Page 40 of The Blind Hordesman

“I think so.”

“Why destroy you now?” He stops, then he answers himself. “Because he believes Seer will breed you, so you should be eliminated. When he finds out you’re alive, he will come for you.”

“I sure fucking hope so,” I say, and crack my neck.

“Stay down, fucker. That armor can’t retract. You have no idea how long you’ll take to recover.”

“If I breed her, I won’t need this armor.”

Arkin gasps. “You are in the middle of nowhere with no army, and if you think I’ll let you bond her and go into transition with nobody around to defend you, you’re crazy, and I want my brother’s brain back.”

I think he might kill me. Chuckling, I say, “It’s not up to you.”

“Which reminds me. Does the imposter carry red armor?” he asks Kiki.

“Red armor, technical advances via chips imbedded in his skin, and he is venomous,” she says.

Damn. “How is he venomous?”

“Sewa genes lay dormant, and he figured out how to activate them.”

“Domins, his father,” Arkin says, “was not a Sewa male.”

“My grandmother is a Sewa Omega.”

The former Regha King Domins and his father annihilated the Sewa region. Survivors, rare and few, hid, and of those, most were Betas who bred more Betas. When my uncle sent the Warlords to farm in that region, I am certain he hoped we’d breed there. My uncle is obsessed with preserving strong Regha bloodlines, and Sewa blood breeds the finest males. It is something Domins knew, and he coveted the venom he couldn’t produce.

“And I noticed you used present tense,” Arkin says. “Is your grandmother alive and on Earth?”

“Yes.”

Robes flutter. Arkin’s moving. He’s gonna fly like a superhero. A Sewa Omega on Earth is sort of like discovering another space gate stable enough to carry armies. I bet he’s itching to collect the grandma but can’t leave me with my Omega because he can’t abandon his mission.

“I need to make calls,” he says.

“Don’t make contact,” I say. “It’s all traced.”

“Dreikx secured my line.”

“Nothing is secure except things spoken between me and you.”

Kiki barks again.

“And you, Kiki.” I pat her head.

She laughs.

I fucking love this girl. Oh hey, I said it. In my head. Gonna tell her that. Later.

“Hey, what’s our current position?” I ask Arkin.

“Telean temporary housing for the work crew. They’re picking the town apart. What’s left of it.” He clears his throat. “I arranged the room.”

He means he set it up the way my tent was set up and the way my mom had set up my bedroom in Ohala and the way everyone who knows me well sets up things around me. “Thank you, brother.”

“You have to tell her.”

He means I have to tell her about my disability. When my brother and I think something, the other one sort of knows it. I don’t have this kind of relationship with anyone besides him.

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