ten rotations ago, until the moment you stepped inside here, this span.”
“Even though you will hate me more for it?” Jaxor asked, his tone quiet. He was exhausted, but this could not wait.
“I could never hate you, brother,” Vaxa’an said, approaching him again.
There he was. His brother. Inherently good, always better than Jaxor could hope to be. His love for him burned brightly in that moment, love Jaxor was not worthy of.
“Even still,” Jaxor said, feeling his heartbeat drum in his chest, “you might, after you learn what I have done.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
The Luxirian female returned later that night. Only this time, she came back alone, carrying yet another tray of food—though Erin hadn’t even touched the first one.
The female watched her from behind the bars, easily balancing both a lantern and the tray, using her pregnant belly to support the latter. Her features were unreadable when she saw the food Erin hadn’t touched.
“You are hungry, tev?” the female asked quietly, her voice hesitant in a way that made Erin think she was embarrassed.
Erin was leaning against the wall of the cave, just underneath the sliver where she could see the light streaming through. She thought it was morning now, or perhaps afternoon. The only difference was that the cave had become somewhat warmer and the stench of her vomit had permeated the air.
“What do you want with me?” Erin whispered.
The female cast her gaze down. She set the tray outside the barred entrance and turned to leave. Erin watched the lantern’s light retreat, thought about Jaxor’s fear of darkness, until the memory of him physically hurt—and she tried to not think at all.
A few moments later, the female returned, this time with a Luxirian male. Not Tavar. A guard, perhaps. He looked at Erin with intense curiosity mixed with mild distaste. He looked away after a couple minutes of studying her, as if he knew he shouldn’t be looking at her, but then his head turned back with a frown.
He stood away from the cell, watched intently as the female unlocked the door and toed the tray of food across the floor, into her cell.
“I’m not hungry,” Erin said.
The female had brought a basin of water and a large grey cloth with her. Erin watched as she knelt on the dirt of her prison, watched as she began to clean the remnants of her vomit, wiping it away.
Erin wanted to feel mild embarrassment that this female was cleaning up her filth. But she couldn’t bring herself to. She didn’t owe this female anything. She didn’t owe anyone anything.
She just wanted to go home.
Back to Earth. To see Jake and Ellora…even her mother. She couldn’t believe that, in moments of weakness with Jaxor, she’d believed that it was a possibility she’d choose the stay. Especially when he’d been planning to betray her all along.
Hot tears burned her eyes, her chest aching. She thought she might vomit again, but forced herself to tilt her head back, to look at the sliver of light pouring in through the crack in the ceiling.
“You eat,” the female said after the sounds of her scrubbing the floor had stopped.
Erin looked back at her. Looked at her rounded belly. The female was still kneeling on the floor, the dirtied rag deposited in the basin. The guard was still standing watch at the base of the staircase. The lantern cast him mostly in shadows, but Erin felt his presence.
“Where’s Tavar?”
The female’s face had no reaction to her question. “Busy.”
“Who are you?” she asked next.
The female looked back at the guard. Then she pushed the tray of food towards Erin. “I will talk with you, but only while you eat.”
“Why do you care if I eat or not?” Erin asked, even as she pulled the tray towards her. If she could ask questions of the female, she’d take the opportunity, even though she didn’t quite know what she wanted to know the most. “Won’t you get in trouble for speaking with me?” she asked, looking back at the guard.
“He does not speak your language,” the female said, her expression still carefully blank.
“And how is it that you do?”
Erin took a chunk of the dried meat and began to eat. The female watched her and said, “I was one of the ones chosen to receive a language implant.”
“From the Jetutians?” Erin asked, her voice lowering, thinking back to when Tavar had said they’d received ‘technology’ from them. She’d always been under the impression that the Mevirax had very little. “Is