Chapter 5
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Tamara
Guidy’s orange sort of dress looked incredible against her striking purple skin. She held my hand, careful about not closing it and keeping her pincer-looking thumb away. I decided to keep to myself the fact that, back on my planet, rich people enjoyed eating something similar…
I would never look at a crab in the same way again.
“Are you okay?” Tegha asked me. “You have gone from a glowing brown skin to a green-ish one.”
I did feel kind of nauseous. Not sure if it was because of the shuttle or just the anxiety.
“Skin decoloration can be a sign of illness,” Guidy pointed out. “Good thing your partner is a healer, I am sure he will fix you up in no time.”
Right…Had the cure to anxiety been kept secret on Cancer for thousands of years?
I knew there were pills for it back on Earth.
I hadn’t been allowed to take them. Instead, each of my anxiety attacks got me locked up in a closet until I was good enough to be let out.
Jake would not have a pill addicted fiancée and was more than happy to hide my issues to the rest of the world.
My family had been the same, even though the anxiety had gotten worse only after being forced to move in with him and his parents…
It’d been a terrible six months.
“You do not look well,” Guidy said, now leaning closer to me.
Maxwell lifted his head to look at me, his eyes narrowing in question.
Shit.
“I’m fine!” I rushed out. “Just a little stress. I…It’s normal, right?”
The scientist studied me for a beat, the girls silent by my sides. “You have nothing to worry about,” he said, his face softening. “Cancos, Filbur in particular, have been the friendliest and most cooperative to humans out of all the Zodiac species.”
I forced a smile. It had to be a good sign, right?
That he was someone good and kind? Yet, the memory of Jake kept nagging at me.
He looked nice too. Had been described as kind and perfect by everyone else.
And most importantly, he knew where to hit so people wouldn’t see it.
He knew what to say to break me from the inside.
All this while keeping his squeaky clean reputation untouched.
Even my parents had called me a liar when I tried to get out of his clutches the right way.
“Our uncle can appear a bit rough around the edges, but he is just a big softy,” Guidy said, squeezing my hand with her larger one, still careful to not press on my skin with her sharp thumb.
This actually helped my heart settle in my chest. “Please, tell me more about him?” I asked, and I hated the way my voice broke at the end.
“He is the main healer of our people,” she explained. “He looks after everyone. Provides the care and treatment they need. He would have come to meet you if our sister had been trained enough to take over his duties for a few hours.”
A healer. They had said this already. It had to be good too, right?
“He is biiiiig,” Tegha said, spreading her arms wide.
This sent another rush of anxiety through me. Big. He could crush me. Jake had not been a lot taller than me nor very muscular. If Filbur was the same kind of man but bigger? I would probably die.
“You are scaring her,” Guidy scolded. “You have seen what the human males look like.” She cast a quick glance toward Maxwell. “They are small and scrawny.”
Tegha shrugged and Maxwell didn’t even bother to respond. “I am just making sure she is prepared. Even if our people are all larger than hers, our uncle is larger than most.”
“He is not that big,” Guidy countered. “It just looks big to you because you are small.”
Tegha’s bald eyebrows scrunched down into a frown. “Oh yes? Then why does he have to walk through doors sideways? Our father does not have to do this.”
Guidy’s eyes met mine and she winced. Okay, so Tegha was right… “He is still the kindest of our people! Do not let his size fool you, he would not hurt a soul.”
And I would have to take her word for it, because the light over our head turned on, signaling we were about to land.
I looked down at myself. They had wrapped me in red—to match my future husband, apparently. I had nearly cried after they had taken the teal away, deciding that, in fact, it would be nice if I wore Filbur’s colors. At least, I wasn’t forced to wear plain white or black anymore…
I loved teal. The color of the water of the island I grew up on before my parents joined this stupid cult and took me far away, where we could only see buildings and not an inch of nature.
I missed dipping my toes in the water. Missed the warm sand. Missed picking up seashells on the beach.
Life used to be good. Before. But maybe it could be good again?
The door of the shuttle opened and tears pressed behind my eyes.
If we ignored the parted crowd of colorful giant people, it looked like the place I grew up in.
The sand warmed the sole of my feet as the girls led me outside.
The sun, setting on the horizon, covered everything in a beautiful pink-orange light.
Although I could not see it, I heard the sound of water in the distance.
The chanting of some sort of birds. Some music that sounded like anything I had ever heard before.
My breath caught in my throat when my eyes landed on the two Cancos standing in the middle of the crowd. Both looked huge. Even though I had been given clues on which one of them my husband was, said clues were now absolutely pointless.
Red.
One had red skin and was wearing some gray-brown-greenish clothes that left most of his chest on display—and what a chest. A scarf-looking thing covered his shoulders and a long necklace fell down to his ribcage.
But the other one, although his skin was more of a purple—definitely looking like he was part of the girls’ family—was wearing bright red clothes.
Shit. Which one was it?
Did they dress me in red so I’d wear the same clothes or that my clothes would be the same color of his skin?
He gave a sharp nod to the girls and they started moving, leading me toward them.
Okay, I was going to humiliate myself. I would be stuck in front of the two, not knowing who I was supposed to turn to, and everyone around would be here to witness my anxiety attack.
Maybe my husband would be embarrassed. Maybe he’d cast me away.
And then what? I’d be taken back to Jake’s house?
He’d beat me in front of his parents for running away?
All of this would have been for nothing. The risks, the—
“Tamara,” Guidy whispered, pulling on my arm.
My feet were stuck. Digging in the sand, fighting to not move. My whole body felt numb and like I’d been struck by lightning at the same time. My heart was second away from bursting out of my chest.
Oh dear, I was going to faint in front of everyone. A joke. An embarrassment. Whoever my husband was between the two of them, he’d be regretting ever agreeing to this whole thing. He would—
“Tamara? Are you—”
Shit, I couldn’t breathe.
“Miss Matossi?” A human hand landed on my shoulder and I flinched, spinning around to face a very confused Maxwell. “Miss Matossi, are you alright?”
No, I wasn’t. No, I—
“She looks overwhelmed, brother,” one of the two men said and I made another turn.
Bad idea, I was now dizzy on top of everything else.
The red-skinned one leaned toward the other and whispered something to him that I didn’t hear.
The purple one nodded and took a step forward before stopping in front of me.
My vision started to blur around the edges.
“My name is Khegon,” he said softly, lifting his palm up.
“I am the leader of our people on Vallad. I am happy to welcome you among us and looking forward to calling you my sister.”
Sister. Calling me his sister.
I blinked slowly, fighting the urge my legs had to just give out, and turned my head toward the one that stayed behind. The red-skinned one. The larger one.
Of course it was him. I’d been too busy freaking out to think about all the clues I had been given.
Khegon waited, his palm still up. My damn heart needed to calm down. Tegha pulled on my hand and leaned closer to me. “Our father is waiting to greet you the way of our people.”
Shit. Right, the hand on the stomach thing.
Like I wasn’t already overwhelmed and overstimulated enough…
My throat bobbed but I gave him my approval. He smiled and then, slowly and carefully placed his hand on my stomach. He did not give me the time to do the same before he stepped back and extended his arm for me to take it.
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
I slid my hand in the crook of his arm and followed after him, my eyes now trained on the man we were walking to.
Filbur. The giant who was, according to his nieces, also a sweet healer. Whose skin and eyes were bright red. Whose ginormous hands looked like they could cover my whole damn head and wrap around the whole length of my forearm.
When we stopped next to him, Khegon smiled and gently picked up my hand.
“Welcome to our family. Tamara.”