Chapter 5 #2
The studio is exactly what I expected from an artist’s space.
Canvases lean against every wall, some finished, some works in progress.
Brushes soak in jars of murky water. Paint-splattered cloths drape over chairs.
Natural light pours through a large window, illuminating dust motes that drift lazily through the air.
She gives us a quick tour, showing us another room that she’s turned into her office, where she also works on digital art and on communicating with Minecorp and customers.
“Thank you for taking the time to speak with me,” I say as Naomi gestures for me to sit on a small couch near the kitchen, covered in a colorful throw blanket.
“Of course. Leah’s on her way too, she’s grabbing lunch from the cafeteria first.” Naomi settles into a chair across from me, tucking her legs beneath her. “We thought you might want to interview us together. We’re a package deal, pretty much and this would make it easier for you.”
I pull out my tablet. “That works perfectly.”
Trunk takes up position in the doorway, arms crossed, watching.
“So,” I begin, “how did you end up on Timbur?”
Naomi’s smile turns nostalgic. “I was visiting Leah. She’s my best friend, we were roommates at university.
She studied engineering, I studied art and marketing.
When she moved here to this isolated planet and married Saxon, I thought I might never see her in real life again.
” She shrugs. “But then I got a tourist visa. Just a month-long visit to see her and meet her daughter and experience this place she kept telling me about.”
“And you stayed.”
“I stayed because I met Chief at the Dark Moon Costume Ball.”
I make a note. “Tell me about that night.”
“It started out wonderful. It was a masked ball held in this enormous cavern inside the mine. Hundreds of beings, all in costume and masks. Music, dancing, games.” She pauses.
“Chief and I had been circling each other all night. I knew something was happening between us, but I didn’t understand what.
I didn’t know about the fever bond yet. Didn’t know what it meant when he kept looking at me like that. ”
“Like what?”
“Like I was the only person in the room.” She smiles softly at the memory. “We finally started talking and dancing. And then when midnight struck and it was time to take off our masks...” The smile fades. “And the mist came.”
I look up from my tablet. “The mist?”
“It flooded the whole cavern. This glowing white fog that rolled in from somewhere in the mine. And everyone just... dropped.” Naomi’s voice is quiet now.
“They all landed on the floor and fell asleep where they lay. Hundreds of beings, collapsing onto the floor. The music stopped. Glasses shattered. People screamed, and then they went silent.”
“Everyone fell asleep?”
“Everyone except the Fever Brothers and their Brides.” Naomi meets my eyes.
“They have this special ability where they can scent their mates before the hand clasp. Most Xylan don’t know if someone is compatible until they actually touch bare skin to bare skin.
That’s what triggers the claiming. But the Fever Brothers know if a female is their mate by scenting them.
They know prior to the hand clasping that it will be positive. ”
My stylus stops moving.
I look at Trunk.
He’s still in the doorway, arms crossed, expression unreadable. He inhaled near me last night at dinner. And in the hallway outside my room.
He knows. He already knows the answer.
I force my attention back to Naomi. “And this scenting ability protected them from the mist?”
“Somehow, yes. Them and their Brides, who had already shared pheromones through the claiming.” Naomi shifts in her chair. “But I wasn’t Chief’s Bride yet. I was just... close. Close enough that when everyone was falling and panicking, we reached for each other.”
“And your gloves came off.”
“In the chaos, yes. People were trampling each other trying to get to the exits. I got knocked down, crushed under two males who passed out on top of me.” She takes a breath. “Chief found me and pulled them off. And when he took my hand to help me up...”
“You weren’t wearing gloves anymore.”
“Neither of us were. And the moment our bare skin touched the claiming hit. Right there on the floor of the cavern, surrounded by hundreds of sleeping beings.”
I’m quiet for a moment, processing this. “Was the mist ever investigated?”
“Minecorp said it was natural. Illibrium gas escaping during the Dark Moon, apparently it’s happened before, but not in generations. Not in anyone’s living memory.” Naomi’s expression hardens slightly. “But Scar doesn’t believe that. He thinks someone triggered it deliberately.”
“Why would someone do that?”
“He thinks they were gathering intel. Testing who could remain standing. Identifying if anyone else had the same abilities as the Fever Brothers.” She pauses. “Grytel, the CEO of Minecorp, left the ball about thirty minutes before the mist rolled in. Scar thinks that’s suspicious, and so do I.”
I write this down. Grytel. CEO. Left early.
A knock at the door interrupts us, and Naomi’s face lights up. “That’ll be Leah.”
The woman who enters is smaller than Naomi, with golden-toned skin and a bright smile.
She’s visibly pregnant, further along than Naomi, and she’s carrying a container of food from the cafeteria.
She sets it down on a cluttered table and immediately wraps Naomi in a hug.
“How are you feeling?” Leah asks, pulling back to study her friend’s face. “Still nauseous in the mornings?”
“Getting better. Jana’s been making me this ginger tea that actually helps.”
“Good. Make sure you’re eating enough. You’re growing a whole person in there.”
The easy affection between them is obvious. These two women have history. Years of friendship that predates their lives on this planet.
Leah turns to me and extends her hand. “You must be Ines. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Leah. Saxon’s wife.”
