Tethered Souls (The Infinite City Book 6), page 1
TETHERED SOULS
THE INFINITE CITY #6
TIFFANY ROBERTS
CONTENTS
Kier & Kayl
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Ensnared Sneak Peek
Also by Tiffany Roberts
About the Author
BLURB
Kier and Kayl only foresee one fate for themselves.
For Kier is wrath.
And Kayl is vengeance.
They have but one purpose—slay the pirate Vrykhan at any cost. They expect to give their own lives in pursuit of their revenge…
But they never expected her. Aileen.
Their na’diya. Their mate.
Their missing piece.
They never imagined a different fate. Is it too late to claim the future they never dared hope for?
Copyright © 2022 by Tiffany Freund and Robert Freund Jr.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form by any means, including scanning, photocopying, uploading, and distribution of this book via any other electronic means without the permission of the author and is illegal, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the publishers at the address below.
Tiffany Roberts
authortiffanyroberts@gmail.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover by Cameron Kamenicky and Naomi Lucas
Character Art by Sam Griffin
Character Art by Lucielart
Created with Vellum
To all those who have found what they sought, and all those who are still searching.
ONE
Aboard the starship Fang
Somewhere on the fringes of Consortium-ruled space
Terran Year 2108
Kayl swept his hands through the holographic star map, adjusting the angle. Vrykhan’s last attack had been launched from the center of the Ultris III star system. Had the pirates lain in wait, or had they attacked fresh from a jump?
He shifted the map again and tilted his head, following the potential trajectories with his gaze. Perhaps the pirates had cut close to the star? That would’ve made their ship more difficult to detect, and they could’ve taken advantage of the star’s gravitational field to grant themselves a burst of speed.
The cockpit floor vibrated under Kayl’s feet, keeping time with a heavy drumbeat. Dissonant, punishing instruments accompanied the beat—sonic claws raking the air with no regard for the damage they might cause.
Tail flicking from side to side, Kayl forced his focus back to the map. With more hand movements, he marked the pirates’ potential routes and sought places in the star system where they could have hidden the huge battle cruiser that served as their command ship.
Kayl and his twin had been hunting Vrykhan for years. They’d traced his movements, tracked down his contacts, and documented every reported encounter. But in all that time, they’d never caught up to the pirate.
There had to be a pattern in Vrykhan’s activities. There had to be something Kayl had missed, a key that would unlock the secrets, had to be—
The music rose to a blistering crescendo, so loud and fast that it rattled Kayl’s bones. Guttural voices roared and growled amidst the instruments.
In response, Kayl’s heart beat faster, heavier—he could just feel it through the vibrations. He dropped his hands to the console beneath the projected map. As the music continued its relentless assault, Kayl’s fingers curled, and his claws scraped the console.
“Kier,” he said.
The music devoured his voice.
“Kier!” Kayl turned his head to look at his brother.
Kier sat in the gunner’s seat at the front of the cockpit with his booted feet propped on the control console, bobbing his head to the music. The holo screens arranged before him, which monitored the Fang’s various sensors and systems, commanded none of his attention.
Kayl clenched his fists, slammed them down, and blasted out a single word with his mind.
Kier!
Kier sat up with a jolt, dropping his feet to the floor. His loose hair flopped into his face; he swept it back as he spun the seat to face Kayl. His mouth opened, his lips forming a question Kayl understood perfectly even if he could not hear it—“What?”
Kayl stilled his restless tail and held his brother’s gaze. Turn. It. Off.
Scowling, Kier folded his arms across his chest. His aerys—the voice of his soul, projected psychically through their bond—sounded clearly in Kayl’s mind. This music is a reflection of my current mood.
With teeth clenched—which only intensified the way the music rattled them—Kayl pulsed, Deafness is not a mood, Kier. I cannot hear my own thoughts amidst this noise.
Kier smirked. Would that I could not hear your thoughts amidst this noise.
Releasing a huff, Kayl shoved away from the projector console and strode to his brother’s chair. He braced a hand atop it, leaned over Kier, and tapped the stop icon on the music player’s holo screen.
The abrupt silence was a salve upon Kayl’s irritated soul. “Would that Thargen had not introduced you to such auditory abominations.”
