Broken Skies

“I am not your responsibility!” My voice edges up into a yell and the heat of anger starts flowing into my body.

“You are when I promised Jace I’d take care of you! He knew…” Flint trails off, shaking his head, his voice going softer. “The stupid bastard knew something like this was going to happen. He made me promise…dammit!” He turns away, rubs the back of his hand across his face and then faces me again. “It’s the only thing I can do for him now.”

I clench my hands into fists. “No it’s not! I can go get him!”

Standing, leaning inches from my face, he screams with nothing but naked anguish. “Jace is dead!” His voice catches on the last word and he slams back down into the chair.

“He. Is. Not!”

Our eyes meet and we just stare at each other, chests slowly rising and falling with our anger.

“She is correct. Jace is not dead.” Oh now, Lir decides to join in on this lovely conversation.

“Don’t you even say his name!” Flint’s on his feet, across the room and pushing Lir against the wall with his arm over his windpipe almost before I can blink. “How would you know? This is all your fault!”

To his credit, Lir maintains the stoic calm he adopted outside. “Release me and I can explain.”

Two loud inhales and exhales and Flint drops his arm and steps backwards. “Explain.”

“Perhaps we can do this civilly?” Lir’s eyebrow goes up, it’s the mocking one though, not the amused one. “Sitting around the table like… civilized members of our species?”

Flint jerks his head in a nod and comes back to the table, taking the seat next to me and gesturing for Lir to take the seat across the table. “Okay, we’re sitting. Now explain.”

Lir’s eyes are even more like emeralds when he turns them on me, hard with pointed facets. “Jax, tell him about your dreams.”

“My dreams?” Now he wants to have this discussion? He didn’t believe me when I told him…does he believe me now? And if he does, why?

“Yes, your dreams. The ones about… your brother.” Lir’s composure cracks for just a second. He tenses his jaw and studies the wood grain on the table.

“The ones you told me weren’t real, are those the dreams you mean?”

“I believe I was mistaken.”

“You believe…” Arg! I hadn’t really paid attention to Lir’s prim and proper formality when we met, but after spending time with him relaxed and laughing, the return of his prissiness is grating on my last nerve. It reminds me of our last argument. “What is wrong with you?”

He still won’t even look at me. “There is nothing wrong with me.”

If I could do the eyebrow thing, I’d be doing it. “I’m sorry that Flint assaulted you…twice.” I glare at Flint. “But that’s done with now. And he will apologize. I can’t deal with the two of you fighting right now. Can you please drop the prose and just speak?”

His eyes finally come up to mine, his gaze icy and intense. “I have no argument with your mate, that is, as long as he has none with me. I do, however, have an argument with you and I will talk any way I damn well please.”

“With me?” My voice is a squeak. “What did I do?”

His eyes flick to Flint and then back to me. “This is not the proper venue for this discussion.”

“Not the…what?” Confusion wars with anger and I’m left with a strange mixture of the two.

Lir sighs and shakes his head. “Maybe it is different for you, but where I come from, we do not conveniently forget to mention that we are mated.” The last few words leave his mouth through his teeth. His nostrils flare as he waits for my response.

“Mated?” His eyes go to Flint, who is watching our conversation with interest. “You mean Promised?”

Lir’s eyes narrow. “If that is what you humans call it.”

And then I get it. Laughter bubbles up from my chest and out of my mouth. “You think…no. It was just a stupid ceremony. I had no choice… his idiotic father and his asinine Promising. It’s not what you think… Why do you even care?” That’s actually a wonderful question. Is it about the kiss? He can’t possibly be jealous, can he?

Any semblance of control on Lir’s features vanishes. His face cycles from disbelief to anger to confusion and even a tiny flash of something that looks like hope. He blinks slowly. “You really don’t know. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.” A hint of a smile. “That is a discussion we should have in private. But first you should explain to your friend about your dreams.”

* * * * * * *

After I explain the dreams I’ve been having about Jace, Flint leans back in his chair and lets out a long sigh. He doesn’t question. He doesn’t look confused. He just looks relieved. Flint is taking this whole dream co

I’m the one that did the explaining, why am I the one that is left confused? “So, you believe me? That I’m really dreaming about Jace?” I ask.

“Yes.” He nods and clasps his hands together behind his head, tilting the chair backward onto two legs.

“Just like that? No surprise? No argument? No telling me I’m crazy?” Flint’s taking it better than Lir and the alien actually has experience with something like it. Unless… “Has this happened to Jace before?”

Flint sits up again and swallows loudly. “There’s something you should probably know.”

The words send ice into my body. Whatever he has to tell me is bound to be something I don’t want to know. “And what is that?”

He exhales and looks at his hands. “You should know about your mother.” His eyes slide over to Lir and he swallows again. “About what she was.”

All I can do is stare at him blankly. Things are clicking into place in my head as I put it together for myself, but…no. That can’t be right. I shake my head softly.

When I don’t say anything, he continues. “She was one of them, an erk. Here on some sort of early arrival program.” He purses his lips and stares into my eyes. “My father thinks you’re some sort of weapon. Quicker, able to blend in and not dependent on the cuffs. ”

A rock settles on my chest and I close my eyes. Breathe. If my mother was E’rikon then… I open my eyes and search out Lir. “Did you know? Is that why…” I clench my jaw and breathe slowly, fighting the burn in the back of my eyes. “Is that why they took him? They knew what he was. They were looking… They were looking for us?” I try to ask the question as calmly as possible, but my voice almost breaks at the end. The pain of betrayal is ten times worse than the snake’s venom. “You lied to me.”

Lir steps forward. “No. There are rumors. I had suspicions…” He places his hands on my cheeks, peering into my eyes. Searching. Waiting. I look away.

“So you knew?” Hope dies in my chest leaving a hollow feeling.

Lir pulls my chin up until I’m looking at him again. “About the rumors, yes. About you? No, not for sure.” He runs the back of his hand down my cheek and I fight the urge to lean into it. “If I’d known I would have told you. This changes everything. We have to get to the city right away.”

I pull away from him. Confusion rolls through me. He wants to get me to the city. He wants me to be their weapon. “I’m not doing it. I won’t. I’m not a weapon.”

Understanding washes over his face. “No, that’s not what I meant,” he says. “You weren’t meant to be a weapon. You were meant to unite us.”

Flint breaks in. “How do you know all this, alien?”

Sliding his eyes to Flint, Lir tenses. “Considering it has more to do with my race than yours, you seem to know quite a bit about it as well, human. How do you know all this?” I’m interested in Flint’s answer to his question as well.

Flint shuffles his feet against the floor and his eyes dart between me and Lir. “Jace told me.” I don’t know if I’m more surprised that Jace told Flint or that Jace knew at all. “After…. What happened…Jace didn’t know what to do. He was taking care of you by himself and you needed him almost constantly. You couldn’t even sleep without him, wouldn’t let anyone else near you. He had no time to hunt, no time to do anything really but care for you. I helped as much as I could…”