“How do you keep doing it?” I said.
He didn’t need for me to specify what the “it” was. He must have asked the question of himself as many times as I had.
“We’re duty bound,” he said simply.
I pulled my legs up and turned them so I was sitting on the edge of the sofa.
“I thought I was the only one to think about it,” I said. “Do you think the others do too?”
“Annas? No. She’s too much like Krial to think that way. I think she enjoys it.”
“Rarr?”
Tus shrugged his muscular shoulders.
“Possibly. Who knows what he thinks. Or if he can even think at all.”
“I’m not sure I can keep doing this,” I said softly—so softly it didn’t even sound like my own voice.
“What else would you do? And where would you go? Do you think there’s anywhere you could go that Krial couldn’t reach you?”
“I guess not.”
“The way I see it, there’s only one thing you can do.”
“What?”
“Quit whining like a baby and do something.”
“I’m not whining.”
“Yes, you are. It doesn’t matter what you do, so long as you do something. Get your head straight. Think about the bigger picture.”
I couldn’t say Tus’s words gave me much inspiration. “Just do something,” wasn’t exactly the kind of advice I needed right now.
Then Tus sighed and picked up a small vase that came with the room. We never had enough space to carry unnecessary items like that. He hesitated a moment before picking it up and upending it.
Something rattled on the inside and landed in the palm of his hand. He clenched his hand shut and replaced the vase on the tabletop and turned to me.
“I was planning on keeping this for a rainy day,” he said. “But seeing as your rainy day is already here…”
He opened his hand, revealing a coal black pill. I looked at him and took it.
“What is it?”
“It’s a pill. For… removing mistakes. Don’t ask how I got it. It’s… a difficult memory.”
I looked at him and wondered what he was referring to. He was always so in command of his emotions that I never even considered the idea of him losing his cool.
Or his heart.
But right then, I could see his pain etched on his face, deep grooves that might have been carved by a master sculptor.
“For removing mistakes?” I said.
The pill was jet black, the same as its purpose. I had only ever seen something like this once, and it was a very, very long time ago.
I wandered down the steps to the apartments that housed the other personal guard members. A far cry from the cell I had been reduced to for the past three months.
I wasn’t really bothered about the cell size. It wasn’t a pressing concern. It was just a way for me to distract myself from what I was really thinking about.
Harper.
My dear Harper.
She was trapped in that cell and didn’t know what was happening. The pill in my pocket seemed so heavy I thought it would stretch the fabric of my jacket and tear a hole in it.
I glanced at the other doors in the hallway and wondered which one belonged to Annas. If she was inside, I could confront her. Face to face, I at least had a chance.
But I could no more hurt her than I could Tus.
Despite what she was, despite what she had done to me, and despite the streak of evil inside her, I couldn’t hurt my sister, even if she wasn’t sister by blood.
I left that hallowed hall and drifted past the guards standing outside it. I descended down a set of spiral stairs and walked down another long corridor until I reached a room made of glass. I pressed a button, a light buzzed, and I was allowed inside.
As a member of Krial’s personal guard, I had permission to go everywhere the others were allowed. I only had to be careful about being seen. The other prisoners couldn’t see me wandering around where I shouldn’t be.
I entered the science lab from the opposite corner to the one I usually used. Funny how a simple thing like entering through a different door could change your perspective on things.
The scientists paid me little mind as I crossed the science lab in the direction of the hidden cell I knew to be concealed behind the wall.
Through it, I could see Harper curled up around the chair that would have been a lot more comfortable than the floor. But lying in it risked the scientists doing something to her while she was asleep.
I glanced at the scientists on the other side of the room. They looked too engrossed in their activities to bother much with me and what I was up to, but I knew how misleading appearances could be.
I couldn’t open the cell door. I had the authority to do a lot of things in this prison but letting out prisoners was not one of them.
“Psst,” I said. “Hey. Harper.”
When she didn’t stir from her position on the floor, I tapped a hand to the invisible forcefield wall. It didn’t make a knock sound as I’d expected but a low zap that shot bolts of electricity up my arms and into my chest. It didn’t hurt but it felt uncomfortable.
“Harper?” I said. “Can you hear me?”
She grunted, coming awake. She groaned as she sat up and leaned with her head against the padded wall as a pillow. As she did, her lumpy clothing fell away, revealing the bump in her belly. It was big and I couldn’t believe my eyes.
A smile lit my face and I couldn’t look away from it.
I did that. No, we did that.
A beautiful baby was tucked up inside her. The Miragians had very short reproduction cycles. Our cells could duplicate much faster than most species, owing to our innate ability to replicate ourselves at will.
I took the black pill from my pocket and held it in
