by F. F. John
“I swear, Neith, you’re one of the smartest people I know, but sometimes you can be so dim.” Perhaps I shouldn’t have called her dim, but it’s true. I close my eyes to concentrate on the problem at hand. Is there a solution?
She sobs, softly.
My eyes flick open and I let out a soft sigh. “Did Portan comm you about drop outs from the competition today?”
She shakes her head.
“Well, there’s your answer.” I take her hand. “If Invier had followed through, you’d know by now. The fact that he hasn’t means he was just angry.”
Finally, her expression brightens. She returns her mom’s picture to its place.
“Why don’t you talk to him again? This time, tell him you’re sorry and that you’ll respect his decision to quit—”
“But, I don’t want him to quit. Not only would it be embarrassing for him and his family, we’d never be able to be together after that!”
“Yes, I know that already. The point is to make him think you’d rather he be happy than have him be mad at you. Boys aren’t that smart, you know. He’ll probably change his mind.” I pick the bags I’d dropped earlier. “Anyway, it doesn’t hurt to try but please wait a bit, you’d scar him for life with the way you look right now.”
She sticks her tongue out at me and smiles. “I must look crazy.”
“You have no idea,” I say with a smile, glad we can put the tension behind us.
Handing her one of my shopping bags, I tell her about my trip to Long Bay. A loud grumbling makes me pause mid-sentence.
“Was that your stomach?”
“I haven’t eaten all day, sorry.”
“AI, connect me to the kitchen downstairs. Audio only.” I roll my eyes again. “So, you just spent your day crying over Invier? How much do you want to bet he managed to eat today? We can’t let boys make us so upset that we don’t take care of ourselves.”
When the chef gets on the line, I order a bowl of lentil soup for her. It arrives five minutes later in a bread bowl. It sits on a tray with a glass of pomrose, a bottle of sparkling water and a cucumber and carrot salad.
“Now, eat,” I instruct. “When you're done, we’ll clean you up and go for a walk to get some fresh air. How about the sculpture garden?”
She’s too busy eating to pay me any mind as I put on one of my new outfits.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Neith
A loud crash startles me, forcing my eyes open. I peer into the darkness of my bedroom, my dreams left behind.
Beside me, Bel is a lump underneath the covers. She snores lightly, deep in sleep as a loud whistle from outside sends me flying out of bed.
“Bel! Wake up!”
She snores again. This time the sound is louder, competing with the rumbling from outside.
I hop back onto the bed, yank the covers off and shake her awake. She’s stretching, but sleep’s call hasn’t relinquished her yet. Another crash, followed by a thud from somewhere on the estate forces me to slap her.
“Ouch,” she yells, rubbing her cheek, “what was that for?”
The building groans and she sits up straight. “What’s going on?
I walk to the door and when it slides open, nobody’s there. Sprinting back to my bed, I slip on my house slippers as gunfire erupts outside. Fear makes her eyes widen
“We must be under attack,” I say.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Who would attack a nome?”
“Maybe rebels?”
She stiffens and stares at me as if in a trance but soon says, “That’s not possible.”
More gunshots ring out from nearby. The effect is to chase away any remaining haze of sleep from her. She’s out of bed, eyes flitting.
I race to my desk and pull up a screen. “Contact Father.”
“Now connecting to Titan Reffour.” The AI replies.
The voice I selected for my AI was the closest to my mother’s from old videos of her. It’s soft and pleasant but does little to relieve my fear when the AI repeats, “Now connecting to Titan Reffour.”
“Something’s wrong. I should have reached Father by now.” Tendrils of fear coil in my chest.
“My ship is nearby. Let’s get to it and try looking for Uncle, Portan and—”
“Locate Invier Floran.” Moisture forms on my palms.
“Scion Floran is currently in his suite at the Participant’s building.”
I rush for the door after exhaling a shuddering breath in gratitude. “I’ve got to go to him.”
“Not like that you don’t.” Bel’s exiting the closet. “And we need to be getting somewhere safe, not finding the guy who dumped you.” She has two black training jumpsuits and we slip into them. They were made for taking self-defense classes. Despite my many classes, I’m not much of a physical fighter and hope I can avoid hand to hand combat. Sohr has stressed that I’ll always be better off wielding a weapon than bare handed.
We’re still readying ourselves when the bedroom door slides open. The only people able to open my room are Father, Bel and I. Not even my personal staff can make the door open. Since Bel and I are in here, I hold out hope that the person at the door is my father.
