“I can’t tell him this!” Zahra gasped at her brother in shock.
“Zahra, you were bold enough to have sex with someone, someone who isn’t your betrothed. The least you can do is tell him before someone else does.”
“He’ll petition for the marriage betrothal to be cancelled.”
“And so he should!” Michael finally lost his temper. “You have embarrassed him at every turn, Zahra. You shun our life, but you still want the perks of being the Principal’s daughter, or the future Second’s wife.” Michael tossed his boot kit back into his cupboard. “Every single Akrhyn thinks he was mad to agree to the match in the first place. He has done nothing but show you honour and respect. And what do you do? You sleep around like a common—” Michael cut himself off before he said something he would regret. He ignored his sister’s tears. “And would you have even told him if you had not thought you were pregnant?” Zahra didn’t look at her brother as he waited. “Zahra, tell me! Would you have even told him?”
“No.”
“You never deserved him,” Michael said quietly. “You need to choose, little sister.”
“Choose what?” Zahra raised her tearstained face to her brother’s.
“Our life or the human life. You can no longer have both.”
“You would shut me out?” Zahra gasped. She hadn’t been expecting that. Michael adored her. He always acted like her love for the human way of life was fanciful. How had she gotten that so wrong?
“You are a liability. We cannot afford the Sentinels to watch you eat lunch every day. Either learn the skill sets to look after yourself out there or give up a human lifestyle and remember who and what you are in here.”
Michael’s door was knocked before his dad put his head around the door. “Zahra, where have you been? I have been searching everywhere for you.” Salem took in his daughter’s tears and Michael’s frown. “What’s going on?”
“Why were you looking for me?” Zahra jumped in before Michael could speak.
“Your grandmother say anything to you about why she needed to come here?” Salem asked cautiously.
“Desperate to meet her Akrhyn granddaughter.” Zahra wiped her tears angrily. “Everyone is so desperate to meet the infiltrator.”
Michael sighed heavily as Salem regarded his daughter with a stern face. “Do we have to do this again?”
“No, dad. Why bother? It seems you all already picked her.” Zahra stormed out of Michael’s room. She heard her dad call after her, but she had heard enough from Michael to not want to discuss anything anymore. She didn’t want to hear about Tegan, she didn’t want to hear Michael’s disappointment, she didn’t want to face any of them yet. Despite the chill in the air and the snow on the ground, Zahra headed outside. She needed to breathe. Yes, she had messed up. Badly.
Tegan’s arrival had thrown her. Zahra was the female Holt. The little princess. The beloved sister. Who was this raven-haired female who came and claimed her family? She was so tall it was ridiculous. And her looks! Were they kidding her? She was freaking jaw dropping. Her skin was flawless, her hair the same colour as Michael’s and so thick and luxurious. She was everything Zahra was not. How was she supposed to react if not badly? Were they serious? Could they seriously not understand why she was upset?
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Her boyfriend had been pushing and pushing for her to sleep with him. He told her it would make her his. She just wanted to belong somewhere. And it had been horrible. He had been clumsy and awkward and so disgustingly sweaty. Then, because she had done it once, it was all he wanted to do. Akrhyn couldn’t catch human diseases, so she had said okay when he asked not to wear the horrible smelling prophylactic. Why hadn’t she thought about catching a baby?
Zahra walked the perimeter of Headquarters as the tears fell silently. Her boyfriend had told her to get rid of it. What did that even mean? She had asked one of her cheerleading friends, who had told her, and while Zahra was reeling from the horror and hurt of his words, her friend told the whole school. Her popularity was gone. Her Akrhyn abilities no longer made her special. She was just another pregnant teenager.
Zahra was so lost in her own misery she didn’t see the shadow emerge from the side of the building. Too lost listening to her own despair, she didn’t hear the soft footfall behind her. Blinded by her tears, she was sightless to the danger until it was too late.
“Zahra?”
She looked up and rubbed her face as she saw her grandmother in front of her. “Grandmother, why are you out here?”
“I am sorry, my dear, but I fear this is going to hurt.”
Zahra felt the blow, and as she started to fall, she recognised someone had caught her. As she lost consciousness, she had the fleeting awareness that it was talons that held onto her, not hands.
Michael sat in his room after his dad had left, thinking about his conversation with Zahra. He had maybe been too harsh on her. She was young, impulsive and as much as he loved his sister, she was known for being too flirty. Of course she would have slept with someone, he realised reluctantly, he just had not expected it to be a human. Michael rubbed his face with his hands as he thought about what he was going to do. Sloane was his best friend, and he felt obligated to tell him that Zahra had cheated on him. More than cheated on him…she had broken their betrothal.
Michael thought about it more. Was it really a disaster that she cheated on him? The two of them were terrible together—seriously terrible—and their betrothal had confused him from the start. Zahra avoided Sloane at all costs, and if they had to be in the same room together, Sloane always looked uneasy. Sloane had been like that even before they were betrothed. When Sloane had accepted the offer that Cornelius put forward, no one had been more surprised than Michael.
Zahra had told their dad that she was not going to train anymore—not that she did much anyway—and wanted to experience the human way of life. She wanted to be a cheerleader. Michael had no idea what that was at the time, but when he found out, he hadn’t quite understood why his sister would want that. Who wanted to flip through the air to music? If that was her desire, she could do that when she was here...training.
However, Salem must have had an inkling of what was coming, because he put up little resistance, and within a few months, Zahra was going to attend human school. The aftershock of the decision was subtle, but Michael remembered the Akrhyn who whispered and judged his sister when they thought he couldn’t hear. When Cornelius proposed a betrothal to Sloane to ensure that Zahra could remain in the Akrhyn lifestyle, should she wish, Salem had discussed it with both Sloane and Zahra, and then he had agreed. Salem loved Sloane like his own, and Sloane had been part of their lives for so long now. Michael knew his father wanted Sloane to be part of his family.
Michael thought back to the day that Cornelius had suggested it. Sloane had shrugged and said sure. Even Zahra had looked stunned. Of course, she later told Michael that it was obvious Sloane would say yes; she was a Principal’s daughter after all. It was then that Michael began to doubt her intentions to blend in with the humans. He personally didn’t have much time for them. Save them from Drakhyn? Definitely. Save them from their own destruction? Nah. There were monsters in the world, and not all monsters were supernatural.
Sloane and Zahra had a five-minute conversation, a conversation which Michael had stressed to his best friend that he needed to have with his sister, to set out ground rules. Sloane had told him he had done. Michael knew without a doubt that in those ground rules was a “do not sleep with a human” rule. Sloane was easygoing and popular. He would not tolerate being treated with disrespect. He showed respect to Zahra and would expect the same in return.