Page 105 of Star Marked Warriors

“Cool.” After an awkward second, Lucas’s gaze landed on me. His eyebrows inched up. “You gonna go with Kaelum or—?”

I had expected Lucas to be at his side, to be his mage and a guide, but he was right. This war was between the Thorzi and the Zathki. It was not the burden of humans to make peace, but our responsibility to provide a better world for them. And Kaelum called me his future Proeliator. If we were to act, it would be together.

With a sigh, I lifted Wesley’s legs and set his feet gently on the floor to slip out from under him. Before I left, I touched his cheek. “You will be well?”

“Um. Yeah, Jax. I could actually use a human minute.”

I huffed and turned away, but I was only teasing. For weeks, he’d been kept apart from his friend. I was not all human, and, well, he could have his time with Lucas. That did not threaten me. Much.

I found Kaelum in the communal dining hall. He was sitting at one of the long tables, the benches around him clear of Zathki. Though they gave him plenty of space, they flashed their wide blue eyes his way often, watching for a threat.

Pob was nearest his table, more curious and at ease with Thorzi than the rest of his people. I touched his arm.

He jumped, but he relaxed the moment he saw me.

“You are multiplying,” he said, a small smirk tilting his lips.

I nodded. “I hope that we will be the first of many Thorzi you have opportunity to meet, Pob. But I need time to talk to my prince. Do you mind?”

“No. No, of course not.” He shook his head and rushed off, taking it upon himself to wave his curious people away.

With heavy steps to alert him, I came to join Kaelum on his bench.

For long, silent moments, we sat there, our hands clasped in front of us, arms braced on the edge of the table. It was awkward, and I let it hang while his worries swirled in a cloud in his head. Kaelum was afraid. He was worried. And most of all, he felt guilty—guilty for not solving our people’s problems before we even knew they existed.

“You believe him,” I muttered when he did not break the silence. “You are willing to take Marex’s case to your father?”

Kaelum heaved a sigh. With his lips pursed, he glanced at me. “Marex is not old enough to have committed atrocities against our people. Though we have been betraying his for more cycles than you and I have seen.”

It was true. Marex seemed flexible in a way most Thorzi warriors lost as they aged. It was not that Thorzi and Zathki were the same, but his skin was a bright, light blue. His eyes weren’t clouded but sharp.

“We did not know,” I assured him, reaching across the table to place my hand atop his. “We could not have known. We were deceived, just as they were.”

Kaelum’s face hardened. His father would have been proud. “By Crux.”

“By Crux,” I echoed, a tired smile pulling at my lips.

For a while longer, Kaelum was silent, his thick, black brow furrowed as he stared at the table between us.

I knew that look from him. In other times, I would have poked and prodded him until he smiled, found some way to distract him, likely with a quick tumble.

But now, he had his Lucas, and I had Wesley. My actions would not be the thing to cause either of them to feel betrayed and hurt. Nothing was worth that, even seeing my friend at ease.

“Do you think Vorian knew?” Kaelum asked, his voice caught in his throat so it was nothing more than a raspy whisper.

I blinked. I hadn’t realized that Kaelum had any hope for his bastard half-brother, but I saw it then, the tremor of betrayal that threatened to crack my friend. Despite everything—namely, how much of a complete shitfaced monster Vorian could be—some part of Kaelum still longed for acknowledgement from his brother.

With a sigh, I sank into my shoulders, my elbows on the table keeping me upright as we avoided looking right at each other.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I do know that he’s a fucking asshole, always will be. But I don’t—” I sighed, clasping my fingers together and shrugging, glancing at Kaelum through my lashes. “I don’t think Crux is someone who shares his plans or his power. Even with Vorian.”

Kaelum’s lips twitched. “He almost killed me.”

“Almost?” At first, I thought he was talking about in the tournament, when Vorian had put Kaelum on his knees and left him bleeding.

But the wistful bitterness in his eyes said I had missed something in the time I was away. He nodded, dropping his chin into his hand. “When we brought the humans back to Thorzan—only a few decided to stay on Earth—Crux was waiting for me. Vorian challenged me, I believe on his father’s orders. He would have killed me if not for Lucas’s interference. That was when we learned he was a mage.”

My breath caught. Suddenly, my mouth was dry, my tongue bitter. “Wesley saved my life as well. A ship—our ship... We were attempting repairs when the ice cracked. I would have been crushed, but the fearless little human rushed right to my side. He saved me. Pulled me out.”

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