When I hesitate, Gai gets up from the table, comes over, and swats my head with his hand. “Go,” he says.
I crawl on my hands and knees on the polished black floor and retrieve the glove with my mouth and present it to the man like a dog.
“That’s a good human pet,” he says and then grabs me instead of the glove, then he and the men around me stroke my vulva. I want to get away, but I can’t break free. “You’re still such a wild thing.”
I bite the man’s hand viciously on pure instinct.
He releases me, and I run away. I hear all the men laughing behind me as I run into the hallway.
I hear Autumn take my place and I feel guilty, but when I peek back in, I swear she looks as if she’s a purring pussycat on the same man’s lap.Maybe she likes the attention?Maybe if I stay here long enough, I will too? That’s a frightening thought because it doesn’t scare me as much as it should.
"Tell me about Rafe and Lorian," I ask Autumn one night when we’re supposed to be sleeping. "What were they like when they were younger?"
"Why?"
"Because I miss them." The admission burns. "And because I’m trying to understand why they sent me here."
"They sent you here to save you," she says. "Just as their mother saved them."
"What do you mean?"
"Seren was brilliant,” Autumn says, surprising me. I had assumed she would have hated Gai’s wife, but apparently not. “She was everything an Imperial woman should be, but bad luck struck when she fell in love with Commander Gai, and love makes us all fools.”
"What happened?"
"She defied the Empire’s class system for him and was punished with twins. Twins are seen as bad luck in Imperial culture. Even with all the technology the culture has, they still have some archaic beliefs they just can’t shake. And in Imperial culture, twins are viewed as half a soul the goddesses separated again for punishment.”
“Half a soul?”
“Imperials believe their souls were split between a man and a woman. It is not unlike a soul mate on Earth, but they actually believe it. So twins are half of a half soul, and that’s why they are meant to never be apart and share the same wife and all.”
“I see the logic, but …” I trail off.
“Imperials may look like us minus the grey skin, but there’s no culture on Earth that I know of like them. Anyway,Seren believed she had twins because she and Commander Gai didn’t marry. So instead of raising Rafe and Lorian as Outcasts, they moved to Reima Two. Seren lost her titles, her wealth, her position—everything. Started over in a strange new world with two young sons and a husband who never quite adjusted to living outside their beloved Empire."
"But they built the Ascendant Alliance—it’s so powerful."
"Yes, she built its foundations here,” Autumn corrects. "Every connection, every contract, every UC. It was all her. Commander Gai only provided the Imperial padding, but Seren provided the genius. And when she died..."
"When was that?"
"The twins were nineteen. Old enough to understand what she'd sacrificed for them, but still young enough to feel responsible for it."
“What happened? I didn’t think people died so young on this side of the galaxy.”
“She was murdered by another woman. That woman was put to death by the Ascendant Alliance. Justice was served, but they couldn’t bring their mother back.”
“No, of course not,” I say solemnly.
“No, you misunderstand. These people literally have the power to bring people back from the dead, but they couldn’t do it because their father forbade it. In the Empire, they have strict rules against it. Gai kept saying, ‘It goes against the goddesses.’It was all we heard in the house for months until it was too late.”
I’m speechless for a second. When I find my voice, I reiterate, “So they could have brought her back to life but chose not to because of religious beliefs?”
“Yes. And there is a timeline. If more than seven months have passed, it’s illegal to bring someone back.”
“Why seven months?”
“I have no idea.” Autumn sighs. “There are a lot of strange things on this side of the galaxy. I don’t question most of it anymore.”