The barrel of a gun comes into view and my heart stills. I nervously glimpse at my best friend. Determination etches itself across her face and she bends her knees in a fighting stance. No matter who is entering, they won’t be shooting her. I can tell she’s ready to take the person out, one way or another.
I, on the other hand, have legs as heavy as asteroid-mined osmite.
“Glad you ladies are ready to go.”
We let out a sigh of relief. Our armed visitor is Adela.
“What’s happening out there?” Bel says.
Adela’s already out the door when she answers, “The estate is under attack by Nome Cyra’s soldiers. I had to sneak past several of them.”
That can’t be true. This isn’t the prehistoric age where families slaughtered each other to claw their way up the rankings. We have the Pact to guide us and it makes all acts of violence illegal. Yes, everyone finds ways to circumvent the rules, but an outright attack on another family never happens. There must be some other explanation for the explosions outside.
“Nome Cyra?” I follow Bel’s lead and wrap my hair into a top knot. “Why would they do this?”
Adela shrugs as she jogs down the stairs. “Maybe because your boyfriend refused Cyra’s offer.”
“Wait a minute!” I speed past her and block the way. Turning to face her, I ask, “What are you talking about?”
“Which part do you need explained? The part where Invier is your boyfriend or the part about the offer from Mehrdad?”
Bel catches up with us and says, “Stop being a baka and answer her question. You obviously know about them, so tell us about the offer.”
“Cyra offered Floran a chance to elevate his family if he lost the next challenge.”
I knew it! Even though he broke up with me, he still loves me. He picked me over an alliance with the most powerful nome.
“I was waiting for his decision but with this attack, who knows.” Adela barrels past me.
My brief moment of excitement fades. “What offer did you make?”
“I told him that if he worked with me to let me win, I’d allow for a partite pairing between him, yourself and I.”
I’ve never envisioned myself in a partite relationship and I don’t plan on being in one. They may be legal, but they are not for me. “So, I’d be a plaything for the two of you?” I spit out the words with more force than I intended.
“You’re not my type. Neither is he.” She regards me with hard eyes. “I’d have women outside the marriage, while Invier and yourself could be with each other.”
What a baka! What makes her think I would have agreed to such an arrangement? My face is warm as we step into the moonlight. Everything seems normal until a bright flash precedes the crumbling of a structure somewhere to my left and I cower. My feeli
ngs about Invier’s failure to promptly refuse her offer can wait a while. I’m awash in a cold chill.
“Are they bombing the estate?” Bel yells over the racket.
Adela nods and I speed away from them.
“Where are you going?” Bel screams.
I don’t bother to reply. Rather, I use every bit of strength within me to move towards the Participant’s building.
The roar from a crashing building spikes. I catch Adela shouting, “—have to go to your father’s office and use his—”
Something white whizzes by and I don’t bother to check where it lands. A light bulb overhead splinters and shards of glass rain down in a soft harmony.
“Your father has what we need to end this attack, Scioness Reffour!” Adela calls out to me.
I round the corner and happen upon three men in green fatigues. Each is carrying military-grade weaponry and wears night goggles. I don’t recognize their uniforms. However, I know they aren’t members of my nome. Groundsmen and other unarmed staff wear black and those carrying weapons are always in white.
“This is Squad 89A2, target identified.” One of the men shouts into a wrist comm. “I repeat, target identified.”
Another soldier lowers his gun. “I’ve been ordered to take you to safety, Scioness”
“By who?” I step away from them.
The third soldier lets out an impatient huff. “Just grab her, Williams.” He points his gun at my head. “Don’t try anything funny.”
At that moment, there’s a thwack and the first soldier clutches his chest before hitting the ground. From behind me, both Adela and Bel zoom past. Adela shoots at the soldier whose weapon is trained on me and I drop to the grass. Bel fights with the one called Williams. She dodges the wide arc his gun makes in her direction and kicks him in the groin. That forces him to drop his weapon. Bel picks it and fires the last standing soldier without hesitation. He doesn’t move after that. Williams is writhing in the short grass when Bel stomps him in the face.
“Bel, where did you learn to fight like that?” My best friend has never been good at self-defense. In fact, we have avoided the majority of our classes over the years, uninterested in breaking our nails or exerting ourselves. Yet somehow, she’s better prepared to take on the attackers than me.
She doesn’t answer my question. Instead, she checks the gun, pulling out it’s cartridge to determine how many rounds are left.
“You Seltans tend to know everything.” She looks at Adela pointedly. “Were you aware there would be an attack?”
“No and we don’t have time for a question and answer session, what with well-armed soldiers crawling around the estate,” Adela replies then scowls at me. “Where exactly are you going? Your father’s office is in the opposite direction.”
