I swallowed heavily and blinked repeatedly as my throat started to swell with the effort to bawl as a child does. They were right. Everything they said was exactly the truth. Too bad it was too little, too late. I just…I just didn’t know if I could ever trust them again.
In the descending quiet, Pluma Creo coughed softly. “Well, now I know why you didn’t wish to speak about it with us around, and why she did not.” He…actually…bowed his head ever so slightly. “You’ve managed to keep that a secret for far longer than what most Vaq manage.”
“Eh.” Pluma Moir teetered his head. “I had wondered since they have no Harem.”
Leo interjected evenly, “Just because Malik and I love each other romantically, it doesn’t mean that we can’t have the same feelings for our Soul. As many in our circumstances do.” His eyes darted past the Plumas, landing directly on me. His piercing golden gaze was pleading. “Braita, you didn’t even give us a proper chance to know one another—”
“How could I have known either one of you when you both started it with a lie?” I growled, my anger and depression straining my voice, no longer able to be quiet. I squirmed out from under Jax, even when he tried to restrain me. I charged right at the halo-screen. Standing directly between two mute Plumas, I pointed a sharp finger at my Vaq, barely managing to keep from crying. “You two wrecked what was starting to feel like a true home for me on this crazy planet. I am alone here, and all I had was the two of you. I was supposed to be special to you, someone you allow inside, someone you were honest with, not some damn toy that you handle with delicate care. I would have eventually understood if you just would have told the truth from the start. Instead, I had to literally walk in on your lie!”
I heaved in a large lungful of air, and shook my hands at them. “How the hell do you come back from that?” Sucking more oxygen, I hissed harshly, “Plus, you two don’t truly need me in your lives. You just need me near you. You have each other for love.” The undying kind. I had seen it in their eyes. “And no thanks to the two of you, I now know what a Soul does for a Vaq.”
Malik was now staring directly at me. His nostrils flared, and he stated coolly, “Braita, you need to calm down. We need to have a civil conversation, and you’re acting child—”
“Childish?” I asked with eyes wide. I snorted, and pointed at myself. “The way I am acting is justified. You both pretended as if I were the one for you, when instead, you truly only loved one another. You were just testing the waters – without informing me – to see if you could find a place somewhere in your heart for me. I acted in the best way I knew how when confronted with the fact that I was just a damn lab rat in your unending maze.” I stared him down. “I got the hell away from the both of you.”
Malik leaned forward, fury beginning to enter his eyes, but Leo slammed his hand down on his shoulder. Leo glanced at him once in warning, then turned his attention to me. His tone was soothing, like he was trying to entice a cloned-doe. “Braita, I think we’re done with this conversation for now. When you come back, we can talk about this in private—”
“Oh!” I lifted a finger into the air, stopping his condescending words. “Why didn’t the two of you ever gift me a Solo?” When both remained mute, their expression carefully shifting to neutral, I laughed as a new hurt smashed against my chest. Another deception. “That’s what I thought. You wanted me to need you. You would rather I be in pain when you two were gone during your meetings outside of the fortress than give me the freedom to decide about you.” I leaned forward, and whispered conspiratorially – in English, so they would know I wasn’t fumbling their language, “You see, Oh Great Cows, that was a wrong move.”
The resounding silence…was immense.
No one moved. No one blinked. Everyone, besides me, appeared to be stunned at my words.
Take that, Cows.
Pluma Creo recovered the fastest, gently sliding a step in front of me, effectively cutting off my view of my Vaq. He stated softly, “Now that we know the situation, Phila and I will talk amongst ourselves, and Ms. Valorn will remain safe under our care. We’ll get back with you in a days’ time.” He lifted his hand, and touched the screen with one finger…and it went black. The call ended.
I growled under my breath, my hands even shaking in my continued fury. “Those bastards.”
No one glanced at me. They still stayed motionless.
Jax cleared his throat from the couch. “Don’t you mean cows?”
“That too.”
Pluma Moir snorted. Covered his mouth with a fist.
And then, he bellowed with the deepest laughter, the sound vibrating my left eardrum.
“Laugh it up,” I grumbled. As one, each person started following Pluma Moir’s lead, snorting and choking on their hilarity. I huffed and walked toward the kitchen - to the Plumas’ bedroom. I hissed over my shoulder, “I’m going to bed, and I do not want to be handcuffed tonight!” I shook my hands in the air as their laughter only became louder. “And don’t worry your pretty, ego-filled heads too much. I’m not planning to find your control panel to escape. Not tonight, anyway.”
I couldn’t sleep. Instead, I stared up at the white curved ceiling while I lay on the softest mattress between two Plumas…who were not my Plumas. Though they did smell wonderful. Each had taken a shower before crawling into bed. While I was still fuming with righteous – and confused – anger, they had tossed their pillows to the foot of the bed and lain down on either side of me, not saying a word, just giving me the space I had so desperately needed…but also the warmth that, at least, kept my body from being just as frigid as my thoughts.
They weren’t sleeping, even though it had been two hours since the sun had risen.
The Plumas were quiet. Silent predators. I had seen that much tonight.
But I had also experienced their honesty while in their ‘care.’ I needed more of it.
Carefully, I lifted my right hand from my stomach and placed it on Pluma Moir’s.
I touched him.
Lying on his side facing me, he didn’t move as I raised his hand above my head to stare at his three rings. His arm was heavy with muscle, so much so, that I used my other hand to hold his arm steady. A soft shimmer of a glow shined upon the right side of my face when he opened his eyes to stare as I turned the ring on his thumb again and again.