“It was the polite version. He came out here to go feral where he can’t hurt anyone. His plan is to end it himself.”
“Oh. That’s awful.”
“He’s been fighting it the entire time. There’s a shaman who makes him a tincture that delays the rut. I think that’s where he went the morning his car was gone. But the tincture stopped working. He kept raising the dose, but it doesn’t work anymore, and me being in the house makes everything worse. So, he locked himself in his room and starved himself, trying to hold it back.”
“That’s why he wants us to leave?”
“Because he’s running out of time. That’s what he meant on the road, when he said that if I stay, I’m as good as dead.”
This next part is the hardest to say out loud. I fold and unfold the cloth to give my hands something to do.
“There’s one more thing. The book we read left something out on purpose. It’s about how the claiming ritual ends.”
“How does it end?”
“With the male stinging his bride.”
“What?”
I blush.
“At the peak of it, the male plunges his stinger into his mate. For a Scorpius female, it’s nothing. But my body wasn’t made for it, so… No one knows what happens if I get stung like that. His shaman said I might survive it because I’m his fated mate, but we can’t know for sure.”
Darina is on her feet before I finish.
“Then we leave,” she says. “Now. He’s right. He’s been right this whole time! Thank goodness Osric has more sense than you!”
She looks at my face and sees that I don’t agree with her.
“Esme, you can’t risk your life on a theory.”
“He can’t just skip the sting. I asked him, and he said that in the moment, it’s not a decision he can make.”
“Then that’s more reason for us to go! Come on. Let’s find him and ask him to drive us to the portal. At this point, it’s safer for us in Concord than here.”
I jump to my feet.
“Don’t say that.”
She throws her hands up.
“All right, fine. We’ll pick random coordinates. As long as we don’t land in another desert, I’m fine with any city on Alia Terra.”
“Stop. Just take a breath. We can’t leave. I can’t. If I do, then he dies, Darina. Haven’t you been listening?”
“And that’s horrible, and I’m sorry, but I pick you over him.”
I let out a laugh.
“Oh, Darina.”
I draw her into my arms and hug her tightly. She clings to me and rubs her fingers over my back.
“I kissed him,” I say, out of nowhere.
“Esme…”
“Just now, in the kitchen, and it was incredible. Something is happening between us. Something deep and real. I can’t deny it.”
