“Thank you. Leave us.” Rezor’s voice was tight. Controlled.
The guard departed, and I stepped inside, the door closing behind me with a heavy thud that felt too final.
Rezor stood by the window, his back to me, silhouetted against the morning light. His posture was rigid, and even from across the room I could feel the tension radiating from him.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Did something else break?”
“No.” He turned to face me, and I saw the exhaustion in his eyes, the tight set of his jaw. “Vax confessed.”
Cold washed over me, but I nodded. “Just like that? He just said he did it?”
“Yes.” Rezor moved away from the window, gesturing for me to sit. I didn’t. “I confronted him about access to the underground chamber. Asked him directly if he’d been tampering with the systems. He said he did it to protect the valley.”
“Shitty method.” Anger flared hot in my chest. “He could have killed people.”
“I know.” Rezor’s hands clenched and unclenched. “He claimed the damage was meant to be minor. Enough to cause problems that could be blamed on the sky people’s arrival, to justify exiling you before…” He stopped, his jaw working.
“Before what?”
He met my eyes, and I saw something vulnerable there beneath the anger. “Before the people realized you were my mate.”
The word hung in the air between us.Mate. Not potential mate, not deep compatibility. Just…mate.
“He knew,” Rezor continued. “He saw my marks glow when I touched you.” His voice roughened. “He was trying to remove you before the clan had to deal with their lord taking an alien mate.”
I couldn’t breathe. “And you told him…?”
“That he should give our people more credit.” Rezor moved closer, close enough that I could see the faint glow beginning beneath his shirt. “That if youaremy mate, they will accept you. They’ll have to accept you, because you’re the only one who understands the technology that’s kept us alive for generations.”
“That’s a pretty practical reason for acceptance,” I said, trying for humor but falling short. “Not exactly romantic.”
“It’s the truth.” His hand came up, cupping my face. “You saved our water system. You diagnosed the grow facility damage. You’ve been working yourself to exhaustion to repair systems my engineers couldn’t fix. They may not trust you yet, but they respect what you can do.”
“And that’s supposed to be enough? I’m useful, so they’ll tolerate me warming their lord’s bed?”
“Cleo.” His thumb brushed across my cheekbone. “You’re more than useful. You’re brilliant and brave and you’ve proven yourself a dozen times over. But even if you hadn’t, even if you’d done nothing but exist, I would still claim you as mine. The marks don’t care about politics or practicality. They know what they know.”
My chest ached. This was…so much. I envied his ability to just say what he was feeling, when my thoughts were trapped behind a steel wall. “What happens to Vax?”
“The council will decide.” Rezor’s expression hardened. “But he endangered the entire valley, so there will be consequences.”
“He was your friend.”
“Yes. And he betrayed everything I trusted him to uphold.” Pain flickered across Rezor’s face. “I understand why he did it. Fear makes people do terrible things. Fear of the unknown. Fear of losing what we have.”
I thought about my own fear. About how hard it was to let Rezor in, all because I was terrified of being hurt again. “I get it,” I said quietly. “Being afraid of losing everything.”
“I know you do.” His other hand came up, framing my face between his palms. “That’s why I wanted to tell you myself. Before the village starts talking, before rumors spread. You deserve to know the truth.”
“What happens now?”
“Now we wait for the council’s decision. They’re meeting this morning to discuss Vax’s fate.” He moved in close andleaned his forehead against mine. “And then we figure out what comes next. For the clan. For us.”
Us. There it was again. That word that should terrify me but somehow didn’t.
“I should get back to work,” I said. “The grow facility still needs—”
“Cleo.” His voice stopped me. “Take today. Rest. Let the engineers handle it. You’ve been running on fumes for two cycles.”
