by Lily Archer
“Can you feel it?” Kyte’s green eyes almost glow.
“Yeah.” Ceredes rolls his shoulders. “It’s like a virudivan current running through me.”
“Jeren?”
“I feel it, too.”
I spin, looking at each of them. “What am I supposed to do?”
“Jeren, you first.” Kyte jerks his chin toward the shadow.
He reaches toward me, then stops. “May I?” The words seem to rasp on his tongue, as if Jeren isn’t used to asking permission for anything.
“Sure.” I look up into his dark eyes, their depths a mystery, one I’d like to investigate.
He lets out a breath, giving himself away, showing me how much he’s invested in this—whatever ‘this’ is. With a shaking hand, he lightly grips my elbow.
My eyes close, and I gasp in a breath. “I feel it.” I can’t put the sensation into words. It’s like I’m in a glass room with Ceredes, Kyte, and Jeren looking in. Except when Jeren touches me, his glass shatters, and I see him so clearly. There’s nothing between us, and I can feel him in my veins, in my mind. He is a shadow, a living nightmare that I want to wrap myself in. His dark tendrils would never harm me, and I don’t fear him. Not even a little. I reach for him, our hands touching and a dark swirl of night sealing our bond.
I see him as a child in the Larenoan flotilla. He flits down the grubby metal streets, avoiding Gretar Fleet guards and grabbing some sort of fruit from a seller’s stand as he goes. A pack of boys follow behind him. He’s their leader. At only ten, he runs the largest gang of young Larenoans the flotilla has ever seen. He keeps them in line, and they adhere to his code. Together, they are strong. But I see his mother, too. She’s sick, and her eyes are sad. “Don’t let the fleet get you and twist you, my sweet Jeren. Please promise me.” He’s so young, but his mind is already sharper than a blade. “I promise, Mama.” She sighs, her breathing ragged. “That’s my good boy.” The image of her in a shroud, her body committed to space in a brief ceremony, passes through his mind, and the yawning pit of sadness in the memory threatens to engulf me. He was only twelve. A thousand other memories pass to me—some sad, some joyful, others dark and dingy. Each one brings me closer to him.
“Ceredes, you next.” Kyte’s voice pulls me back.
When I look in Jeren’s eyes, I see him. And I know he sees me, too. He’s been in my mind, diving through my life the same way I did his, and he is unafraid. There is no pity in his gaze. Only understanding.
Ceredes reaches for me. I hold my breath.
“What in the Pillars are you doing?” The strange yell pulls us apart, breaking the connection.
12
Jeren
Master Rav jogs up, her face an ugly shade of red, and not from the run. “Back away from the Omega. Now!” She pulls her weapon free.
Ceredes holds up a hand. “We aren’t trying to—”
“This isn’t class, Alpha.” Her glower is something best experienced from afar. “I won’t go easy on you. Now back away.”
“They aren’t hurting me.” Lana seems to recover from her surprise. “We were just … We were just, um …”
“Yes, keep doing that. It’ll make our innocence more convincing.” Kyte grins.
“Alphas, back to your dorms.” Master Rav takes Lana’s hand and pulls her away.
My instincts tell me to lash out and strike her down for daring to touch my Lana. But I do nothing. Attacking an instructor is a sure way to get me booted to the Rift, and now I have a reason to stay.
“What about Lana?” Ceredes back downs but persists in his concern.
“She’s with me. Are you implying that I can’t keep her safe?” Master Rav’s tone is a dare. One it would be wise for Ceredes not to take up.
“Of course not.” He finally remembers himself and takes a step back.
“Really, it’s okay. We were just talking.” Lana’s voice seems to have risen an octave. She is utterly adorable. “That’s all.”
Master Rav raises a black brow so high it almost hits her nearest horn. “In the woods? In the dark?”
“Yeah. I mean—” Lana sputters for a second. “Well, what are you doing out here?”
Master Rav straightens from her fighting stance. “The Alpha male with the unfortunate nose—”
“Tarvan,” Kyte, Ceredes, and I say in unison.
