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“Lucas too,” he whispered when he was close enough not to draw attention. It was not his information to share, especially with the Zathki so near. “The humans are able to use our marks. They are mages. For us.”
I reared back and stared. “All of them?”
Kaelum shrugged. “Just Lucas so far, and now Wesley. But they’re ours.” He’d begun to grin, and this was the Kaelum I’d been waiting for all our lives—the bold hybrid prince who led our people to a new age. Since he had found his Lucas, he seemed readier to take his father’s throne than ever.
“Mages for hybrid warriors,” Kaelum whispered. “This is our place and purpose.”
My chest clenched with feeling. We were not second best, or a compromise in the name of survival.
Through these humans, the boundaries and disappointments that lay between true-born and hybrid warriors would be blasted away.
I nodded eagerly, my gaze sliding to Wesley. What would happen when he saw the rest of Thorzan? He might decide I had sated him for a moment, but not for long. I knew—well, I knew humans were flexible. Some Thorzi might call it fickle, but those were the same who thought I was too much human and not enough warrior.
Wesley held Lucas back at arm’s length and beamed. “Let me introduce you to Marex. He’s a Zathki scientist, and he helped us survive.”
Kaelum looked my way, a small purse to his lips like he wasn’t sure whether or not he could believe that.
With a sigh, I raked my hand through my hair. “Hear them out. Crux has deceived us, and we owe them much. Especially us—the hybrids.”
Kaelum’s nod was almost imperceptible, but he stepped in behind Lucas, putting his hands on the man’s shoulders as Lucas extended his hand to the Zathki. Marex, for his own part, seemed used enough to Wesley that he was willing to go along. He reached out, took Lucas’s hand, and squeezed.
“Welcome to Zathkar, Lucas. Prince Kaelum.”
Proving once again why he was the prince and I his protector, Kaelum was perfectly calm, his expression placid, as he dipped his chin. “I understand we owe you for the safety of Jax and Wesley. It would have been a blow to our people to lose them.”
Marex’s eyes flicked to one of us, then the other. Finally, he smiled at Kaelum. “It is my wish that we disperse with debts and old prejudices between our people.”
The rest, I did not hear. Wesley wandered to my side, his gait uneven. He dipped against my arm, leaning heavily.
“Are you all right?” I asked, alarmed.
Wesley looked up at me, adjusting his glasses. They’d slipped down the bridge of his nose, but the movement of his fingers were sloppy. When he dropped his hand again, his glasses sat at a tilt.
“Great,” he whispered. “I’m great.”
Then, he promptly collapsed into my arms with barely enough time for me to catch him.
CHAPTER33
WES
Suddenly, I was even more glad I’d let go of the connection when I had. It felt like I was deeply out of shape, and I’d gone to the gym and done an overly strenuous first workout. It had been fine while I was doing it, but suddenly I was breathless, dehydrated and jelly legged.
“Wesley?” Jax asked, voice strained with worry. My brain spun, and it took me a second to realize he had snatched me up into his arms in a seemingly effortless princess carry. “Wesley, are you well? Speak to me.”
I smiled and reached up to pat his face. “’M fine,” I promised, even as I rested my head on his shoulder. “That was just a little more draining than I realized at first. Can definitely understand how someone would hurt themself going too hard.”
Jax looked ready to pitch a fit and tell me to never do it again, but Kaelum, standing across from him, nodded sagely. “Indeed. Lucas was also exhausted by using his new abilities. It is the same when a warrior first receives his marks, or learns a new martial skill.”
“Like working out in the gym for the first time in a year,” I mumbled, not moving my head from Jax’s shoulder. “Not hurt, just wobbly.”
Kaelum looked confused for a moment, brows drawing together as he squinted at me, then his face cleared. When he smiled, it was easy to see what Lucas saw in him. His smile was almost as beautiful as Jax’s. “Yes, wobbly.”
Jax pressed his lips to the top of my head before looking back to his prince. “I should put Wesley to bed, and then we can talk to the Zathki about what has occurred.”
Kaelum nodded, clearly more intrigued by the notion of discussing things with the Zathki than by me going to bed, but entirely willing to indulge Jax in whatever he wanted.
Me, not so much.
