. He was faster than his enemy. Before Hale needed to dodge another hit, he reached up to the guard’s chin with his knife imbedded in his fist and tore into the lower jaw with the blade. Hale retracted his knife and pushed the man to the ground. Because he wasn’t dead yet, Hale kept the guard down by placing a foot on his neck.

Hale sensed someone approaching his left side. It sounded as though they were running. He turned, preparing to swing a punch. But Zaya took care of the soldier for him. She swung her scythe low, causing the soldier to trip and land on his face.

“You’re welcome,” came her snarky comment.

“It’s really the least you could do.”

Hale stabbed the guard he held down with his feet and then the one Zaya had knocked over. He wished all aspects of their friendship worked seamlessly like the way they were in combat. Things could have been simple between them.

* * * *

Her bloodied scythe stood straight from the waist of the last K’aldi she’d stabbed. After Hale had pushed him over, she lodged the scythe right in one of the few weak points their armor had, and she drove it through his abdomen. She watched the blue blood run out from the injury site onto the shiny floors. The blood drew near her toes.

They had done it. Not a single guard of the castle walked the castle. It took them several hours. Once they would clear one group, another would come into the ballroom, and all were lying on the ground in a pile in the center of the ballroom. There was hardly a space clear of dried navy bloodstains. As she walked across the room, her shoes stuck to the floor. K’aldi blood was stickier than human blood. She stopped where Hale lay on the ground. His eyes were closed, and he clutched his knife over his chest.

“Hale, get up. The floor is disgusting.”

He opened his eyes. “I’m exhausted. I don’t think I can stand any longer.”

Zaya offered her hand to him. “I need you to go get our client’s wife. I think I just heard a ship landing.”

He sat up. “And what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to meet him at the front. Now stand up!”

Hale slowly rose to his feet. “Yeah, yeah. I’m going.”

They walked in opposite directions. Hale took the back exit leading to the hallways where their client’s wife was located. Zaya left the ballroom and entered the foyer where earlier they had spent time waiting to be announced. She recalled how handsome Hale looked in his indigo suit. He fixed his hair for once, although she preferred it to be messy. Especially if she was the one to mess it up for him. She planned to be doing more than that tonight.

In the foyer, Zaya stood before the main entrance doors to the entire castle. The double doors were made of metal, which looked out of place with the ancient architecture of the castle. She lifted the bar that crossed over both doors. Using most of her reserve strength, she pulled one of the doors toward her and cracked it open. Zaya looked outside. A couple meters in front of her waited a cloaked man.

“Miss Zaya, I hope I didn’t arrive too early.”

It was her client. She sighed in relief. “Not at all. Just in time. Hale and I have finished clearing the place out.”

She led him back to the ballroom, although she wasn’t sure he needed to be led. He seemed to know the way already. When he saw the countless bodies in the center of the room, he smiled. He went down to them and observed them closer.

“Good work. I have to say I’m impressed.”

“Sorry about all the mess,” Zaya said.

“Don’t worry about it. I didn’t pay you to clean them up. I have other people who will do that for me.”

“Right.” Zaya glanced up at the back entrance. She heard the doors opened. “She’s here.”

Hale returned with the man’s wife by his side. She clutched the arm Hale offered her as they came towards Zaya.

Their client immediately ran to his wife. She let go of Hale and fell into the embrace of her husband. The woman leaned on his shoulder and immediately began sobbing. Her husband cried too and held her closely to him, gently rubbing her back. They spoke in soft whispers that weren’t discernible to Zaya. She wished she could hear them.

Seeing the way they held each other, Zaya wasn’t as shocking when she thought of how much money he was willing to spend to save his wife and be reunited. They really were in love. The way the woman looked at her husband was the same way Pandora looked, eyes full of admiration, at Hale. That would never be the way Zaya would look at anyone, but she could appreciate what they meant by it.

Hale stood across from her. He was watching the reunion closely with the solemnest face. His eyes lids blinked a little too often, though his expression gave away no indication of his sadness. But Zaya could tell from his eyes alone that he was miserable, longing for someone far out of reach. If it caused him heartache to see them, why did he watch?

Zaya stepped around the pile of bodies in the center of the room to Hale’s side. She tapped him on the shoulder. “You okay?”

He closed his eyes tightly. His eyelashes were wet. “Yeah. I’m fine.”

Zaya tiptoed so that her lips were closer to his ears. “Don’t lie to me. I can tell when you’re hurting,” she whispered.

He opened his teary eyes. “You’ve never cared before.”

“How would you know?”

His smile was painful, as he shook his head and stepped away from her.

Zaya latched onto his hand. “I do. Don’t be like this.”

He stared at their hands for a moment before pulling his hand from her grasp. “Let’s just talk later.”

“Okay.”

Zaya turned her attention back to their client. He and his wife had calmed down and were just talking now, both with bright smiles on their faces. Zaya approached them.

“Sorry to make you wait,” their client said. “I have your payments in this case.” He handed Zaya a thin metal box about the size of her palm. “You two may leave now, or if you need a place to stay for the night, you can stay here. We have plenty of empty rooms.”

“We won’t be needing a place to stay. Thank you for your offer though.”

“That is all the money I could afford to give you for helping me find my wife and return to our home. I feel like you deserve more.”

“No. This is enough.” Zaya held up the silver case. “You don’t need help eliminating the rest of the staff?”

“Most of them used to work for me. I don’t think I will have any issues,” he replied.

“If that’s all you need, we will be leaving now.”

