Chapter 38

Lorelai

E llax was destined for me, until he chanced to meet you…

I forced myself to breathe and kept my gaze locked with hers. I didn't like Elder Sirena. I felt pity for her, as far as her parents went. There, my pity ended. When the victim becomes the oppressor, it's time to take a stand. I felt a resurgence of courage in my bones. Determined to show her that she wasn't going to run roughshod over me, I deliberately turned my back and walked away on the pretext of placing the vase on a safer stand.

"He was, was he?" I said cooly. "Let me guess. He slept with you? You took that to mean more than it did? You should have known better, Sirena." Deliberately, I avoided using her title like she'd avoided using mine. "Ellax, apparently, has had many affairs. None of them meant anything."

"It was not a simple matter of bedding him," she responded. I heard the fierce hatred in her voice, but still kept my back to her. Using my fingertips, I tried to fluff out the remaining battered flowers, making the vase presentable again.

"When his wife died…"

"Very recently…" I cut in.

"Yes. Very recently. But it was well known he must have an heir, if his foolish mission to restore his bastard son failed. Which it did."

"And you decided it should be you?" I laughed airily, my fingers continuing to fluff as if I hadn't a care in the world and this female Elder's words didn't mean a damn.

They did, though. A little. They shouldn't have. I barely knew Ellax myself, and what I did know was mostly of a cheating husband and a playboy and player. I hoped anybody could turn their life around, and maybe losing his wife and child, not to mention being rejected by Caide, would be enough to help him do so. Not that it really mattered, anyway. We were temporarily bound by our pact, and that hinged on me getting pregnant.

"Not only me," she said. I felt her step closer, as if she were challenging me to turn around and face her. "The entire Council. I am Asterion. I am young. I could give Ellax a healthy heir."

I heard the implication. You're not young. I'm younger than you. She was raking me with her spurs. I refused to take the bait.

"Did Ellax know the entire Council was plotting your marriage?"

I leaned back from the vase, pretending to study it, continuing to feign nonchalance.

"It was…suggested to him, before he left for Earth," she admitted.

I read the implication. It had been suggested to him. He'd gone to Earth anyway to fetch Caide. She'd probably been waiting, hoping he'd come to her when he got back from his failed mission. Instead,

"But you got the news he'd married a human and the Council decided to uphold it," I surmised, now trying to bait her into admitting the truth.

"Wretched!" she hissed. "They decided a human wife was brilliant for one in his position. I voted against it. No one would listen. It is supreme foolishness. Ellax Pendorgrin needs no human wife. Humans are weak. Humans are easily led astray. Ellax needs me. A wife who is powerful in her own right, not a crawling worm raised from the dungheap to a high position because of her connection to him."

Okay. I'd had about enough of her by this point.

Letting the flowers go, and any pretense of caring about them, I slowly turned to face her, steeling myself. She knew the dig had gotten under my skin. She was smiling triumphantly. Her head was reared back, her golden eyes gleaming.

"But Ellax chose this worm from the dungheap to have his babies and be his wife," I said quietly, "not a powerful Elder in her own right. That says a lot to me."

I physically saw her deflate. She didn't go to pieces, but the corners of her mouth turned down. The glow faded from her eyes.

"You will regret this, human," she warned, shaking her head. "You and your entire race."

"You're threatening me and my people because you're angry Ellax married me instead of you?"

It all made sense now, in a sick sort of way. She hated humans to begin with, due to her parents' fate. Then I'd gotten in the way of her plans to marry the handsome, powerful widower and solidify her position not only as an Elder but the wife of another Elder and a Lead Advisor. Together, she and Ellax might have formed a sort of monopoly over the Asterion Council. Instead, she'd been beat out by me.

And she loathed me for it.

Pushing for the extermination of the wild humans was her way of getting revenge.

"I am going to do the right thing. For Asterion, our colony, and myself."

Her assertion was chilling. She was deluded, thinking this onslaught of death truly was the best course of action for all involved. How did you reason with someone like that?

I hadn't even begun to think of a way before she stepped back, re-wrapping herself in the dignity of her office like a shroud. She looked like she was about to leave. I didn't mind her going—I was more than happy to see the last of her, actually, and hoped I'd never have to see her again. One thing still bothered me, however. One unanswered question.

"Why are you even here?" I asked quietly. "Why did you come? To rub salt in my wounds?"

Her brow puckered. She must have been unfamiliar with that expression.

"I mean, to glory over me? Triumph over me?" I tried a couple of expression I hoped would clarify the question.

"I came to call, of course." She tugged gently on the edges of her draping long sleeves, straightening them. "To let you know what to expect here on our planet and in your new position."

"What, that you're going to hate me and that you expect me to sit quietly by while you slaughter my species back home?"

The words popped out.

She smirked; a cruel, twisted little smile.

"No," she said. "To let you know that matters will go easier for you and your family if you remain silent, stay in the background, and do nothing to try and interfere with Council's plans. Also, you could go to the Council and beg in person to be released from your marriage. That might succeed, where Ellax's arguments have failed."

"Why would I do that?" I demanded. The more she tried to lord it over me, the more stubborn I felt.

"As I said, it will go easier for you and for your family."

"I don't have any family," I said. My relatives back home were few and far between. We'd never been close.

"You have two sons, haven't you?"

I froze. The twins. Surely, she wasn't implying harm to them…

She couldn't.

They were safely tucked away in the Unified Forces, far from her reach.

"Are you threatening my children?" I kept my tone level, but inside I would have happily picked up the closest vase and hit her over the head. "They have nothing to do with this."

"See that it remains that way."

She smiled sweetly. "Good day, Lorelai. I am certain we'll be in company together soon."

With that, she swept from the room, her long robes trailing regally along the carpet behind her, the scarlet band at the bottom eerily resembling a splash of blood.