halted my rising anger. This male was offering me a chance to be with Jenna. A chance to save her from a fate she didn’t deserve. How could I turn that down, even if I had to share the experience of loving her with this ancient being?
I nodded. “Fine. If that’s the only way, then I agree. Let’s do it.”
“Yes, young Danan, let us do it!”
LAIN
I strode from the elevator into the reception area of the spaceport, my fraternal pod at my side. Or what was left of my fraternal pod.
The sudden stab of pain at that thought had me drawing in a sharp gasping breath. Grief was a new experience for me. In the first few days after we received news of Rian’s death, I absently tried to remember another occasion where I’d felt such agony. There was none. Even the lives I’d seen lost to the storm, though horrifying and traumatic, weren’t people I knew. People I loved. They didn’t impact me directly.
No, this was the only time I’d known this kind of pain. Rian had been part of me for seven years, more if you considered our shared time in our mother’s womb, and now that part was gone. I’d never see my sensible, mature-beyond-his-years brother again. Who would be the voice of reason when Meida suggested some madcap scheme that I would have to support, simply out of boredom? Certainly not Nial, who was just as happy to take the path less traveled as I was. Rian was the only one who ever counseled caution, and it had always driven me crazy.
The irony was not lost on me that the cautious one of us—the sensible and mature one—had been the one to die in a harebrained attempt to protect a human woman. What would have made him think fighting a bunch of Keeda on his own was a good idea? Why didn’t he just take her and run when he saw who they were interested in?
Anger rose to replace grief. Rian should never have been put in that situation. He should never have been the only Danan in the compound when the intruders came. Someone had to answer for that oversight, or mistake, or piece of gross negligence. And I was going to make sure someone paid!
The stiffening muscles on either side of me alerted me to the approach of someone. I brought my mind back from my plans for retribution to see my paternal pod standing waiting for us. Mother stood in the centre, a small pale human amidst her large, colorful podmates. She looked even paler than usual, and the lines on her face were deeper than I remembered them.
For a human she wasn’t old, by any measure. She hadn’t even turned thirty. Yet in this moment she looked as old and frail as an ancient. Her eyes, always so filled with life, were red and empty.
The dagger in my chest twisted at the sight of her. I grunted in pain. It was hard enough trying to deal with my own grief, and that of my brothers. But mother’s? No, this was too much.
With a cry, Mother broke ranks and raced towards us. I was the one who scooped her up in my arms because I was in the middle. Meida and Nial closed in on either side to wrap their arms around the tiny being shaking uncontrollably in my arms. When had she gotten so small?
No one said anything. What could we say? Rian was the only thing on our minds, and there were no words that would ease our pain, no words that would bring him back. All we could do was cling onto the woman who had given us life and try to ride out this fresh wave of agony.
Our fathers came forward, stiff and straight, holding onto control of their emotions as best they could. I noted immediately that Rian’s dad was missing.
I lifted my head and made eye contact with my father, Thaid. “Rhain?”
“He’s walking the timelines, trying to find answers.”
“He refuses to eat and sleep,” Mother whispered against my chest. My bare chest.
Two weeks ago, getting my brands had been the only thing on my mind. The only thing that mattered. We should have passed the final trial by the time we turned seven, but the storm had postponed the branding. Now we were seven, our trials unfinished.
However, the world turning on its head had taught me a massive lesson. Brands didn’t matter. Being the best or most