even know what it means.
I can vividly recall hatching first. I was entirely alone for an entire hour, and in that time I was forced to do battle with multiple hatchlings from other clutches. It was a brutal welcome to the world, but I earned my place. Scizzor hasn’t earned anything.
“I am saving the human, because that is what our kind do. Because you were going to take our private losses and personal sadness and turn them into vengeance against the human we swore we would protect.”
“The murderer, you mean. The murderous human.”
“How many have we killed? How many of the lives we took cried out for even one more day of existence?”
“You’re weak, Warden. You do not embrace what it means to be scythkin. You are ashamed of what we are. You are…”
“I am and will always be the first hatched of our brood, and you will always be the mutineer who usurped my role. There will be consequences for this, Scizzor. Don’t ever think, for a single second, that you will get away with this, because you have gotten away with nothing.”
The line goes dead. Scizzor doesn’t want to hear what I have to say. He called me to lecture me, and instead of lecturing me, he ended up fleeing from me even in discussion. I am sure he thinks he’s won, but he hasn’t won anything besides the temporary rebellion of my brood. My. Brood. I was there when each and every one of them crawled out of their eggs. I helped them break their shells and crawl into the light of a black sun. They may be caught up in the blood lust Scizzor has stirred in them, but they will remember who they are soon enough. And they will remember who I am, too.
I turn to Silver. She is wracked with guilt and fear, and perhaps she should be. I am not immune to the revelation that she is responsible for Saya’s death. It will take some time to come to terms with that revelation. But it will not stop me from saving her. She is still mine.
Escape
Silver
“He’s so angry. He’s going to hunt us, isn’t he. He’s going to hunt us until we are dead, or he is.”
Warden shakes his head. “He’s not coming after us. He’s going after Ella.”
I look at him, so fucking confused. “Ella’s dead.”
“She might not be.”
I stare at him, as a feeling rises inside me, a feeling I thought I’d forgotten how to have.
For a long time, I had hope for Ella. I used to dream that maybe she hadn’t been killed on the planet. Maybe she’d escaped. Maybe she was living a normal life. Maybe I had grand babies somewhere out there in the universe. Sometimes I would daydream about that, but it didn’t last long. I had to face the truth. She was dead and gone, and I was left in a universe that didn’t care.
“What do you mean?” There are tears in my eyes as I ask him for clarification.
“We found some evidence that she is being kept in the same region you first attacked a scythkin ship, at a facility called the Human Pet Farm. Ella may be… stock, there.”
The specifics of his words are lost on me, but the most important thing is very clear. I thought my daughter was lost to the universe, but he has conjured her back from the shade of death, or at least it feels that way.
“She’s alive, and you know where she is?”
“Yes. And so does Scizzor, which is why we have to get to her first.”
I don’t have the nerve to expect Warden to take me to rescue my daughter. He has sacrificed too much for me already, and I will not let him lose anymore.
“Put me on the next station,” I tell him. “Just leave me to my fate. I will find Ella. You can return to your brood.”
“And do what? Tell them I let you go? You think that would be better? My brood will kill me if they see me again. I have done first the unthinkable, and then the unforgivable for you. So no, pet. You will not be left anywhere. You will remain by my side for the rest of our days, because you are mine. I have given up everything for you, and I intend on keeping you.”
“But… you…” I don't understand why he is so keen to help, why he even cares.
“I give up my family so you can find