Chapter Twenty-One
Elaina
Neither of us spoke as we left the surface.
The laughter and music of Khavren faded behind us with every step down the winding stairs that disappeared beneath the surface of Morrakan.
The warm light of the festival fires gave way to the dim glow of moss growing on the stone, and the wind that had tugged at my thavren became little more than a distant sigh echoing through the passages.
Drazien still held my hand. Not tightly, but as if he wanted to be sure I didn’t fall behind.
In a different situation, I would have teased him. Asked if his instincts still insisted I was going to wander off or be kidnapped.
Now, it felt a little too close to the truth.
The image of the cart flashed through my mind again. The way it had barreled toward us, and the masked warriors who blocked off any chance of escape.
The certainty on Drazien's face when he'd realized what I'd seen before he had.
“You're quiet. Are you sure you’re okay?”
The soft question echoed within the passage as if every soul in Korvashan was still on the surface. Despite being under layers of stone and sand, Korvashan had always felt alive, but now, it felt haunted.
“Just thinking.”
He glanced at me, the ghost of his usual smirk on his lips.
“That’s not good for you.”
I let out a quiet huff but couldn’t find the amusement I usually did at his teasing. Silence settled between us again, and he went back to watching our path, checking each intersection as if he expected more warriors to jump out at any moment.
Was that a possibility?
I had to assume it was.
I found myself studying the rough stone beneath our feet instead of looking at him or watching for danger. I knew I should have been more vigilant, but I was so… tired.
“Drazien?”
He was just a dark shape in the dim tunnels, a shadow pulling me forward, but I caught the barest glint of light reflecting from his dark eyes.
“Is it normal for people to be attacked during Khavren?”
I couldn’t see his expression, but I knew he was frowning.
“No. Khavren is sacred. Even when there was war between the clans, Khavren was a time of peace and celebration for everyone.”
I thought about it for a moment, my shoulders sinking.
“I guess that doesn’t apply to Humans.”
He didn’t reply but I couldn’t let it go. I had to know he believed me and that he didn’t think it was a fluke. He’d said he did after it happened, but people had a way of convincing themselves they remembered things wrong.
“They were after us. Or, me.”
He sighed before his voice reached me again.
“They were. The rebels don’t want us sullying the bloodlines with Humans. They don’t even want the alliance since they don’t believe we gain anything from it.”
His words made my stomach tighten all over again. The fact that there were people who thought that way wasn’t surprising considering Earth’s history, but finding that prejudice on another planet was disheartening.
Even more worrying was that he had known of them and the risk but still hadn’t listened.
“I thought maybe...”
I swallowed, trying to voice the tangled thoughts running through my head.
“...that I'd misunderstood.”
His eyes found mine in the dark once more and I felt the brush of something along my jaw. I still wore his thavren even though we were underground, but it smelled of him, and I couldn’t bring myself to pull it off.
“You did not. You were right, and I should have protected you better.”
The certainty he spoke with should have lifted the weight from my shoulders. He hadn’t tried to argue it was coincidence, but something still bothered me.
“You changed your mind awfully fast.”
The touch at my jaw faded and he faced forward again.
“I saw the trap.”
“I told you they were planning something.”
His hand tightened around mine for a heartbeat.
“I know.”
“So why didn't you believe me?”
The words came out before I could stop them. I’d tried to pretend it hadn’t hurt, that I would have done the same in his position, but that didn’t stop the hollow feeling in my gut.
“I believed you heard something. There were tracks behind the tent.”
I waited but he didn’t continue.
“That's not what I asked.”
Another sigh bounced through the tunnel, and he refused to meet my gaze.
“I thought your interpretation was incorrect, or that they’d wanted you to hear them to confuse me.”
I knew I had just begun to truly learn his language and the assumption that I could have misheard was logical, but he had never ignored me before. It made no sense that when it came to safety, something he had seemed so adamant about, he suddenly doubted me.
“I judged the situation based on probability, and was wrong.”
A sharp laugh ripped from my throat, and I turned my head to study the moss on the wall as we walked.
“Probability.”
It hurt to swallow, my throat dry, and it refused to let out the other things I wanted to say. I’d been distracted by the excitement above, but my feet and back were beginning to ache from the long day spent walking on stone and wading through sand.
“I thought it unlikely that the rebels would attack with so many others around. I thought you were safe in the crowd.”
