Page 33

When we get out of the taxi, I immediately start sneezing again. I can barely appreciate the oddity of the house waiting for us. It’s what I imagine would happen if someone tried to meld a craftsman bungalow and an eco brutalist structure.

The whole thing is made of—what I assume is concrete—and covered in flourishing plants, but the shapes are not the modern, blocky things I expect from brutalism. The secondary material is wood… and not timber, but organic, seemingly pulled-straight-from-the-tree-wood.

I’d appreciate the oddity more if I got to look at it for more than two-seconds at a time.

“Who’s house,” I sneeze again. “Is this?”

“It’s one of the clan’s properties. It’s for people like us who live off world, but want to come home for the mating ceremony or other major events.”

When we get inside, I grab a towel, wetting it and holding it over my mouth and nose, just for a little relief.

“I’m going to ruin the ceremony, aren't I?” My voice is muffled through the cloth, but at least I can get a full sentence out.

“No.” He brushes a thumb across my cheek. “Have a look around, I need to make a phone call.”

He goes, leaving me to explore and to wonder what he actually said, because I don’t think they have phones here.

There’s one bedroom and bathroom off the main living space with furniture I don’t exactly understand, and out the doors at the back of the house is a glittering blue pond.

It’s not a bathtub… but I’m definitely looking forward to getting submerged.

The back “yard” is surrounded by a wall of enormous blue and green plants and thick purple trees with glowing mushrooms dotting the bark.

If I didn’t know there were houses on either side of us, I could easily believe we were secluded in some remote tropical paradise.

There are chairs out here, and, since the house doesn’t seem to help with the sneezing anyway, I sit on one of the enormous disc-shaped loungers beside the slowly swirling water.

It’s so clear I can see the bottom. Flat, smooth stones, and small grassy plants flex in the shadows and reflections.

Lochdon joins me a minute later with a tall glass of water.

“Thank you.” I say, and as soon as I take it from him, a familiar hole opens over me, but instead of a cock popping out of it, a box of allergy medicine falls into my lap before the hole closes up again.

“Phantom said that should help,” Lochdon sits beside me, waiting.

Of course he would call Phantom. They’re basically the intergalactic resource for humans at this point.

“I’ll thank Dr. Love when I get a chance.” Because I’m certain she’s the one who knew what to send me.

The box contains exactly two gel caps and instructions to take them both. I do, with the water Lochdon brought me.

The relief is instant.

Inhaling so deeply I feel like I’ve filled myself with air all the way down to my toes, I look up at Lochdon and can’t stop myself from smiling so widely my jaw joints start to pinch.

“Better?”

“Immeasurably.” I look at the empty box and frown. “But I’m probably going to need more than one box if we’re here for four days.”

“They said it would work for at least a week.”

“I hope they’re right.” Because I don’t know if I believe them.

“I’m glad we got that sorted out, and just in the nick of time.”

I look at my watch, even though it’s only tracking my biometrics right now, not an accurate time. “Where do we need to be?”

He kisses my knuckles. “The clan elders have been impatient to meet you.”

I had kind of forgotten that part.

“What was that face for?” He cups my chin in one of his hands and smiles down at me.

I almost tell him it’s nothing, but, “What if they don’t like me and change their mind?”

“They can’t. It’s too late for them to do that.” He kisses me once and then says, “You are the only one who can stop our mating.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Good.” He takes my hand and leads me past the pond and into a meandering trail through the plants that are too tall for me to see over.

It feels like some kind of a resort.

“Most clans have their own gardens like this. Homes back onto it. There are gathering spaces throughout and the ceremonial waters.” He nods toward a waterfall I can see when the leaves thin for a moment.

“Is this where everyone in the clan lives?”

“No. A lot of them do, but many of us have left.”

I’m not sure why… but then again, all I’ve seen so far is the pretty parts, and, “I’m glad you left, or else I never would have met you.”

“I’m glad too.”

He leads me into one of those meeting spaces and dozens of people turn to us, the sound they make is startling, even though I knew it was coming.

Despite having four hands, Glantanians don’t clap… they rub their fingers against their palms and the sound is like nothing I’ve ever heard.

