Page 151 of Fated Mates of Breeder Prison

Tus approached me with a broad smile on his face and braced my shoulders as if we had never met before.

“Trayem!” he said, pulling back and beaming at me. “Krial was very impressed with your performance and requests a private audience with you to discuss it.”

He spoke loudly enough so everyone in the room could hear him.

He wasn’t speaking for me. He was speaking for them.

I smiled back. It was as fake as Tus’s was.

I wondered absently if Harper would recognize that.

Tus turned to Harper.

“Do you mind if I take him for a moment? Krial has always been a big fan of the fighting pits and meeting a fighter of Trayem’s caliber is a real treat.”

Harper nodded and returned to the dais where the other girls remained standing.

“Shall we go upstairs to… discuss your victory?” Tus said, smiling through his teeth.

“Sure,” I said.

He led me toward the steps. Together, we marched up them, the Prize Pool shrinking below us. The girls broke apart and moved into the backroom. Only Harper hesitated, watching my departing back.

“You sure don’t like to make things easy for yourself, do you?” Tus said.

He shook his head admonishingly and with more than a little awe.

Tus was the second eldest guard. The oldest was Annas and she seemed to think that gave her authority over the rest of us. I was the youngest, with Rarr the other middle sibling.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” I said.

“Didn’t you?” Tus said, leering at me. “Then why did you make reflections of yourself?”

“I… did it by accident.”

“And then kicking his ass? Was that by accident too?”

He sighed and shook his head.

“Is Krial very angry?” I said.

“No. But only because I didn’t tell him what really happened. If he ever discovers I lied to him…”

He left the sentence to hang between us.

I could well be the next one to be Reaved. And then it would be your turn.

“It was you watching me from the observation window?” I said.

Tus nodded and I felt a well of relief open up inside me.

“And you’re lucky it was me,” he said. “If it was any of the others, or Krial himself…”

He shook his head. Then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, I knew.

Tus had always been kind to me, and he didn’t have to be.

“Look,” Tus said, placing a comforting hand on my arm and drawing me to a stop. “I can cover for you this time but if it happens again…”

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