“Whatever you want to share is okay with me,” I said. “We all have parts of our past that are hard to talk about.”
“That’s the thing, my prince. All of my past is hard to talk about. It hurts me to even think about it.”
A sensation of dread filled me as I pondered on what kind of life she had lived to feel pain at the very thought of it. I wondered if she had lost a loved one as I had with Kovu because if she did, I understood the endless pain. I said nothing as I waited for her to gather her thoughts and put them into words.
“Nicah’s daughter,” she began. “She is my biological half-sister.”
Of all the things I expected her to say, that was not one of them.
“Asia is your half-sister?”
“Yes,” she answered softly. “We share the same father.”
I was silent as I digested Levi’s words, but even when I had a chance to think on what she said, it didn’t make sense to me.
“Was Nicah his mate?”
“No.”
“Was your mother his mate?”
“No.”
Levi’s replies held a hint of misery to them. It made the dreaded sensation in the pit of my stomach grow.
“You don’t have to talk about this if it hurts you, Levi.”
“It’s always going to hurt, my prince,” she admitted sadly. “But I want to tell you. Being up here on Nona Mai with you is my safe place. I’ve … I’ve only just realised that. You’re a safe male, and you would never hurt me. I know this. I’m not scared of you like I was when we first met. I want to tell you what haunts me. Isn’t that crazy?”
I could tell that her wanting to share this information with me was a huge step for her. She trusted me, and I valued that trust deeply.
“My father was a slave master on Earth.” I froze as she spoke. “I was born in a place called The Farm in New France. My mother was a slave, and my father was her master. He raped her when they were both young, and she fell pregnant with me. The same thing happened to Nicah with Asia.”
I sat upright and stared down at her as she slowly rose into a seated position. She stared at me with wide, fearful eyes. Not fear that I would harm her, but fear that I would judge her. My heart just about shattered for her, and I wanted nothing more than to gather her up into my arms and hold her … so that was exactly what I did.
“Ezah!” She gasped as I slid my arms under her legs and around her back to lift her and place her sitting on my thighs. “What are you doing?”
“Holding you.” I hugged her body to mine. “You’re hurting. I hate that you’re hurting.”
Levi’s body was rigid in my embrace, but slowly, she began to relax, and when she rested her head against mine, I felt more at peace out here on top of this hill under the starlit sky with her than I had surrounded by my family in the palace these past few decades.
“You were a slave too, weren’t you?” I quizzed softly. “He was your master?”
Her soft “Yes” cut me like a blade, and when I growled, she tensed.
“I wish I could kill him.”
“He’s already dead.”
“Not good enough,” I almost snarled. “He needs to feel pain and suffering before he is granted the peace of death. A male like him is not a male at all. Males who harm females, young ones, beings we’re supposed to protect … those males are nothing but a waste of space in the universe.”
Levi shifted against me, and when I felt her arms slide around my neck, the shock of her open embrace almost took away from the experience of feeling her hold onto me. I quickly savoured it.
“Nicah is very special to you, isn’t she?”
“Yes, my prince,” she answered. “We’re not far apart in age. She is eighteen, and I am twenty-one. Me and my mama always looked out for her. She wasn’t born on The Farm like I was. She was sold when she was three to Master by traffickers who didn’t raise slaves, only captured and sold them. Master did both. He bought slaves and raised us to be submissive to resell. He put in time and effort to perfect us. He was known around the cosmos for having the most submissive slaves. He was a cruel man whose only happiness was credits and filthy drink.”
My hold on her tightened. “You mentioned your mother.”
I heard the cry in Levi’s voice as she spoke.
“She … She died on The Farm the day Nicah and I were rescued by the Maji.”
“Oh, tola. I am so sorry.”
I held her as she wept. Her emotions seemed to wrap around me like a fur. I felt how broken she was inside, and I felt her pain for her past, but most importantly, I felt how much she missed her mother.