Page 119 of Bride of the Enemy Alien

“Fine,” she says. “Doom statue.”

Syin, bleeding and furious, makes a strangled sound that might be disbelief.

Kessa keeps staring at me. “Listen to me, doom statue. The machine is keyed to rescue. To touch. To you proving what I am by moving like I matter.”

“You do matter.” The words tear out rough and useless, not the shape I would have chosen for that truth.

Damn her. Damn this cage. Damn the universe for putting truth in my mouth while a slaver’s machine listens.

“I know,” she says. “That’s the problem.”

The handler tilts his head. “Excellent. Emotional recognition confirms the bond-path.”

Kessa destroyed the clean send. Good. Brilliant. Costly.

The rod is gone and the proof packet is dead, but the receiver caught both of us alive before she broke it. It does not need the imitation anymore. It opens a direct path through the floor track.

Tajss, alive.

Home, named.

Mine, endangered.

The word lands inside me with more force than the command.

Mine.

Not ownership. Never that. That word has been made filthy by every hand that branded it into flesh.

Mine as in chosen.

Mine as in worth standing for. Enduring for.

Mine as in I would rather be split open under both suns than let another arena rise around her or her people.

The command strikes again.

Move.

Claim.

Complete the pair.

The cage screams as I pull against it. The green line dives into my throat and finds the place where Krix taught me to answer bells. My muscles seize. I slam one shoulder into the bar, not because I choose to break free, but because the thing in me demands it. The impact jars my damaged wing. White pain eats the edge of my vision.

Kessa steps forward.

The ring around her ankle snaps bright.

“No,” I snarl.

She freezes with one foot half-raised, rage flaring across her face. “Don’t use that voice on me.”

“It is not mine.”

“I know.” Her voice softens, and that is worse. “So take it back.”

The handler laughs once. “He cannot. He was manufactured to answer. Your presence improves compliance by forty-three percent and increases transmission richness beyond projection.”