Chapter Seventeen #2
Drazien’s words sounded suspiciously like something he'd said during training, and I looked sideways at him. Both his tail and arm were looped around me, but I didn’t feel the need to pull away.
After our display in the River Caverns drew no attention, who would care about him holding me while fully clothed?
“You expected this to scare me.”
His lips twitched.
“I expected this to show you what you’ll be up against.”
My brows furrowed as I frowned at him, but his eyes returned to the arena. I was beginning to suspect he was hiding something, but if he was worried about the incidents Taryn had mentioned, it didn’t make sense for him to keep taking me out in public areas that were impossible to secure.
The pair finished their fight and left the arena side by side before another pair entered. They were older, scarred, and were far more focused than the first two had been. Their fight almost seemed calm until one of them dislocated the other’s knee.
“When you understand the consequence of failure...”
Drazien didn't finish. He didn't need to. If I ever faced a Morraki who didn’t want a Human on their planet, I would be in worse shape than the warrior being helped from the arena.
The truly surprising part was that there was no celebrating in the crowd. No humiliation or jeering the way I’d have expected at a competition on Earth.
The crowd was respectful.
I found myself smiling and shaking my head despite what Drazien was trying to show me.
“So this isn't about the violence.”
I saw his head turn my way from the corner of my eye, a hint of blue tinting his marking.
“It is.”
I shook my head and turned to face him.
“No. The violence is the language. The conversation underneath is about the strength in caring.”
Silence stretched between us as he stared at me, but I was confident in my interpretation. The Veyr’vokkar was brutal, but it wasn’t violence for gratification alone.
“You look at things differently than most.”
His quiet statement made my breath catch. Somehow, as odd as it was, it was the best compliment I’d ever received.
Taking my hand in his, he pulled me out of the stands and away from the arena. We returned to the stairwell that led to the surface, and he adjusted my thavren before leading me to the festival within the fortress.
Temporary stalls filled every available space. Jewelry, weapons, clothing, spices… Anything a person could want was on display.
Then there was the food. I didn’t recognize half of it, but the smells made my mouth water.
Mixed amongst those were areas with music and people dancing. Games of skill and luck. Art displays and what looked like classes over all sorts of things.
I tried to absorb it all, but it was too much. Everywhere I looked was something new.
Something I wanted to learn more about.
“This is incredible.”
Drazien huffed but there was a tolerant tilt to his features.
“It is noisy and distracting.”
Laughing, I tugged him towards a group of tables with what almost looked like a chessboard laid out atop each one.
“It’s fun!”
His brows bunched and he tried to look as if he didn’t believe me.
“You enjoy crowds?”
Curling my nose, I shook my head. I’d spent most of my life avoiding crowds, but it was different on a different planet. My curiosity overrode the instinctive urge to stay away.
“I enjoy seeing how you live. Learning your culture.”
His expression softened as he tipped his head.
“I haven’t heard of Morrakan welcoming tourists, so…”
He snorted, shaking his head and looking truly offended at the thought of people coming to Morrakan on vacation.
“Khavren is for us.”
That made me like it even more. It wasn’t fake or dressed up the way holidays on Earth had become. It wasn’t the face the Morrak wanted others to see.
We wandered between the stalls. Unlike the lower markets, many of the vendors specialized in handcrafted goods more than just necessities, and seemed to have special pieces on display.
Children chased colored ribbons dancing in the wind, their high-pitched laughter so similar to a Human’s, I could almost believe I was on Earth again if it wasn’t for the red light drenching everything, plus the growing heat.
The thought was sobering, because I found myself thinking I would have been disappointed if I had missed this. I knew my place on Earth, had a spot where I fit, and while the thought of a life on Morrakan felt unstable, it also felt…
Exciting.
Khavren was the Festival of Flame. The celebration of summer, and fire, and the change that it brought to everything it touched.
Yet my life had revolved in a little bubble that never changed.
I turned to Drazien, trying to focus on the moment.
“Does Khavren celebrate surviving winter, or arriving at summer?”
Some might think there was no difference, but there were subtle contrasts between the two concepts. He considered the question before shrugging.
“Both. Kriska is not harsh here, but it’s uncomfortable for us. Vorrada can be deadly, but so is life.”
I huffed a laugh. For people who lived on a world as harsh as Morrakan, surviving was never guaranteed.
As we continued wandering through the festivities, I began to notice how much attention we drew.
Wrapped in a thavren, it was hard to tell I wasn’t a small Morraki unless someone saw my eyes or was close enough to scent me, but people seemed to notice Drazien just as much.
Kael and Rhydek were both watched wherever they went, and were generally greeted with respect, but when people noticed Drazien, they averted their gaze, stepped aside, and few acknowledged him.
I watched it happen again, and again, finally reaching the point where I had to speak.
“They're avoiding you.”
He barely glanced my way before turning his attention back to a table of blades.
“They’re giving us space because alphas are territorial over their omega.”
Frowning, I looked around before deciding the answer was bullshit.
“No, they're avoiding you.”
He met my gaze. His expression remained unreadable as we stared at each other in silence before he shrugged.
“I prefer it that way.”
It was my turn to study him. Plenty of people said they preferred to be alone when they were ostracized, but most didn’t mean it.
“That’s not the way it seems.”
Another long moment passed, but he didn’t look away.
“They know what I do.”
I arched a brow, trying to remember everything I knew of him, but beyond his title, it wasn’t much.
“You’re a warrior.”
A grin spread across his face, showing his fangs, but it wasn’t a pleasant one.
“I have a reputation.”
It didn’t take much to guess what he meant.
“They think you're dangerous.”
It wasn’t an unusual attitude for civilians to have towards soldiers, but it seemed odd in a culture like his.
Drazien’s head tilted and he reached out to grip my chin through the thavren.
“I am, rethari, and they all know it.”
The answer came without apology, a simple statement of fact. Somehow that made it sadder.
I thought back over everything I'd experienced since meeting him. How he’d been by my side while I was ill.
The patient language lessons because I had said I wanted to learn.
The way he carried me when I was exhausted, and made sure I ate and stayed hydrated.
How he was teaching me to defend myself.
He could be ruthless, I didn't doubt that, but he wasn't cruel. At least, not with me.
“I think they don’t know you very well.”
He released my chin and stepped back, eyes locked on mine before he gave a small nod.
“Perhaps.”
There was something unexpectedly lonely in that single word. For the first time since meeting him, I wondered what kind of life had made him believe solitude was simply the way things were.
Without thinking about it, I slipped my hand into his and gave it a squeeze. He looked down before staring at me once more, and I shrugged.
“Their loss. I guess I get you all to myself.”
Something flickered through his eyes too quickly for me to name. Something that made his usual confidence disappear for a heartbeat before he slipped the mask back into place.
His fingers tightened around mine before he led me deeper into the festival, and for a moment I thought perhaps I wasn't the only one learning how to navigate a new situation.