The knowledge cut deeply. How easily he’d fooled her. How easily he’d lied to her.
How he must’ve been laughing, even as he kissed her.
The female inclined her head and Erin asked, “Why you?”
The female’s gaze dropped back down to the tray and Erin bit off another mouthful of dried meat.
“Because I am meant to care for you while you are here,” the female told her.
“You were expecting more women,” Erin guessed. Instead, they only got one. Her.
The female didn’t reply.
Erin swallowed the meat. Her stomach growled and for the first time, she realized how hungry she really was. As if simply chewing had reminded her that she hadn’t eaten in…who knew how long.
She reached for another piece and that one she washed down with water from the skin the female had brought.
“Who are you?” Erin asked once she’d wiped her lips. They felt dry, scratchy across the back of her hand.
“I am Kossira,” the female replied.
“And how the hell are you pregnant, Kossira?” Erin asked, leveling her with a steady gaze.
Kossira’s eyes flashed. For the first time, Erin recognized herself in this Luxirian female. A moment later, the carefully blank mask was back in place and she began to rise from the ground, using the bars of the dungeon to help lift her. Erin thought of the way she’d flinched at Tavar’s laugh.
“Are you his mate?” Erin asked, looking up at her, her words quick and quiet. Kossira said nothing. She reached down for the water basin instead. “I can help you.”
That got her attention, but not the kind Erin wanted. Kossira’s gaze was like a blade. “You cannot even help yourself.”
Erin’s words had been scrambling and desperate. She heard the unbending truth in Kossira’s tone. Of course she couldn’t help herself. When she’d first arrived, she’d believed with every part of her that Jaxor would come. That she would see him walking down those stairs, coming for her. Always.
Her heart felt like a ragged, torn thing now. Like a moth with broken wings, fluttering helplessly in her chest. Tavar’s words kept coming back to her.
You know nothing at all.
The questions, the lies kept coming back to her, making her feel like she would suffocate underneath them. Why hadn’t Jaxor told her his brother was Vaxa’an, the Prime Leader of Luxiria? Why would he keep that from her?
“Then will you help me?” Erin whispered.
Kossira locked eyes with her. In a moment, Erin saw her mask slip, saw the fear in her gaze. Erin saw the answer in her eyes.
No, because I cannot even help myself either.
Erin’s shoulders sagged. Kossira placed a hand on her belly before shoving the basin of dirtied water out of the cell, taking up the lantern in her hand.
“Eat,” Kossira said. “I will summon Tavar if you do not.”
The words were meant to be a threat, but Erin couldn’t stop looking at her belly. Realization cut through her.
“Was it the Jetutians?” Erin whispered.
“Rebax?”
Jaxor had said something about crystals. Luxirian crystals. He told her they’d traded the crystals for technology and weapons from the Jetutians…but what if they’d traded them for something else as well?
“The crystals…” Erin said, trailing off, her heartbeat thundering in her ears. “They cured you. They cured you for the crystals.”
Kossira was already walking through the door of her cell, shutting and locking it behind her. Erin got up on wobbling knees and approached the bars, trying to capture her attention.
“Nix,” Kossira said quietly. “They did not. Not for the crystals.”
“Then for…” Erin trailed off. She swallowed back the words, understanding what Kossira was not saying. “But…but you have not taken any others before. We are the first humans here.”
“They had to prove that they could,” Kossira told her, her voice dropping.
Erin took a step back from the bars, watched as Kossira cut the guard a look and said something in Luxirian—or a dialect of it, at least—and then they both turned towards the staircase, disappearing from view.
Erin stood, stunned. She recognized that her own freedom—and the freedom of many others—had been sacrificed for…technology. That was why the Mevirax had given the Jetutians the crystals in the first place, wasn’t it? And now, Erin’s newfound freedom would once again be forfeit…so that children could be born.
She didn’t know how to feel about that.
It was a strange pulling inside her. A part of her wanted to scream, to make her fear and anger known.
Her head swam, suddenly dizzy. She lay down on the floor and when she