“Would that you had developed an appreciation for art,” Kier replied as Kayl straightened.
Resisting the reflexive itch threating to set his tail into restless motion again, Kayl stalked back to the star map. Vorgals screaming and banging is not art.
“You are hardly qualified to make such a determination, Kayl.”
“And you are?” Kayl turned to look at his brother.
Kier rose smoothly from the chair, lifted his arms over his head, and arched his back in a languid stretch. Graceful as his movements were, they bore a subtle stiffness, a barely masked frustration. “More so than you. Your idea of music is only good for inducing unconsciousness.”
A shame it does not work on you, Kayl pulsed. And my preferred music has no bearing on my ability to recognize what is or is not art.
Dropping his arms, Kier turned a palm toward the ceiling and strolled closer to Kayl. “I will cede you that point. It is your inability to experience emotion that renders you unable to recognize art.”
Kayl’s tail stiffened, but he stopped himself from clenching his fists. He refused to grant Kier the satisfaction of seeing how the comment had irked him. “So, we are now resorting to juvenile insults?”
“No. It is simply mature, uninhibited honesty.”
“I would laugh if—”
“If you possessed a sense of humor?”
Kayl pointed at the holographic star map. “What time have we for humor while Vrykhan still roams the stars sowing terror?”
Time enough for you to absorb some culture, Kier pulsed, his smirk reflected in his mind-voice.
Drinking with Thargen and the others is not absorbing culture, Kier. Through his teeth, Kayl added, “There is much to be done.”
“And we can do so with music on.”
Kayl shook his head and folded his arms across his chest. “Not with that cacophony.”
I am wrath, Kier pulsed with unexpected solemnity—solemnity that crumbled when he walked back to his seat and reached for the music controls. And so are these vorgal battle ballads.
Battle ballads? Was that really what such music was called? Who had chosen to violate the meaning of the word ballad by making such a classification?
With another shake of his head, Kayl dislodged those pointless wonderings. Such questions were unimportant. Do not, Kier.
Locking his gaze with Kayl’s, Kier extended a finger and slowly moved it toward the holo screen.
“We need to focus on finding a new lead,” Kayl said.
“No, we do not.” Kier’s finger eased closer to the play icon.
Kier…
“Som
That is not how it works, Kier. Jaw clenched, Kayl watched that finger with all the intensity and anxiousness he would’ve afforded it had it been creeping toward a trigger.
“This? Of course it is. I simply press the icon and—”
“The hunt,” Kayl growled. “Leads do not simply materialize. We must work for them. Opportunity will not seek us!”
The control console chimed. The twins snapped their gazes to the holo screen in front of Kier as the music player was replaced by the animated icon for an incoming commlink call. The lack of identifying information on the call could only mean one thing.
“Can we not go even two full days without him calling?” Kier asked.
Kayl strode across the cockpit to join his twin. “It is difficult enough to focus with you around all the time. He makes it nearly impossible.”
Kier’s extended finger still hovered near the screen—now directed at the DENY CALL button. He glanced at his brother; no words, whether spoken or thought, needed to be exchanged for Kayl to understand the unasked question.
And it was tempting. As grateful as Kayl was for the assistance Arcanthus and the others had provided over the last six months, he was in no mood for one of the sedhi’s laidback, rambling, pointless conversations right now.
It had always been Kier and Kayl. Though they’d learned to trust Arcanthus, Thargen, and the rest of their crew, the twins could only truly rely upon each other.
For I am vengeance.
And I am wrath, Kier’s aerys intoned.
“But he has provided useful information many times,” Kier continued out loud.
Yet here we are, adrift, with nothing to show for all that information. Kayl clenched his jaw, staring at Kier’s finger and the icon beyond it.
“We can tell him we have little time,” Kier said. “Tell him to be brief.”
As though that would ever work with him.
Kier smirked. He shifted his hand aside and touched the accept icon.
“Had to think about it, did you?” Arcanthus asked before his holographic image had even appeared.
The sedhi was leaned back in a chair, clad in a satiny robe that revealed most of his chest and his upper abdominal muscles. His long black hair was swept aside to hang over one shoulder. The intricate marks on his gray skin—called qal—glowed golden.
