Histaberramine.
I grow the purple berries in my lab, among hundreds of other species of plants used for medicinal purposes. I’m not exactly in any shape to get to my lab, though, with the Kevins upon us. However, histaberramine grows in caves near a water source, both of which are in this location.
As soon as my body heals some and regains strength, I’ll go hunt for the plant. Hopefully, not too much time has passed for him.
“Henry? Were you bitten or stung by anything? Like something small?”
He pushes up the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a welt on his arm. “Mama says a bee got me.”
I’m not sure what a bee is, but this gives me relief that it’s not The Rades but also a niggling worry because of how Hadrian’s progressed over several solars.
“When did this happen?”
He shrugs. “I dunno. Before we got in the caves, I think.”
“It’s okay, little one,” I assure him. “As soon as I’m feeling up to it, I’ll find something to help with the itching.”
As he crunches on more candy, I let my gaze drift to Stella. When she’s sleeping, she seems so delicate, like the mortling beside me, not at all the fierce mother protecting her boy like earlier. Her blue eyes were flaming with determination. Pride trickles through me as I remember her that way. Sure, it had been frustrating when she didn’t let me into the room, leaving me to square off with the sabrevipes, but I understand why she did it. If there was even a chance one of those beasts could have gotten inside, I wouldn’t have wanted to take that chance either. Somehow, she managed to get little Henry all the way from the prison to the Facility and kept them alive the entire time. Though she’s small, she is indeed brave, resilient, and persistent.
Henry is lucky to have her as a mother.
It makes me wonder about his father. Did he perish? Was he a rotten Kevin? Another prisoner? As much as I want to ask him, something holds me back. I’ll ask Stella when she wakes, perhaps when Henry is sleeping.
“Why did you and your mother leave the prison?” I ask Henry.
“Mama is scared of the monsters.” He twists in my arms so his nog is tilted my way, his big brown eyes pinning me. “I scared of the monsters too.”
His blond hair hangs in his face. I can’t help but rake my fingers through it to smooth it down. He’s adorable. Reminds me of the mortlings back at the Facility. There was a time I’d never thought I’d ever see a mortling again, but then the humans arrived. As they found their mates, they brought more and more of them into our desolate world. They’re all half mort and half human, so seeing a full human mortling is really something to behold.
A dark thought passes over me.
Will he grow to be a horrible Kevin one day?
Absolutely not. I won’t allow it. Stella and I will make sure of it.
I nearly scoff at that thought. Stella barely let me into the room when the beasts were trying to eat me alive. She sure as rekk isn’t going to let me into her heart.
And I won’t be the fool again.
I made that mistake once already with Quinn. Professed my adoration for her, hoping she would choose me for a mate instead of Oz. Unfortunately, I was never even an option. She’d chosen him long before.
Stella won’t choose me either.
No one will.
As soon as I come to terms with that fact, it’ll make my life go much easier. I’m not here to mate and have a family. I’m here to grow food and provide for my people.
Then why were you so quick to run away at the first chance you got?
I’m trying to answer that question inside my mind when heat burns through my body as if someone has the power to light me on fire with just one look. Dragging my eyes to the source of the fiery intensity, I lock onto Stella’s blue-eyed stare.
Protective. Furious. Brave. Beautiful.
Words tumble past her plump pink lips, soft in tone but sharp in delivery. “Let go of my son, you monster.”
5
STELLA
Fear more potent than I’ve ever experienced has me frozen where I lie, watching the alien with his hands on my son. This is what I was worried about when they came to the prison. It's all my fears realized. I knew there would be a day when I couldn’t be there, and Henry would be vulnerable. I thought leaving would protect my son, but maybe I had delivered him into the hands of something worse than the atrocities of man.
The alien looks every bit a beast. Blood sheens his skin, making him look even more grisly. It’s so grotesque when added to his pale white skin, pointed ears, black eyes, and fanged teeth, I want to shrink away. But still…Even with the gore, I can see why the other women were attracted to the aliens. There’s a wild, animal magnetism about them. Tamed beasts. A fact only emphasized by the deep gouge-like scratches from the—whatever those were that he fought off. The hand he has on Henry is massive, spanning over the entire length of one of Henry’s arms. He's so big compared to my little boy. So strong.