Dark Nine ❈ Dark Nine Universe Bk1 ❈

Chapter Fifty

Diana's POV

I am returned to their Mega Elion City on Dark Ninth. Not a conquered city, or overthrown – but always theirs since the beginning.

The silence on the ride back on the spaceship was ominous.

They wanted to breed me – but why would I want to breed with Elions...?

The reason Elions were so different was what they were in nature, parasites.

All parasites were enemies to the subspecies, those who could breed with each other, due to the universe creating human-like creatures all over. We were allies for our likeness and understanding of one another, with small differences.

All Elions had a purpose to kill us. Friends wasn't in their vocabulary. It was them or us.

That was the accepted end goal from what we learned in history. To wipe us out completely. Cinta suggested she found out they were doing that from the inside, learning to fake love.

Infiltrating the Universal Board – becoming our deepest allies and respected to the core... then to kill us all? Eventually?

Well shit, it was a billion-year plan and still unfolding.

In this scenario being a Dark Nine should give me answers.

It ironically helps that I'm low-key being treated as a prisoner.

When we arrived back I was not free to roam, oh no, but I wasn't guarded either.

I was just put away, in a nice-ish holding room with a view. I was in that structure that looked like a palace, on top of the zig zag pyramid in the centre of the city, but who knows what this place meant to them, or if it was even a city in the first place.

Everything about Elions was abnormal and unnatural and strange.

Which means everything about them, was pretend.

And you know what? That sits right with me. Because it was the weird truth.

So was Cinta dead-on? Why didn't they deny her allegations? Why did I feel at peace with the answer... I should not be at peace with this truth.

I am inside a small room with a nice view of the empty city.

I sit on a carved out bench, staring at a wall with engravings everywhere. Engravings that reminded me of Apastron. The walls and floor could be sandstone but I know it's not, it's some other weird material.

After all the bombshells, I feel open to what's next.

That's all I feel. That and not being scared. I thought I'd be terrified.

I'm not. Maybe I should be? But I can't logically think my way out of this.

I was a creature of feeling and intuition. Because that feeling was never wrong, and logic thoughts could be.

My silly roundabout thoughts are halted by a presence.

The stone door that was shut on me, is edged open, and I look over to see Mars slipping through, holding a bag of donuts – and an ice coffee in the other hand.

He looks hopeful, and guilty. He comes in comfortably naked, no Elion gear on him. I prefer him like this.

And I can't help but half smile at the peace offering.

"Oh, it's all okay now," I whisper to Mars, "Give me that."

I reach out a hand and Mars meets my eye with a softness I trust.