my brothers and I are all that’s left of them. These other species we saw in the library must have been bred from other races. The result of Ulkar breeding is usually quite similar to the mother race, but with extra abilities that function through higher-dimensional sensitivity.”
I run my hand gently across his wound. I don’t want to touch it too hard or hurt him, but I want to know that he’s okay. He could have died for me, and he must have gone through hell protecting me. I feel like this wound is my fault. No, it is my fault.
“Higher dimensions? Is that real?”
“How do you think we traveled to the center of the galaxy in a few seconds?”
I shrug. “Alien shit?”
“My wounds are healed, little human. I can read the guilt on your face. There is no need for it.”
“Raiska,” I put my hand on his thigh now. I don’t know why I do that, but it feels wrong to not touch him now.
We both look down, and now that my hand is there, it feels even more conspicuous and embarrassing to pull it away, so I just leave it there and look back up at him. “I’m going to feel guilty regardless of what you say. Just know that I’m not going to make a mistake like that again. You’ve earned my trust ten times over. I will do what you need to keep us both alive.”
I squeeze his thigh for emphasis, and then I pull my hand away. My cheeks burn red as I look away from him and toward the stars.
“So we can see the stars like this even in the day?”
“Yes,” he says. “How long do you want to stay on this beach, Annabelle?”
I smile. “You just called me by my name. That’s great. Are you in a rush to go? Do you really want to see your brother so badly.”
He flinches when I mention his brother.
“He’s my half-brother,” Raiska says, voice going cold. “I think we can stay on the beach longer.”
“Are you avoiding your brother—half-brother? Didn’t you say we came here to find him?”
“Yes. In part.”
“Do you two not get along?”
He runs his hand through the sand. His blue fingers rake through the black grains, and his turquoise eyes look down, lost in thought.
I decide not to press him on this.
Something catches my eye, and I turn to see a chrome sphere approaching us.
I scream.
Raiska grabs hold of my arm. “It’s a med bot. Chill, little human.”
The sphere approaches us. It lights up with a smiley face as it hovers toward us.
“You are injured,” it says. It flashes a light onto Raiska. “It looks like you are APARAN. Is this correct?”
“He’s Valittu,” I tell the robot.
“I’m Aparan,” he says. He speaks then to me rather than to the robot. “Biologically we are the same. It must know Aparan biology from my half-brother.”
“Lie down, Aparan,” it says. “I will tend to your wounds.”
“I’m fine,” he growls at it, standing up.
I pull on his arm and try to tug him back down. I’m under no illusions that I can force a man who can lift up a car to do anything, but I want to fight him on this. This robot is offering to heal him, and he’s stubbornly refusing it for no discernable reason.
“I will be fine,” he says, meeting my eyes.
“You’ll especially be fine if you just let it take care of you. Or do you not trust it?”
He eyes it. “I trust my own body to heal.”
“Worry not, Aparan,” the robot chirps. “I am experienced in healing your kind. We have healed KULA many times.”
Raiska bristles at the name.
“I decline your services—”
I step in front of him. “Heal him. Please. He was hit on the head and can’t make his own decisions.”
“Apologies, Aparan, but your mate has consented on your behalf. Lie down—”
Raiska starts walking off, and a little arm pops out of the robot’s spherical body. It pokes him in the back, and he falls down onto the sand.
“What the hell?” I shriek. “Did you hurt him?”
“I’ve stunned him. The anesthesia will last for THREE minutes and TWENTY SEVEN seconds. This is how long I will need to treat the wounds, human.”
Great. Even the robots are calling me “human.”
A swarm, much like the one I saw in the library, erupts from the sphere. The swarming things, which I’ve gathered by now are some kind of machines, move all along Raiska’s body. They get so thick around his wounded arm and