Starcrossed

Chapter 16b: Cheile Rioga (part 2)

Chapter 16 (part 2)

Cheile Rioga (KEE-luh ree-OH-gah): Royal Consort

I opened my mouth to restate my position, but Rigel beat me to it. "Sir, I'd say M has made her wishes clear. No matter how stubbornly you refuse to believe it, she and I are bonded and you can't just . . . undo that for political reasons."

At the word "bonded," both Allister and Sean scowled at Rigel.

"You'd better not mean you've—" Sean began, but again his uncle waved him to silence.

Advancing menacingly on Rigel, Allister snarled, "Young man, if you have done anything to compromise the Princess, I assure you there are penalties in place—"

Now it was my turn to interrupt. "Oh, stop it. Rigel hasn't done anything to 'compromise' me. You guys sound like something out of a Victorian novel. Sheesh! We were bonded from the first time we touched. Hands!" I clarified quickly. "And there's plenty of evidence that we really are bonded—most of which you've already heard."

I looked to Shim for confirmation and he nodded.

"They're right, Allister, for all your unwillingness to see it," he said. "There were a dozen or more witnesses to what these two did to Faxon's Ossian Sphere several weeks ago when Morven attacked. Nothing short of a true graell bond could have accomplished that, I assure you."

But Allister snorted dismissively. "No Royals among your witnesses, of course, only people with a vested interest in raising the profile of the Progressive fines. I maintain that the Sphere was fundamentally unstable and that Morven's mishandling caused it to explode. Not that I'm ungrateful for the role all of you played in defending our Princess against him, of course."

Rigel was trembling with anger now, then I clearly heard: Let's demonstrate.

Startled, I glanced at him. Did he really mean we should zap Allister, right here in his parents' living room?

He gave me a tiny nod, his expression grimmer than I'd ever seen it. The idea of deliberately attacking another person, even one as obnoxious as Allister, made me recoil, but I was as desperate as Rigel to finally prove our bond—to Allister and to Sean. Steeling my resolve, I took a deep breath and tightened my grip on Rigel's hand. Maybe, if we were careful—

"Rigel." It was Dr. Stuart, her voice soft but firm. "Don't."

"Your mother is right," Shim said. "Violence is never the proper answer. Any kind of violence. Let go of M's hand and come over here, please."

How had they known? I felt Rigel's frustration, but also a bit of relief that echoed my own. He was still angry, though, and afraid, just like I was. After a long, rebellious moment, during which everyone in the room stared at us with varying degrees of disapproval, Rigel finally, reluctantly, released my hand and took a few steps away from me.

We exchanged a long look, silently reaffirming our love, then I turned to face Allister again.

"It won't make any difference if you try to keep us apart," I told him. "I'm not going to let you force me into some perverted arranged marriage. We're in the United States, in the twenty-first century, and I'm only fifteen. Things like that are illegal here."

Allister tried to arrange his face into some semblance of a fatherly smile—failing utterly, as far as I was concerned.

"Of course no one is going to force you into any such thing, Princess," he said, his tone as reasonable as he could make it. "I simply want you and my nephew to become better acquainted. It may be that when the time comes—years from now—you will find the idea anything but repugnant. Teenage relationships are notoriously short-lived, after all. I'm confident this one will run its course naturally, removing what you now, in your inexperienced youth, see as an insurmountable obstacle."

Sean now looked more embarrassed than pissed, but when Allister nudged him, he stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Like he said, M, the last thing I want is to pressure you to do anything you don't want to do. I just . . . want us to be friends. To stay friends. That will be okay, won't it?"

He looked sincere, even cute. My glance involuntarily strayed to Rigel, who looked like his grandfather's hand on his shoulder was the only thing keeping him from launching himself at Sean. He was obviously not on board with even friends, but I didn't see how I could refuse such an innocuous-sounding request.

"Friends is fine," I finally said. "But just friends. I'm telling you right up front that it's never going to be anything more."

A little to my surprise, Sean didn't seem upset by that. "It's all I'm asking," he said.

I suspected there was an unspoken "for now" in there, but if he was determined to cling to false hope, I couldn't stop him. All I could do was remind him where my true love and loyalty lay, every chance I got.

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