Page 1 of Kazzon's Human Bride
Prologue
The lingeringscent of smoke burned Caylee’s throat with each breath. She stood in the square of her dome-city, New Leesburg, with her head bowed, as footsteps approached from all directions. Hushed whispers and the occasional quiet sob drifted through the darkness.
A quick glance up showed someone had brought miniature glow sticks in the shape of candles. Caylee nodded her thanks to the woman who passed her one, then she clutched the makeshift candle in her hand as a sense of heaviness fell upon her.
Fourteen people had died yesterday in a terrible fire that swept through one of the large factories. In her twenty years, she couldn’t recall such an immense tragedy falling upon New Leesburg, though she’d heard tales of similar accidents taking place in other dome-cities on Earth.
A collective sense of grief blanketed the gathering, making the darkness seem thicker and the air more difficult to breathe. Fourteen people. She could scarcely believe it. Good, hard-working citizens, too. What a loss.
The population of New Leesburg, like all dome-cities, was strictly regulated. Only about fifteen thousand people lived in each enclosed settlement. Once upon a time, Earth had been inhabited by billions of humans, but no more. Diminishing resources and a series of terrible wars had left this world nothing but a hot, barren wasteland. All surviving humans lived in one of the three hundred and fifty-two dome-cities that remained on Earth.
And fourteen people dead? It was a tremendous loss, one acutely felt by every single individual of New Leesburg. Several hundred people were already gathered for the vigil in the square and Caylee knew the crowd would only keep growing. Her parents stood behind her, next to her brother, and when she turned to glance at them, her heart clenched with sorrow. She quickly spun around and closed her eyes, lest she break down in tears.
Though she was currently mourning the loss of the fourteen victims of the fire, she was also in preemptive mourning for a much more personal loss—the impending loss of her family and friends.
The loss of her home and everything she’d ever known.
Every time she looked at her parents and brother, the grief would hit her anew, as brutal as an unexpected punch to the gut. She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly, praying she managed to hold herself together. But it was difficult to maintain her composure when drastic change loomed on the horizon.
In a few weeks, Caylee would be forced to leave Earth. Forever.
She lowered her head further, allowing her long golden locks to shield her face, a curtain to conceal her personal sorrows. She didn’t want to leave, but unfortunately, she didn’t have any say in the matter.
At the age of four, she had been randomly selected to become a Tarrkuan bride—a human female who would eventually grow up to become the mate of a Tarrkuan alien—and she had spent the last sixteen years of her life preparing for her eventual departure from Earth, as required by the Earth-Tarrkua trade agreement.
And now, with her twentieth birthday only four months behind her, she was preparing to depart Earth with over three hundred human females—one from each dome-city.
She would give anything if only she could remain on Earth. She despaired over the prospect of leaving her family behind, never to see them again.
What would happen to her parents after she left? Their relationship with one another was strained—barely a week passed that they didn’t get into a full-blown screaming match—and Caylee routinely acted as their mediator. She feared their marriage would disintegrate entirely after she left Earth.
And her brother, Wilson, would probably continue retreating into himself and hiding in his room. He was a quiet kid who didn’t like conflict, and the more their parents fought, the more he disappeared—sometimes, after a particularly bad row, he would lock himself in his room for days, even missing school. He’d been increasingly withdrawn lately, and she despaired over the thought of how he would cope in her absence. More often than not, she was the only person who could convince him to leave his room.
Regret crashed over her. She worried equally for her parents and her brother. Even though she’d never wished to be selected as a Tarrkuan bride, she still couldn’t help but feel guilty that she’d been chosen.
Sometimes, she wondered if her life would be easier once she departed New Leesburg and married a Tarrkuan. But as soon as such thoughts entered her mind, she would become even more guilt-ridden and filled with shame.
Shouldn’t she want to stay and keep helping her family?
If she left,whenshe left, she feared their lives would fall apart completely. Despite their many flaws (and yes, she knew she wasn’t perfect herself), she still loved them. She’d always thought if she did a better job of helping them, perhaps one day her parents would stop fighting and her brother would cease hiding.
God, how could she do it?
Three weeks. She had but three weeks left on Earth.
That wasn’t enough time to fix all that was broken.
As Caylee kept her head bowed, both in a show of respect to the deceased and to hide any potential tears, she sensed eyes upon her. She shifted in place and finally looked up, only for her gaze to lock with a young blonde woman’s piercing blue stare. She peered at the woman and recognized her as Julie, the younger sister of a Tarrkuan bride named Nova who’d left Earth four years ago.
Horror washed through Caylee, realization setting in.
Poor Julie.
Caylee had seen both Julie’s parents’ names on the list of fourteen. Not only had Julie lost her older sister to the Tarrkuans, but she’d now lost her parents to the fire. She had no family left. It was too bad humans weren’t permitted to visit planet Tarrkua, for Julie would have no way of seeing her sister in person again.
But as Caylee held the petite blonde’s gaze, another realization struck her.
Julie and Caylee looked very much alike.
