“This is my sister, Abigail. Abby.”
He frowned. “You have a sister? Beth, I didn’t know that.”
“I know. Because I didn’t tell you.”
He looked into her eyes. “Why?”
Beth scrolled through her photos until she found another one of Abby, taken after she’d finished her chemo treatment. Her hair was gone, her eyebrows were invisible, and her blue eyes looked tired and dull. She’d lost so much weight that her bones protruded.
“This is why.”
Uthar stared at the picture for a minute, then Beth scrolled to another one, where Abby was wearing a blond wig and smiling feebly at the camera. She looked a bit better, but not by a lot.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “This is still your sister. I can see that. But what happened to her?”
“She is ill. Cancer. She only has a few more months to live. That’s what the doctors say, at least.”
“Cancer? What is... cancer?”
Of course, an orc wouldn’t know what cancer was. They didn’t get sick. And if they did, their mages healed them in a matter of hours, sometimes minutes. Even without magic, they were resilient, and they healed fast on their own.
Beth found herself in the unexpected position where she had to explain cancer to someone who didn’t have the barest concept of illness. She even searched for an article online and read him passages. At the end, Uthar was as confused as ever, but he did look like he’d gotten the gist of it.
“So, your sister is dying.”
“Yes.”
He jumped to his feet. “Why didn’t you tell me?” The patience in his voice was gone, replaced by irritation. It wasn’t yet anger. “This is your sister, your family, and you didn’t say a word. Why?”
“Because I...”
“And what about your parents? Is there anything I need to know about your parents, too? There was nothing about your family written in the file I received from the institute. I should’ve asked questions, but I was... distracted. This is my fault. I should’ve asked.”
And just like that, when Beth had expected him to switch to anger, he’d switched to guilt.
“No, no, no.” She rushed to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s fault, not even mine. And my parents... mine and Abby’s... are gone. They passed away.”
He froze. “How?”
“It was an accident. They were on vacation, they took a boat out on a lake, and... It just happened.”
He disentangled her from him and held her at arm’s length.
“My love... my mate... I am so sorry. You and your sister are orphans.”
A tear ran down Beth’s cheek. “Yes, well... It’s okay, because we have each other.”
“But you said she’s dying. Why didn’t you tell me? I could do something... My kind isn’t affected by illness. It rarely happens, and when it does, we have a mage to take care of us. Kinna could... She can...”
“I know.” She looked up into his eyes. She held his gaze even as tears blurred her vision before they rolled down to her chin. Her glasses fogged up, and she removed them and placed them on the table. “And I want to ask... I need to ask... Will you help me? Will you help Abby?”
“Yes! Of course! But why didn’t you...”
“I was afraid you might think... Or Kinna might think...” She sighed as she had to accept there was no right way to say this. She just had to say it and hope for the best. “It’s why I became a tribute. That is the truth. I knew that only orc magic could save my sister, so I decided to become a tribute, so someone would take me, a captain, so I would join a horde and be able to help her at some point. I knew it was a risk. I knew that my becoming a tribute wouldn’t guarantee anything, but I had to try. But you must know, my love, I am here because I want to be here. My decision to offer myself in exchange for healing magic for my sister was the right one. I found you. Or… you found me... And now we’re going to have a baby together. And it’s wonderful. No matter what happens, I am where I’m supposed to be.”
Uthar was silent for a moment. He looked into her eyes and searched her face, taking in her words. Finally, he nodded and pulled her to his chest. He held her there, cradling her head near his heart.
“You were afraid I’d think you were taking advantage of me,” he said. “But what right would I have to think that, when I took you because I needed a bride to help consolidate my position? My love, I was the first to take advantage of you. Remember that first night, when I tried to...”