"Your strength no longer ends at your biome borders," he says. "You revealed your secret to keep one female."
"To retrieve my mate," I correct him.
"Yes." His eyes lift to mine at last. "That is what concerns me.Wehave protected Xytheos from every threat. And now these small females are already changing our ways. Causing us to drift into open conflict." Jarrett’s eyes land on the women again.
Through the glass, Elena glances at us. Whatever she sees on his face, she will call it irritation. She sees Jarrett’s mask. I must keep the mind underneath the mask occupied.
"The communication ban," I say. "It was written with communication devices in mind. And yet the connection the Starfallen share uses no devices. And it is a gift from the Stone itself. How will you enforce the ban?"
"I enforce it." Jarrett is unapologetic.
I could leave it there. Instead I ask the question no one on this platform would dare.
"Perhaps Elena’s New Terran medicine may help your bride," I say.
"Her body is well." Anger flashes across his face, then disappears. "Her mind is—" He stops. Starts again. "The Stone's gifts run louder in her than in the others. I am managing it."
"Alone."
"Yes." His jaw closes. His pride will not allow him to ask any of us for help.
I hope it does not cost him his bride, but I understand why he refuses. Pride is a cage I know. I lived in it until a human female told me her mate could not be her jailer.
"The matter is mine," he says.
"One more matter." I keep my voice level, and I watch his face the way I watch prey from my treetops. "The males who took my mate brought her a holographic recording of an order from you. It gave my Ex O a verified command, and he obeyed it.”
The storm comes up out of nowhere. His anger was a buzzing fly when we landed. What fills the chamber now is pressure climbing. The advisors flinch. If Jarrett is performing this shocked anger, then he is the finest liar the Stone ever built.
"Who has seen this projection?" His voice has not changed at all. That is the most dangerous thing about it.
"My mate. My Ex O. My command staff."
"The Council?"
"Drenz did not transmit logs live. It is my understanding that your hologram was deemed an error in the recording. A probable recording overlap from another meeting. It was cut before transmission."
"Keep it that way." The pressure drops as fast as it rose, folded away into wherever he keeps the rest of himself. "When I find the one who impersonated me, the matter of Reach's End will look like mercy."
“Could it have been the ones who took Elena? The ones in the shuttle Vorak destroyed?” I ask Jarrett.
“It’s possible,” Jarrett replies.
We both know it was not orchestrated by Vorak. It came from elsewhere—as did the weapon Vorak used. Perhaps Jarrett and I leave the table facing the same enemy. Perhaps we will find ourselves enemies one day.
But for now, the five minutes are up.
CHAPTER 33
FIVE MINUTES
ELENA – FIVE MINUTES AGO AT CONCORD PLATFORM ALPHA.
They giveus five minutes in a room with a wall of glass. The door seals, and we can’t hear the males outside at all.
Sophia stands close, not touching, but her body blocks the sightline to the males outside. She leans in.
“You look like shit,” she whispers, but there's a hint of affection in her voice.