“Yes. He alerted me that you three were gone and that the new Omega was also missing.”
“Dicknose strikes again,” I mutter under my breath.
“In any case, none of you should be out beyond the main grounds, especially not you.” She turns to Lana.
Lana shakes her head. “What? Why especially not me?”
Master Rav pales for a moment, then says, “Well, because … Because you’re an Omega, of course. And you’re new.”
Kyte and I exchange a look.
“Master Rav knows something about Lana.” His voice in my head is new and not entirely welcome, but he has a point.
“She’s afraid. Look at her.” I think back. “Worried about Lana.”
“This has something to do with Commander Bartanz, it has to.”
“Really, it’s okay.” Lana pats Master Rav’s arm awkwardly. A ballsy move, truth be told. “I didn’t know it was against the rules.”
“Perhaps, but these Alphas certainly did.” Master Rav stows her weapon and shoos us away with a flick of her fingers. “Go on. You’re lucky I don’t call Master Harlan. Though I think maybe you’ve mucked enough Carilla stalls for the day.” Her eyes narrow. “Unless I’m mistaken.”
“Not mistaken.” I step back and pull my comms device from my pocket. With the click of a button, a portal to my dorm opens. I don’t want to leave Lana, but other than the three of us, Master Rav is probably the best bodyguard Lana could have.
“Goodnight, Lana.” Kyte winks at her.
Sometimes I want to strangle that golden noble. Right now is no exception. His easy way with females gets my ass in a twist. “Night, Lana.” Mine comes out more gruff, but she smiles, her warm brown eyes seeing straight to my heart. We shared something tonight, and I’ll be thinking about it long after curfew.
“Thank you, Master Rav.” Ceredes, always the diplomat. “See you tomorrow, Lana.”
“Okay.” She nibbles her lip. “Unless when I go to sleep, I actually wake up at my house and realize this whole thing was like a fever dream.” She shrugs. “But I guess I’ll have to wait and see.”
“Guess so.” We all step back through the portal as Master Rav opens one of her own. Once she and Lana disappear through it, I close mine.
My dormmates aren’t in, probably at the practice arena or studying.
Kyte takes a seat on the nearest rumpled bed, and Ceredes leans against my dresser.
“A circle.” Kyte keeps his gaze on me as I pull off my shoes and drop onto my bed.
“We don’t know that for sure.” Ceredes scuffs at the floor with his boot.
“Jeren does.” Kyte jerks his chin toward me. “Don’t you? What happened when you touched Lana? I felt a surge of power, something greater than any connection I’ve ever encountered.”
I rub my face with my hands and try to put it into words. “It’s like I was naked in front of her.”
Ceredes tenses. “What?”
“Not literally.” I don’t roll my eyes, but I want to. “What I mean is, we saw each other, our pasts, our thoughts, our fears. Everything. Everything inside of me. And I saw everything inside of her.” I sigh. “She’s had a hard life. Her father left when she was tiny. She got held back in school because she spoke some other language better than her native tongue, which started sort of a long line of injustices. Then she had more trouble in school because she wasn’t able to read her language correctly—the letters would get jumbled in her mind. Then when she got older, the males on Earth—” My hands curl into fists. I force myself to relax. She won’t be treated like that anymore. Not now that she has me. “A lot of them were worse than a
nimals.”
“Like the one we almost killed?” Ceredes asks.
I nod. “Just like that. And worst of all, she wasn’t even safe in her own home. She was hurt. Her mother—” I clench my eyes shut and I can feel the punches, slaps, and kicks that Lana endured for years. “Wasn’t a mother.”
Kyte nods. “I could feel it, too. I connected with her on the shuttle, and that connection has lasted longer than any I’ve ever had before. It would’ve faded by now for anyone else. But she’s …”
“Our mate.” I know it’s true. Her name is written in the marrow of my bones. I can feel her even now, the soft touch of her fingers trailing down my memories.
“She’s the Omega that completes our circle.” Kyte’s voice turns serious for once. “This is it.”
“A circle?” Ceredes looks out the window.