I manage to stay put, even though I want to scooch behind Lochdon and hide.

I hold on to his arm a little more tightly. I don’t do the math, but hundreds of eyes are on me, and it’s weird… because that does make me nervous with my clothes on.

Not that I’m about to take them off here.

A woman whose skin is a beautiful pale violet comes to us first, holding out her hands.

“I’m so glad you arrived,” she says to Lochdon. “And I am so glad he has brought you home.”

She says it like this was always my home and they were simply waiting for me to come back.

“I’m very happy to be here.”

“Maggie,” Lochdon says, moving me to stand in front of him. “This is my mother, Farro. Mother, this is my mate.”

She doesn’t correct him that the ceremony hasn’t happened yet. She only smiles and says, “I am delighted to welcome you into our clan and into our family.”

She squeezes my hands and scrunches her face in a strange smile I’ve gotten used to on Lochdon’s face.

“Go, see your friends. There will be plenty of time for me to get to know her after the mating is complete.”

Chuckling, Lochdon takes me by the hand and leads me to a group that is impatiently waiting for us.

I’m not the only non-glantanian here, and that adds an odd little comfort.

There are so many people to meet and I forget half of their names before Lochdon pulls me out of the fray.

Five Glantanians sit in a soft arc at one edge of the clearing. I don’t need to be told to know they’re the “elders” Lochdon has told me make the rules and decisions for the clan.

Farro sits at the middle of them. She is the one who says, “There is one small order of business we must take care of before the blessed event tomorrow.”

She doesn’t move her head, but her eyes shift to the side and I look where she does.

Terjen stands at the entrance to the gathering space.

Seeing him again makes my skin crawl. I hold on to Lochdon’s hand a little tighter, wishing—again—that I could slip behind him.

Leaning close, Lochdon says, “They’re going to give you an option.”

“What kind of option?”

But he doesn’t have a chance to respond.

“One of our oldest rules was broken.” Farro points at the empty spot in front of her and Terjen moves. “Not just a clan rule, a rule that has existed between all Glantanians for more than a millennium.”

Terjen doesn’t speak. Eyes locked on the stones at his feet, he doesn’t move a muscle.

“You may ask for forgiveness. Whether you deserve it or not…” Farro lets the thought trail off and looks at me. “That is for Maggie to decide.”

Terjen turns and I hold Lochdon’s arm a little tighter. His other wraps around my shoulder, holding me close.

Still five feet away, Terjen goes to his knees. And once he’s there, all four of his hands upturned on his thighs, he says. “Please forgive me for my transgression. I knew what I was doing was wrong and I did it anyway. I beg your forgiveness.”

My mother would tell me to forgive him and move on. Tillie would probably tell me to kick him in the balls—but that’s my sister’s favorite option for revenge on people with balls to kick.

I don’t want to do either.

I don’t know what their traditions say I should do, but Lochdon said I had a choice and if it’s up to me… “Are you actually sorry? Or are you only here because they’ve made you come?”

He hesitates and I know the truth, even if he says, “I am, truly, sorry.”

Looking up from him to Farro, I know what I’m going to do.

“Do you accept his apology?” she asks.

“No.”

There’s a murmur from the other Glantanians gathered around us. Terjen pushes to his feet and takes three large steps back, his eyes fixed on the ground, his jaw clenched.

“Your apology has not been accepted.” Farro says as he turns back to her. “You will spend the next year under planetary arrest. After which point you may ask for absolution again. I suggest you spend the intervening year finding the penitence in your hearts. You are also barred from tomorrow’s ceremony and will stay away from both Maggie and Lochdon for the next year.”

“If they arrive,” the man to Farro’s left says. “You leave. If they are already there, you turn around and depart. There is no place on this planet where the need for your presence supersedes theirs. Do you understand?”

Terjen lifts his head, jaw tense, and after a moment’s pause, he says. “I understand.”

Farro flicks one hand and he leaves. The strange tension that had settled over me—over everyone, it seems—goes with him.

“Now,” Farro says, coming to us again, “Let’s eat. You have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow.”