by Theresa Kay
“Drawing,” I say. “He needs someone to draw it away.” My eyes widen as the truth becomes crystal clear. “That’s why he wants Ethan.”
Dad’s brow furrows. “Ethan?”
“He’s a hybrid who has the exact ability Jastren is looking for. We found him in a small town that was bombed by the E’rikon. He—”
A loud knock sounds on the door, and a voice calls out my name. “Jax!”
We both jump to our feet, but my father’s movements are slow. I get to the door first, and open it. Emily stands outside, her hair in disarray, her expression frantic.
“Emily?”
“I’m sorry for interrupting, but you need to come. They’re insisting on taking Ethan and—”
“What? Who?”
“The E’rikon. The gold-haired one says Ethan belongs with them, but Ethan doesn’t want to go, and Stu’s refusing to give him up. You know these aliens, sort of, and Harrison told me I might find you here and I didn’t know who else to come to—”
I place a hand on her arm. “I don’t know that I’ll be a big help, but I’ll try.”
“Thank you, Jax. Thank you.” Relief washes over her face. “That boy means the world to Stu, and I don’t know what might happen if they try to take him.”
I call over my shoulder to Dad. “I’ll be back at four. We’ll continue this then.”
Then I follow Emily out the door.
EMILY AND I ARE STILL about a block away when we see firsthand exactly what happens when Vitrad tries to snatch Ethan’s hand away from Stu. It happens so quickly and, for the E’rikon, unexpectedly, that the Vi’askari don’t even have time to move before Stu’s fist lands somewhere in the vicinity of Vitrad’s nose. Of course, the Vi’askari don’t stay motionless long. Miri and Kai grab Stu by the arms and hold him back while Vitrad attempts to drag Ethan away.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I shout. “Let him go!”
Vitrad looks up, his eyes wide in shock and… confusion? What does he have to be confused about?
His expression hardens as I come closer, and that arrogant politician’s mask falls back in place. “I am merely taking the boy to be with his people—”
“His people?” I cross my arms over my chest. “You all are no more ‘his people’ than you are mine. I will not allow you to rip Ethan away from the one person who’s been taking care of him since his mother died.” I jerk my chin in Ethan’s direction. Tears are silently streaking down the boy’s cheeks. “You can see that he doesn’t want to go with you. Let him go.”
A slight narrowing of his eyes is the only outward sign of Vitrad’s anger, but I know the names he’s calling me, the curse words he’s throwing at me. Stupid girl. Why can you not mind your own business for once?
Oh, I guess I can hear him too. I tilt my head to the side, a tight smile on my face, and narrow my eyes right back at him. Enunciating each syllable to be sure they get through, I send him three words: Let. Him. Go.
Vitrad jerks, and his hand falls away from Ethan’s arm. The look he sends me is equal parts rage, fear, and the dawning admiration of a worthy opponent.
Ethan runs to Stu and flings his arms around Stu’s waist.
Wait. How did Stu…
I look at Miri and Kai. They’re both massaging their temples and shooting irritated looks at me. Maybe Vitrad isn’t the only one who got my command, though it doesn’t appear to have caused him pain like it did them. Could it be because of his enhancement?
The Vi’askari shake off whatever’s bothering them and look to Vitrad for orders. He narrows his eyes at me—again—and waves them off. “The child needs to be trained, but it can wait.”
“Yeah,” says Stu. “It can wait until—”
I shoot Stu a wide-eyed “Shut up, you idiot” look. He huffs, but clamps his mouth shut.
“Vitrad, I realize you don’t… understand how things work around here,” I hiss, not believing his excuse for a second. He’s up to something. “But you can’t go snatching children on the streets. E’rikon or not. I’m happy to bring Ethan to some sort of training session—if he’s willing to come after you’ve scared the crap out of him—but he’s not going to be staying, or leaving, with you.”
Vitrad’s lips are pursed and his eyes are bugging out of his head like he’s trying to send me another message. This one I’m not getting. He breaks eye contact and shakes his head. “Very well then.”
