Page 46 of Hope Forged
She leaped to her feet. “Aren’t you mind-fused?”
He stilled, halfway through the doorway. “Who told you—” He clenched his jaw. “We didn’t want you to feel…isolated. A mind-and life-fusion only occurs when you meet your dhutya, and the odds of that happening for you on an uninhabited planet—”
“Youknowshe’s alive.” She curled her fingers into fists, restraining the need to punch something. “For twelve years, you let me believe she’d died.” Her body trembled as anger and adrenaline pumped through her, demanding she fight. “Imourned.”
He flinched and didn’t meet her gaze. “It’s in the past.”
She blinked at his disappearing back, having never known her father to act like this.
Had he missed Mudya? Maybe.
Forgiven her? No.
It must’ve taken something huge to drive her mother away…without taking Ziamee with her. Had she also left her father, she wouldn’t have been wounded, and Seba wouldn’t have lost his mother.
Sadness coated Ziamee’s heart with ice. She’d never have known Seba. Consequences were far-reaching, but either way, her life would’ve been different.
She crept through the door, checking Illan’s to make sure it was closed. Time alone with Seba was what she wanted, away from complications like her father’s secrets and Illan’s intensity. Seba snored in the common, his belly distended. Padya wasn’t in her line of sight. Neither was Coll in medical. She strolled to the head and peeked through the open door. Ulta manned the console. Since he was alone, she ventured in.
“Lady Ziamee, how may I assist?” he asked without glancing at her.
“I want to go…home.”
“Certainly. Does Illan know?” He met her gaze.
She bristled. “Do I need his permission?”
Ulta offered a kind smile. “Of course not. I merely ask in case he plans to travel with you.” He ran his fingers over the multi-colored buttons. “Would you like an O.D.I.?”
“Why?” She wasn’t a fool. They’d use it as a tracker more than a communicator.
“So you can stay in contact with me,” he said.
“I do not need to,” she snapped. “I was fine without any of you.” She ignored the whispers that her father would’ve died had Illan and his Etterians not come along.
Guilt lashed at her conscience, but she stiffened her spine. Her pallet. Her lake.Herceaza. She wasn’t the least bit hungry, but in the chaos that had become her life, she craved familiarity around her.
“Come,” Illan said from where he leaned against the door frame.
She jumped, having not heard him approach. Her heart did that flutter thing when a ceaza escaped the bucket and landed on the sand. Which was silly when she considered that her heart was trying to escape its destined fate.
“Where to?” she managed to ask, but her voice cracked.
“To get an O.D.I.”
“I don’t want one,” she gritted out.
“Then I must go with you to Vora.”
She scowled. “Forcing me to do this is dishonorable.”
“Protecting you is what matters,” he countered.
She crossed to him and shoved her face in his. “I can protect myself.”
For the longest time, his gaze traveled her face. “Yes,” he said, “but not with a Maloidian dagger.”
He wanted it back? Pain cinched her chest. Biting her lip to stifle any sound she might make, she dipped to retrieve it from her boot.
