Nothing has ever excited Tylen Merodine more than being invited by the Regent himself to celebrate the first solar eclipse in his planet’s recorded history. It’s the party of the millennium, and if he has to restrain his normal exuberant instincts to fit in, that’s what he’ll do to be a part of it. His good intentions vanish, however, the moment he’s presented to the Regent. Because there, in a gilded cage, playing music unlike anything Tylen’s ever heard, is the most beautiful alien he could imagine. For more than twenty years, Dek has lived in captivity, performing at the whim of those who see him as an animal. The Regent is just the latest in a long line of owners, and while he’s kind, he’s still blind to Dek’s sentient nature. Only music gives Dek a voice, until Tylen breaks the rules and sneaks in to see and speak to him alone. The time they have together is stolen and precious, the minutes ticking away until the eclipse is past and they have to go back to the way their lives were before. But when the Regent shows an unexpected interest in Tylen’s future, they begin to wonder if their worlds need to remain so separate ...

Aria of the Eclipse

“Yes.”Encircling his fingers around my wrist,he lifted my hand and placed it on the side of his neck.A shudder,deeper and stronger than his earlier nerves,resonated beneath his skin.“This.”


I had assumed the gray spots that painted his body were like freckles,a pigment discoloration and nothing else.Touching him told a different story.They were actually raised,and though mostly smooth,soft,tiny hairs ringed each mark,hair that matched the gray so perfectly they were practically invisible.I certainly hadn’t seen them,and I’d been staring at him almost nonstop.


Chapter 8