Page 43 of Hope Forged
How human.
“Let me teach you how to use the replicator and rehydrator,” he said, ordering pants and a tunic, and tugging them on only when she glanced away.
“Why?” she asked, picking off a disc of pepperoni and popping it into her mouth. “To learn implies an extended stay or that you’re going to be somewhere else.” She met his gaze when he didn’t answer. “Illan?”
“Does the why matter?” he asked, tapping the rehydrator’s surface.
Her chewing slowed, indecision in her fluttering fingers. “So, you leave me here, trapped?” She arched a brow, her expression distrusting. “I don’t have to follow you everywhere on this ship, but what if I wake up alone? How do I get to my father?” She tossed the half-eaten slice onto the plate and scrambled to her feet.
“You tap the panel to exit.” He pointed at the square in the wall while sliding on his footwear.
She faced him, arching a brow when he marched past her. “Why are you leaving then? If you’re going to talk to Brac about my mother, I want to be—”
“You tempt me, ohara,” he said, squaring his shoulders, his hand an inch from the door.
Her movements slowed, her breath caught, and she raised her wide gaze to his. “Is that bad?”
He chuckled. “Yes, when I cannot have you.”
Her lips parted in an ‘oh.’ “Pleasure, right? We’re talking about that?” She showed him her palm.
“Yes,” he whispered, need reverberating through his body and making his foot bounce with the urge to flee.I am Durn. He gritted his teeth.I can endure anything.
She chewed on her bottom lip, her gaze lost in thought. “Does it become less…demanding with distance?”
“No.”
She scowled. “So why leave when it’s futile?”
He crossed to her, stopping when only an inch separated them. This close, her scent was sweeter with the faint smellsof the lake, rain, sunshine still lingering. While peering at her upturned face, he took controlled breaths.
“There are many things you do not know. To take you now would be dishonorable. You must choose—”
She splayed her fingers across his chest, the heat of her skin scorching him through his thin tunic. “What don’t I know?”
“How Durns mate, for one.”
She showed him her palm again. “Like this?” She hesitated. “Unless you don’t want—”
“I just said you tempt me, so that statement is moot. We mate for life, Ziamee,” he snapped, stepping back.
Joy bloomed in her eyes. “Like the Etterians?”
“We based their genetic modifications on what drives our life-fusions. It seemed the most logical solution when they approached our ancestors for assistance.”
“So, we meddled.” She shrugged.
“With unexpected consequences.” He cupped her cheek, granting himself that much. “We have spiritual limitations, too. If I take you, we are one. I go where you go.” Not absolute truth, but palm-to-palm had already triggered the mating ritual. If they completed it, they’d be dhutyas.
She sank into her comfy. “Then my father and mother can’t be life-fused?”
“She stayed close enough not to break the fusion. I cannot understand why she did this. A life-fusion includes mind-fusion. They have never been apart… Not mentally.”
Ziamee gasped. “What you say implies Padya knew Mudya’s alive. That they’ve been communicating all this time.” She shook her head, a tear dewing her eyelashes. “She has to be dead, Illan, or else Padya’s been lying to me for years.”
He grimaced. Either scenario was terrible, but deep down, she had to wish that her mother was well. Her hopeful expressionhad revealed this to him when they’d discovered the unknown second life form.
His O.D.I. buzzed, and he glanced at it, reading the message from Coll with disbelief. “Dress,” he commanded, gesturing to the garments he’d thrown over the back of a comfy.