Stu clears his throat as if he’s about to say something more, but I put up a hand to stop him.
“Ethan doesn’t need to be involved in any of this,” I say. “Not yet. He’s been through enough.” I think back to the destroyed town where we found Ethan hurt, frightened, and alone.
Vitrad sets his jaw and gives me a curt nod. Oh, how I want to smack that look of condescension off his face. “At minimum,” he says, “I should be permitted to assess whether or not the child has an enhancement and—”
“He does,” I say. “And I know what it is, so if that’s the next ‘assessment’ you were planning to suggest, forget it.”
He jerks his chin up in acknowledgment, his lips pursed. “Very well then,” he repeats.
“Yeah, sure.” I wave him off. “See you later.”
With a scowl, Vitrad storms away, flanked by the Vi’askari.
Stu eyes his back. “How’d he know? About Ethan, I mean.”
I wince. This isn’t going to go over well. “Jastren told him—sort of. Because… Jace… I don’t know. It’s a long story. But I’m not going to let anything happen to him.” I crouch down in front of Ethan. “Did Vitrad say anything to you? You know, in your head?”
“No,” says Ethan. “He tried to read me though. Mama said it’s rude to do that without someone’s permission. I don’t like him.”
“Me neither, kid,” Stu mutters.
“The others were nice though.” Ethan points at the retreating group of E’rikon. “The blue-haired one, he said he was friends with Mr. Rym. He said Mr. Vitrad was his boss and that it’d be okay to tell him things.” His little face screws up in thought. “I dunno about that.”
Kai was trying to get Ethan to talk? For what purpose?
I ruffle his hair. “I don’t know either. How about you keep things to yourself until I figure out what’s going on.”
Emily crouches down in front of Ethan. “Better yet, how about some pancakes?” She rubs noses with the kid while Stu looks on with a soft smile. “Mr. Stu owes us breakfast, right?”
Stu catches me watching him, and redness creeps into his cheeks. I raise my brows, and he shrugs.
“Yeah!” Ethan yells. He pokes Stu in the arm. “You promised us pancakes yesterday. I want to collect!”
Stu lifts Ethan and perches the kid on his shoulders. There’s joy shining in Ethan’s eyes and a smile brightening his face as the three of them start walking away. There’s a bittersweet edge to their happiness, but together the three of them somehow fit. They all lost everything, only to find each other.
I run a hand over my face and let out a long breath as they round the corner. Now I just need to figure out a way to destroy Jastren so they can keep their makeshift family. And I have to figure it out in the next three days.
No pressure or anything.
“Cute, aren’t they?” says a voice from behind me.
“Haven’t you learned sneaking up on me is a bad idea?” I say, turning to face Rym.
The golden-haired E’rikon takes an exaggerated step backward and snickers. He throws his hands up on either side of his chest. “I come in peace.”
I laugh and roll my eyes. “What do you want?”
His shoulders twitch upward and he scratches the top of his head. “Can’t I just desire to visit with my… what do I call you? Cousin-in-law? Do humans have a word for that?” He tries to turn it into a joke—I think—but the effort falls flat, as does his voice. Something’s clearly bothering him.
“I guess…” I take in his slumped shoulders and avoidance of
my gaze. “Where’s… everyone else?”
“Trel’s resting and wanted me out of her hair. Lir, who has already assured my sister’s comfort umpteen times, is off discussing something with Karo. And my father…” He lets the words trail off and tosses out a hand. His mouth twists into a wry smile.
In other words, everyone else is either too busy for him or doesn’t want him around. I’m not clear which category Vitrad falls under. Which category do I fall under?
There’s so much I have to do, to think about, to worry about. But I see it now, what Trel was talking about. Ever since we got back here, Rym’s been shuffled around from person to place to task to… whatever, but he’s never had a chance to really be a part of any of it. Has his whole life been that way? He might be a loner, but it’s not by choice.
