“Why?” I ask her.
Fieri sighs. “We’ve all lost hopes and dreams over the years. I will excuse Brynna’s assertion because she is drugged up. Just always hoped if I’d had a son, he’d…be like you.”
He continues, “Cinuska does not like that. She wants you to be led by one of your own. But they do not know you the way I do. And it’s why you must get back to your race. Both of you.”
Fieri pats Brynna’s hand, then slips her grip and walks out.
Osiris checks the screens beside Brynna. “She should be good in about fifteen minutes, so you can make the Grenade maze. Brynna gives him a thumbs up. But I’m not ready.
I don’t want to let my friends leave without me.
“It’s okay,” Osiris says as Brynna closes her eyes. “We’re going to be fine.”
“You don’t know that. I should be going with you. I’m not fucking royalty.”
He adjusts his wings and sits on the bed across from Brynna. “You are more important than royalty. Now that DIA is up and running, we have access to a lot of information we didn’t have before. That’s thanks to Fieri, Aura, and their team. And that’s because you helped them. You were loyal when it would’ve been easy to run.
“When they powered her up, we learned who you really are and what you mean to our people. Without you, we don’t make it home to the colony that’s still out there, still hiding, and still in one piece. We need that, brother. We need you alive.”
“I don’t like it.”
“You don’t have to.” Osiris changes a setting on Brynna’s nebulizer, and her numbers climb toward normal again. “You just have to stay alive. And that’s more likely to happen here. I’m sorry.”
18: Brynna
I never expected Jorusk to be so…hot. Taking him was like swallowing a ghost pepper whole, except the heat invaded my lungs, my stomach, and curled fiery fingers down my spine. I can still feel my veins thumping in my neck. But the meds Osiris gave me were like cold, colorless milk, soothing the burn and making it easier to bear.
Jorusk reluctantly climbs into the sleeves of a new race suit and zips the fabric around his wings, which are bound with new ABR bands that flash with indicators. Apparently, the first set is free. The second set is tracked like he’s on house arrest. I’m not sure how much more of the shackling of my man I can take.
We’re separated by gender as we approach the hedge maze. Inside the females’ prep room, I’m handed a set of armor by a staff member. Once I’m changed, I’m directed into a line where we get cookies and await our turn for a face marking based on some historical records of alien worlds. When my turn comes, I sit back in the chair beside a woman with a large tablet.
“You are with the Drathious, right?” she asks.
“Yes.”
She scans but shakes her head. “We don’t have an entry. I’m sorry.”
“Hang on.” I tap my wristband. “DIA, can you help us? I need a symbol for mating or fertility or something for this maze challenge. Can you find my location and share something useful?”
“Yes, Brynna. I detect a tablet close to your position.”
A message pops up on the staff member’s tablet. She confirms their connection, and an image loads.
“What does that mean?” I ask DIA. I don’t want something that saysfuck off.
“That is the one that females wear on their forehead duringmachrya, the week of mating rituals before the final bonding.”
“Thank you.”
“Onourworld, Brynna. That symbol is from Drathis, the origin world. If anyone at home sees it, they will know I have made it. They will know Jorusk is the messenger they sent.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
The woman is already painting it on my forehead with a finger and gray, ashy powder.
“Unless the Talhuskins see it. It is not known solely by our kind.”
“Should I rub it off?”