“You don’t feel it?” Kyte leans back on his elbows.
“I feel something. But it’s just your Calarian mind manipulation. I mean, you touch Jeren and me, and we feel things. But that’s normal for a Calarian, isn’t it? That’s just part of your abilities, right?”
Kyte cocks his head to the side. “While I appreciate how immensely powerful you think I am, I can assure you that the bond we’ve discovered isn’t something I could create organically if I tried for a thousand years. This isn’t forced. It isn’t driven by me.” He drops fully onto the bed and stares at the skylights overhead. “You know they say the circles are ordained by the Pillars. That they are only created in times of great need. The last circle formed to defeat the Sentient threat during the Great Calamity. That circle succeeded, but they were ultimately destroyed by their own power.”
“That’s not a particularly happy bedtime story.” I store my blades in my nightstand.
“It’s not a story. Just the truth. Circles are so powerful that they can save the universe or destroy it.”
“I still don’t know if I believe it.” Ceredes shakes his head. “When we met her, she wasn’t on suppressants, so maybe that’s why our wires are crossed or something. We’ve never been around an Omega in needing. Or maybe, I don’t know, something about the wormhole we went through on our way back from Earth, or maybe something about her biology is messing with our heads.” He scrubs his jaw. “Because I can tell you with certainty that when I sense her slick, I almost lose my mind.”
“Same.” Kyte snorts.
“She smells like one of the sweet spices the flotilla bakers used on their morning rolls.” When I was linked to her, that scent was everywhere, a perfume that I wanted to bathe in.
“To me it’s like the dew on a satarian flower of Latrides. Calarians prize it above all other treats.” Kyte licks his lips. “I can almost taste it now.”
“Ornali fruit,” Ceredes says in a resigned tone. “She smells like the ripest ornali fruit, the flesh sweet and the juice …” He trails off, his throat bobbing as he swallows quickly.
“Be careful with that,” Kyte says. “Humans are touchy about mating.”
“I’ve noticed that with her.” Ceredes nods. “Why?”
“It’s part of their culture.” I flip back through the haze of her memories. “They actually hold it against females if they mate prior to being pair-bonded with a male.”
“Only the females?” Ceredes pinches the bridge of his nose.
“It’s a highly patriarchal society. The males can mate as much as they like, but the females are devalued if they are seen as sexually available.”
“Savages.” Kyte groans. “I suppose this means a public mating ceremony is out of the question?”
“Definitely.” I can’t even imagine how hard Lana would cringe at the prospect. “Especially when you consider the circle. If she chooses us as her mates, she’ll mate with all three of us at the same time.”
“True.” Kyte’s tone is edged in jealousy. I don’t blame him. I’d like to have her all to myself, too.
Ceredes gives voice to what all three of us fear: “What if she only chooses one of us?”
My mind manufactures something even worse. “Or none of us? What if she chooses another even though we’re all joined through the circle?” Three low growls punctuate the question.
“Then we must respect her decision,” Kyte says through gritted teeth.
“But there’s no harm in helping her choose the correct mates.” There’s no way I’m letting her slip through my fingers. We’re already bonded. Our souls danced together for that brief moment, and I’ve tasted her essence.
“Agreed.” Kyte seems to unwind a bit at that. “Once the circle is completed, the mating will follow naturally. At least I hope it will. I want it more than I can even say. Just the thought of us and her.” He groans. “I mean, I want her to myself, but this bond—it tells me sharing is going to so much more.”
I feel it, too—the need to seal the circle and claim our mate. But rushing things, especially when we just found her, might be a bad idea. “We have time.” I don’t want to wait, but something tells me Lana might want to slow down. Then again, if her slick is any indication, her body is more than willing.
“Do we, though? If a circle has been called, that means something bad is about to go down.” Ceredes looks out the window again. “But what? And when?” He makes a mmrph sound. “I don’t even know if this really is a circle, so I probably shouldn’t waste time worrying about it.” He pushes away from the dresser and paces to the foot of my bed. “Lana aside, the three of us hardly spoke before today. I mean, doesn’t that tell us that we aren’t meant to be in a circle? Before, they’ve been brotherhoods, the Alphas tight long before meeting their Omega.”