“Thank you for taking the time.”
“Of course. I love the idea of you doing an article on our lives for New Earth News. I read their stories all the time.” She settles onto the couch next to Naomi, their shoulders touching. “What did I miss?”
“The mist,” Naomi says. “The ball. I told her how Chief and I ended up together.”
“Ah.” Leah nods. “The night everything went sideways in the best possible way.”
I turn to Leah. “Naomi mentioned that you were the first human bride in the family.”
“I was.” Leah tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “I originally came to Timbur as a mine tech and met Saxon on my first day of work, actually. There was an accident with one of the lifts, and we ended up... well, it’s a long story. But by the end of that day, I was his wife.”
“That fast?”
“The claiming doesn’t wait for convenient timing.
” Leah’s smile is wry. “He scented me before I even knew what that meant. The Fever Brothers just know. One breath, and they have their answer. I didn’t understand what was happening until we touched our bare hands and suddenly I couldn’t think about anything except him. ”
I glance at Trunk again. He hasn’t moved from the doorway, but I can feel his attention on me like a physical weight.
“Were the brothers suspicious of you at first?” I ask Leah. “Being the first human?”
“A little. It must’ve been weird for them, that their brother was mating with a female that wasn’t Xylan and was in fact of a species they hadn’t even seen before in real life.
They’re protective of each other. But once they saw it was real, that the bond was genuine.
..” She shrugs and gives Texon a wide smile.
“Family is everything to them and I became family the moment Saxon claimed me.”
I tap my stylus against my tablet, considering my next question. “I’ve been hearing about some incidents involving your family. The attack on Heavy. The mist. I understand there were others?”
Leah and Naomi exchange a look. Something passes between them, a shared understanding, a shared fear.
“Someone murdered their parents,” Leah says quietly. “Years ago. Masked killers broke into their home and slaughtered them in their beds. It was never solved.”
“And then Daxon,” Naomi adds. “The eldest brother. He was betrayed by his own cousin, framed for something he didn’t do. They stripped him of his position as head of the Miners’ Union and banished him from Timbur.”
“Then Heavy was attacked at the Hunter Station,” Leah continues. “His memory wiped. Left for dead. A fake note to make his pregnant Bride think he’d abandoned her.”
“And now the mist.” Naomi’s voice is hard. “Four incidents. Same family. And Minecorp calls them all coincidence or random chance or natural phenomena.”
“You don’t believe that,” I say.
Leah looks at me steadily. “I believe someone powerful wants this family destroyed. And I believe they’re not finished.”
The words hang in the air.
I glance at Trunk again.
His jaw is tight. His hands are fisted at his sides. He doesn’t shut down the conversation this time. Doesn’t tell me this interview is supposed to be about human brides, not family tragedies.
He just stands there, silent, watching me write it all down.
The walk back to the compound is quiet.
The light has changed while we were inside. During the ride back in public transport, Timbur’s sky is deepens from purple-blue to something darker, and the two green moons become visible through gaps in the jungle canopy. The air has cooled slightly, though it’s still warm against my skin.
I keep pace with Texon, very aware of the space between us. The sound of our boots on the path. The rhythm of his breathing.
I’ve been turning it over in my mind since Naomi first said it. They can scent their mates before the hand clasp. One breath, and they have their answer.
He’s scented me. I know he has. At dinner, when he leaned closer than necessary, in the hallway outside my room, when he inhaled sharply. At the cafeteria table, when his shoulder almost brushed mine.
He knows. He already knows whether I’m compatible or not.
And he hasn’t said anything.
I stop walking.
Texon takes two more steps before he realizes I’m no longer beside him. He turns back. His expression is guarded.
“You scented me,” I say.
He doesn’t respond.
“At dinner,” I continue. “In the hallway. You inhaled my scent. At least twice that I noticed.” I hold his gaze, refusing to look away. “Naomi said Fever Brothers know before the hand clasp. One breath, and they have their answer.”
He stands very still.
“Am I your mate?”
The question hangs between us. The jungle hums around us with insects, distant bird calls, the rustle of enormous leaves in a breeze I can barely feel.
“No,” Texon says. His voice is flat. Final. “We are not compatible.”
Something flickers across his features. There and gone so fast I almost miss it. Disappointment? Frustration? I can’t read him well enough to know for certain.
And I don’t understand why my own chest feels tight.
Why something sinks in my stomach at his answer.
I barely know this male. I’m here to investigate a cold case, not to find a mate.
I didn’t even want a mate and children at this time in my life.
I have a career to rebuild. A reputation to salvage.
A life waiting for me back on New Earth.
So why does “not compatible” feel like a door slamming shut?
“Good,” I say. My voice is steadier than I feel. “That simplifies things.”
He looks at me for a long moment. His dark eyes unreadable. His massive frame silhouetted against the strange purple light filtering through the trees.
Then he turns and keeps walking.
I follow, aware of the space between us.
Not compatible, I tell myself. Just focus on the story.
I don’t want a mate. Right? I don’t want forever. I just wanted... what? A date? A chance? The possibility of something?
It doesn’t matter now.
Someone is hunting this family. And I’m going to find out who.