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“We’re going to have to vacate the family home. They’re going to assume we were behind…”
“There will never be any evidence. Just as there was never any evidence for what happened to our father.”
Kahn speaks with a cool, collected tone that is actually incredibly chilling to hear. I haven’t heard probably ninety percent of the conversation, but I didn’t need to. I’ve heard enough. Somehow, Kahn is behind this. He blew up that ship.
Moments later, he confesses as much with a casual shrug.
“I decided not to give Zain the charge. I decided to put it somewhere else.”
Ark
Kahn has just killed an entire crew and taken out millions of dollars of technology in a single reckless act. He has obliterated all semblance of civilization in this war. And he has come out hard and entirely in favor of fighting for our family.
I let Jen go for a moment so I can draw Kahn into my arms for a hug of the kind we have not shared in many years.
“I didn’t know you had it in you,” I say, fighting back tears.
This is what a united front feels like. Yes, he was chaotic and unpredictable and dangerous, and perhaps even committed an atrocity, but it was well overdue. Nobody has feared the house of Voros in years. Now they will. Now they will see what befalls the city when we are crossed.
Perhaps I should be horrified by Kahn’s actions. Perhaps I should condemn them as being too extreme. But this is what happens when good men are pushed further than they can bear. Kahn wanted peace. He wanted an easy life. But Phenix could not let him, or us, be.
This is the end of peace in Euphoria. It is the beginning of war.
When I release my brother, I see Jen standing there. Not running. Not hiding. Not trying to escape. Instead she is smiling broadly and proudly.
“What is it, pet?”
Her smile brightens a fraction more with that effervescent, wild human glee.
“I told you I’d fuck your world up.”
EPILOGUE
Three months later…
Ark
Jennifer snores softly in my arms. She is exhausted after a long day of being a pain in the ass, earning herself a righteous pain in hers. She is nude from the waist down, her bottom bright red and marked with the lines from the leather rod I have taken to using on her when her behavior demands it. Having been properly disciplined, she is nice and calm. She’s a good girl, even if she would reject that description on the premise alone.
This is the best and most peaceful part of my day, spending time with my mate-pet, the love of my life and the bringer of absolute chaos to my world. I have kept my promise to my pet. I have shown her how to be happy. In return, she has shown me how to fight. She has transformed our family, and indeed, our planet.
We are still occupying my ancestral home, albeit with a little more in the way of security. It is dangerous to live in Euphoria now that ships fall from the sky. There are parts of the city that still bear the scars of the Titan’s explosion. Repairs to buildings and paths have been completed, but the memory lingers in little marks here and there, shadows baked into the material.
The city is operating under an unspoken lockdown. Every street has a guard on it. Surveillance is at an all-time high. People look to the sky far more often in case it might fall. No charges have been laid for the Wrathelder explosion, which is officially an accident, the same way my father’s death from multiple stab wounds was officially considered an accident.
An uneasy truce of sorts seems to be in place between the houses of Wrathelder and Voros. Phenix still lives, but he is cautious and reclusive. He is not seen in society anymore, though he is, unfortunately, involved in transporting humans from Earth. We could not continue to blow up his ships. One explosion might be considered a misfortune. Several in a row would become suspicious. Every shipment brings in a hundred humans, significantly fewer than he initially wanted to transport, but the council is leery of humans now.
There have already been problems with the new shipments, as I predicted. The Wrathelders know nothing about humans, either in their selection or their training. They are bringing in some specimens who are even more trouble than Jennifer. Many of them have already made escapes into the city where they have been seen living wild in the lower recesses and older parts. It is a sad, sorry situation.
Kahn is still fighting the good fight, lobbying the council to ban human importations entirely until the current situation is resolved, but it is becoming apparent that Phenix has some kind of hold over the council.
He has built miserable compounds, where his humans are kept. Sales of human pets are slow, due to multiple incidents in family homes that make Jen’s antics seem tame.
Why the council is seeing fit to allow Wrathelder to create a private human army I do not know, but I do know that events are beginning to compound upon themselves. With every new shipment, ever more chaos is being introduced to our Euphoric civilization, and even more humans are falling into the cruel and predatory clutches of Wrathelder. We have spoken about freeing them, but to let them go would be to let an irreversible influx of wild humanity into the Euphorian wilds. Every bit of disaster we predicted is unfolding just as we said it would.
And, of course, one new danger stalks the streets, a shadowy figure unseen, but very much felt in all matters of politics and practicality…
Emily
