“Some grief is more lasting. But I am not so set in my grief. I have been spending time with K’kaen. He is a vexing male, but I appreciate his company.”
“I don’t have much experience with grief, but I know it can take a long time.”
“Perhaps not the grief of death, but you have suffered as well.”
Eleri frowned. She had difficulties with her family and her life on Gaia, but the scope was much smaller. “My home planet didn’t implode. I haven’t lost a mate.”
“We should not compare the size of suffering.” S’kasia started to clear the dishes from the table. “I hope you can find happiness here, Eleri. Laurus is a good place to start again.”
Eleri moved to help S’kasia clean up. They disposed of the remains of food and washed the cooking implements in companionable silence. “For what it’s worth, I do like S’samph a lot. Only, please don’t tell him I said that.” Eleri offered the reluctant confession with a smile that felt odd on her face after such a difficult conversation.
“I would never tell him.” S’kasia’s tail flicked back and forth. “But I look forward to welcoming you as my bond sister soon.”
Eleri smiled. S’kasia would be a good sister if things ended up working out between her and S’samph. She hoped they would.
CHAPTER 19
ELERI
As she walked back toward the clinic after her visit with S’kasia, an unfamiliar urtazi male stopped her on the path back to town.
“You’re Eleri? The human?”
“I am. Is someone injured?” Eleri started to calculate how long it would take for her to get back to the clinic to retrieve supplies if she had to get to a patient emergently.
“No, nothing like that.” The male gestured toward the path. “Pyo was looking for you. There’s a call for you at the holocenter.”
Any forward momentum Eleri had felt from her conversation with S’kasia came rolling back down at her with more gravity than she knew how to handle. It wasn’t the other male’s fault, but she couldn’t hold back the aggrieved expression forming along her face. With any luck, he wouldn’t be familiar with human facial expressions, and she could bluff her way through the rest of this interaction.
“Thank you. I better head over then.” She cut the conversation off in an uncharacteristically abrupt way—perhaps S’samph was rubbing off on her more than she wanted to admit—and marched her way toward the little back alleyway where the holocom unit was housed.
She knew who would be at the other end of the line. Eleri steeled herself the best she could and tried to ignore the roiling of her stomach. When she was able to calm the shaking in her hands, she pressed the accept button, holding her arms tight to her torso in a protective stance.
“Eleri, big sister, it’s been too long. How are you doing?” Rhys’ face swam into view. She’d been wrong. Her mother wasn’t here to entreat her on her brother’s behalf. The devil had come himself. Once he’d been charming and effervescent, her debonair baby brother. Now he had the haggard, hungry gleam of an iridescence addict. His once blue irises were fully ringed in silver beneath a shaggy mop of white-blonde hair.
Eleri straightened her back as she stared hard into the holoscreen. She’d spent so much time feeling sorry for her poor brother, letting himand her mother prey on her goodwill. “I’m not sure what you want from me. I’m not on Gaia anymore.”
Rhys laughed, the sound of someone rattling stones around in an empty can. “Can’t I just call to say hello? It’s been so long. Things have been so challenging for Mom since you left. I’ve been really worried about her.”
Eleri’s hackles rose. If things were difficult for her mother, it was almost certainly her brother’s fault. “What’s wrong with Mom?” She took the bait. She shouldn’t have, but she did anyway.
“You know how the gangs are on Gaia. After you abandoned us, they’ve become particularly rabid.” Rhys let out an exaggerated sigh. “We just don’t have enough to pay them off.”
Eleri shook her head, incredulous. He had to think she was oblivious; the manipulation was so blatant. Uncle Brennan wouldn’t threaten their mother unless there was something substantial on the line.
“How much is the debt?” she asked through gritted teeth. “I already know what you used the credits for, so just tell me how much.”
“What happened to you?” Rhys struggled to maintain his mask of good humor as he tried to figure out a response to her pointed question.
“Either tell me how many credits you’re asking for or I’ll end this call.” Eleri placed fingers at the junction of her eyebrows as she tried to soothe stress away from her forehead. The mask of her brother’s expression cracked, and the unhinged narcissism began to seep through.
“Eight hundred for the debt.” Rhys sailed past the number like he was asking her for an egg and not the near entirety of everything Aglao had given her. “But Mom and I could really use an extra two or three hundred. Rent is due soon. You don’t want Mom to have to work and scrape at her age, do you?”
It was a standard line. A standard tactic to get her to cave. Her brother knew how to play her like an electric guitar. But she wasn’t about to give up the credits Aglao had entrusted her with for her brother’s games.
“I don’t have any credits for you, Rhys.”
The shift happened so quickly that someone less used to Rhys’ mercurial nature might be shocked, but Eleri had spent the whole call anticipating the sneering and insults. “Eleri, don’t be such a fucking prim. You have credits. The IA pays its colonists well from what I’ve heard. The ones who go to spread their legs get paid ever better, and we both know that’s what you did.” Rhys’ laughter had turned raucous. “Don’t they give youcredits for each egg that hatches?”