There’s a haughty tilt to his chin, a prideful arrogance that won’t let him admit he needs a friend right now, but his eyes are begging me not to turn him away. And if I did? The next time I saw him he’d play the clown like always, but the light in his eyes would be just a little dimmer.
My question is quiet. “What’s wrong? Is it Kai?”
His eyes widen in surprise. I can tell he’s debating how to answer, his body tense and his teeth biting at his lower lip. Then, in a sudden rush, the tension leaks out of him and he’s as slumped and sad and as un-clown-like as I’ve ever seen him.
I grab his arm and pull him to a bench half a block away.
“Okay, now talk,” I say.
He chuckles, the sound much lighter than he looks. “Is that an order?”
“Yes.”
He rubs a hand over his hair and shoots a glance at me from the corner of his eye. “How’d you know about me and Kai?”
I shoot him a droll look. “It’s fairly obvious. At least to me. I don’t get why with all those longing looks you two exchange you guys aren’t just together. Is it a cultural taboo or something? Jastren definitely sneered at the idea of my brother and Flint, but Lir didn’t seem bothered by it, or by you when we talked about it at that disastrous surprise party.”
“No, there’s no stigma surrounding same-gender pairings—it’s quite common actually. But there is a taboo regarding pairings across classes, especially for families like mine.”
“So, it’s the royalty versus peasant thing again. You guys do realize that’s kind of ridiculous, right?”
He rolls his eyes. “Well, I certainly do. But of course I never really fit in with the rest of my family. Even Lir…” He sighs and tilts his head backward. “Don’t hold it against him. He’s a good guy. He and I just grew up very differently.” Another sigh. “I was always a little odd, I guess, and Lir and I weren’t close even before my stupid idea of a joke left Kov’s parents stranded outside the barrier. Lir was always off with Trel or shadowing his father, whereas I spent much of my time ‘studying up,’ as I called it, for the exodus. That’s how I became so familiar and comfortable with human culture, and fluent in the human language. Or languages, I should say. I know about ten.” He smirks, a flash of levity.
“If you have all this knowledge, why doesn’t your father make use of it—even if just to ‘know your enemy’? I know he’s an asshole, but he doesn’t seem like one to pass up an advantage like that. Why does he…”
“Pretty much shun me?” He sighs. “You are aware humans killed my mother, correct?”
I nod.
“That happened not long after we arrived here—a month, perhaps slightly less. And there I was, this… encyclopedia of human knowledge and quirks and other such things. My father was never an affectionate parent, but he hated me for that. Hated me for acting like you. It reminded him too much of what happened to my mother. Add to that the fact that I purposely isolated myself from my family, not participating in, well, anything, and my father decided I was lazy and useless and… nothing. He stopped asking anything of me. Everyone stopped asking anything of me. So I spent a lot of time alone and bored.”
He sighs and runs a hand over his face. “Bored is perhaps not the right word. I found ways to entertain myself—often things that would have gotten me in a lot of trouble had anyone known. But even though I was deemed useless, I am still of the Linaud line, and therefore I had a Vi’askari assigned to me. The first Vi’askari tasked with watching over me was quite old—which made it just a bit too easy for me to slip away from her, which I did often. So my father decided to replace her with the youngest Vi’askari recruit—someone who could ‘keep up with me,’ I guess. Kai was twenty, only four years older than me, and one of the youngest E’rikon ever to complete the blood oath of the Vi’askari.”
“Blood oath?”
Rym waves a hand. “That makes it sound much worse than it is, but the E’rikon term doesn’t translate well. In payment for the special enhancements they receive, the askari pledge their lives to the E’rikon, and the Vi’askari pledge their lives to my family specifically. They are not allowed to marry and not allowed to have children. Their ability to form a bond like yours and Lir’s is… removed.” He stares at the ground, twisting his hands together and shaking his head. “I know how barbaric that sounds, and you probably cannot imagine why anyone would want to do something like that. But in the E’rikon culture it is nearly impossible to rise above whatever caste or station you’re born in. In return for this pledge, this oath, their families are rewarded. They are compensated well. It is considered a great honor to be elevated to the ranks of the askari.”
