Warmth (Klance Warmth series Book 1 of +4)

17: Boiling Point

Sometime after Allura had cried herself out, she and Lance had moved  to the prince's bed. Lance lay across the mattress's width with his legs dangling loosely over the side. Allura was perpendicular to Lance, with her head on her brother's chest. Both siblings lay on their backs  staring at the ceiling. One of Lance's hands rested on his sister's hair, and the other held Allura's hand.

"I'm sorry," he said eventually. "I didn't mean to make you think I wasn't coming back."

Allura sighed. "I know you didn't," she said softly. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"It's a long story," Lance warned.

Allura flopped her free hand over her stomach and hummed. "Are you really in a rush to eat Coran's latest masterpiece?"

Lance grimaced comically. "Not... really."

His sister snorted. "I won't tell if you won't," she said giggling.

"I'm the soul of discretion."

Allura jabbed her elbow in Lance's side, snickering when he coughed and whined. "If you're the soul of discretion then we're all doomed."

"Love you too, sis," Lance said wryly.

A dobosh or so after they'd calmed back down, Allura felt a worried frown worm its way onto her face. "Lance, please," she said. "What happened?"

Lance took a deep breath and sighed. "A lot, actually," he said slowly. "I was caught in the battleship's tractor beam while I was in the water."

"So their technology has mastered that inhibition too," the princess said wearily.

"I wasn't too far underwater," Lance said. "It's possible the beam still has its limits. Maybe if I'd been deeper underwater, it wouldn't have  caught me."

"But it did," Allura said. "Where did they take you?"

"The main bridge," Lance said, his fingers starting to undo his sister's long white hair from its bun. "They may have taken me somewhere else first, but I was unconscious at the time. The commander of the cruiser was called Sendak and he answered directly to Zarkon."

Allura swallowed thickly. "Is it... Was it really him? Or-"

"It was him," Lance said grimly. "He called me by my title."

"He spoke to you?" Allura asked.

"Yeah."

The princess felt her brother shift under her head and didn't press for him to continue. He'd talk when he was ready.

"He asked about you," Lance said softly.

Allura squeezed her brother's hand tighter.

"He killed Tayla," Lance continued, squeezing his sister's hand in return. "He tortured her and found out Father tied the Lions to the Heir's life force."

Allura closed her eyes feeling them water. "May the Lions protect her," she murmured.

"May the fields beyond welcome her," Lance finished the old, traditional Altean prayer. He took a deep breath and continued his story. "He- Zarkon- He inferred you were dead and the Lions were tied to me."

"What?" Allura eyes flew open and she rolled over, pushing herself up on her forearms to stare at her brother. "Lance, what did you do?"

Her brother flushed and avoided her gaze. "Nothing, actually," he admitted. His one blue eye flickered to hers and back to the side nervously. "I was too scared to talk at first. But..." He licked his chapped lips. "Sendak was pulling my hair and it hurt and I was scared and... Zarkon saw me cry when he asked about you and thought I was implying you were  dead. So he thinks the Lions are tied to me."