Another person appeared, Hallonnixmin’s mate, Gilvaxtin. Her gold eyes darted in my direction before she turned to her eldest. “I have told you to get in the bath three times now.”
Jonyontinlok crossed his arms, chin jutting out.
“Excuse me, Pest.” Hallonnixmin directed Jonyontinlok away with his tail. In the background, my brother tried to convince the child to get in the bath while Farrittenmon cried. Jonyontinlok asserted he would only bathe if Gitgir, his zurqi, could come.
Gilvaxtin asked, “How’s your mate?”
Once again, much like with Hallonnixmin, the words got stuck. I liked Gilvaxtin. She and my brother had been mated for cycles, almost ten at this point. They’d met at a challenge and had bonded three months later.
She pushed her light pink fingers through her short pink hair. “Kalvoxrencol? What’s going on?”
Hallonnixmin returned without his children, which meant he had not successfully gotten Jonyontinlok into a bath, not too surprising. He had a soft touch. “What’s going on?”
“Something is wrong with his mate,” Gilvaxtin said.
“What?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I protested.
“Pest.” It was the start of a well-meaning lecture, which I’d heard many times before.
Nothing was wrong. While this was not the start to our mating I’d hoped for, it was fine. Seth needed time. Everything would sort itself out.
“Are you speaking to your oravirven?”
“Not yet.”
“Pest.”
I practically heard my past in his voice. “I need to go.”
“No,” Hallonnixmin said, but I ignored him and ended the session.
Getting to my feet, I paced, all the while staring at Seth’s closed door. I wanted to see him. I wanted to talk to him. My hands curled into fists, and my tail slashed in agitation. I could desire all I wanted, but Seth was not ready.
With a deep breath, I forced myself to sit, but I abandoned my book because it would never hold my attention in my current emotional state. Instead, I opened a video humans watched for entertainment.
It was fake as I understood it. The video was about a team of explorers who met new species and explored planets.Fanciful, yet addictive.
I forced myself to watch the video—episode—even though I wanted to continue pacing. The episode paused, and NAID appeared. “NAID,” I said, hoping one of my other brothers hadn’t pinged me. “How is my Seth?”
“He awoke. Ate minimally. He is asleep again,” it reported.
Some of my tension left, but not all. I did not like him being upset, yet I didn’t know how to comfort him, especially as I was the one causing his pain. I told NAID, “That’s all.”
It vanished.
Time. Seth simply needed time to accept me. But I could not stop the thought,What if he doesn’t?What if we got all the way home, and he refused me? I didn’t know him, but I couldn’t imagine life without him. He was my soulmate. My one chance at love now that I’d found him. Once the Crystal revealed your soulmate, you couldn’t love another. The risk I’d willingly taken to have Seth.
I would give Seth time and hope he came to see me in the same light as I did him.
Chapter 6
Do I really have to leave?
A blur of time passed; how much, I couldn’t guess. NAID woke me occasionally and told me to eat or feed Lucy. Each time, I followed her instructions and chatted for a few minutes before going back to sleep. NAID insisted, multiple times, that I clean myself, but I couldn’t even manage that. Nothing seemed to matter, and I didn’t care.
When I finally awoke without NAID’s assistance, I refused to think of anything more than my next action—a skill I’d mastered as a child. Sometimes the future or my thoughts were too much,so to cope, I would break my day into manageable segments. Minute to minute, second to second, one action to another.
