Page 34 of Star Marked Warriors

I shrugged. “I would guess in his pod. He is not a warrior. There is no reason for him to attend the tournament.”

“And no reason to keep doctors on hand when you’re all going to go around stabbing each other, right? That’s justcrazy.”

I dragged him in, my arm draped around his shoulders, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “So soft, Lucas. If I am too weak to seek my own care, I should never have gotten up from the ring.”

“You don’t see how that’sliterallyinsane?”

Insane. He meant unwise. “My Lucas, there are no doctors in the jungle. We must be strong enough to persist on our own. Healing is not guaranteed. Unless you are Vorian.”

Another sharp scowl crossed his features. “And what the fuck even was that?”

I thought of my half-brother shaking out his leg, his bone snapping right into place and melding together in the space of a single step. Unlike poor, pink Aldor, Vorian’s gifts were fierce. “Our sacred star Lyr has blessed Vorian greatly.”

“And made him invincible.”

I sighed. “Everyone can die, but I admit, it would not be easy to kill Vorian. He has seven markings.”

“And you only have three?”

He doubted my strength.

With a flinch, I stopped short and stared down at him. “Only three? Lucas, to gain the marks we sit in the light of Lyr. It kills as easily as it blesses.”

“And that’s insane!” He stopped too, spinning toward me, his eyes flashing with anger almost so bright that they looked like true-born Thorzi eyes. “You’re willing to die, to sacrifice yourself and everything you want, to get a little stronger.”

I frowned. There were some things I did not wish to sacrifice. Him, for instance.

We had reached the edge of the arena, the opening that looked out at the jungle below, and the terrapads that awaited spectators and warriors to carry them home.

I lifted Lucas by the waist and set him on the nearest terrapad, but the step up was too difficult for me to manage with my wounded leg. I sat on the edge as the disk adjusted to my weight, and pulled my legs around. Only when I was fully seated did it start to move.

With no trust that I could stand on my own, I looked up at my red-faced, frustrated human. “It is our way. It is how we have survived and how we will defeat the Zathki. Warriors bear marks. We do it so our children and our mates do not have to.”

“And mages?”

I blinked. There had not been a mage on Thorzan since the first mate of Jax’s father, Zul the Proeliator. He had died, spending his life energy to spread Zul’s power among the entire Thorzi army, so we could beat back a Zathki invasion. It had taxed him too greatly, but he had saved our people, the last great mage of our kind.

“Mages did not bear marks of their own, but they could use them.”

In one long huff, all the tension escaped Lucas. Now, he was the one who looked defeated, even though it was the meat of my own body that was wounded. “I don’t know what that means.”

I did not know how to explain, but the terrapad came to a slow stop. We had reached Tyber’s pod, and as I set my feet on solid ground and held out my hand to assist Lucas, the Thorzi in question slid open his door.

He was built like a warrior, large and blue, but Lyr had blessed him with the gift of healing and that had set his path. He crossed his arms when he saw us standing before his home. Slowly, his unimpressed gaze slid down my body.

“You have let yourself be injured, Prince. Come in. I will see to your wounds.”

CHAPTER19

LUCAS

He hadlet himselfbe injured, the guy said. And that was thedoctor.

I got it, okay? No, I wasn’t an anthropologist or whatever, to have any real appreciation for the cultures of other people. And this culture? I was really struggling with.

People called Americans individualists—and that seemed to be the same thing that was at play here. And it did make a certain amount of sense. They had come to a planet where even the plants wanted to eat your head, so they’d had to rely on themselves and their own abilities.

So the abilities of individuals became important. Lauded. But I didn’t know how to make Kaelum understand that as much as I was impressed by his skill, I’d rather have him alive and not ever, ever fighting Vorian again.

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