“Ah, I understand.”
“I don’t want the human female … I don’t, Kol.”
“I believe you.”
It didn’t seem like he believed me at all, and I didn’t want to ask more questions and have him truly believe I was interested in the human female sexually. I would have to figure her out all on my own it seemed.
“Thank you for talking to me. I’ll take my leave.” I spun on my heel, ignoring my brother’s snort as I walked away.
“Ezah?”
I paused and looked over my shoulder.
“I don’t hate you.” Kol’s violet eyes locked on mine. “I’m still very angry with you, so forgiveness may take me some time, but I don’t hate you, baja.”
Baja. He had not called me that since I wronged him and his mate.
I cleared my throat when a lump of emotion formed in it. Not trusting myself to speak, I nodded once, then left Kol’s wing of the palace and returned to my own. Once I closed the door to my private quarters, I let Kol’s words digest. He didn’t hate me; he still didn’t like me much because my crime was still fresh, but he didn’t hate me. I closed my eyes as relief slammed into me. I dropped to my knees, raised my hands in the air, and gave Thanas thanks.
I had a long path to walk, but now with my brother’s heart back on my side, what was once a pathway of darkness had a small ray of light at its end.
Chapter Four
Levi
I made a bad decision.
It had been many days since I last saw Nicah, and I had grown very worrisome over her. She was at the end of her pregnancy. A healer had examined her recently, and she was informed she could have her baby any day. We were the only two slaves that we could find who had made it off The Farm and into the care of the Maji. On the morning we were rescued, a second rescue craft docked at Master’s port without making a sound.
Once Nicah was safe with the Maji, that craft took off without hesitation. The original craft, the one that rescued me, left not long after I boarded, and we made our way to the Maji’s larger vessel, the Ebony, but I couldn’t find Nicah. I was too terrified to ask for help, so I kept to myself while always keeping watch for her. I finally found her three days after we arrived on Ealra, and we both cried with joy and sadness.
Joy to be safe and free, and sadness for the loss of my mother and our sister slaves.
We had been assigned to different homesteads, and both of us had been too scared to request we live together in case we got into trouble. We didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, so we settled for visiting each other daily since we lived close by. Nuni usually accompanied me, but I was trying to be more independent after Hilah teased me over my response to the prince two days prior during the herbalism lesson. Nuni had told her what happened, and she laughed for a long time over it.
She had started calling me by the nickname Mouse because I was as skittish as one. I decided then that I couldn’t rely on Nuni for everything.
I was my own person, a grown woman ... I could visit Nicah by myself, or so I thought. When I neared Homestead 972, Nicah’s home, a human woman was smiling and laughing with three Maji males in the front garden next door to Nicah’s home, and panic suddenly filled me when I realised I had to walk by them. When they spotted me, fear filled me almost instantly, so I hid behind the trunk of a large tree on the pathway. I knew they saw me, but I couldn’t move.
Instead, I closed my eyes and waited.
“Female?”
I dropped my basket and covered my face with my hands. “I’m so sorry.”
“For … For what?”
I had no idea what I was apologising for, and I think the male speaking to me knew that too.
“Are you visiting a female in Homestead 971?”
With my face still covered, I shook my head. “972.”
“972?” he repeated. “Tell me the female’s name, and I—”
“Levi?”
“Nicah.” I almost fainted with relief when I dropped my hands, and found her working her way around the blue-skinned Maji, who was frowning down at me. “I’m so sorry. I wanted to visit you, then I saw the males, and … and I panicked. I got scared and hid.”
The male looked like he pitied me, so he quickly excused himself and his friends.
“Levi.” Nicah touched my shoulder after I picked up my basket of fruit I brought for her. “He is gone. You need not be afraid.”
I relaxed, loosening the grip on my basket’s handle.