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He reaches up, cups the back of my neck and nods. “This makes sense. I felt something.”
“You sensed me?”
“Something was different during prayer.”
“You’re a priest?”
“Yes.” He drops his claw and walks back inside, gesturing for me to follow. “Come inside. Let’s talk.”
I step into his office, which I see is next to an enormous library of ancient print books. He gestures to a large chair, and I settle down, allowing my wings to fall to my sides.
“You can fly with those?”
“Yes, they’ve grown with me and gotten larger as I became an adult. I can fly as easily as I can walk. It is one of the good things that came from my captivity.”
“What is the other good thing?” he questions.
“My daughter.”
He sucks in a breath. “You have a bound and offspring?”
“No, I only have a daughter. My creators recently cloned me and created a baby that is like me in all ways, but of what they considered a lesser gender, so that I would feel an attachment to it and want to protect my offspring. They were angry that I hadn’t been following their directives and fully committed to their directives, no matter the ethics involved. They created my child to have leverage over me. They threatened to torture her unless I complied with their demands.
“They’d taken humans for experimentation too and kept them in labs on the other side of the planet, far from me. Those humans were turned into cyborgs. There were three of them and they evolved quantum computing skills which allowed them to escape together. Then they fled through a very dangerous series of black holes and asteroids to go live in what they now call The Swirl, to live in a location where they will not be bothered by their former creators. I could escape there too, if I chose, but the difference is that I would be traveling with my infant and the danger to her survival on the initial trip out is too high for me to accept. Also, I do not want to be forced out. I want to stay and make them stop. The Hurlians have caused enough destruction in the four sectors. Enough is enough.”
“And now they’ve found you?”
“They do not know my exact location but are arriving at the first place they suspect me to go to my brother. I am here because they are arriving where I’m here or not, because they are hoping to capture you alive and use as another captive they use to bargain with for my compliance, or they can torture you, forcing you to give them info on my whereabouts.”
Smoke wafts from Cabal’s nostrils. “How many are arriving?”
“Two teams of secret operations. They will be here at sunrise two diurnals from now. I’ve hacked into their comm systems and can overhear all of their plans.”
“No wonder they want you back.”
“Yes.”
“And where is your daughter at right now?”
“I have her hidden, here on Salo, being cared for by an unmated human female.”
“Oh, really? I also have a human mate.”
“I know you do. But my relationship with Evie is not the same. She is not yet my…”
His eyebrow crooks.
Heat flashes across my cheeks. How does my brother already know me so well? “Yes, it’s true that I suspect this female is my future bound, but I have not yet given her my seed.”
“She cares for your daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Good. You have not yet declared for her?”
“Declared? What does this mean?”
“I see there is much about our culture for you to learn. All Hyrrokin take a life-long mate, that we call our Bound. The moment a female takes your seed and becomes pregnant, and gives birth that female is legally your Bound. But it is customary to declare for a female even prior to her taking your seed. You declare your feelings for her, in front of friends and family and ask her to accompany you to the courthouse to make your bond legal.”
