Page 70 of Invasion of Sorority Z

Entirely understandable, but curiosity still eats at me. “Can I ask you something?”

I see his throat working, and his jaw tightening, but he nods.

Thinking back to the picture, I turn to reach for it. Gently, I pick up the worn photo and present it to him. “Who’s this?”

Marrec’s eyes become lost as they land on the image. A look I’ve never seen before takes over his face, and my stomach drops. An undeniable sense of mourning floats around the pair of us, and I have the sickening thought that the photo in my hands is responsible.

“Marrec?” I ask carefully. My throat feels tight, and my fingers feel out of place attached to this relic of his past.

“He is my apo.”

“Apo?”

His head bobs up and down. “My brother.”

Marrec’s eyes divert from the photo, but he doesn’t take it, nor does he move. He doesn’t even seem to be breathing.

Now that I glance at it again, the explanation makes sense. “He looks like you,” I whisper.

“Yes,” Marrec chokes out. “He did.”

My hands shake violently as I set it down. “I’m so sorry, Marrec. I didn’t mean to barge into all of your memories like this. I would never want to cause you sadness. You’ve been nothing but amazing to me, and here I am snooping through your—”

“Our,” he interrupts, voice firm. “You are my soul. My mate. Everything that is mine is yours. It is painful to see these things, this is true. My chest aches at the sight of my apo. But I would tell you of him, if you would like to hear…”

I can’t help it. My arms fly around his waist so hard I’m sure it would hurt if he were a human. “I would love to hear about your apo, my love. We should go upstairs, right? Talk about it away from all of these things where you’re most comfortable. Oh! Maybe the gardens?” The gardens are what I have started calling the little valley of flowers and grasses in our forest. It’s one of our favorite places.

He agrees, and we take our time walking there. I don’t want to rush him, even if I do want to know what he has to say. I would never want to bring up bad memories for him, or make him sad in any way.

As we sit, I don’t speak, only wait patiently for him to begin when he is ready.

“I am unsure where to start,” he admits shyly.

His posture is rigid, and his eyes haunted, and yet there is an underlying truth in his expression. He wants to tell me about his brother, even if it is painful.

My lip aches from my teeth denting it. “What was his name?”

“Mar’ree.” He smiles softly. “Our parents were fond of the star called Mar. It is Aprix’s dullest star, but it is the oldest. Mar does not burn bright, it is true. It is a strong ball of fire instead.”

“There’s a planet called Mars close to Earth,” I blurt. Oh no, I’m going to nervously babble. “It’s in our solar system, and a lot of old religions paid attention to our planets. Mars was a God to them. Well, some of them. Religion is a beast on Earth, there’s countless different ones. Um, oddly enough, I think Mars was the God of War and guardian of agriculture to the ancient Romans. So that’s kind of funny because, you know, you love plants and—”

Marrec silences me with a kiss. His lips are soft, but firm against mine and he sighs at the connection. “It gives me many hours of amazement when I think of how you can make my cheeks ache with a smile at any moment. Even a moment where my heart feels as though all of the universe’s smiles are not mine for the taking.” He pauses, brushing my lips with another kiss.

There’s an echo of silence before he speaks again.

“I never did have much love forThe Mother.I blamed our goddess for many things for many years. I believed that she allowed Aprix to fall into the hands of evil. Sheangeredme. But now, as I look into the eyes of my mate, I know that something much greater than myself has brought me to her. That my Stee-vee is a gift beyond my simple mind’s comprehension. All of the pain I have witnessed, it was worth having you.”

Warmth crawls up my neck, and my eyes sting with potential tears. “Marrec, you’re going to make me cry before you even begin your story.”

His thumbs caress my cheekbones. “I will take your strange human tears if they are of happiness, my little blossom.”

“I think the little bean in my stomach might cause some not-so happy tears eventually, I’m afraid.”

He chuckles. “Little bean? Is this what we are calling our daughter?”

My giggle is embarrassingly loud. “You don’t know if it’s a girl,” I point out. “But yeah, that’s what I’m calling the glowing seed in my stomach. I’m not sure what we’ll call it when it comes out, though. Maybe something with Mar in it?”

The reminder of Mar brings his focus back to the reason for our sitting here. He drops my face from his hold and softly takes my hand. “Mar’ree was four hu-nim years younger than me. He was energetic, and easily excitable.”

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