Her question reminds me that I’m desperate to find Invier and I start off only to bump into Bel.
“No, Neith, you can’t just take off and lead us into another company of soldiers. Tell us where you’re going.”
“The Participant’s building. I need to find Invier.”
“You can’t be serious, Scioness,” Adela says. “Your boyfriend has likely fled the building by now. I don’t know how many times I have to tell you this, but we need to go to your father’s office. He has tech that can get us out of this problem.”
“How do you know what technology my father has and what it can do?”
She holds my gaze. “Everyone knows your father has AI that can help track and stop the attackers.”
“No,” Bel snaps. “Everyone does not know that.”
“What are you not telling us, Adela?” I mutter.
“The longer we spend out here in the open, the higher the chance we’ll get caught or killed. Those soldiers alerted someone they had you. That person is bound to be on the way and I don’t want to be here when they arrive.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I’ve found Invier.”
She lets out a hurried puff of air. “Fine. We’re going to trek all the way to that side of the estate just to go back to your father’s office.” Adela concedes and trots off ahead of us.
Bel holds me back and whispers, “I don’t trust her.”
“Neither do I.”
Chapter Forty
Invier
After telling both Mehrdad and Adela how I felt about their offers, I sat in the suite playing my guitar. I considered the offers over and over. Adela’s is the better option and if I were to accept it, I’m certain that would hurt Neith. Considering how much she’s hurt me, I don’t understand why I’m hesitant.
That’s a lie. I do know why.
I’m supposed to be asleep but the sound she made when I walked away earlier replays in my head. Every time I remember the wail, an invisible fist wraps around my heart. I thought hurting her would make me feel better, but it didn’t.
Would it be that bad to accept Adela’s offer of a partite union? Nome Yetun has a similar marital structure. Titane Quarton is married to Titan Motande and the they are both married to Dogenne Haithen. They seem to be a happy unit.
A dull crash is followed by an explosion. Both sounds send me jumping out of bed and into the living area. I look out the window but all I see are light bulbs and dark trees across the grounds.
What could be going on at this time of the night?
Something whistles past my window. It flies by so fast my eyes can’t keep up. The floor rattles beneath me when there’s a distance crash and I have flashbacks to the red rock competition.
Time to go.
I hurry into my room and fling open the closet. Putting on my running gear, I stuff my feet into a pair of black boots and head out the door.
No guards wait in the dim hallway. Another explosion rings out. This time much closer to the building than the last. A woman’s voice floods out from hidden speakers. “This is not a test. Please evacuate immediately.” The message is on a loop and I take the steps, two at a time. It occurs to me that this could be the final competition and I groan. Having had no rest all day and given I’m not convinced I want to be here, another challenge is the last thing I need.
Three flights down and I push through a door with an exit sign above, stepping into the bright lobby. My eyes struggle to adjust to the lobby’s radiance, where the lights bounce off the glass and mirrored wall to make the room even brighter than it is.
Since the stairs don’t lead to the auditorium, I feel a little relieved. This ‘situation’ might not be part of the Pursual, after all. I’d hoped to bump into Adela, Mehrdad or Portan, who moved into our building after our trip to Ghitu. Looks like I’m the only one here.
A whine grows louder but I can’t tell where it’s coming from. As it blares, I realize I’d be safer outside than within the building, particularly with there being explosions. I’m no more than ten feet away from the main entrance and I sprint toward it. Something hits the building and a jolt travels through me. I have to hurry.
I call on my energy reserves for a burst of speed and am almost under the starlit sky when the world goes dark.
Somewhere far away, someone screams my name.
Chapter Forty-One
Belema
When the building dropped, all three of us dove behind thick bushes. Neith is on her knees sobbing into her palms. “I’m such an idiot!” She wipes away her tears. “I shouldn’t have left things the way they were between us.”
“Shut up!” Adela yells.
“How dare you? Can’t you see she’s hurting?” I push her as hard as I can.
She shoves back, a deadpan expression on her face. “Both of you need to shut up!” She tilts her head to the right, listening to something.
“I’ll never forgive myself …” Neith is crying harder than before.
“You need to have some respect.” I’m stomping up to Adela again when a muffled sound competes with Neith’s grieving.
“Hold on Neat. Shh.” I put a finger to my lips.
“I love him. I should have�
��”
“Shh,” I repeat with more urgency. “You need to be quiet.”
As her sniffling reduces, the muffled sounds become clearer. Someone’s struggling to escape the remnants of the shattered building. “I think someone’s alive in there!”