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I was not letting Vorian kill Kaelum. They fought their battle, fine. They both proved what big strong warriors they were. Behind me, the aliens had started muttering about it being a fight for the legends, so clearly there was no doubt about both hybrid aliens having big enough dicks.
Plus, the whole fucking argument was ridiculous to begin with. If anything, Kaelum had helped the future of the Thorzi by making the humans feel as though they might be welcome. As though maybe Thorzan was a place they would like.
Maybe Crux had “discovered” Earth, but Christopher Columbus had “discovered” America, and those items ranked about the same, didn’t they? Simply finding a place didn’t mean you had a right to it or its people.
When Kaelum fell to his knees, I ducked the giant meaty hand of Kaelum’s Thorzi second and rushed forward, throwing my arms around him and holding a hand up in Vorian’s direction.
It was... it was like sticking my finger in a light socket.
But also, it was like that first night we’d had sex—that feeling of sunshine flooding my body, lifting me up and making me lighter than the air around me, like I could fly away if I just leapt.
Or I could make Vorian fly. Away from us, preferably.
And when I pushed, Vorian did. He flew up into the air. I wasn’t willing to kill him, so I didn’t shove him toward the aleri behind him, just up. He crashed down again, landing neatly on one knee and a fist, his weapons retracted, and stared at us.
Stared at where my hand was clutching Kaelum, and one of his tattoos was flaring bright silvery-white, the source of the sunshine flooding my body. That was me. I had activated Kaelum’s mark.
Kaelum had said that was possible, hadn’t he? Someone activating another person’s tattoos? What was it he had said?
Mages did not bear marks of their own, but they could use them.
Mages. The kind of Thorzi who had died out, whom Kaelum admitted had been one of the main sources of his family’s power.
That was when I realized the entire clearing had gone silent.
I swallowed hard, still staring at Vorian. One corner of his lips twitched, almost... almost like he wanted to smile. I wondered if making such a foreign expression would hurt him.
So I turned to look at the assembled Thorzi behind us, and they... were also all staring at me.
Part of me wanted to wince and hide behind Kaelum, but no. That wasn’t the way to handle this.
They were a warrior society, and I had just proven myself a capable warrior. Hiding would only put the respect I’d just earned back into question. So I did what humans do best.
I bullshitted for my life.
Standing, I pulled Kaelum up with me—or rather, I tugged at his arm to indicate he needed to get up, since I couldn’t have hoped to lift him myself.
The second I stopped touching his tattoo, the light started to fade, and the glowing field that had surrounded us shrank down to nothing, pulled back into Kaelum’s body. He leaned hard against me, almost too hard, and I had to work to stay upright.
Kaelum met his father’s eye, then scanned our entire audience, who were looking at the two of us with expressions that varied from triumph—his father—to sheer rage—Crux, obviously.
Finally, he drew himself up and spoke to all of them. “I have always known that my human side did not make me weak. As much as it is the Thorzi way to treat smaller as weaker, my Lucas has proven not only you, but me wrong on this day. Humans are not soft and weak. They are the future of our race as much as any full-blooded Thorzi.” He stopped and met the eyes of a few people in the crowd, one of whom was his own father. “All my life I have listened to warriors lament the loss of mages, though the last died before my birth. And now, Thorzi blood has found a way. We will survive, because we do not cling to the old ways and outdated traditions that say humans are lesser.”
I narrowed my eyes and nodded. “Anyone who calls humans lesser gets to be the training dummy for when I try to see if I can use Kaelum’s sword too.”
A couple of warriors laughed aloud, but it didn’t seem to be in a “look at the kitten growl, isn’t it adorable that it thinks it’s scary?” way. Instead, I got approving nods and on some faces—admittedly almost all hybrids—unadulterated joy. Thinking of finding a human who could activate their marks, no doubt.
“If anyone else makes any trips to Earth, a human needs to be in charge of that,” I demanded quickly, staring at Crux. “I recommend Ree. She’s a natural leader and good with people. But it would be a mistake to try to push us down again, when you need us. Treat us with the respect we deserve, and our peoples can do amazing things together.”
The king turned and looked around, then snapped, “You have heard the mate of my son, your future king. We shall speak to the human Ree of making further expeditions to Earth. For now, the spectacle is over. Leave.”
And they did. They climbed onto their disks, or a few simply slipped off into the jungle, which made me shudder at the thought, but in a few moments, we were alone in the clearing. Just Kaelum, his parents, and me.
I almost called foul and demanded they arrest Crux, but I had a feeling he’d weasel out of it. Or maybe karma would come for him in a different way, soon enough. The look in Vorian’s eye back in the throne room had made me realize that he wasn’t a loyal son, but a caged viper.
That might not end well for anyone, but I suspected it would end worst of all for Crux himself.
Then, the king turned to me, and for the first time, met my eye as an equal. A tiny, bitter part of me wanted to smack him and refuse his respect, because everyone deserves respect, not just people who can kick your ass. But no, he was Kaelum’s father, and I wouldn’t make that more difficult for all of us.
