“He’s here!” There was another warrior’s voice, suddenly bellowing into the small room. “Wexxon is here! He has come for his bride! He has come for us all!”
I let out another wild laugh as I looked back at the warrior-guards. In that same moment, the first guard handed me a large golden ring through the black, shimmering bars, the same kind of ring that he’d used to secure me in the cage when I’d first been locked in.
“You will tell your husband that we did you this kindness!” he hissed at me again before he disappeared down a dark hall, the second guard soon following right behind him.
And once they were completely out of the room, I rose to my feet, now holding the golden ring against the bars. I’d watched when the guards had first locked me inside, noticing the way the bars reacted to the ring, melting away from it. I knew that there had to have been a chemical interaction, something fascinating and scientific happening right under the surface.
But I didn’t have time to appreciate the creation. Not when I was being trapped by it.
And a few seconds later, when the bars had melted a clear path for me to fit through their frame, I cautiously walked over onto the other side of the cage.
And as soon as I was through the bars, they seemed to come right back together, once again shining and black, almost as if I’d never walked through them at all.
Reddin’s home was nothing like Wexxon’s castle.
It reminded me more of a high-tech mansion, something the billionaires back on Earth wished they could’ve lived in, with so much technological advancement it was making my head spin. Even Reddin’s windows were laced with technology, functioning as part-mirror, part-biometric scanner, reflecting my frame and heartbeat as I walked by them in the hall.
I also couldn’t help but notice the way Reddin’s floor felt underneath my feet. It was as if the ground was perfectly level, a sensation that made me feel like I was in perfect balance with everything else, like I would’ve been able to spin like a ballerina without any issue at all. And while I despised everything that I knew about Reddin so far, as I continued to make my way through his home, there was something bright beginning to shine at the back of my mind.
Hope.
If there was someone as advanced as Reddin living on Xelxar, maybe there was a way for me to get back home, too. Or at least, if I could never get back to Earth, there may have been a way for me to communicate, for me to tell people what’d happened to me, why I’d disappeared on the first day of my internship.
“…Rachel Waters.” Grindeem’s voice was warm as it floated over to where I stood in the hall.
“…Grindeem?” I was puzzled by his appearance in Reddin’s home, although I was grateful for it, too. “Are you with Wexxon? Has he sent you here to take me home?”
“No.” Grindeem offered me a small smile. “I was not sent here by Wexxon. Although, I do believe that would’ve been preferable.”
“Preferable to what—Grindeem!” I shouted as I watched him fall to his knees, gasping for air as he held a hand across his chest. I then raced over to his frame, my eyes searching for any sign of pain or discomfort.
And that was when I noticed the small blade sticking out of his back, only the hilt visible, the rest of the weapon buried into his skin.
“Grindeem….” My voice was low as I held him close, pulling him toward me as blood began to spread across his back. “Who did this to you? Who would ever do this to you?”
“He wanted me to marry you,” Grindeem murmured.
“You did marry us, Grindeem.” I offered him a slight smile. “You married us.”
“Not Wexxon.” Grindeem coughed between his raspy words. “Reddin. He…he wanted me to marry you to him. But I refused. I think he…he was following Wexxon, from the time he left the castle. From the time he came looking for you.”
“…Why?” I blinked back tears as I tried to hold Grindeem even closer, wanting to offer him comfort in what I knew were going to be his final seconds on Xelxar. “Why in God’s name would Reddin want us to be married? He despises me. He despises Wexxon.”
“…Despise?” Grindeem forced down a breath, his response coming out like a shaking rattle. “You misunderstand, Rachel Waters. Reddin does not…despise. Reddin…envies. His love…his heart…it’s all been twisted by it. He has been twisted by it.”
Grindeem coughed again, this time the noise turning into what sounded like a painful choking.
And then, Grindeem closed his eyes.
“Grindeem…” I cradled his lifeless body, tears slipping down my cheeks. I’d never had a chance to get to know him any better than a rushed church ceremony, but I knew that he was innocent in all of this, that he didn’t deserve to bleed out in the middle of a madman’s hall.
In fact, the only wrong Grindeem had ever done was arrange a wedding for Wexxon and me in the middle of the night, performing the ceremony as a favor to an old friend. I continued to hold Grindeem in my arms as the sadness that flowed through me began to shift into something else, something that blazed behind my chest, something that made me want to grab a sword of my own and aim it right at Reddin’s neck.
Because while Wexxon may not have been able to take his brother’s life, in this moment, there was nothing that I wanted to do more. It was only a matter of time before he came for Wexxon, before he came for me, before he came for Aldvirion, before he came for Palqeet.
Before he came for our child.
I then carefully slid the blade out of Grindeem’s back, silently tucking it into the side of my dress.
And then I continued down the hall, an anger inside me threatening to settle down into my veins and make itself at home.
It didn’t take me long to find Reddin, the sound of his awful laugh trailing all throughout the halls. I followed the sound of it, grateful for the empty nature of his home, assuming that all of his warriors were out wreaking havoc on a nearby town, maybe even trying to attack the castle.
I then quietly sent up a small prayer for Aldvirion, directing it toward any God that would listen, hoping that he would’ve been able to protect the castle with the warriors that lived inside.
A few seconds later I was rounding a corner, Reddin’s laugh coming from the other side of it. I slid down against the wall, not wanting to reveal my position just yet, wanting to be able to surprise Reddin as I sank the weapon underneath his skin.
Fuck.
What was going on with me? I wasn’t used to feeling this way, like I wanted to be the one to deliver justice from my own hands. But as I thought about Grindeem’s life fading away in my grip, I knew that something needed to be restored, that something needed to be repaid if things were ever going to feel the same.
Oh God.
I’d become Xelxarian, hadn’t I? I’d become just like Wexxon, just like the man who shared the mark on my forearm. For a moment, I smiled at the realization, something warm and proud in my chest as it occurred to me that maybe me ending up with Wexxon wasn’t just some random act of fate.
Maybe the reason I’d felt so strange on Earth was because I never belonged on Earth to begin with.
Maybe I’d somehow always belonged on Xelxar. Maybe I’d somehow always belonged with Wexxon, too.