13 Zinnar

We’ve missed the Mingle Celebration and arrive early the next morning back at the Abr compound.

Rosalynn is quiet at breakfast but she eats a little of everything like she’s never tried any of it before. There are plenty of options from different cultures, and it seems she samples a little of everything.

The only words I get out of her over our first shared meal is that she lived on basically a bread and condiment diet due to lack of income.

“You tell me when you need something. I will figure out how to get it to you,” I tell her.

She smiles but says nothing more.

The first event after breakfast is the ropes course. It is a jungle of wooden structures, ropes, nets, and bridges with a bell at the top of a pole at the highest peak.

When it’s Rosa’s group’s turn, she isn’t the first up, but she’s fast.

I stand among the other males watching the females climb. Most remark about the fastest climbers, but a few notice my brunette with the green bands.

What surprises me and the others most is watching her walk the narrow railing of the bridge, above the other girls, with agility I didn’t expect from a girl who worked retail. But Aryssa, who is now staying with Rorlin, Azir, and Odran on our ship, has told me about her self defense classes and that she took ballet when she was very young.

Azir tried to lecture me about my maneuvers, taking us away from protection during the conflict on the spaceport. To my surprise, Rorlin came to my defense.

I think of what he said earlier that morning as I lean on the railing and watch my pact-mate work her way up the tallest tower. “There comes a time when rules are outdated and exceptions become the only way to survival. When you find a mate, Azir, you will understand the drive to protect them at any cost. Until then, shut up.”

As Rosa nears the top with a handful of other women, she stops looking toward the bell and starts crawling around the roof like she’s scared: steadying herself, tensing her body, looking down.

I hop the fence and start toward the ropes course but am stopped by the hand of a guard. “If you interfere, you upset the other males. So we don’t permit males in female heats.”

Rosa jolts, and I resist the guard’s efforts to burst through the crowd.

“I’ve got you!”

Another woman swings from Rosa’s grip. My female is turning red in the face from the strain. She growls in desperation and I bolt past the guard.

A blue Nytheralian launches across the race field with me. Others follow us.

The Alien Bride Race might come with rules, but there are many soldiers here. We are not born and bred to stand and watch.

“Tori!” The Nytheralian slides in and catches the other woman as she slips free of Rosa’s hand. Three other males steady them and help get them upright again. The Nytheralian carts Tori back into the crowd as I stop beneath Rosa.

She’s trembling. I can see it from where I stand beneath her.

“Let go, Rosa.”

She shakes her head. “I can’t.”

“I will catch you.” I lift my arms.

She’s hyperventilating. When the camera drone whizzes closer, she shies away from it. “I’m in scared-stiff mode. I’m out of energy.”

“Deep breath, and just pretend you’re falling onto your cot after a long day in your boots.”

Rosa’s shoulders rise, then she drifts backward and falls into my arms. Her body is light—an easy catch.

She looks up at me with startled eyes like she’s surprised that I did what I said I would.

“You gave up winning to save her. Why?” I ask as I carry her back behind the fence.

“Instinct. She got vertigo.” Rosa grimaces. “Us girls have to stick together on Earth.”

“Is it really that bad?” I ask as I set her down and steady her on her own feet.

“In some places. I had a pretty cushy job, working at a perfume store. But no one there made much.” She laughs in a strange sad tone. “Makes a person want to go to work where there’s heat, light, clean floors, and security.”

I ponder her comments through lunch. She remains quiet, sits close to me, and eats everything she can.

Part of me wonders if she isn’t staying close because she’s afraid of the people in the ghostcloaks. But Rorlin assured me none had made it to the race complex and that they regularly did security checks with goggles on just to be sure.

The creatures tour is the feature event of the afternoon, displaying common animals from most of the planets in the Sol Federation. Rosa knots her hands together as we start the tour. Not liking her defensive posture, and wanting her to enjoy herself, I wrap an arm around her and pull her against me.

We finally find the section from my planet. “I’m honestly surprised they have Ferrim’s animals.”

“Why’s that?” she asks, looking at a mammalian wrombalat with six legs and hexagonal cells like ours.

“Because most of us have the ability to create magnetic fields at a whim. When his cells darken, watch out.”

She gets close and even taps the glass, but the wrombalat seems used to it.

The Nytheralian and his interest, Tori, walk up. He places his hand over part of the glass, and it makes the inside of the creature’s cells darken to black. Small ferrous rocks rise from the dirt and roll up against the wrombalat. It wiggles itself deeper into the dirt until it looks like a pile of rocks.

When the Nytheralian taps the glass, the creature thrusts the rocks away from his body. Little taps are all we hear through the glass. But still, Rosa jerks back, a hand over her heart.

