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“Y ou must choose.”

His brother’s voice behind him didn’t startle him. He’d heard the heavy footfall of Liekki’s steps as he climbed the stairs and then strutted to the suite’s landing beside him. However, his brother’s words did cause his core to tighten and a low blaze to burn. “Not you, too.”

“Aodh.” Liekki moved beside him.

Liekki’s bulk entered his peripheral, but he focused on the horizon—orange, blush, and purple.

Over the decade, as the atmosphere cleared from the catastrophe, new chemically-altered molecules were left in the air, no longer harmful to those with fragile lungs, but things were different.

The sun would set soon. Dusk was the time of day he enjoyed setting out alone, clearing his head.

The air was better up here than the oppressive atmosphere a floor below in the Great Hall.

“Aodh. You must do this.” Liekki grasped his arm, forcing him to turn.

He allowed the growl rumbling low in his chest to leave his mouth. Not to frighten his brother but to let Liekki know to leave him the hell alone.

“Back off.” Aodh leaned closer to his face, nostrils flaring. “I have had enough of everyone offering me their opinion of my life.”

They were equal in width, but Aodh had two inches on Liekki in height. When they stood shoulder to shoulder in a battle, it sent fear into any who would oppose them. The most significant difference was Aodh’s presence came with the weight of authority.

His brother released him but didn’t move out of his space. “It won’t stop. You’re the head. If things aren’t right there, then everything is off.”

There was truth in his brother’s words. Aodh knew it. That didn’t mean it had to sit well with him. “I know my responsibility.”

“Then do it. Get it done. At the next council meeting, make a choice. Take what is yours.”

It wasn’t that fucking simple. Aodh shoved a hand over the top of his head through his hair. His body felt tight, restrained. The pressures of his situation bound him like armor. He expanded his chest, taking in a large breath, trying to breathe through the tension.

“If you think it’s so fucking easy. You take my place.” He took a step, bringing his face within inches of his brothers. Aodh allowed all the frustration and angst of the day to press out from his gut and vibrate along his skin, ensuring his brother felt every heated pulse—a challenge.

“I won’t fight you.” Liekki, one of their kind’s most fierce warriors, stepped back. “But if you don’t fulfill your duty, I will stand with our Wise Ones in their choice for you.”

“ Fuuuck .” Instead of responding to the threat of the man who was not only kin but also his closest ally and confidant, Aodh turned back toward the setting sun and stepped over the ledge.

~YH~

“Help!” she yelled out the open passenger window, slamming her foot on the brake, causing the old truck to groan and sputter before it ground to a halt before the sliding doors.

She jerked the gear into park. Her heart was beating so hard she could barely hear her voice as she rushed around the front of the vehicle—the cold, hard ground scraping and digging. “Someone help my sister. Please!”

Kai yanked open the passenger door, Morlie tumbled into her arms, limp and wheezing. Usually, she would not have been able to bear her sister’s weight, but Morlie had withered to nothing in several weeks since the virus had attacked her.

A few people meandered out of the doors, some coughing and others limping.

Even in their finery, most looked drained and worn with clothing eschewed—similar to her and Morlie’s disposition, if you add dirty and unkempt.

But no care plaza workers hustled out of the place.

The others made eye contact with her, shaking their heads and groaning inaudible words as they walked by.

Kai didn’t want the pity of those who could easily decipher what was going on with her sister. To hell with them.

“Kai...le-av-e me.” Morlie’s words came out broken and wispy. Her eyes glanced at Kai, glassy, inflamed slits. The red tint of her eyes was evidence that the virus was moving into the final stages.

Kai had seen it in others in the Dispatch. In less than a couple of weeks, they were all buried. She would not let that happen to her sister.

“Never.” She slung her sister’s frail, reed-like arm over her shoulder.

“Come on. I’m getting you help. They have to.

” Please . Wrapping both arms around Morlie’s narrow waist, she dragged the rest of her sister’s body from the car.

She ignored the cool, clammy feel of Morlie’s skin and the sour smell of death emitting from her sister’s mouth.

Morlie had been feverish for over a week as Kai nursed her with the small amount of medicine she could barter, praying it would drop.

It did break, only for her sister to spiral downward into the icy hands of the virus—XD87867.

