My lips parted as I watched her talk.
I couldn’t believe a word she said, because no place like that existed in the Outer Realms—since books didn’t even exist in the Outer Realms—but she spoke with such familiarity and authority, and the things she said matched stories I’d heard from another who knew about all that, so I found myself wondering if maybe she had been to a bookstore before.
But how?
“And what place was that?” I asked, my gaze straying to Quilla as she kept my journal clutched in her hand and returned to the fire, still examining it as she sat and picked up the spit of bread to continue cooking.
Wait, why was she keeping my book? And why was she watching me while I talked to her aunt? It was distracting as hell; I could barely concentrate on what Melaina was saying, and this was a conversation I was very invested in having. But Quilla was looking at me, and I could feel her interest blaring through the mark, which made me just want to crawl over to her and rub against her like a tomcat in heat.
Jesus, I think I preferred it when she completely ignored me—as she did ninety percent of the time. Because whenever she looked my way, my brain suddenly felt like a rubber ball ping-ponging around inside my head with all the aches and wants consuming me.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Melaina was answering.
I dragged my gaze away from her niece and exhaled slowly, trying to control the arousal that flooded my veins by bobbing my knee.
Just to see how she’d respond, I said, “So you’re talking about Earth, then?”
She looked up, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. Across the fire, Quilla gasped.
My attention returned to her just as Melaina demanded, “What do you know of Earth?”
“What do you know about it?” I countered, still unable to tear my stare from Quilla. A strange mixture of confusion and excitement wafted off her. And she was watching me intently. She’d heard of Earth too.
Which was…
Interesting.
The only other people I’d met who knew what Earth was were people from Earth or descendants of people from Earth. How did these two know?
“Honey, we’ve been to Earth,” Melaina finally announced. “That’s how we know.”
I zipped my incredulous gaze to her, only to turn back to Quilla. She hadn’t changed a feature on her face, yet I knew from her frozen expression that her aunt wasn’t lying. My mouth dropped open.
“Wait. You’ve been to Earth? Earth, Earth? Holy shit.” I clutched my head in my hands and took a step in her direction. “I have so many questions.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she pointed a stern finger at me. “Stop right there. Don’t you dare come over here.” She might look like she was ready to cut a bastard and not think twice about it with the hostile glare she sent me, but I sensed fear and sudden anxiety spike from her emotions over the possibility that I would approach her.
I backed away considerately, then plopped my ass down on a nearby log, needing answers.
“What was it like?” I asked. “When did you go? Did you see any motorcycles? Or airplanes? Or cars? Or were you born there? Wait, you couldn’t have been.” I suddenly realized. “You’re a—” A Graykey. But then another thought struck me. “Fucking hell, I know when you went. I know exactly when.” My gaze lifted to her frozen expression. “It would’ve been—what—” I did a quick calculation in my head. “Eighteen years ago,” I realized. “Right?”
Quilla exchanged a shocked glanced with Melaina, telling me I was right.
So I went on. “Almost exactly when the tenth reaping began.” Lifting my bound hands to my temple as another realization occurred to me, I laughed. “Jesus, that’s right. You and your aunt—” My gaze sought Melaina. “And a handful of others went missing then. No one knew if your bodies were hidden where no one could ever find them or if you just went so deep into hiding that no one ever saw you again. But you went to Earth then, didn’t you, to escape the reaping? Along with…”
I wracked my brain, trying to remember the names of the other Graykeys who’d gone missing then. The ones who’d never turned up again. I had it all written down, in the very book my true love had just confiscated, but I’d gone over the facts and studied them so many times I should remember this.
“Taiki,” I blurted, snapping my fingers in self-congratulations. “She was another aunt of yours. And there was also…” I glanced toward Melaina. “Two of your children. Questa and Quailen, right? But they’re still…”
Missing.
I glanced around, growing suddenly uneasy. If these two were back here, in the Outer Realms, and the other three were not with them, that either meant they were still on Earth, or they hadn’t survived the trip. I’d heard of cases where people who were transported between the two worlds hadn’t survived.
The sudden solemn air coming from Quilla made me think the worst.
“How the fuck did you know all that?” Melaina seethed, slowly rising to her feet. Anger radiated from her expression as she grabbed one of my special daggers on the way up. She pressed a lever with her thumb, and it released the blade, shooting out from the hilt with an ominous snick of sound. “I asked you a question, boy?”
She stalked toward me, the knife gripped with menacing intent.
I looked over at Quilla who gaped between us, her lips parted and eyes blinking rapidly.
“My mark disappeared then,” I explained, reaching up to touch my temple where I felt it almost alive and working, reading my true love’s surprise and interest.
“I thought you had died,” I told her. “I mourned for you. But then, over four moon cycles later, I woke up one morning, and there was the tattoo again, back on me as if it had never left. It must’ve thought you died too when you departed the Outer Realms, and then it returned again when it sensed you back on this planet.” Blowing out a soft whistle, I murmured, “Incredible.”
Quilla seemed dazed by what I’d just said, but Melaina sneered heatedly. “That’s all nice and interesting,” she growled, not really appearing to care about what I’d just explained at all. “But it doesn’t answer the question I asked. Now, how the fuck did you know who went missing during the tenth reaping?”
I lifted my eyebrows at her tone. She seemed truly and honestly pissed. In fact, this just might be the first time I’d ever actually seen her mad at all. The woman really did not like me knowing so much about her children, I guess.
When I refused to answer, she let out a growl. “How do you know about Earth?”
I said nothing.
“Dammit, answer me!” She pressed the dagger to my neck.
Since I was so zealous about sharpening my weapons, the blade cut into my jugular with ease, splitting open flesh until I immediately felt blood drip down my throat. I hissed at the pain and clenched my teeth but otherwise remained perfectly still, letting her have her moment. She was being a worried mother; that was all, I told myself. It was a fear I could understand.
Not because I’d ever been a mother, of course, but I’d cared for and worried about plenty of people before.
But they were Graykeys. I wasn’t telling them anything they didn’t need to know about the information the High Clifters had about their entire family tree.