Chapter 27

Kleena

Kleena’s fingers flicked through the piles of official documents that the queen had tasked her with organizing. Under any other circumstance, she would have found the task dull—a tedious chore that she’d push to the end of her list and then procrastinate on for days, if not weeks.

But as she pulled out one aged parchment and slid it onto one of her six neatly organized piles, Kleena almost smiled. The busywork was the perfect distraction, occupying enough of her mind that she could relax into the task at hand. It was a welcome reprieve from worrying about the fate of human women or her still-awkward avoidance of Erhan.

She sighed as thoughts of him invaded her mind, trying to push away the image of his face. She hardly knew what she felt when it came to him. Shame? Desire? Confusion? Love? Fear?

He’d tried so many times to approach her since they landed on Nirum, and Kleena couldn’t quite explain, even to herself, why she’d hurried away at the sight of his approach.

Maybe next time…

She shook her head, as if willing the thoughts to dissipate, but as she did, a shadow fell across her work. She moved, thinking for a moment that the shadow was hers, but when the darkness didn’t shift, Kleena suddenly realized someone else was in the room.

“So, you’re the human girl,” came a hissing voice behind her.

Kleena spun around to see a female Niri blocking the doorway behind her. Something was menacing in her tone and in the way she looked at Kleena through slitted eyes. Her tongue darted out quickly, and Kleena knew this was to taste the air around her, to parse information from her scent in a way a human could never understand.

“And you are?” Kleena’s words teetered between politeness and defense.

The Niri female let out a noise that sounded like a scoff as she slithered into the chamber.

“I’m Janaya,” the female said, leaning down until she was right in Kleena’s face. “And I’m sure you already know what that means.”

Kleena searched her mind for the name, wondering if at some point Erhan had mentioned her. An official maybe? A servant? A family member?

But her mind came up blank. She shook her head a little, confusion on her face. This seemed to enrage the Niri, though, and she suddenly hissed in Kleena’s face. It caused her to stumble back against the desk where she’d been working, scattering her neat piles of documents.

“You’re nothing to him. You know that?” Janaya spat.

Her hood flared ever so slightly as she spoke, which sent a cold shiver running through Kleena. She was all too aware of Janaya’s fangs, of the fact that, if she wanted to, she could sink them into Kleena’s flesh and have her dead in a matter of seconds.

“Erhan only wants you as a vessel for his eggs. Why else would he bring a human here?”

The words were unexpected, and Kleena tried to follow. But her confusion must have shown on her face. Janaya let out a cruel, mirthless laugh before speaking again.

“Oh, you poor stupid human girl,” she spat with false pity. “You don’t know. Do you? The Niri have been suffering a fertility crisis for generations. It wasn’t until King Gravon mated with Queen Azha and she became gravid that we discovered the solution. Male Nagas can mate with female humans and have nirlings. That’s the reason you and the other human females are here: as egg bearers.”

Janaya’s words lanced through Kleena’s chest, and before she could stop herself, she let out a small cry. This seemed to please the Niri female.

“What? Did you think he loved you?” she crooned, her eyes searching Kleena’s face as if to drink in her suffering. “Don’t flatter yourself. You’re just a surrogate, a breeder.”

The words hurt, but something in Kleena hoped they weren’t true.

Surely that’s not all I am to him?

As she thought over the time she’d spent with Erhan, over their night in the fertility tent…

Her blood ran cold as the words echoed in her mind. The fertility tent. Could it really be? But no, their lovemaking had been too spontaneous, too tender, too real. Kleena hung onto the small certainty she had, hidden though it was, by doubt and fear.

“Erhan wouldn’t do that to me,” she told Janaya, trying to muster the strength to stop her voice from shaking. “We have something real.”

Didn’t they? The gifts, the time he was giving her to heal, the looks they occasionally shared…

Janaya gave her a cruel smile, shaking her snake-like head with something akin to glee. “No, you don’t,” Janaya countered. “If Erhan wanted you for anything other than your womb, why would he be engaged to me?”

“What?” The word came out involuntarily, and Kleena knew as soon as she said it that it was exactly the reaction Janaya hoped for. But she couldn’t help herself. She needed to know what this female was talking about. Janaya took her time, smiling as her tail snaked up and began to caress Kleena’s arm.

“That’s right. My parents have been in negotiations with the imperial family since long before Erhan even met you.” Janaya’s tail wound its way up toward Kleena’s face until finally, it stroked her neck. The proximity made Kleena freeze as much as Janaya’s words did. “I’m his fiancée, and there’s nothing more to it. Just face it, Erhan is using you for egg bearing and nothing more. We will take your offspring and raise it as our own. You will be nothing but a surrogate.”

With this, Janaya brushed a stray strand of hair from Kleena’s face before letting her tail retreat.

Kleena hardly knew what to do with the revelation, and as she stood there in stunned silence, something seemed to shift between her and Janaya.

“Well don’t look like such a baby,” Janaya scoffed, though her voice was softer than before. “If you don’t want to be a breeder, don’t be a breeder.”

“What do you mean?”

Kleena’s heart raced, and the weight of dread pooled in her stomach. She had no idea what she was supposed to do now that she knew the truth.

She was a means to an end for Ehran.

“The best thing for you to do is leave before the prince can cast you aside himself.”

Janaya’s words pierced Kleena’s heart again. The thought of leaving this place, the queen, Erhan… it was all too much.

“But where would I go?” she muttered, more to herself than to Janaya.

The Niri, however, seemed to take her words as a challenge, and whatever actual pity or compassion had flickered into the conversation before was extinguished by her next sentence.

“I don’t care where you go,” she spat. “But I recommend you figure that out soon before I drag you through the mud on Nirum. Erhan is mine, and I’m not about to let some breeder whore get in the way of that. Trust me. It’ll be better for you to leave before I get territorial.”

The way she spoke made it clear she intended to make good on the threat, and Kleena backed up further against the table, terrified of the malicious glare in Janaya’s eyes.

“Is that clear?” the Niri asked, cocking her head and moving closer to Kleena once more. Her tongue flicked out and Kleena was sure she was tasting her fear.

“Yes.” She nodded, unable to do much else.

This seemed to please the Niri, and finally Janaya backed off, giving Kleena enough room to breathe again. After one last menacing glance, Janaya slithered from the room, but her presence and her words lingered long after.

Kleena let out a deep breath, grappling with everything that had just happened. Her mind raced again with memories of that one fateful night of lovemaking, and she tried to understand what had really happened.

They’d had dinner together, laughed, kissed, made love… all things that might suggest a real connection between them. It had certainly felt like a real connection. At least until…

Shocked, Kleena remembered the next morning. Erhan had disappeared without so much as a word. She knew that no man who harbored true feelings for her would do that, but if she was just “a vessel for his eggs,” as Janaya had put it, it made perfect sense. Even more so if Erhan was already betrothed to someone else.

The weight of the truth came crashing down upon her, and suddenly Kleena felt sick and panicked. Then she was running, running, running while this new thundering knowledge penetrated every inch of her heart and mind.