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But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t bring myself to kiss her when I was still thinking about my wife. Sirena deserved better than that.
It was hard not to taste her, especially with her looking so good.
“Not just anyone can light it,” I said. “Only someone of House Taw can.”
“Why?”
“There’s a mystical bond between Titans and nature. It’s how we became so good at mining. We can sense ore deposits beneath the surface. We never do more harm than necessary when we take from the earth. House Taw built this beacon, and we’re the only ones that can strike the light.”
“Did you light it when the aliens attacked?” Sirena said, trying to cover her disappointment with idle conversation.
“No,” I said. “I could have. If I did, it would have spread across the whole moon and every Titan in the empire would fight.”
“Why didn’t you?” Sirena said.
“We were outnumbered,” I said. “And outgunned. A lot of innocent Titans would have died.”
“Would you have lost the battle?” she said.
“Titans don’t often lose battles. But this would have been the hardest fight we’d had in a very long time.”
“You surrendered so your people would live. That’s a good thing.”
“Yes,” I said, without conviction.
By avoiding her lips, I had stumbled into the topic that’d been on my mind since the Changelings began this bloody war.
“Keeping your people safe from being murdered is a good thing,” Sirena said. “I…”
She seemed unsure about what she was about to say next. She thought again and continued.
“I was born in a country at war,” she said. “If someone could have stopped the war from happening, it could have saved a lot of lives. Including my parents and my brother. He was about five at the time. No one knows his age for sure. A monastery took me in and found foster parents to raise me. I was very lucky. I could have grown up in those ruins the same way most kids did. So, I know what war is like. It’s best avoided. Always.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. I truly was. I had no idea…
“You should be glad you made that decision,” Sirena said. “So should every Titan everywhere. You are glad you made it, aren’t you?”
It was such a simple question. It demanded a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer, but I didn’t have one for her. Did I answer with how I truly felt or how I needed to respond?
I only managed to say, “I—"
“My Lord?” Zes said, bracing his knee with a hand as he joined us on the plateau.
I searched Sirena’s eyes and she searched mine.
He’d unwittingly rescued me in the nick of time. I had no idea how I would have responded otherwise.
“We had a malfunction with the rowboat,” Zes said. “I apologize for leaving you without protection.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “It’s about time we headed back anyway.”
I led the way down the incline.
Zes was still struggling for breath as he threw his head back and gulped another large mouthful of oxygen.
“Just when you get to the top of the mountain, you have to march back down it again,” he said.
“I know just how you feel,” Sirena murmured, and trotted down the mountain in my wake.
