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My family’s name was a taunting twist on his lips. A quick, pleased grin followed when he caught my flinch.
A burst of frustration and pride made me snap, “Then I’ll mine them myself! But you will have your credits by the end of the year. As agreed.”
“And the interest,” he added.
By then the interest would be as much as the original loan. And Mr. Cross knew it.
“And your interest,” I said back, my careful mask falling back into place after my brief outburst. “Of course. How could I forget?”
“I have something else to discuss with you,” he cut in before I ended the co
There was a long, pointed pause through the Halo. Though I couldn’t see it, I saw Mr. Cross shuffle something across his office desk. The sound of metal tinkered through the co
“Remember what we spoke about last time. Have you reconsidered?”
A jagged edge of my nail caught on the worn material of my pants, fraying the threads.
“Despite what you think, Mr. Cross, my sisters are not for sale,” I told him, my tone curt. I had the strongest urge to claw at his miniature, holographic image, if only to make those ugly words and the slimy knowing in his eyes go away.
“And what about you, Gemma?”
Stu
Mr. Cross leaned back in his chair. In addition to loaning credits to people he clearly shouldn’t loan money to, the human businessman was known for something else entirely throughout the Quadrants, something I thought far more dangerous.
He called it a matchmaking service. But underneath its “Lonely Beings Looking for Love” marketing bullshit, I knew what it really was.
It was human males looking for exotic alien mistresses who could do things their human wives couldn’t. It was brutish, cold, lizard-faced Jetutians wanting a female that they could use whenever they wanted. It was wealthy Gwytri heirs that needed to marry to access their inheritance—and once they did, they shipped their new wives off to the nearest colony without a second thought.
Hell, I’d even heard that Mr. Cross coordinated monthly orgy parties with females from his little black book. Desperate females who needed credits fast.
Desperate just like me.
“How much is your pride worth, I wonder?” he asked, picking at the ends of his thick gray mustache. “How far would you go to save your home? Your family’s good name?”
“If my father knew that you were speaking to me like this, he’d have your head,” I said, my tone cold.
A bark of laughter rose from Mr. Cross. “Come now, Gemma. You’re past your prime. It is preserving your sisters’ virtues that your father is more concerned with now.”
The truth of his words stung. They stung more deeply than I thought they should.
Past my prime?
I was thirty.
Yet…most human women were married by twenty-five—especially those that lived under the Earth Council’s rule. On the planet of New Everton, in the Collis, I was considered withered. Like rotting fruit on a vine.
“Good thing for you that I have an interested suitor,” Mr. Cross continued. “One that was very interested in the renowned beauty of the Hara daughters.”
His mockery was plain to hear. Everyone knew that my sisters were the beauties of the family. They were spitting images of Mother—though Piper had taken father’s dark hair, like me—whereas I had only taken small pieces of her. And they were both of marrying age with Mira being twenty-three and Piper twenty.
“What suitor?” I asked before I could stop myself, keeping very still.
Mr. Cross’s eyes narrowed on me. His expression was watchful. Alert.
The back of my neck prickled.
“A Kylorr.”
The blood drained from my face. Sucking in a quick breath, I stumbled back, as if I could escape the impact of that admission, even though it had come from a tiny floating Halo orb.
“I didn’t meet the suitor in person,” Mr. Cross went on to explain, his tone nonchalant. “I met his ambassador. He gave me the impression that no price would deter his lord from making the match. The Kylorr in question is apparently very wealthy. One of the heirs to the Kaalium.”
I barely heard his words over the rushing in my ears.
“The m-match,” I repeated dumbly, my superpower momentarily leaving me when my voice came out strangled and weak. “You ca
“Marriage. I mean marriage, Gemma,” Mr. Cross said slowly, that grin crawling over his features. “I’m helping you, can’t you see that? I can make all your problems go away in the blink of an eye. All your debts”—he snapped his fingers, the sharp sound jarring—“gone.”
I shivered, the cavern walls begi
“The Kylorr will pay whatever you like. But he is determined to marry a daughter of House Hara. Oh, and Gemma?”
“What?” I whispered.
Mr. Cross gri
“The Kylorr specified his preference is the eldest daughter. He wants you.”
Chapter 2
Gemma
Our estate in the Collis was picturesque, a perfectly grand home surrounded by sprawling, groomed gardens, set against the backdrop of regal blue-tipped mountains.
Or, at least, that was how I’d seen it before: perfect and immaculate.
A cobbled path led up to the house from the main road, passing between extravagant golden gates, ru
After Father had returned from the war—a hero, decorated in glittering medals and fat shimmering jewels—once we’d packed up our meager belongings from our previous dwelling on New Inverness, the Earth Council had sent us here. I still remembered the first time I’d seen it. I’d been thirteen at the time. Experiencing the estate, in all of its perfect glory, I’d thought everything would be fine. I’d thought our lives would change forever. That we would be happy. That Mother wouldn’t be sad anymore.
Because how could she be sad in such a magical, lovely place like this?
There was a miner lingering near the gates as I approached. It had been a long walk back to the estate from the mine shaft transport but, truthfully, I didn’t remember much after Mr. Cross had ended our Halo call. It took me by surprise to find myself at the swirling steel gates. Once they’d been painted a gleaming gold. Now the grime and rust made them appear a muddy bronze.
“Miss Hara,” the Killup miner started, his hands twisting together when he spotted me.
“Mira is in with her tutor this hour, Sorj,” I informed him, continuing down the pathway between the gates. Father hated that Mira often looked for Sorj through the window at dusk.
“Miss Hara,” Sorj said again. Even though my thoughts were still pi
“What is it?” I asked, frowning, stopping on the road. My head was still throbbing. All I wanted was to go upstairs and sink into a hot bath. But I knew there was more work to be done. I had the ledgers to balance. Workers to organize to begin clearing out the new cavern of blue salt. And I needed to contact that potter on Dumera to see if the plates Piper had purchased could be returned.
Sorj shrunk back a little. His gray skin was darker in the evening light. The Killup male had always seemed wary of me. Piper said it was because of my face. She said I always looked displeased, that I had the expression of a pinched, stern, cranky tutor. Like Ms. Jada, our governess when we’d been young.