“You made a…” I trailed off. I didn’t know the English word for what he’d made.
Thankfully, he understood. “Tent. It’s a tent. A shit one at that.”
Shit. I believed that meant bad and poop. Humans. Their words doubled or tripled in meaning. I loved it. “It is a fine tent. It’s keeping us warm.”
He grunted.
I wanted to hear his voice. “How did you know how to create a tent?”
“My mom. She used to take me, my other mom, and my sisterscampingevery summer. None of us really wanted to go, but we had to. She finally stopped making us when I became ateenager.”
“Camping” and “teenager” were a mystery, leading me to believe that Seth, Caleb, and Edith had lied about my near fluency, but I understood enough. “You have sisters?”
“Two.”
“I have four brothers and one cousin who is like a brother.”
Bartholomew grunted again.
“Three of my brothers are mated.”
“So you said. They’re married to humans.”
“Two of them are.” I turned my head toward him, my chin brushing his bristly hair. “Kalvoxrencol mated Seth, and Zoltilvoxfyn mated Caleb. Though Caleb had been dead, so he’s not exactly a human anymore.”
“What?”
Grinning, I told him the story of Zoltilvoxfyn and Caleb, and how Caleb came to be in a drakcol body. Bartholomew listened, bobbing his head occasionally in the human way that meant agreement. Although to me, it seemed like he was conceding to my dominance. Humans. Odd things. So adorable, though. I had the urge to squish him, much like I did Seth.
Once I finished, I told him of Kalvoxrencol and Seth, because why not? “They were bound by the Crystal.”
His forehead crinkled in the cutest way. “The Crystal?”
How did I explain the Crystal that our people revered? I didn’t know if I had the words. “It linked Kalvoxrencol and Seth together as soulmates.” When Bartholomew didn’t say anything, I continued, “We have different types of mates: bound and chosen. Chosen is when we pick our mates. The mate bond forms naturally between people. Bound is when the Crystalreveals your soulmate and ties you to them. You are physically linked and can speak mind to mind.”
“Your brother can read Seth’s thoughts?”
“Yes, sort of. It’s complicated.”
“That’s not something I would like. No privacy.”
I’d never thought of it that way. I had never dreamed of having a soulmate, but mind-speak had never bothered me either. “Mates are important to drakcol,” I said. “Kalvoxrencol would never infringe on Seth’s privacy. They love each other.”
He grunted, not looking even remotely interested.
“We only have one mate ever. If our mate dies or rejects us, we usually die. We’ll fade away. Drakcol can’t live without their mates. Seth is the most important thing to Kalvoxrencol, as Caleb is to Zoltilvoxfyn. Both of them are well cared for. I promise.”
“Did I say otherwise?”
His voice was impossibly smooth, sliding down my spine like water. Wanting to hear more and to change the subject, I asked, “Are your sisters mated?”
“No.”
My little human didn’t speak much. “Tell me of them.”
“Why?”
“So I can learn more about you.”