It was a death sentence for most. Not for her sister. She refused to accept that fate.

Morlie’s weak legs buckled beneath her, threatening to drag them both to the ground two steps from the entrance of the care plaza.

“Move!” She didn’t intend to bark at her sister, who couldn’t help her lack of strength, but Kai was scared. She couldn’t lose Morlie. Refused to lose Morlie.

“Ooo...k-ay.” One foot. Drag, stop. Second foot. Drag, stop.

Painfully slow, they entered the medical place’s clear, clean sliding glass doors.

Inside, the cold, gleaming floor sent chills from her heels to her heart.

Kai shivered and paused. Shocked. She would have thought the place was stuffed to capacity with all the ill people on the streets and dying in the various Dispatch communities.

Across the pristine waiting area with the stylish cream-colored seats sitting vacant were two men in pale blue uniforms with deep red stripes down the side.

Like sentries, they stood before large medical doors behind wood podiums, jotting notes onto tablets as they chatted.

Neither of them even glanced in their direction.

“Help! Please!” She urged Morlie forward, one painful step at a time.

Finally, one, then the other man, looked up at them. Eyes bugged as they took in their appearance.

“You can’t be here,” one called out. He held a palm toward her as if his single hand could stop her.

What ? “My sister. She’s sick and needs medical attention.”

Another palm. This time from the man on the left. “You must leave.”

“No,” she growled. Her and Morlie’s grinding, slow pace barely took them halfway across the room. “We are here for help.”

Smooth and instep as the synchronized divers Kai had seen in old Olympic footage, the two men stepped around their stands to move before them with kissing shoulders, blocking their way. “This is no place for your kind.”

Those words halted her. Kai doubted they were commenting on their race since both men were of a deeper tone than she and Morlie. “This is a medical facility, isn’t it?”

They frowned and mimicked expressions.

The one on the right spoke. “It is. But you cannot be here. Go.”

One spoke, but both gestured toward the door behind her and Morlie.

She shook her head and squeezed her sister tighter. “Look, I can pay.” Kai swallowed. “I have some money.”

But she had no clue how much treatment would cost. Most in the Dispatch didn’t seek medical aid from the plazas.

Instead, they went to naturopaths and others who claimed healing potions or abilities.

However, rumors were rampant that the Consumers had a cure for the virus with survivors to their credit.

The duo eyed her and her sister, gazed at each other, and then returned to her and Morlie.

“You are a Consumer?” The man on the right arched a brow at her, doubt of her words clear in the distortion of his features.

Squeezing her sister’s waist harder with one arm, she reached her freed hand into her pocket.

She dug deep to fist the money from her pants.

Kai had to barter their shoes, mother’s silver hairpin, and undergarments.

Even worn and soiled, they were still more than others had.

However, she’d willingly give every last coiled tendril on her head to restore Morlie’s health.

Holding her hand out before the duo, she showed them what she had with a slow peel of her fingers.

The man on the right’s brow went higher while the one on the left leaned down as he frowned at the meager offering.

When they stepped back and stared at each other, Kai could practically hear the rejection coming her way.

“Please. My sister needs help. I’ll do anything.

Anything . No matter the cost,” she pleaded, considering offering these men what she hadn’t been willing to relinquish to the traders in the Dispatch.

The truck. Besides her sister’s life, it was the most significant value to her.

Even if the beater wasn’t worth much monetarily, it was worth gold in sentiment.

The only other thing she owned that was significant to her was her father’s green military jacket.

She doubted they wanted anything to do with that article of clothing.

“Anything?” The men echoed each other.

“Yes. Yes!” she rushed out, afraid they would change their minds.

The men glanced back at each other. One nodded, and then the other. Kai didn’t hear any words exchanged, but something in their stares proved the men were communicating a message.

“I will call for a plaza attendant.” The man on the right returned to his podium and lifted a radio. There was a loud overhead beep before he spoke again. “Attendant for service needed in intake gallery.”

The second man didn’t take the money. He just stood there staring at Morlie. There was an odd look in his eyes as he assessed her silently.

His gaze made Kai uneasy, but she shoved her feelings down. They had agreed to give her sister medical attention, which was all that mattered.