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hear her fate.

    The commander smiled,
thin-lipped and evil. “We have discovered something most
interesting about your brother. It seems he is in line for the
throne.”

    Renie didn’t like the way
his smile widened, his eyes narrowing with it. It scared her. She
frowned and stepped right up to the bars. She could see in the
Vegan’s eyes what he was thinking and she wasn’t going to let that
happen. Rezic didn’t care about the throne. He didn’t want it. He
didn’t want to be Lyra V.

    All of the malicious
thoughts crossing the Vegan commander’s face frightened her. They
confirmed her fear that he was thinking of hurting her brother. He
was going to punish Rezic for being in line to the throne of
Lyra.

    Her resolve melted away
and her brow furrowed. She stared into the commander’s eyes, no
longer able to hide her fear. He grinned when he saw it and that
only frightened her more. The idea that he was feeding off her fear
only increased it. Would he hurt her brother just to make her
suffer?

    “ Please,” Renie
whispered, hating herself for showing such weakness but needing to
protect her brother. He couldn’t fend for himself. He was already
injured. He had been so close to death. If they tortured him for
information, he might not survive. “Don’t hurt him. Please? I’ll do
anything you ask of me. Please... just don’t harm my
brother.”

    Tears blurred her vision.
She couldn’t bear the thought of them hurting Rezic. She could
almost feel his pain already. If they tortured him, he wouldn’t
tell them a thing. He would die before he revealed any of Lyra’s
secrets. She didn’t want him to die for a throne that he didn’t
want. Without him, the galaxy would be an empty soulless place. He
was everything to her.

    “ Please?” she
whispered again, reaching up and wishing she could take hold of the
bars, could get closer to the commander so he would see that she
truly would do anything for her brother. “Take me instead. Don’t
hurt him. If you want to hurt someone—”

    “ Enough,” Tres
snapped in a firm voice, making her jump.

    Her head shot around to
face him. He was on his feet and approaching the
commander.

    “ The treaty of
Espacia forbids this kind of action.” Tres stepped right up the
bars of his cell, his dark blue eyebrows knit tight into a frown.
He was taller than she had expected and when he looked like this,
so commanding and confident, she realised how handsome he really
was. She moved closer to him, her eyes fixed on his face, wondering
what he was going to do.

    What could he
do?

    They were both trapped
here. Mentioning the treaty wouldn’t change a thing. They couldn’t
stop the Vegans from hurting her brother. She felt helpless.
Useless. Rezic was hurt and there wasn’t a thing she could do to
help him.

    No one could help
him.

    “ You are in no
position to speak,” the Vegan commander said to Tres.

    The determined look on
Tres’s face didn’t change. He held the commander’s gaze, unwavering
in the face of a man she found so frightening.

    “ We have
contacted your family too,” the commander whispered and a flicker
of something crossed Tres’s face. Anguish? Fear? She couldn’t
determine the emotion. It was too brief, nothing more than a flash.
In less than a heartbeat, it was gone, replaced by a glare so
murderous and dark that Renie almost stepped back.

    Tres slammed his fists
against the light bars, making them crackle and fizz. The commander
retreated a step. Tres hit the bars again, his eyes narrowed into
dark blue slits. Not a trace of pain touched his features although
it must have hurt him to touch the energy bars.

    Renie watched in silence,
witnessing an unspoken exchange of threats between the two males.
She glanced down to see that Tres had his hands clenched into tight
fists at his sides. They were steady, not trembling in the
slightest. The control he had over his obvious anger was incredible
and stunned Renie as much as the hatred in his