My scoff was swallowed by the silence surrounding us.
“Your prediction was incorrect.”
He pulled me to a stop, and I realized we had reached his home. Instead of opening the door, he reached for me, cupping my cheek through the thin fabric shielding it.
“It was, and I’m sorry.”
The words carried enough regret that I almost let it go.
Almost.
Instead, another question surfaced. One that hadn't occurred to me until the thought of Taryn crossed my mind.
“Why me?”
I barely saw Drazien’s lips pull down, but the glow of my kethra made it possible.
“What?”
“Why me?”
For the first time since leaving the surface, I met his gaze fully and refused to back down.
“They weren't just trying to kill anyone, they targeted me. Torvashek korravalryn.”
He dipped his head slowly.
“Yes.”
He said it like there had been no question that I was the target. Like he’d already known their goal wasn’t to eliminate both of us.
“So why me? Why not Taryn, or the other Humans already here?”
He finally palmed the datapad and the door slid open with a quiet whoosh. He pulled me through, the lights coming up enough for me to be able to read his face.
For the first time since we'd met, Drazien looked...
Worried.
His gaze shifted away, but when I pulled out of his grip he focused on me again.
“Serenya is gone on the Zeydrassk. Taryn is too well protected between her mate and varku. Corrine doesn’t leave her meyr’kal, and the other Human omega returned to Earth after being attacked and rejecting her alpha. They killed the only other woman, and her korravai.”
Shock threatened to drag my thoughts to a screeching halt. The mention of incidents had been made to sound minor, but someone had died.
And he had known about it.
Something in me urged me to keep pushing. To get the full truth.
“Why then? Why there? Why risk…”
I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to say me, or others. The rebels had hurt some of their own, which extremists like that rarely cared about, but Drazien had put me in the situation and risked my safety.
His expression turned stony and he didn't answer long enough for the shock to roll into anger.
“Drazien!”
My yell seemed to startle him as much as it did me, but I was beyond controlling my tone.
“It is...”
He seemed to search for the right words, but in the end it was another deflection.
“...complicated.”
I ripped his thavren off my face and crossed my arms, digging my fingers into the muscle so I wouldn’t throw them in the air like I wanted to. I managed to calm my breathing and modulate my tone once more as I stared him down.
“It really isn't.”
I thought back through everything that had happened since my life had been upended.
The gala. Being selected. The injection and illness.
Him showing up at my apartment and refusing to let me out of his sight.
The constant escorts.
The warning from Taryn when we arrived, and then him teaching me to defend myself against one of his kind.
It all made sense if he’d known I was going to be attacked.
All except taking me to the Cavern Markets over and over.
Parading me through Korvashan when he could have brought food and even books here, to his home, where he had a training area taking up more space than his kitchen.
My heartbeat slowed as it dawned on me. It hadn’t been because he wanted to be nice and show me my new home.
He’d wanted me to be seen.
“You knew.”
His expression didn't change but the violet lines on his skin rippled blue.
“You knew they would come after me.”
Silence met my declaration but if I was anything, I was patient. I waited him out, holding his gaze until he finally nodded.
“It was likely.”
The floor seemed to disappear beneath my feet.
“They targeted the other Human omegas. Each one was attacked before they became too hard to reach.”
“Did you pick randomly? Just pointed at a name on the list?”
I didn’t have to explain what I was asking. I’d avoided him at the gala. I had done my best to get near the others, the ones already mated, but I had made sure to stay away from him because I hadn’t wanted there to be any chance of being chosen.
I knew the answer from the set of his brows and the way his lips flattened.
“You picked me, specifically.”
He closed his eyes for the briefest moment before his chin dropped. I wasn’t sure whether the knowledge was supposed to make me more upset, or somehow flattered.
“I wanted an omega of my own.”
The answer sounded too simple. Incomplete.
“And?”
He huffed before sucking in a breath and straightening.
“And it presented an opportunity.”
The words settled between us like stones. Cold, heavy, and uncaring about what they crushed.
An opportunity.
I hadn’t been a person to him. Not a Human, or a woman, or a potential mate.
I had been an opportunity.
“You used me.”
His head snapped up and his kethra glowed an electric blue as his tail whipped behind him.
“No!”
I laughed, throwing my hands out to the side.
“No?”
He took a step towards me, but I backed away.