he wanted to find out.
He leaned farther over the balcony railing, rising to his tiptoes, the strange heat rippling beneath his skin weird, but not unpleasant.
She’d been standing next to a nervous-looking female and smug Executive male who looked like a typical élithe asht-hole. The two adults had recently entered into a breeding contract by the looks of the bright, metallic sashes around their shoulders, and the girl had been crowded out by a steady stream of well- wishers. Until she hovered at the outskirts, her head cast down- ward, her tiny shoulders hunched. Alone. Like him.
He gripped the railing tighter, the bruises on his jaw and ribs throbbing a little less. He didn’t know how he knew, but she was the cause of the strange sensations. He was certain of it.
He’d been tinkering with his junk of a transpo floater, no intention of coming here, when the burn had snaked down his spine and propelled his feet forward, tugging him along until he’d stood at the edge of the balcony and his gaze had unerringly locked on her, everything else dropping to silence.
He had no clue why. Her hair was pretty, but there was little else of mention. She was skinny with big eyes and a large mouth that took up her whole face. She was also no more than seven, right around the same age as his annoying half-brother. And she was full élithe, like his stepmother, dressed in the same shimmering ornate white gowns required of all unbred females.
Svette, the eighteen-year-old girl from Orion’s belt who came with her father to deliver supplies and giggled and winked at him the whole time, was a far more attractive female. But his skin had never once hummed for her like it did for the golden-haired one.
His stepmother would probably say it was some disgusting Martian thing. She blamed everything she didn’t like on his Outer World blood. And maybe she was right, maybe whatever this was—
His breath left in a rush as the blonde’s head snapped up and bright green, defiant eyes zeroed in on him. Her fiery spirit, fury, and confusion slamming into him as if he’d stepped inside her mind. As if they were one. As if he knew this strange girl as well as he knew himself. And, for an instant he wasn’t alone, the heat inside him swirling and changing, snaking in golden tendrils that stretched towards her even as they wound tighter and tighter around his chest. Binding them together, two jagged pieces snap- ping into place. Inevitable. Right. Fated. Fused into one perfect whole. Filling the empty, bleak sky of his soul with a million sparkling stars more beautiful than any danashe stones.
Minel. The Martian word for “mine” ricocheted through his brain, a silent roar. Ancient. Primal. Out of context in the élithe world and his ten-year-old boy mind. And yet so right. As if he was finally slipping into the skin he was meant to wear, his chest expanding as the golden shimmer of his skin glittered brighter. Minel. He who’d had nothing he could call his, not even the clothes on his back, suddenly had everything he’d ever wanted. Minel. Her anger, fear, and loneliness pulsed in his chest as if she’d whispered her feelings straight into his ear, and a protectiveness he’d never known roared through him. His horns jutted from his head, his fangs lengthening. Keeping her safe, making her happy, suddenly all that mattered.
The railing bent under the force of his grip.
“Oh, look what you’ve done,” gasped Peller. “Mother will be furious.”
The humming beneath DaKar’s skin increased in tempo. The girl’s eyes crinkled at the edges as if she was trying hard to make him out and he realized she couldn’t see him nearly as well as he could her. Élithe sight wasn’t as strong as Martian sight and he was positioned far across the other side of the room, high above. And yet she still looked his way...her brow wrinkled, her expression uncertain, but curious.
Then, her face scrunched up, her tongue came out, and she made a silly face totally out of place with her fancy dress and proper bearing.
He locked his knees to stay upright. She was perfect. Minel.
The wild, uncivilized urge built inside. He needed to plant himself in front of the girl who’d tried to make him laugh and rip apart anyone who attempted to hurt her or take her from him.
He moved along the balcony edge toward the stairs, his stare never wavering