I glance back at him once more, but he looks the same—half-asleep and in agony. Pressing my palm to the nearest tree, I lean against it as I begin to make my way over the uneven ground.
With each step, I am reminded I’m home. Each step feels so different from Earth. I turn my face up to the sky, where three of the moons are glowing. I had not realized I had been gone so long, we’ve reached the shadow cycle of the fourth.
I know she’s there, in her slumber, and it makes my chest ache.
So much time has passed, and that’s even more obvious when I pass through the copse of trees that line the edge of the village and realize it is dark because it is empty. The fires have gone out, the huts are vacant.
Something has gone very, very wrong.
The dream I had about my brother penetrates my mind, and I hold my breath.
Making my way down the winding path that I used to run through as a youngling, I try to push away memories that are flooding my mind. It was peaceful then.
I did not have the ability to understand who I was. What I was. What I would become. My greatest goal was to serve in my best capacity, and when I was finally—finally—selected for service to the capital, I had been thrilled.
My education had been service, and the idea of getting even a glimpse of the human world was thrilling. I did not balk—I did not even blink—when I saw the living quarters of the guards on Earth.
It was uncomfortable, cold, and lonely, but we were all trained to understand that those things simply were. They were not good. They were not bad. They were expected.
And then my entire life and everything I believed about the Vyastil, humans, and what we were doing was flipped upsidedown the moment a human man took me in his arms and hugged me.
Everest destroyed everything, and as much as the pain that came after turning loyal to him instead of my people still leaves me shaking at night, I have zero regrets.
I have my Dante now, thanks to him. I have tasted and felt the effects of his cum. I have been overwhelmed by his touch. I have come to understand exactly the pleasure and joy that can be had with my body, and with his.
I have touched my cock outside of breeding time, and now I know what the Vyastil from the capital have been attempting to deny us all this time.
And it was meant to be my punishment.
“What are you doing here?”
I startle at the sound of a familiar voice and turn to see a figure emerging from the shadows of a hut very near the one I had once occupied. It takes until he’s in the moonlight for me to recognize him.
My brother. He is taller than me, but so much thinner than the last time I saw him. He’s wearing age on his face, and his bright orange hair sits lifeless over his shoulders.
“Alvayn,” I say.
“Cielo.”
He does not greet me with a forehead touch. The distance between us is vast.
“What happened here?” I find the courage to ask.
His eyes narrow, and he makes an angry trill in the back of his throat. “You.”
I stare at him. I do not understand what he means.
Another figure appears behind him—his hair short pink, and notably, all his piercings are gone. Just like mine. “Zynath,” I say, breathless with shock.
He stares me down for a long moment, then says, “I hope that human was worth what you did.”
“I was following orders,” I start to argue, but the words fall flat, because I was not following orders. The orders I was given to keep Everest out of Erethar superseded Rathyn’s safety. I knew this, but I could not turn my friend down.
Not after everything he did for me.
“Your punishment extended beyond your banishment,” Zynath explains, echoing what he said in my dream. “Those of us who hatched with you are now living in dishonor. They will not offer me work, even in the fields. They have taken almost everyone from the village and sent them to the mines. Those of us left behind are sick. And we are starving.”
A cold chill runs up my spine. “They cannot punish you?—”
