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

“Where’s that oil you used last time?”he asked.


Though I mourned his heat after I told him and he bolted to retrieve it,my new angle on the floor gave me a fresh perspective on the stars outside,the distant worlds reminding us of life outside of our own.Soon,I’d be back among them,at least for a while,because I couldn’t imagine how my changed status would appear to those on Ymoro.Tylen and I would be off,finding a home of our own,on Mier or on some other planet.What mattered,though,was that it would be ours,with no more bars to separate us,no more cages to confine us.


Tylen reappeared at my side.“Where did you go?”he murmured,nestling against me.


Tearing my eyes away from the heavens was hard,but Tylen’s beautiful face eclipsed its memory.“Just imagining what our future is going to be like.”


“Because I am.”He held out the oil for me to take.“Open it and pour it into my hand so I don’t have to move.”


Chapter 26