StarPyre

but slight differences caught my eye once they approached. Rune-like tattoos covered every inch of their bodies, and a weird aura radiated from the pair that triggered warning sirens within me.
I’d already been fooled once by Luwyn when I’d mistaken him for a hot fairy cosplayer. I wasn’t going to make that mistake twice.
Looking back and forth between the two of them, they could be twins. Both had the same body structure with blonde hair, dressed in black pants and a vest. One had cyan tattoos all over his body and streaks in his hair—the other’s hair and markings were emerald green.
“We come in peace—I believe that’s what humans want us to say.” The cyan-haired male chuckled, smacking the other male’s chest. “Am I right?”
The emerald-tattooed male rolled his eyes. “That isn’t encouraging, brother,” he scolded, before looking me over. His eyes zeroed in on my hands. “I ask that you lower your . . . weapons, so we can start introductions.”
“Why should I?” I hissed. “You appeared out of nowhere, speak English, know my name, and you’re standing in the way of my rescuing one of my males.”
“Celyze is safely recovering in the infirmary upon our ship,” the cyan male replied. “After learning about your predicament, we decided to personally come and retrieve the three of you, taking care of any enemies along the way.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?” I asked, jerking one of my shanks at them.
The emerald male sighed as his eyes began to glow. He waved an arm, and instantly, nine jade-encrusted daggers appeared, floating in a circle surrounding him.
“You can come with us freely, or I can use force.” His gaze landed on the males kneeling at my side, who had uncharacteristically kept their heads down and stayed silent this whole time. “Your men know who we are and have shown us due respect. Why can’t you?”
“Look, Tori. Can I call you Tori? Or perhaps you prefer to be called ‘Star Queen’?” his twin asked.
Lowering my hands, I stared at him in shock. “How do you know about that?”
“Look at you,” he chuckled. “You’re covered in the blood of the Vhalxt you’ve slain, dressed in a metallic warrior’s outfit, dual-wielding your weapons, and wearing a crown on your head. What else should I call you?”
“I’m not a Star Queen,” I mumbled, looking away as my cheeks started to burn from embarrassment. Glancing down at myself, I realized just how ridiculous I must appear. After spending a week trapped in a dark room without any amenities, like a hairbrush or a change of clothes, I looked like shit.
“I beg to differ,” corrected the emerald-tattooed male. “You gave Celyze the cosmic energy he needed to call us. You performed an unprecedented feat, and as a human, no less!”
“Who knew, right?” his brother chuckled.
“I refuse to go from one prison to another, just to become some science experiment for you.”
“You’ve judged us wrong,” he sighed. “How about you follow us to our ship and see for yourself that Celyze is alright? Maybe after you clean up and rest, we can have a reasonable conversation.”
Eyeing the floating daggers, I admitted defeat. Adrenaline had carried me through the fight against the Vhalxt, but I wasn’t trained in combat. I couldn’t win against this knife-wielding alien. Besides, I was sick and tired of fighting to survive.
Looking down at my kneeling males, I addressed them both by name and asked through gestures if we should accompany the tattooed twins.
They met my gaze, wide-eyed. Once my question registered with their shocked minds, they chanted agreement repeatedly, as if the answer was self-evident.
These aliens were strangers to me, though they seemed to know a lot about my boyfriends and me. However, in movies, whenever the heroes survived a difficult battle, there was always help waiting on the other side.
This must be the other side.
“I agree to your terms,” I said, wincing at my weak attempt to sound diplomatic. “Take me to Celyze. I need to see him with my own eyes.”
The dagger-wielding male blinked. His emerald eyes instantly dimmed as all nine of his floating jade daggers floated behind his body and disappeared into thin air. These days, it seemed like every time I blinked, something new and unexplainable happened.
We followed the twin brothers through the twists and turns of the ship’s hallways, making sure not to step on any corpses on the floor along the way. We turned down a hall and came to a wall with a huge hole blown into its center. Lights flickered, smoke and sparks showered from severed power lines in the wall. None of the males I walked with seemed bothered by the damage.
As we crossed the connecting bridge onto their ship, we were greeted by a wide variety of aliens. I felt like I was entering a scene from a sci-fi movie, and I was the human who didn’t belong. The crew studied me in wonder, making me want to shrink back and hide behind my males.
My anxiety spiked the further we moved into the spaceship, and adrenaline shot down my spine. Gripping my metallic shanks harder, I flicked my gaze over everything we passed, wondering when all of this would turn to shit—again. I didn’t know if my nerves were a result of the tense silence of the crowd or the fact that once again, I was walking blindly into the unknown. At least this time, I had my blades and crown to use as protection, and hopefully, my males on my side.
That was another cause of worry. Once the dust settled after our rescue, would the three males that I’d shared the last week with still want anything to do with me? We had spent time and energy growing closer, despite our language barrier, as we tried to survive.
Would they want to return to their home planet? I assumed they’d want their old lives back, but . . . did I? Before me lay the opportunity to do what no