Page 101 of Veiled Vixen

“It’s not even biologically possible to hate you right now. I already knew that hate was wearing off when I woke up from cryo. But after last night and seeing you all pink today…” I shake my head. “I won’t be able to fight it. And neither will you. Like it or not, we’re going to be partners.”

“Partners?” She looks over her glasses at me. “Or lovers?”

“Lovers?” I shrug. “I don’t know about that.”

“See? Our bond is not strong. You don’t feel it. I know because I don’t feel it either. If I had feelings like that for you I’d have never done the things I did.” She pushes her chair back and stands up, takes a few steps towards the stairs, trying to make a quick getaway.

But I’m on my feet too. And I grab her by the wrist as she tries to slip past. “You couldn’t help it,” I say. “They used you, Veila. Just like they used us.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No. I probably don’t. But I have a feeling. I can tell you’ve got things locked up inside you and—”

“And you want me to what? Bare my soul to you? Ha!” She pulls her wrist from my grip. “That’s a good one. You’re only here to tell me what I need to hear so you can get me to let Luck and his friends up to level one-twenty-two so you all can get access to the spin node and leave me here!”

“You can come,” I say.

“I don’t want to come!”

“Yesterday you did.”

“Yesterday I had a reason to keep going!” She shouts this. And then her face goes bright pink in embarrassment. She grits her teeth and narrows her eyes at me. “Today I don’t.”

“Veila,” I say, reaching for her again, but she pulls away and takes a step back. “Just… talk to me.”

“Talk to you about what?”

“Tell me what they did to you.”

“When? I mean, which fucking time?” Her eyes are lit up pink. And they’re glassy and bright. Like she might start crying. “When the Cygnians first took me into the medical lab at age ten? Or when they first got me pregnant at age eleven? Or when you assholes saved Corla and left me behind with the sun-fucked Akeelians? Hmm? Which fucking time do you want to know about?”

“What do you mean left you behind? You didn’t go home after Corla escaped?”

“Home?” She laughs, but pink tears begin spilling down her cheeks. “I don’t even know the meaning of that word. And no, I didn’t get sent back, if that’s what you’re asking. Your father—all your fathers—they took me hostage. The Cygnian king assumed the Akeelians were in on Corla’s escape since, you know, the Governor’s son was the one who shot her through that spin node and then he promptly took off with all the other boys. Including you!”

“Me? What did I have to do with any of that? I was fifteen years old!”

“If it worked,” she says—barely able to talk now, her voice is so shaky—“if Crux and Corla worked, then they were going to breed you and me next and then—”

I guffaw. So loud.

“You think that’s funny?”

“I’m sorry. But… they were gonna breed me? With you?”

“Oh, yeah. I bet that is funny to you, isn’t it? Stupid me with you? How ridiculous!”

“That’s not what I mean! I mean… I was fifteen, Veila. I would’ve looked at you and been… confused. I wasn’t even thinking about sex back then. I was thinking about…”

“Luck?” she sneers.

“No! At least not like that. I was a kid. And if you think we left you behind, we didn’t. We didn’t even know you.”

She turns her back to me, wiping at the tears on her face with such force, she’s nearly slapping herself. “The King’s guards attacked, but the Akeelians took control, and then they took me and sent the Cygnians away.” She turns back around. “They took me hostage. And from that day on I was their little pregnancy vessel. They turned me silver. Made me… this thing.” She pans a hand down her body. “Kept me pregnant, even though they knew it would never work. Last night was the twenty-fifth time I have miscarried babies. My life has been hell and you and your brothers were the ones who did that to me.”

“We didn’t know,” I say softly. “We didn’t know anything. Not even Crux. Corla was the one who told us to leave. She told us where to go, how to get through the ALCOR gates, what to say to him when we got there. It wasn’t us.”

Veila sucks in a deep breath and shakes her head.