His terran mate, Samantha, sat on his lap, one arm cradling her rounded belly. Her cheeks were pink, usually a sign of embarrassment in her kind, but her gentle smile suggested only contentment, especially when she glanced at Arcanthus.
Something deep and hungry stirred inside Kayl, accentuated by a sour pang in his chest. Bitterness. Jealousy. Longing.
Distance.
Much of it had come from Kier…but not all of it.
“We were occupied,” Kayl said.
Arcanthus grinned and chuckled. “You were bickering again, weren’t you?”
Kayl only just prevented himself from exchanging a glance with his brother.
Are we truly so predictable? Kier pulsed.
Kayl had no satisfactory answer. All he could do was try to mask the discomfort lurking at his core. He and his twin knew each other, heart, mind, and soul. They’d been linked even before they’d been born. But to have someone else be so familiar with them…
“Hey Kier,” Samantha said cheerfully with a wave. “Hey Kayl.”
Kayl nodded in greeting.
“Hello, Samantha,” Kier said with a smile that fell as he turned his attention to the sedhi. His tail bumped Kayl’s leg before swinging away. “Do you need something from us, Arcanthus?”
“No. The opposite, in fact.”
Kayl’s chest constricted, and his heart quickened. “What have you found?”
Leads do not simply materialize, hmm? Kier pulsed.
Shut up.
Arcanthus lifted a cybernetic hand and delicately brushed some of Samantha’s loose hair behind her rounded ear. “How are you two doing? You’ve been out there a long time.”
Now Kayl’s tail flicked; just once, but the lapse in control only heightened his irritation.
Be easy, brother, Kier’s aerys warned.
Is the information he has provided worth wasting all this time? Kayl replied. Every moment Arcanthus spends blathering, Vrykhan’s trail fades further.
“You asked us that the last time we spoke, Arcanthus.” Kier leaned forward, placing his hands atop the console. “We are fine.”
Arcanthus’s grin took on a lopsided tilt. “A lot can change in a couple days.”
“Little has changed.”
Shifting his arm so his hand was on Samantha’s belly, Arcanthus drew her more snugly against him. “What little?”
Kayl’s attention dipped to Arcanthus’s hand. How could the sedhi’s hold on the terran seem so relaxed and loving and yet so protective and possessive? Kayl’s awareness of his missing piece intensified in that moment; the daevalis he shared with his brother would forever be unbalanced and incomplete. There would forever be a void in their souls. They would never have their na’diya to complete their triad.
They would never hold their mate like that, would never see her belly grow with a youngling. They would never know peace and comfort like Samantha and Arcanthus provided one another.
They would never be whole.
Is that why we stay away?
Kier’s voice, with a hint of smugness layered over that old, persistent pain and longing, slipped into Kayl’s mind. Shall I gloat over the fact that I must be the one to tell you to focus, brother?
Kayl bit back his thoughts and lifted his gaze to the sedhi’s face. “Are you asking for a definition of the word little?”
Arcanthus laughed. “Kier said little had changed. I’m only asking what is different.”
Why can he not simply be direct? Kayl pulsed.
He is, Kier replied. You are just frustrated and distracted.
Oh? Kayl frowned.
Fine. We are frustrated. After a brief silence, Kier begrudgingly added, And distracted. We are both frustrated and distracted.
He is staring at us with that knowing grin, Kier. Say something to him.
Ba’shanaal, Kayl, you have a mouth of your own.
“Nothing of note,” Kier said.
Arcanthus scoffed. “There must be more. You’re out there hunting notorious space pirates and liberating slaves, and don’t have a single story to share?” He stroked Samantha’s belly with undisguised reverence.
“We missed you both at the Conquerors table last night,” Samantha said.
“Razi is still convinced you two were cheating telepathically. He might push to ban you from being able to play separate factions when you return. I say he’s just being grumpy.”
Kier tilted his head. “Why is he grumpy?”
“Someone must have died on that volturian show,” Kayl said.
With a laugh, Arcanthus asked, “When doesn’t someone die on that damned show?”
Samantha’s smile widened. “It’s because you two almost beat me last time, but Razi hasn’t come close in months.”
“We were not cheating,” Kier said with a smirk, “and Kayl almost beat you.”
