“No, the jewel’s choice was made by the Great Mother at our birth.”
“Couldn’t you become an exile too?”
She laughs sardonically. “I have no skills to survive in the wilderness. The elders make sure of that.”
“So you’re just as trapped as me then.”
“No, whatever happens, you’ve known love—that might be more than I ever get.”
A moment of realization dawns on me. She thinks I’m the lucky one.
And maybe she’s right. Somehow, despite being light-years apart, Kitaico and I found each other.
We still have a chance at happiness, all hope isn’t lost yet.
I grip her hand on my leg, trying to convey my sadness for her, but my hope for both our futures, all at once.
“I’m sorry, Yiskku. Tonight, can we dream of a happy tomorrow?” I force a smile to grace my lips.
“Only if you promise to cry quietly,” she scoffs. I have a sense that Yiskku isn’t used to opening up. She would fit in great in the Midwest. “The other girls’ crying was keeping me up already—we’ll sleep here, it’s much less depressing.” She shoots me a tiny grin.
I wipe my cheeks once more for good measure, take a deep breath, and recline on the chaise.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“For what? Go to sleep, control your emotions, human,” she says with her eyes closed. She’s trying to shrug off her attempts at comforting me, as if it’s no big deal.
But it is.
I’m sure for some humans a kind word doesn’t go very far—but for me, a Midwestern gal? Kindness is a fucking king, even if it’s given begrudgingly or played down.
“For giving me some hope that if something happens to Kitaico, that I could still find a friend here. Except for him, space has been cruel to me.”
“Whatever happens, and I’ll remind you we’re still hoping for the best, you’ll be safe here—treasured even. You’re a jewel after all,” she says softly. “Now shut up and go to sleep.”
23
brothers in fate
The holdingtanks are as depressing as my mood. What should have been a bittersweet reunion with my fellow hopefuls, the males I grew up with, is instead a morose reminder of all the lives I’ll have to take to make it back to Lena.
I shouldn’t have left her in tears, but I had no choice. She’ll be safe with the jewels, even if I’m gone.
I’m glad my division of hopefuls is the first in the arena. I want to do what needs to be done to find my way home to her. I don’t need to see more of my friends die before that.
I take a moment to let my eyes adjust to the dim lighting of the ancient chamber. Dust particles float in the air. As I lean against the stone walls, the rough texture scrapes against my skin. It serves as a stark reminder that I am once again thrust into the Great Proving, devoid of any modern comforts, including my clothing. I protectively cup my cock and mating crest, to shield it from the floor’s rough surface.
“What’s she like?” asks a voice filled with curiosity from the other side of the room.
It’s Guion, his small body hunched against the wall, much like my own. Quiet little Guion. He has always been kind to me, even if all of us just feel bad for him. Even Aekaz told him to go to the temple and become a guardian—but he stayed as a hopeful. He will never win in the final challenge. I wonder what it must be like to know when your life will end.
“She’s perfect,” I say, feeling my tiredness as I rub my hand over my face. Her tear-streaked face is imprinted on the back of my eyelids. I have to shake the painful image from my mind.
“They should have put you to death on the spot. It’s a disgrace that you're allowed to continue—your spawn will be an abomination to the mighty Andjin line,” a vicious voice echoes from a deeper part of the chamber.
Even before he steps into the light, I can recognize him by sound alone. Only the cruelest of the hopefuls possessed that voice dripping with such disdain.
As Aekaz, the brute, emerges from the shadows, his massive presence fills the room. His body, larger than life, seemed almost comical in its exaggerated proportions.