“All circles are different.” Kyte laces his hands behind his head. “This is ours.”
Ceredes paces for a while. He stops and opens his mouth to say something, then closes it and keeps pacing.
I drape one arm over my eyes, the darkness a welcome break. She’s there. Her eyes sparkling as she shows me the games she likes to play.
“I’m heading to my dorm.” Kyte stands and stretches. “The Carilla duty did me in.”
“We should get some sleep. If this circle business is true, we’re going to have some rough days ahead. And we need to learn as much about Lana as we can. It’s the only way we can protect her. Master Rav looked worried for a reason.” Ceredes opens the portal in the center of the room, then pauses and turns to Kyte. “One more thing. So, what’s a muff?”
13
Lana
Master Rav’s words seem to flit around in my dreams. Her warnings to watch out, be safe, don’t get too close to any Alphas, and do my best in my classes are like every TV mom got rolled into one large, scary, hand-to-hand combat specialist. I see Jeren, too. His past plays in fits and starts, his memories like my own. How did we have such a connection? What was going on in Kyte’s experiment?
Something wakes me. I could swear it sounds like giggles. But they stop when I open my eyes. Low morning light floods in through the dorm’s windows. My eyes feel like they were punched repeatedly in my sleep, and I’m just as rested as I was when I crawled into bed under Master Rav’s watchful eye. But I slept. The little drool spot on my pillow attests to this fact.
More giggles, but I don’t see anyone nearby. Then Ilwen appears through the portal. She’s fully dressed, her lavender hair wrapped in a tight ponytail. “You’re going to be late. Better hurry. Class is in five minutes.” She grabs her key fob—or I think they call it a ‘comms’ from her bed and prances back through the portal.
“Five minutes?” I rub my face and jump from the bed. I’m here, it’s not a dream, and now I’m running late to class when Master Rav very pointedly told me to be a conscientious student lest I be cast into the Rift, whatever that is. I sniff my pits. Oh no, I need a shower. But there’s no time. I yank open my top drawer and am relieved to find what looks like a spray deodorant, a hairbrush, and other toiletries. I get ready and pull on a fresh uniform that actually fits, unlike Tilda’s, then slide on my shoes.
When I get to the portal, I stand there for a moment. How does it even work?
“Um, please take me to—” I’m about to say ‘class’ when my bladder reminds me we have one stop to make first. “The toilet?”
The portal flickers to life. I take a chance and step through it.
It works. Once I’ve done my business and brushed my teeth, I call it up again and ask it to take me to class. Once I step through it, relief washes over me when I see a few familiar faces, though we aren’t in a classroom. We’re in a hangar. Enormous aircraft, and what can only be described as spaceships, line the sides of the enormous space. But I’m in the right place, at least.
Ilwen stands with Unar and Justa, all three of them smirking in my direction. I straighten my skirt and stride over to Tilda.
She turns to greet me right as Gavros and some other students start laughing.
“Oh.” Tilda’s face falls. “Oh no.”
“What?”
I look down at my outfit. “This was in my dresser. I thought it was the right thing to—”
“No.” She turns me away from the class as the laughter spreads.
Tears prick behind my eyes, but I don’t know why. I can tell something bad is happening. “What is it?”
She calls up the portal and pulls me through it into a bathing room with mirrors. “Look.” Pointing me to one, she turns on the faucet and pulls a cloth free from the wall dispenser.
“Oh.” It’s backwards in the mirror, but the word ‘fliggy’ is written in clear letters on my cheek. I swallow hard, forcing the tears away as Tilda brings the wet cloth to my face and scrubs.
“It’s just some sort of marker. Don’t worry. I can get it off.” She wets it again and keeps wiping. “Ilwen is jealous of you. You know that, right? That’s why she’s doing this.”
Uaxin appears right behind us. Though she hovers near the portal, I could swear the side of her face I can see is angry.
