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She couldn’t do this.
God, she couldn’t do this.
“Leah?” Dawn asked as Erin and Sara stepped forward into the darkness waiting beyond the entrance. “Are you coming?”
“In a sec.” Leah shook her head. “I just–go on ahead.”
Before Dawn could reply, Leah bolted.
She couldn’t see where she was going. Couldn’t hear anything other than the sound of her erratic heartbeat and her sandals hitting the floor as she raced down the first corridor she saw.
She only stopped once she tripped over her own jittery feet. She braced herself against the wall, trying to find some sort of anchor.
There was none.
She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t follow Flint’s rules.
Leah crouched on the floor, back against the wall. She hugged her knees to her chest.
She never asked for this, any of this.
She hadn’t asked for the Zavorians to cower Earth and ruin everyone’s lives.
She hadn’t asked to be poor and not have the money needed to find medication for Nana. Somehow.
She definitely hadn’t asked to be a pawn in some intergalactic game she didn’t know the rules to.
She hated this.
She hated herself.
She couldn’t do this.
The comm on her wrist vibrated. A second later, Nana’s face popped up in a holo-call.
“Hello, dear,” she said, beaming. Her smile hadn’t been this big since before getting admitted into the hospital. “I hope I’m not late. I just wanted to wish you the best of luck in meeting your new guy. Have you seen him? Is he cute?”
Leah swallowed her tears and forced a smile onto her face. The unlucky Quillon who had been paired with her could never be “her guy”.
She didn’t know all that much about him, anyway. Apart from his name. Taryn Ze’Lis. It sounded strong. Imposing.
But while the other human matches had gotten full biographies on their Quillons–Erin’s soulmate wastheQuillon Prince and he’d climbed some impossible mountain at one point–Leah didn’t know what Taryn did.
He was rich.
He was powerful.
He was unreachable.
He was a target, according to Flint.
That’s all she knew, and it was already too much.
“Haven’t met him yet,” she said, hoping her voice didn’t sound as scratchy as she heard it. “Any second now.”
“Good, good. Now, remember. He might be an alien hot-shot from some powerful planet, but you’re Leah Mallory. You’re smart, you’re beautiful, and you’re strong. He needs to impress you, not the other way around. Got it?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
