Kept by the Zandian (Zandian Brides 5)

“Rannah is right. Hate is powerful and it can sustain you for a long time. The only thing even stronger is love. I ask you to cast out enough hate to leave room for love to grow. That’s what you take with you.”

She coughs. “And one more thing, from my dream. I saw the human queen named Lamira. We spoke to each other in the dream, although it was hard, like screaming into a waterfall. She has the sight like I do, although we’re so far apart, it’s just flickers. Tell her that Leylah sent you, when you arrive on the planet. Tell her that…” She coughs again. “Tell her that the secret will come to her with the silver coin. I don’t know what it means, but I think it’s important.”

“Coin?”

Leylah takes my palm, and something metallic slides across my skin. “It’s an artifact from a long dead planet—”

My fingers buzz with a little spark, and I answer before she can finish. “Earth.” I stare at the thing, transfixed at how the answer came to me before I knew what she’d say.

It’s old, as if it’s been buried for eons. It fits into my palm just barely as I close my fingers, but it feels like it belongs to me already. There are symbols I cannot read embossed into it, although Leylah has taught me to scribe. And a face, a profile, as familiar as it is mysterious. I hear voices, then see a sudden flash of purple and a burst of light—then it’s gone.

“That’s right.” She smiles and touches my hand. “Earth.”

“But how did you even get this? Why does it”—I shake my head—“speak… to me?”

Leylah’s eyes are shrewd. “What does it say?”

I close my eyes and try to concentrate, but that little spark is gone. I open them again in frustration. “Nothing. I thought I got a glimpse of something, but it was just my imagination.” I squeeze the coin anew, but feel nothing but its edges biting the inside bend of my knuckles.

She does not answer any of my questions. “I knew I chose well.” She seems almos

t exuberant all of a sudden. “You…” She coughs and takes a long time to stop, so long I rush for fluid.

She waves her hand. “I am all right for now. Hide this coin. Give it to Lamira, and only Lamira. No other being on Zandia, even ones you trust.”

“Why?”

“Because.” She answers as if it’s obvious. “It’s meant for her. It will mean nothing to other beings.”

“All right.”

It’s not all right, and I flash back to the stream from earlier, when I scratched my skin and Rannah tried to comfort me, before she hated me. It’s like déjà vu, a sick feeling, over and over. But Leylah doesn’t hate me. She loves me. All of us. I have to do this. My bones tell me it’s true.

“You will have miraculous adventures.” She looks at me, eyes intent. Piercing. “During them, you must keep your core hidden.” She puts her hand on my chest. “Do not ever give up that secret part of you. Do not surrender it to any being, at any time, for any reason. Your spark inside is what makes you special, Taisha. You must keep it apart, stubborn, firm. It is yours, and belongs to you alone, and your future. If you give up your heart, you will always be a slave.”

I nod. “Never surrender to another being.”

“And don’t tell them about what happens at the rock, with the young. Not until it’s time. And use the orange. He will, too.”

“The what? I don’t understand. Leylah?”

Leylah wheezes and touches my scratched face. “The scars inside are worse, I know. But when you leave here, you get the chance to heal. Take that chance, for me. For all of us.”

Chapter 3

Present Planet Rotation

Taisha

“So that’s your story?”

The Zandian crosses his arms, and his muscles ripple. My nipples tighten and I dart my eyes away. How is that in the midst of my story, I’m fascinated by his form?

“Do you doubt me?”

“It’s a little far-fetched.” He narrows his eyes. “So your slave-barracks’ mother, Leylah? She fell down in the market, and you used the diversion to accidentally fall into the river and pretend to drown?”

“She didn’t just fall down.” My vision blurs with tears. “She actually—died.” I can see it as clearly as when it happened. “She made a little sound, a sort of hum, then a gasp, and she went down.” It was like a piece of cloth rippling in the wind, and I knew instantly that her essence was gone from her body.