Page 37 of Diamond

I look down at the skin he called beautiful again and tears prickle at my eyes. I need answers, and the only person I can ask is him. "I-I don't understand what's happening," is all I can mumble in his language, but he does not hear me.

My knees buckle and threaten to fail me, but I fight to stay on my feet. I can't be weak right now.

"I don't understand what is happening to me," I hiss out in a stronger voice, looking to make sure Roshan is not perturbed.

I know Kuret doesn't have any answers for me, but there's no one else to ask. Not that I have any intentions to lean on him, regardless of how unsettled I feel. He is far too hot-headed and, in my experience, people like him are never dependable.

My mind flits back to Tehlmar for a second. I think about how calm and mild-mannered he seemed the entire way, just to turn into the worst kind of beast. Is this an opposites sort of situation?

Kuret tilts his head and his hair swings with him. "Is this not natural for human women?" he questions, peering closer at the new silver patches on my arms as I shake my head vigorously.

I want to strangle him, but I remind myself that he doesn't know what humans would naturally look like. His only points of reference would be myself and that woman, Ree.

I stretch out my hands directly in front of my face. "I have never seen a human grow skin like this. I am an anomaly and it is all because of those terrible aliens," I groan, rubbing both my hands on my face.

I can see tenderness in his eyes and it makes me do a double-take, but the change it makes to his features—and how much I like it—won't help me figure this out. I hiss under my breath, annoyed with myself for being so easily taken in by a pretty, glowing face.

Or that I'm letting it distract me from figuring out how to stop all of these changes happening to me.

Understanding my body as a woman is hard enough, especially growing up in a place like Afghanistan where silence is celebrated. At least I hadmamanto teach me the basic things I needed to know. But now, I'm on a foreign planet, with even more foreign things happening to me.

"What caused this?" I ask again, with a huff of breath and an aching stomach.

I chew on my bottom lip worriedly, but his eyes flare a brighter green and he speaks. "Ree mentioned getting her black scales from her magnificent orange donor."

He is looking at me like he just gave me some profound information, but I am just left confused. What black scales? And what is a donor?

I shake off the last question as unimportant. "Can you describe Ree to me?" I ask, suddenly unsure if he knows what a human is and we've been talking in circles the whole time.

He could have been deceived by another creation of the genali hunters. Was he sent to get me back for them? No, that seems unlikely, though the thought of being captured by those things again makes me shudder.

"Ree is small like you and her hair is purple and orange. She has scales up her neck and down her arms as well. Her donor is a large orange manticorid beast," he informs me in a hushed voice, probably sensing my discomfort and trying to put me at ease. But it is having the entirely opposite effect.

With every word that comes out of his mouth, I am left more and more confused. "I don't know what a manticorid is, but Ree does not sound like a human."

I find myself back to square one all over again, stranded on this alien planet by myself, probably headed straight into a trap. I sigh softly and rub at my temples.

"Maybe I have gotten it wrong, as I was badly injured when I came across her. Do human females look more like you?"

"Yes, but no scales."

"Well, you didn't have those silver marks before and they look like the skin of that waste of breath male."

I whip my head around to glare at him, but it strikes me he is right. I freeze, looking back at the new silver patches.

If I can get a reaction that turns me silver, then something similar could have happened to countless other humans as well. The genali might have manipulated Ree's DNA somehow, just like they did mine. I can only hope there's a way to reverse this.

"This is so unfair," I muse, only realizing that I'm thinking out loud when the words leave my mouth. "Women don't deserve having their autonomy taken away from them like this. It isn't right."

The realization that I sound like a whiney teenager shuts me up. Nothing makes sense to me right now, but I need to just move on.

Kuret makes an agreeing sound. He clears his throat and I look up at him, realizing again how much taller than me he is. "Ree did mention that the hunters made changes to the bodies of all the women they captured, like you and your friends."

There is a great sadness in his eyes as he speaks, like he really cares. Still, I'm not moved by it. I convinced myself Tehlmar cared, despite my intuition, so it's clear I'm not the best judge of character.

A flash of anger crosses my mind at the thought of us being treated like commodities, but I am more focused on figuring out what the hell is going on with my life.

From my conversation with Tehlmar, I know that we were going to be used as sex slaves. If they modified our bodies to please their target market, it would make sense that they gave us traits from the donorswho purchased us.

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