“What are you talking about?” she asked softly. “What about the Divani?”
Horos tilted his head in that vulturelike way Lily had seen so many times. He made a thoughtful sound as if he were studying her expression.
“Hm. So you truly do not know. Good. I keep forgetting how ignorant you are about these things.” His smile sharpened. “The Divani racial trait. The whole universe thinks it is romantic, how they reshape themselves for their chosen one, how they fit perfectly so they can produce descendants. I noticed someone started the imprinting in that thick-necked bull, and I hoped itwas not you. It would have been such a shame if you dirtied yourself with him.”
Lily breathed.
In. Deep. Slow.
She could endure not breaking Horos’s nose.
For now.
Horos did not seem bothered by her silence.
“Although,” he continued, “it would be even better if you were the target after all. That would mean he is permanently chained to you, but you will never meet him again. And if you do, by then you will already be my bitch.”
Lily’s hands curled into fists. She could feel her patience evaporating like a droplet of water thrown into an engine flame.
The male seemed to sense the reaction he was provoking. For the first time in chrono-cycles, he opened his mouth wide, teeth like knives, and released that bone-splitting scream Lily could not escape.
Her body folded. Hit the floor. Convulsed.
For the third time she writhed helplessly at the feet of a creature who looked at her as if she were confessing love, not breaking her.
His voice, when he spoke, was weak and ragged.
“You know, Corvus are despised, but we are not so different from the Divani. The same evolutionary path, truly. They reshape themselves. We reshape our chosen. That is why the Corvus breeding-song is universally forbidden. It acts on nervous systems without consent.” His lips peeled back. “Hypocrisy. As if it is not a sacrifice on my part.” He swallowed, wincing. “It destroys my vocal cords. Even a medical station cannot fix them.”
His knotted hand clutched at his throat. Then he forced calm into his posture and began to gather himself to leave.
“I hope you will be reasonable. The breeding-song affects you even if you resist. Resistance only degrades higher cognitive functions.” His eyes glittered. “And I would rather fuck someone who moves and reacts than a drooling vegetable, but that is not my decision.” He leaned closer, softening his voice into something almost coaxing. “Think about it. How beautiful our life could be. We could travel the universe together. Think about it, Lily.”
Horos did not see Lily’s tears as he stepped out and the door sealed behind him.
Lily lay curled on the bed.
She was past tears. Past rage. Past denial. Now she simply existed.
Now she understood.
She had wondered why Horos had not forced himself on her earlier. It was obvious he had no moral restraint. The strange pattern, the insults and humiliation paired with attempts at false camaraderie, had been meant to make her accept him.
As if that had ever been possible.
And there had always been violence. It had simply been disguised, hidden, delivered in an underhanded form so grotesque it eclipsed her imagination.
The thought alone made nausea rise in her throat.
What truly knocked the ground out from under her was the uncertainty.
Had the change already begun?
She was certain she would resist until the last moment, but would she even feel herself slipping away? Or was the process so insidious that after one seizure she would not remember her own name, only lie in her vomit, waiting for Horos to decide what was done to her?
Lily knew she would end her own life before that happened.
And if she had any say at all, she would end Horos first, before he ever touched her again with so much as a fingertip.