I don’t say it out loud, but honor or not, I still can’t understand why anyone would do something like that. And even though Rym tried to wave it away, I can tell the whole caste system and blood oath thing doesn’t sit well with him either.
Rym continues. “He thought I was a spoiled brat. I thought he was a boring stick-in-the-mud.” A sad laugh. “I treated Kai exactly like I did the first Vi’askari assigned to me. But he was faster, and often a step or two ahead of me. I kept doing more and more outrageous things. And then one day I stole a ship—and Kai, of course, followed me on board. I flew it outside the barrier and some distance away from here. I’m still not sure how I managed it. I had no idea how to fly the damn thing, and I nearly crashed it more than once.
“Anyway, my idiocy almost got both of us killed, and I thought for sure Kai would go running straight to my father when we returned. This was a big deal—not something that could simply be overlooked. But Kai didn’t tell my father. Instead, he smacked me upside the head—rather hard, I might add—dragged me across the hangar into one of the smaller ships, and taught me how to fly it. He said it would keep me out of trouble and in one place so he wasn’t constantly having to chase after me.
“And it did. I found that flying was freeing in a way nothing else was. So that’s what I did. A lot. Just me and Kai. We became friends. And…” Rym hesitates. “There was also a feeling of… possibility between us. Despite the age difference and everything else working against us.”
His eyes slide to me. “I’ve known where this base was for years. Bridgelake, too. Lir doesn’t realize he didn’t need to give me directions to your priest’s cabin. I already knew where it was. I’ve flown all over this landmass. For two years it was just me and Kai flying wherever the sky took us. It was the happiest I’ve ever been.”
He looks back to his hands, and his voice softens. “A few years ago, when I turned eighteen, I decided to head across the ocean to the other city—a fresh start. It was my chance to get out from under my father’s shadow, and I wanted Kai to come with me. But he was in line to become the next lead Vi’askari, something unheard of for someone his age. And his… position was more important to him than I was.” His tone goes flat. “We argued… and… we ended up kissing. It was the first and only time. But Trel walked in, saw us, and told my father.”
Rym presses his lips together and releases a loud breath through his nose. “Trel wasn’t trying to be malicious—not really. She told my father about Kai because she wanted to… soften the blow, I suppose, for
when she told him about her and Kov. She and Kov had already bonded, you see, and even though he was a ward of the Vestras, Kov was not a Vestra—not anywhere close.
“But she didn’t get that far. As soon as my father found out about Kai, he promoted him, pulled all Vi’askari protection from me, and told me to get out of his residence. Until the other day, Kai and I have only seen each other in passing, and we’ve never spoken.”
I place a hand on his arm. “I’m sorry. Your dad’s an asshole.”
He starts to shrug, but breaks out laughing instead. “Yes. He is. But I think you already knew that.”
“Well… yeah.”
He laughs to himself again. “I did not intend to dump all that on you. I did have a purpose in searching you out, and that was not it. But… thanks for listening.” He blows out a puff of air and gives his head a shake. “Anyway, I did have something to tell you about my father—something you probably don’t already know about him.”
“And that would be…?”
“The attack that killed Ethan’s mother? I’m fairly certain my father ordered it. Along with a lot of other attacks on areas where he suspected hybrids might be. The reasoning behind it always rang false to me, but now… now I wonder if he knew what Jastren wanted them for, and he was willing to kill to avoid letting Jastren get his hands on them. Anyway, whatever plan you come up with, I thought it might be important to take into account how far my father was willing to go to keep hybrids out of Jastren’s hands—and how far he might still be willing to go. Like taking a kid away from his valiant protector and…” He shrugs.
I consider this. Would Vitrad really kill Ethan to keep him away from Jastren? What does he know that we don’t? And…
“But what about the children?” I ask. “If Jastren doesn’t get what he wants—if Vitrad gets rid of Ethan—the E’rikon children won’t have a chance. Your father is truly willing to give them up?”
