Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77692 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
*
“Maybe now that it’s just us and your granddaughter,” I say to Nowas. “You can tell me where mother and Ila are.”
Suddenly, sadness bleeds through every part of him. Maybe because it’s just us and his granddaughter that my father allows his mask to drop that I hadn’t even realized he was wearing. His eyes cast down as his shoulders slump. A sigh leaves him, and he looks out the window for a few moments. That’s when the worry turns to dread. We’ve had many a family and royal meeting in this room, and whenever my father looks out that window, I know his next words will be ones I do not want to hear. He looks back at me before he speaks, but the tiredness in his gaze, well, it only makes that dread churn inside me.
“After we received your last message,” he begins, “we knew that certain events were sure to follow. That the females would refuse to come here or stop seeking safety with the Hallans you left behind. The Opposition would either stop working with us, or they would splinter. The New Order could seize upon the division and take back whatever power they’ve lost. The Minas all agreed that the females from Earth are essential to our futures here and having them refuse to come and losing faith in Hallans would jeopardize not only the liberties we’re trying to ensure they gain on Earth, but our future on Hallalah. Especially with the birth of Fate, and her being a female when we have not seen a female born here in a while, we cannot risk that happening.”
“If Luna were not my mate, I would not have taken her in the way that I did. War is coming to Earth. It is unavoidable, and not only was I unwilling to leave her behind, but certainly not on a planet where she would not be safe. I understand the rift I have caused, but please understand why I did it. No Hallan would ever be expected to abandon his mate. I could not do it. I would not do it, then or now.”
He nods. “Your mother assured me, when we received the message, that the female you’d taken was your mate, but still, of course, there are ramifications to your actions, and that it was done in such a public way. We received a message from Earth not long after yours, and everything we feared has come true. I don’t need you to fill in the details, but the other messages I’ve received did that for you. There is dissension, division. Even with more Hallans having found mates there, and some of those mates refuse to come here. Something had to be done. Someone had to go and try to fix things, repair the rifts between Hallans and humans, and to help where The Opposition is now lacking with the loss of some of their soldiers.”
Someone. The word repeats over and over, starting to make the pieces of a very grim picture begin to come together.
“Where are mother and Vabila?” I ask again, a bit breathless now. Because I think I know. I fear I’m sure.
His chest rises and falls with his deep breath. “They are on their way to Earth.”
I immediately shake my head, slashing my free hand through the air. “No! You must call them back.”
“You don’t think I tried to stop your mother from going? Argued with her? Pleaded with her? On my knees, Halun, I did.”
“Father, I just kidnapped my mate to get her away from there, and here you stand telling me that my mother and sister are heading into the very same danger I took Luna away from? I will get on our fastest ship right now and go to Earth to retrieve them.”
“And what good would that do, Halun? You would go and your mere presence would exacerbate things. Your mother and sister leaving here would all be for naught. Hallans would then be at war with both The New Order and The Opposition, and the ones who would truly lose the most are those females trapped on that planet.”
“How can you just let them go?”
He gives a laugh that has no humor in it. “When have I ever been able to stop either of them when they put their minds to something? Or any of you, for that matter? Your mother would not be deterred, and Vabila refused to let her go alone. They kept telling me I could not reject or change fate, no matter how much I wished to.”
“They always use that when they want to get their way.”
“I know. And it works because what can I say in the face of fate? What can any of us say?”
“I still think I should go to get them. I won’t even make myself known. Just land a ship and have them board it to come back home.”