“I know you’re scared, but I’m not your enemy.”
Yeah, right. “Of course, you are. You’re here to retaliate for Xared. You’re planning to kill me. It’s what humans do!”
He snorted disdainfully. “Had we not gotten to Xed in time, yeah, I’d have ripped out your throat in a way to make a Remnant proud. You’re right about that. No power under heaven would have kept you alive had any harm befallen him. But Xed’s fine. And you have him to thank for your rescue. He’s the only reason I would have ever risked a strike team by sending them out in broad open daylight to try and save your parents.”
“What do you mean?”
“You heard me.” He tapped his ear. “Hey Master X? Can you come here and sweet talk your girl? She’s not listening to me.”
Xared appeared instantly at Crow’s side.
Daria staggered back against the wall as she tried to make sense of everything that was happening, and the speed at which it was assaulting her. Her mind whirled and rebelled against it. It was too much, too fast.
How could Xed be here? Alive and unharmed? It didn’t make sense.
They’d taken him. No one survived Dawner interrogation.
No one.
“It’s all right, Daria. You’re safe.”
She didn’t feel that way. Confused? Most definitely. But safe?
This was most assuredly not safe.
“What is this? How can you be here?”
Xared glanced to the human next to him. “They’re not our enemies.”
Well, they certainly weren’t their families or friends. Her friends didn’t dress that way.
She scoffed at him. “Are you insane?”
Yet no sooner were those words out of her mouth than she noticed something.
Something that couldn’t be true ...
Could it?
Her last thought rang in a mocking tone through her head as she stared at the two males, side-by-side. Like that, she couldn’t miss seeing a truth that horrified her. One that couldn’t be denied.
Crow and Xed were virtually the same height. Same build.
Same sculpted jaw. Their lips were almost identical in shape and form. Only where Xared’s were dark gray, almost black, Crow’s were rosy pink. And Xared had a divet in his chin that Crow lacked.
Likewise, their eyes were of identical shape and size, only opposite in color. Xared’s midnight black to Crow’s silver. But their hair was a matching shade of black and the exact mass of thick, chaotic curls...
While she might not be family to these humans, Xared most certainly was.
“You’re related?”
Was that even possible? Could humans and Materians do that?
Surely it would be the same as trying to procreate with a donkey.
Xared raked his hand through his hair before he answered quietly. “Josiah’s my uncle. But you can’t tell anyone, Daria. No one knows that outside of my immediate family.”
“Josiah?”
He gestured at the human. “Josiah Crow. He’s the leader and commander of this colony.”
This was unreal. Sliding down the wall, she crouched on the floor as the truth struck her harder than any blow. Xared really was partially human. “Which parent?”
“My mother’s the daughter of his older brother.”
Yet they appeared to be the same age ... or at least close to it. “Do humans age differently?”
Xared scratched at his ear—his nervous habit, and made an uncomfortable face. “You want to take this one, Cochise?”
Josiah grimaced. “Only Jake was ever allowed to use that particular middle name for me, giimoozaabi. But to answer the question, as a rule ... no, not really. We age about the same. Or at least we did. I, however, am a bit different than the rest, thanks to the little illness you Drabs were so kind enough to drop on us.” He smirked at Daria. “Suppose I should thank you for my extended years on this earth. Too bad, I was born an ungrateful bastard. Something my father was gracious enough to point out to me of every day of his blissfully short life.”
Wow, his sarcasm was thick enough to use as a road block. Too bad they couldn’t bottle it and sell it for its toxicity. That alone would have finished off his people.
“So how did you escape?” She glanced to Xed.
Xared inclined his head to Josiah. “My uncle.”
“No one touches my boy.” He narrowed his eyes on Xared. “Who should have listened to me and stayed home today like he was supposed to. But no. You just how to go on to school, didn’t you, Lord Hard Head?”
“Not what got me into trouble. I still don’t know how she found my ankh. There’s no way I dropped it. I would never be that stupid.”
They both turned to stare at her with an unsettling intensity.
Daria gulped. Well, there was no need to keep the secret. Especially not now. “Frayne gave it to me. He said he saw it fall out of your bag.”
Josiah spoke in a language she didn’t recognize. Whatever he said, it caused Xared to roll his eyes in response. Wow, he either was the most fearless creature alive to be so flippant with a man this deadly.
Or he was the dumbest one ever born.
Something confirmed when Xared scoffed. “I can’t cut the throat of everyone who makes me angry, Joey.”
“That’s the effing Drab in you, boy. Throw it aside, reach down deep, and embrace your inner demon. You just need to find the beast, shake hands and make friends. I know you have it in you. I’ve seen a glimpse before.”
He clapped Josiah on the back. “That would have been your reflection in a mirror. It’s why I have you. You’re my own personal trunk monkey.”
“I should shove you in a trunk, monkey.”
They had completely lost her with this entire conversation. And none of it pertained to what concerned her most. “Is there any way to help my parents?”
Josiah winced. “Tag, champ. You’re up.”
“I really hate you.” Sighing heavily, Xared moved to crouch on the floor by her side. He reached out and took her hand like he used to do when they were kids and she was forced to stay at home because of her endless rounds of mysterious illnesses that had kept her bedridden.
The warmth of his touch soothed her in spite of her panic and uncertainty. “I need you to breathe with me, Darus.”
He only said things like that whenever he had profoundly bad news to share. Her heart stopped as fear choked her with dread and remorse. “Are they dead?”
“I hope not. I pray not.” His grip tightened on her hand to give her pressure and to help keep her calm. “But there’s something I have to tell you.”
What now? Honestly? She couldn’t take any more hits before they shattered her. She was already staggering from the blows. “What? What could possibly be worse?”
He hesitated.
Her gut twisted even tighter.
“Oh, for God’s sake, Xed. Look at her face. You have her terrified. Just spit it out already.” Josiah glared at them. “You’re half human, too, Drab. It’s why your mother and his were so close, and why they watched after each other the way they did.”