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It wasn't all bad. I've competed in a dozen trial challenges, I've seen the Six Kingdoms, and everything I know, I learned from the man. Still, watching his crazed expression from his grizzled appearance, I can’t help but resent him.
“It’s the same as last year, Dad. The mountain is the competition.”
“Right,” he says, looking away.
“Your father is very proud of you,” my mother assures me with her arms around him.
My parents aren't just mates, they're a fated match. I can’t think of anything worse than dragging a wife around a nomad's existence, but a fated mate has an extra sting to it. Her devotion to the man digs at me like nothing else.
I just can't reconcile this toxic, hypnotic effect he has on her. Watching her work odd jobs in every mountain village we lived in didn't help either. While he dug at rocks and consulted maps, she kept food on the table. She was the man of the house.
“You know,” she says with a smile, bending down to kiss his cheek in a way that makes my stomach turn. “Today is a big day for us, too.”Oh, no. Not this again.
“It's our anniversary.” My mother loves to celebrate everything. Any small occasion will do. “It's the anniversary of the day we first touched. When we first realized we were fated to be together.” As she moons over the past, I try to stomach it for her.
“I’d love to see you settle down like this, Rylan. To find a fated mate of your own.” Her words are almost a question. But if they are, then the answer is no.
“It's good to see you guys.” I end the call abruptly. It's just too much to take.
“Good luck out there. We love you.”
My mother's words sting like a fresh bruise, and try though I might, I can't seem to shake the feeling that my anticipation has turned to dread. If nerves count for anything, then here's to good luck.
Heading back to the training grounds, I do my best to clear my head, but it is little use.
Rain has started to pour down the course, stinging fresh against my skin. In a fit of anger, I ditch my shirt. With my teeth bared, I jump into the ropes swinging one by one across the course.
Just when I think I'm back in control, the flustered face of the human aspirant springs intrusively to mind. Before I can stop myself, I slip off the next jump and fall into the mud.
Laying there, with the force of the falling rain pinning me down, my mind engages with the thought that maybe she’s the kind of girl who likes a challenge. That she's the kind of girl who could actually handle one.
But that’s impossible. Sanat will take the wind out of her like it does everyone. Just because she has legs that could open the hatch of a royal shuttle doesn't mean that Sanat won't see her well and truly humbled.
Unless she has help, of course.
“Get a grip.” Pulling myself from the mud, I jump back up to the ropes, trying at all costs to hold on to my ever-slipping focus.
If I do anything in this life, I know I’ll do it alone. The rain clouds my eyes but not my judgment. As it sweeps the mud from my face, I feel more determined than ever.
It's a nomad’s life for me. Alone, the way it ought to be. Another person could never want this like I do. It's unimaginable. Fated mates be damned.
If that's the cost of true love, one person's happiness sacrificed for another’s, then count me out.
4
IARA
The cold metal warms in my fingers as I look it over. It’s gold, oval, and opens to the slightest touch. My grandmother’s locket.
Of the two pictures contained within it, hers is my favorite. Her eyes are low over her brows in the black and white photo as though she’s angry.
‘Perturbed,’ was my grandfather’s word for it. His photo on the other side stares eagerly back at me. It’s my good luck charm, the pictures of these two. The sacrifice they made back on Earth led me to this competition today.
I come from a long line of strong women. It was Grandma Betty who sold her wedding ring and family heirlooms to get them tickets off Earth.
“Why Kiphia?” I used to ask, sitting in her lap with the locket around my neck as a little girl.
“Everything here is so big,” she would say, stroking my hair. “I knew we could make a life here.”
