“So far? SO FAR? TREY!” I yell at him. “What are our chances of actually making it to Rafe?” I ask, still breathing hard.
“With you, better than I thought. You keep up and you follow orders fairly well—when you choose to—and you’re smart—when you’re not trying to kill yourself with flowers and cranium-boring insects,” he adds sarcastically.
“You thought that I was trying to kill myself with a flower?”
“What was I supposed to think? Znous are known to be swarming with turbine worms and you put it next to your ear…I thought you had become suicidal.”
“Trey, I thought that the Znou was beautiful and I wanted to keep it,” I say, explaining myself to him. “I wasn’t trying to kill myself. If I get suicidal, you’ll know ‘cuz I’ll be dead. The only thing I’m feeling right now is HOMICIDAL, so watch your back.”
Trey’s smile comes back all of a sudden, like my anger toward him is amusing. “Why is it that you’re only angry with me?” Trey asks, getting to his feet.
“What?” I ask sullenly.
“You aren’t angry with Jax or Wayra…just me.” He extends his hand to help me up.
Ignoring it, I get to my feet unassisted, dusting dried grass off of me. “Because you’re the one who’s driving this mission. And maybe they’re more likable.” Take that, egomaniac, I think to myself, watching him stiffen as he picks up his gear.
“We need to move if we plan to locate your likable Cavars,” Trey replies, looking stern.
“They’re not mine. I plan on giving you all back when we get to Rafe.” I follow him as he weaves a path through the trees.
“Why? We can help you—”
“Yeah!” I scoff. “You’ve helped enough. Any more help from you guys and I’ll be dead.”
“If it was not for us, you’d be with Kyon now and you would be…” Trey doesn’t finish.
“I’d be what?”
“Their prisoner,” he says softly.
“Oh, as opposed to your prisoner,” I say sarcastically. “I’m starting to think there isn’t a very big difference.”
“It is a big difference!” Trey replies, and he believes what he’s telling me.
“Really? Why?”
“Because, they’d consider you a priestess. You’d never have a life of your own. Every decision will be made on your behalf, without your input. You’d be taken care of—worshipped almost, but never free—never able to live as you choose. You’d be their property. If they want to align with a family or a house, they can barter your services, or even you, to gain it.”
“You mean, they’d treat me like chattel—a possession?” I ask, feeling ill.
“Precisely.”
“What kind of services would they have me perform?”
“Depends on what you can do—what gifts you possess,” he replies. “They’re secretive about their priestesses, but word leaks out. It’s said that some can move things with their minds…”
“Like telepathy?”
“Yes,” he affirms, “and some are persuasive. They can make you believe any lie.”
“Handy,” I say, shivering.
“And some can see what the enemy is planning,” he murmurs, unconsciously flexing his hand that was reattached. “A strategic edge.”
“How do you combat something like that?”
“You make your plans and then, at the last second, you do something random,” he says, looking grim. “Sometimes it works.”
Paling, my head feels like it’s spinning. “So they were bitter when my mother left their little party?”
“They threatened war,” he replies. “I remember it…it was all anyone spoke of for a while.”
“So my parents left because they were afraid of causing a war?”
“Maybe…or maybe they wanted to protect something far more important to them.”
“What?” I ask, not getting it.
“You…the Alameeda didn’t know about you and maybe your parents wanted to keep it that way. They could’ve stayed on Ethar—in Rafe. We don’t turn over our citizens to anyone, not even the Alameeda, not even if they threatened the peace we had enjoyed for more than thirty years.”
“How did you know about me—where to find me?” Goose bumps rise on my arm and I rub them.
“I was sent—I’m special Cavar—elite branch. We were told of an important mission to Earth and I volunteered.”
“So, they knew about me—your superiors?”
Trey frowns. “You were not unexpected, if that’s what you’re asking. No one named you, but offspring was discussed,” he admits, still frowning.
“What?”
“I felt then that they anticipated a child…that offspring was a…certainty. I was surprised when Jax was assigned to the mission.”
“He wouldn’t normally come?”
“Not to remand prisoners. It’s like you were a special case from the start.”
I shake my head. “I’m so dead,” I whisper, feeling like I’m going to hyperventilate. Stopping in my tracks, I lean against a tree. “Trey, you have to take me back. I can’t…I don’t know how to survive here. You’re talking about politics on a scale that I can’t navigate. This isn’t dodging DSS or how bad someone will hurt me in some foster care hell. This is—this is about whether or not I can tell if the next person I meet is going to want to kill me for what I can or cannot do or what I might or might not know or how I can influence…” My eyes fill up with tears. I squeeze my hands into fists, trying to force them back down.
Trey faces me. “Kricket,” he says my name in a soothing tone. “I can’t take you back…they’ll find you on Earth. You can’t hide anymore…it would be like trying to dodge raindrops. You believe me, don’t you?”
Wiping my cheek with my fist as a tear slides down it, I say ironically, “Of course I believe you. I’m a priestess. I know when you’re lying. It’s my special gift.” My throat aches from trying to stop my tears.
His eyes go wide. “You’d know if I was lying?”
“Yes,” I admit wearily, feeling completely depleted.
Trey’s jaw tenses. “We keep that a secret just between you and me. Promise,” Trey says adamantly, putting his hand on my hair and stroking it gently.
“Who am I gonna tell?”
“Promise,” he says again. His hand moves to my cheek. He uses his thumb to wipe away a tear.
“Sure, I promise,” I agree, feeling a surge of desire at his touch. I resist the urge to rest my cheek against his chest.
His thumb rubs my cheek again, lingering there before his hand drops from me. “We need to get you to Rafe. You’re our citizen. We’ll protect you,” he says. “You know I’m not lying.”
“You may not be lying, but you could be totally naïve, Trey.”
His eyes soften. “So, you aren’t infallible?” he asks with a smile in his tone.