Page 34 of Unlikely Omega

“Not if there is more unrest and their attention is divided.”

“How do you know there will be more unrest?”

“Because it’s happening already. It’s the reason they picked us out in the first place. I was so fucking stupid, I should have realized…”

“Realized what?”

“That it would come to this. Many things are about to change.”

“What things? Why are you being so cryptic?”

“No respect for your superiors,” I huff, but my mouth twitches. I don’t know if she sees it in the dark of the dungeons. “That’s your problem.”

“Apparently, it’s only one of my problems.” She sighs.

My fury twists into something deeper, an ache in my chest. “We’ll be fine. I know people in the south. We head that way.”

“The Summer Capital is in the south. I don’t think we should approach it.”

“We’ll avoid the Summer Capital. The empire is vast. We’ll find a place where we’re safe.”

“You sound so sure.” Her voice lilts at the end, like a question.

So I answer it.

“What I mean is, we need to leave the Empire. We need to go further south, to the Rising Moon Lands. There are cities there, entire territories and kingdoms, where the descendants of the Fae are welcome. Where we may be welcome. As for our current predicament… I’m sure we need to get out of this bind somehow. So we will. One way or another.”

11

ARIADNE

How can he sound so calm and sure when we’re locked up in the dungeons, after being accused of being… I don’t really know what. Spies? Rebels? Reincarnated evil Fae?

Oh, there is heat lacing his voice, I hear that. I’m not deaf. His steps are measured but contained energy makes his movements brusque. He’s angry.

But he manages to harness his anger and make a plan, whereas I have just felt pity for myself.

Rising, I grab the bars and try to make him out inside his cell next to mine. My eyes are used enough to the dark by now that I make out his tall silhouette. His white hair seems to glow faintly, a silver mane made of starlight.

I blink. Gather my wits.

“Who is this unnamed god?” I ask. “They say he’s the thirteenth god, the evil one. This Sidde Drakai. And why did you seem to know his name before I told you?”

He returns to the bars, follows them until he’s beside me, his face a pale shape in the dark. “I heard his voice in the Temple where I served before.”

“Why didn’t you say so?”

He chuckles, a bitter sound. “Because it means I’m cursed, and so are you.”

“We’re not cursed!”

“Cursed with Fae blood. Somewhere in our ancestors, we had someone Fae and their bloodline manifested in us.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I whisper. “Those are the excuses the council and the Synod made. Surely you don’t believe it.”

“Sidde only speaks to those with Fae blood. I fought it. I was faithful to my gods, avoided the unnamed one. Performed my duties. Followed all the rules. Didn’t follow his call, not even when I heard him whisper inside my head. But he got you.”

“So this is my fault,” I breathe.

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