Hale followed Zaya out the ballroom and into the foyer. The castle’s exit doors at the end of the foyer were still cracked open from earlier. Her ship was docked in the bay a few hundred meters to the left. Though he walked by her side, Hale remained quiet. Zaya didn’t want to force him to talk about his problems if he didn’t want to. She had plenty to think about. Unfortunately, she didn’t get to ask her client all the questions she had about him. That would have been unprofessional.

Their client had referred to the castle as his home. Was it possible that he once worked in the castle? Or was he the former king? She would try to do further research about the history of K’aldi later.

When they arrived at her ship— his was currently hanging above the atmosphere— she lowered the entrance ramp. Hale went ahead inside. Zaya did her routine check of her ship before takeoff. She would never take the chance of taking off without checking to see if someone had tampered with it. She knew of colleagues who had died because they didn’t take such precautions.

Zaya went inside only after she had finished looking over every external aspect of her ship. The ramp led her directly inside the bridge. She reached high and pressed the switch on the ceiling that closed the ramp.

“Hey,” Hale greeted quietly. He was sitting on her sofa in a pair of grey sweatpants and completely shirtless. His legs were crossed over on the small table in front of him, and he held a glass of wine in his hands. “Hope you don’t mind, but I took a shower already.” She noticed his hair was wet.

Zaya moved across the bridge, farther away from him, to the ship’s control board before the main viewport. “That’s fine. I need one too.” She didn’t want to sit down on her spotless white pilot chair in her bloody armor. She could stand and pilot the ship off K’aldi, right?

She felt a tap on her shoulder. How had Hale gotten so close to her without a sound? She turned to look beside her, and there he was. “Do you need something?”

“You should go shower,” he said. “I can start up and check the engines for you.”

“Are you sure?”

Hale plopped down in the pilot chair. “Yes.”

That was sweet of him. She should have been indifferent to his kindness. But why be concerned with any of that now. She already knew it was impossible to break free of his hold now.

Zaya took a quick but thorough shower to get rid of any dirt or… lingering blood. She wrapped herself up in a robe and squeezed out the remaining water from her braids. She ran to her bedroom to get dressed. Looking through her closet, she wasn’t sure she needed clothes for tonight, but she decided on a satin mini dress the color of infinite space. The tiny dress allowed for plenty of movement because of the side slits. Before she walked out the door, she covered herself in the robe again. She needed to assess where she stood with Hale right now. He tended to go back and forth with his feelings for her.

Returning to the bridge, Zaya sat down on the sofa and poured herself a glass of wine from the bottle Hale opened. He hadn’t asked her permission, although this particular bottle was relatively inexpensive.

Hale, who hung over the control board, turned to her. “Ready to head out?”

“Yes.” She moved from the sofa to the co-pilot chair. “Have at it.”

“Wow,” he remarked. “You’re letting me fly your ship. This might be a first.”

“And probably a last, if you keep talking about it.”

He sat down beside her and placed his left hand on the steering yoke. With his other hand, he pulled back lever and her ship began lifting off the ground.

She diverted her attention to his hands and stared at them for a long time. They appeared normal. He held onto the steering yoke like any other human would, but after what had happened in the dungeon, she wasn’t sure he was human at all. His form looked biologically identical to male humans. Other than his apparent ability to light his hands on fire, she had no reason to question his identity, except for maybe his attractiveness because his looks rivaled the beauty of her world’s supposed gods.

She recalled the first time she met Hale twelve years ago. He was fifteen then. Though he was young, he would cause heads to turn because of how attractive he was. Zaya had felt the need to keep him very close to protect him.

Hale, who had noticed her staring, now watched her, his eyes full of concern. His eyes— a perfect cerulean with depths rivaling the great seas of Sirenéé— she could drown in them if she looked too closely.

“Zaya, what is it? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Her eyes shifted away from him to the viewport. Hale was slowly tilting the ship upwards as they left the atmosphere.

“I have to know. Are you human? You promised you would tell me,” she reminded him.

“Right.” He pulled the yoke closer to his body. The ship fought with the gravity of K’aldi as they traveled farther from the surface. “I— was having trouble thinking back there in the dungeon. It was probably the alcohol or the—never mind. To keep this short, no, I’m not human. I spent my whole life believing I was until recently. I found out I come from Elani, like Pandora.”

“How is this possible? I remember she did some weird things to my hands and healed them somehow.”

“The Elani all have powers of some form. I’m afraid I can’t tell you how it’s possible because you’re an outsider….”

“Excuse me?”

Hale glared at her. “I’m Elani. We look basically human but have special abilities. Because of Elani law, I’m not even supposed to be telling you this much. But you’re someone close to me, and you deserve an explanation, but this is all I can ever tell you.”

Zaya stared blankly out into space. Hale could burn things. Pandora could heal things. Both of them were the same species… Elani. They came from the same world. “I thought you were from Dunwar.”

“I tell everyone that because it’s where I lived since I was five. My adopted parents were human, but they were from Loshqi. That’s the only place I remember living before Dunwar. You know all of this though,” Hale said.

“Wait. So, you don’t have a single memory of Elani?”

“No. Not at all. Pandora was the one who made me aware that Elani even existed. It’s extremely complicated. But I really can’t talk about this anymore.” He made it clear he wanted this conversation to end there.

Zaya sealed her lips shut. She naturally had an endless number of questions, but she didn’t want to press Hale for the answers. The last thing she needed was to get on his bad side. She wanted him for herself tonight, and for that to happen she would have to be on her best behavior. She could play nice for him.