“Yes, Jara.” He moves to bow again, but I grab his shoulder to stop him, knowing it will cause him pain to bend to me.
“Go rest.” I scan the other apprentices nearby. “Is anyone well enough to spar?”
Two volunteers step forward, and I fight them both, pointing out their weaknesses and celebrating their strengths. Then I set them against each other and go work out my aggression by digging rubble instead.
Chapter 11
Delphie
Ispend way too much time today thinking about whether I should take Nik as an “apprentice.” Certain parts of me think it’s a great idea. I mean, he’s fine as hell. He seems eager to please. And it’s not like I’m ever coming back to this place. There’s literally no reason to visit this planet again, so it would be like a vacation fling. I don’t have to fall in love with the guy to have a good time with him, and if he sucks in bed, I never have to see him again.
But I’m kind of pissed at him for leaving me here with nothing to do. Even if I can’t help with the hostage negotiations with the priests, I could help with all the other shit going on. I could change bandages or sweep floors or make food, but instead he has me locked in a hole in the ground. I’m cold and crampy and lonely and bored.
I look through the comm transcripts until it feels like my eyes are going to cross. Then I try to talk Aqen into taking me to the pits to help the healers. He won’t budge. He’s in please-the-king mode and shuts down any attempts at conversation. When a huge tray of stew, tili wafers, alien weeds, and dried meat is delivered, he won’t even come in the room to share it, so I have to eat by myself. Feels like being in detention at school.
To pass the time, I sketch a little using the art supplies I brought from Olethia and practice some yoga in the tiny patchof open floor, but I’m too antsy to focus on anything for long. I want to know what’s going on. At the very least, I want someone to talk to!
I screech when Tamira comms in the evening. “So good to see your face!”
“You were supposed to be on the med transport. I was waiting for you at the spaceport, bitch, and you didn’t show!”
I made a face at her. “Nik wouldn’t let me go.”
“I thought he was the one who set it up. He told Fen it’s too dangerous for you there because of the mine thing.”
“Changed his mind at the last minute. Now he says it’s not safe for me to leave. I’ve been stuck in my room all day with a guard posted outside.”
She gets a look I couldn’t decipher. “Oh, shit.”
“What?”
“Let’s see. He’s bossy. Overly concerned for your safety. Locks you up so he can keep you on his planet. Have you considered that you might be his Alara? Because he’s sure acting like it.”
I laugh. “I don’t think so.”
“I didn’t think so either. I thought Fen and I were just friends, and now look at me.” She gestures to her arm, and lavender pigment swirls beneath her colorful bridal bracelets, evidence of her fated bond with her king.
“Nik and I aren’t friends. We don’t even like each other. We’re...” I break off, not sure how to explain it. Our connection is about the responsibility we feel to other people. It’s about finding Lena and now, the moms. “On the same team. We’re co-workers.”
Tamira arches an eyebrow like she knows something. “Oh yeah? Looks to me like he left you at home when he went to work today.”
“I can’t help with what he’s working on right now. It’s tricky. Plus he’s busy handling the mine disaster.” I’m instantly annoyed with myself for making excuses for him. “Anyway, if I was his fated mate, he’d know, right?”
Tamira shrugs. Fen’s head pops into the frame from below, and I donotwant to know what he was doing down there. “Yes. Your scent would call him, and his pigment would change for you. It’s unmistakable.”
He wraps himself around Tamira and sniffs her neck until she blushes and giggles and pushes him out of frame. He immediately reappears, tackling her so they both vanish from view. The two of them are too cute together. When noises make it clear that they’re making out off-screen, I roll my eyes. This is their honeymoon period, so I just say goodbye and end the comm.
Tamira was teasing me. Or maybe she’s wishing it were true that her brother-in-law is my fated mate. She wouldn’t be the first newly married friend to try and set me up with someone so I could experience the same wedded bliss.
Nik would tell me if I were his Alara. He’d be all serious about it, too.“You’re my queen. You must accept this duty. It is an honor and with it comes responsibilities.”
We’d be a terrible match. Plus, he would have known I was his mate way back when we first met on Irra after the battle with the priests. He didn’t say a word, just grumpily marched me to the Xaszian ship and sent me back to Earth. My scent definitely wasn’t “calling” to him.
Or if it was, he didn’t let on.
My mind keeps going back to that bizarre moment when Nik pinned me down and sniffed my crotch like an overgrown pitbull...right after he turned lavender while sleeping in my bed.
I shouldn’t read too much into it. He was dreaming. I was bleeding. It was a coincidence.