“We used to be enemies,” I say, motioning to the Nytheralian.

“Haven’t been since we both joined the Sol Federation,” he says to the women. “But centuries of feuding can train instincts that are hard to ignore. I’m Klathos, by the way.”

“Zinnar.”

He points to me. “Prince of Magnus?”

“Yes.” It comes out more bitter than I had planned.

He shakes my hand. “Honored.”

“Same.”

Klathos and Tori return to their tour, and I help Rosa up with a hand. “Does my planet have wildlife you don’t like?”

She inspects the other creatures as they huddle up under their rocky shields from Klathos’s presence. “Fascinating. Electromagnetism at will, I assume. So how do you control it?”

“Thought. I choose the polarity by the forces I sense in my environment and feel within me.”

“You can switch it on an off as well?” she asks. “I’ve seen you handle a lot of things that should be at least mildly magnetic but without a hint of this manipulation.”

“It’s in the ink. If you see that, it should be a warning of war-mode.”

“War-mode?” she almost smiles.

When the tour is complete, we take a seat on a bench in an atrium with a floating planetary system overhead.

“Has anyone ever tried to turn you into some part of a transformer?” she asks. “Or used your kind in experimental ways?”

“A long time ago, yes. But we have no risk of that now. Technology is so advanced. I just wish we had a better way to hang onto it and keep it from the shadow soldiers.”

She looks thoughtful for a long moment. “Seems like they might be building new engines, just based on the parts they’re stealing. I don’t know much about fuels and thruster systems for the Nebulous Empire, but palladium is often used in starship engines.”

“Good to know. I’ll pass that on to Rorlin. He’ll spread the word, no doubt.”

“Well, I’m pretty frazzled after the ropes ordeal,” she says, her hand shaking as she guides a few strands of hair behind an ear. “I think I’m going to skip dinner, shower, and try to get some rest.”

I’m not ready to be away from her, but I remember how it felt to not have much to eat as a child hiding underground. I know the exhaustion that comes with lack of proper nutrition. “May I walk you to your room?”

She agrees.

I try to take my time without slowing her down. I want our moments together to last longer. I want to stay with her. But she is tired in more ways than just physically. I see it in her eyes.

“I will bring you something to eat.” I say.

“That’s not necessary.”

“It is to me.”

We stop outside her door, and she turns to face me. Her warm sweet scent curls through me like a drug. I’m addicted, especially after watching her save Tori.

“Are you going to be okay?” I ask. I really don’t know what to make of her. She was so happy when we’d reentered the race, and she seems so broken now. I’m not sure what else I can do to prove I made a mistake and I really did want her instead. I don’t know how to win this battle. I cannot fight what I cannot see to fix.

A fear of rejection lances through me as I slide a hand around her. I want to feel her, all of her again, the softness of her flesh against mine, the taste of her on my tongue, and see her squirm like she did just the day prior on Elix’s ship. But I don’t just want her. I want her to want me. I need her to be happy, to feel as if I’m not burdening another soul with the role she’ll undoubtedly take if she stays, the role that already frustrates me.

So I kiss her—gently.

Rosa responds with hesitation. And for a moment, I catch the change in her breath, like she wants me, too. And then it is gone, and she’s backing inside her room.

“I’ll see you in the morning.” She hangs her head then closes the door between us.

I’m a mess of raging need and crushing rejection. Irritation at my inability to figure this out tenses me in waves.

Damn it. I slump against the wall outside her room. I don’t care if the cameras are watching or my father or anyone. All I care about is now separated from me by a metal door, one I can’t manipulate.

She needs to eat.

I walk to the dining area to get her some food. I order a little of everything I’ve seen her eat before and carry the tray back to her room. I hope she accepts my offering.

I knock on her door but get no response. Worried, I transfer the tray to one hand and listen through the doorway.

Rosa sniffles, and I think she’s crying.

Is she that miserable about our pact?

Regret burns in my stomach. This isn’t what I wanted.

I don’t know what else to do except set the tray down and remove the pressure on her to confront me. “Rosa, I’m going to set the food outside and leave. Okay? If you need anything, call me over the crest.”

I know she can hear my deeper voice if I can hear her softer sniffles. I set the tray down and walk away, but I take up a watchful post just around a corner to make sure no one messes with it.

Minutes pass before her door cracks open, and she peeks out. Then Rosa eyes the tray and finally slides it in the door.

I think about her situation: scraping everything she could to get here, and how ungrateful I’ve been for my entry, one I didn’t pay for or ask for.

And she got stuck with me.

I have to do better.