The camp is waking when we arrive. The sun has risen, and warriors are heading to the training arena. Sentries are coming off shift, while others replace them, and the smell of baking bread makes my stomach rumble as we walk past the main food kradi.
“Tagiz?”
I turn as Malis approaches. She looks tired, her face drawn, and she gazes at Zoey curiously.
I almost curse. I have such little time with Zoey these days. “What do you need?”
She blinks at my abrupt question, and her gaze flicks back to me. “Our parents would like us to meet them for breakfast,” she murmurs.
Zoey is silent next to me, and a tug on my hand makes me glance down. She’s pulling at her basket, and I release it abruptly. The sudden movement pushes her off-balance, but she recovers, her face flushing.
She nods at Malis and gives me one last glance before turning and walking into the healers’ kradi.
“She is the human you rescued,” Malis murmurs as we turn.
“I am only one of the people who were there for that mission,” I say. Behind me, I hear a sharp indrawn breath from inside the kradi, followed by a choked cough. I tamp down my instinct to stalk into the kradi and demand why the little human is taking so long to recover.
I know why. Humans are much weaker than Braxians. Their bodies are not strong like ours.
Flashing blue eyes appear in my mind, burning with determination as the tiny human fought to live.
I push the memory away as Malis links her arm through mine.
“What are we going to do, Tagiz?”
I scowl at the thought of the meeting we will be having with our parents. “We must make them see that a mating between us is not the right choice.”
Malis blinks back tears. “I love Heric. He makes me feel…”
“Alive,” I finish for her with a sigh. “I know.”
Heric is a quiet warrior. He’s a good, capable fighter who can be trusted at any warrior’s back. And yet he prefers learning to fighting. He can often be found discussing various herbs with the healers or mulling over the stars with the wisewomen. Rakiz also often asks his advice for battle strategy, as the warrior has an uncanny knack for predicting the movements of our enemies.
Malis has loved him since they were children. Soon after she learned to walk, one of the other children took her toy, taunting her with it. Heric took it back and stayed by her side for the rest of the day.
They’ve been inseparable ever since.
Unfortunately, our parents have other plans.
My father’s kradi is bustling when we arrive. His years of loyalty to Rakiz’s father served him well, and his home is large and comfortable. My mother is sitting in the small garden outside with Ornia—Malis’s mother.
“My son,” my mother says, getting to her feet. “It has been too long.”
I smile at that. I saw her just a few nights ago for the evening meal. If my mother had her way, I would move back in with her and my father.
Along with the mate they picked for me before I could even hold a sword, of course.
Malis greets her mother, and Ornia nods at me. We take our seats, waiting for both our fathers. There is no question what this meeting is about. Both our families are tired of waiting.
They are here to urge us to mate.
Zoey
I choke down the tonic Moni insists I still need. Since the healer managed to use whatever passes as antibiotics on this planet to save my life, I trust her enough to come back each day and gag on her disgusting brown brew.
“How many more days of this?”
“Until I no longer hear you coughing at night, child.”
I scowl at that. It took me weeks before the healers could be convinced I was able to move into my own kradi. And don’t even get me started on Tagiz’s objections. Finally, I went directly to Rakiz, who met with Moni. The result? My kradi is just a few kradis down from this one so Moni can keep an eye on me.
“I’m not saying dying is worse than drinking this tonic, but I’m not not saying that either,” I mutter.
I hand the cup back to Moni, who turns to murmur to Sarissa. Vivian has already taken off, and I reach for the ingredients I need for the pain tonic I’ll be making today.
Sarissa sits on one of the beds, her face intent as she chats to Moni. I get to work on a pain tonic, the task easy now, the repetition soothing. When I told Moni I was also a healer on my planet, she agreed to begin teaching me about healing on Agron. Sometimes, she makes me tell her about the technology we use in hospitals on Earth, her dark eyes wide. The healers here do incredibly well with what they have, but it’s still a barbaric alien planet.
At the same time, I’ve seen miracles happen on Agron. Things I could never explain. The cava berries Arix’s healers used when Dragix almost died are the stuff of legend.
And apparently, they’re guarded as if they’re gold.
I’m making the best of my life here. At least until we can get off this planet. But the truth is, I miss Earth so much that I still sometimes wake up, convinced I’ve slept through my alarm and I’m going to be late for my shift at the hospital.
I sometimes wonder what I would’ve done—if I’d known life as I knew it would be stolen from me. Maybe that’s why it’s better to have no warning. Every day, we get up and make plans based on the assumption we’ll have years left of the same routine.
Oh, we know—in theory—we could die anytime. That something
