She swallowed. “About what?”
“You. Not to waste another second.” With his other hand, he lifted her chin, raising her face to meet his. Still watching her mouth, he whispered, “One-ten.”
She clenched her eyes shut. “You don’t get to do this.”
“What?” Lighter than a dragonfly’s breath, his lips brushed her temple. “This?” He swept a path to her ear, luring chills to the surface of her skin. “Or this?” Pulling her collar aside, he kissed her shoulder on the magical spot that made her eyes roll back in her head.
With great effort, she pushed him away. “I won’t let you mess with my head.” Or my heart. “I won’t be your interga-lactic booty call.”
He pulled back and cupped her face, his brows pinching together over narrowed chrome eyes. “That’s what you think I want?”
“How am I supposed to know? You’re running hot or cold all the time.” She freed herself and escaped to the other side of the bed. “Why don’t we back up to the part where you were ready to tell me everything?”
He hesitated but then nodded slowly and settled on the mattress. “Okay. Let’s talk.”
That was exactly what she wanted to hear, but Cara’s stomach turned cold and heavy. Nothing good ever followed those words.
An ancient human religious figure known as John the Baptist had once claimed, “The truth shall make you free,” but if Aelyx remembered correctly, John’s honesty had been rewarded with a gruesome decapitation. Aelyx hoped for better results. Before arriving on Earth, he’d had very little experience with deception. Communicating with Silent Speech had resulted in honesty by default among his people, and he’d never understood why humans lied so frequently. Until now.
As Cara gazed at him, those sapphire eyes brimming with doubt, only one thought repeated in his mind: will she forgive me for what I’ve done? As much as he wanted to unburden himself with the truth, the possibility of losing his Elire left him with the nearly irresistible temptation to deceive her again.
“It’s okay.” She seemed to sense his anxiety. “You can tell me anything.”
Could he? Could he really tell her that despite Eron’s and Syrine’s decisions to uproot their sh’alear seedlings—which, due to military escorts, neither of them had accomplished yet—it still might not be enough to save the alliance?
“I’m not so sure,” he finally replied.
She softened at that, joining him on the bed. “We have to trust each other, or we’re no better than strangers.”
“I don’t know where to start.”
“How about the very beginning?” With a small smile and a nudge, she added, “According to The Sound of Music, that’s a very good place to start.”
He didn’t understand the reference, but Cara was right. Yes, he could do this—tell her the truth. He needed to have faith, as humans often said. “All right, the very beginning.” He took a deep, steadying breath and let it out in a whoosh. “You asked me once why my people ended the breeding program and started cloning new generations from the archives.”
She nodded for him to go on.
“Tens of thousands of years ago, L’eihrs were like humans: volatile, greedy, destructive, selfish, violent, ruled by—”
“Enough. I get it.”
“Sorry.” He laughed, despite the tightness in his chest. “When The Way took control, they started experimenting with selective breeding. Only the fittest, most intelligent, and most emotionally stable citizens were allowed to reproduce. Over time, our technology improved, and scientists started analyzing each citizen’s genetic material and creating life in the labs using artificial wombs. They wanted to increase cognitive function and eliminate negative emotions like anger. It worked—a little too well.”
“What do you mean, a little too well?”
“You’ve met our ambassador, right?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Cara said. “At the gala.”
“Did you notice anything . . . different . . . about him?”
“Besides the fact that he’s old?” She shook her head and shrugged. “Not really.”
“He didn’t seem lethargic to you? Like a machine running on half power?”
“Oh, sure. My grandpa was like that the last few years before he died.”
“Right, but Stepha’s only fifty.”
“What?” She turned on the bed, shaking the mattress when she bounced to face him. “He looks like a relic!”
Aelyx chuckled. “I’ll tell him you said so.”
She shoved his shoulder, sending him rocking back. “So that’s what you meant about working too well? They bred the life out of themselves?”
“Pretty much. But it wasn’t until Stepha’s generation that they began to see negative effects—the depression, lethargy, decreased life span, dependence on medication. Our scientific advances suffered, too. Emotion is what drives creativity and discovery, and the Elders had gone too far in trying to subdue it.”
“So they backtracked using clones.”
“Exactly. But they still don’t think it’s enough.”
The skin on her forehead wrinkled into three distinct zigzags. “What do you mean? You seem pretty normal to me. Well, now, anyway. When we first met, you kind of reminded me of a zombie.”
“A zombie?”
“You know, the walking dead.”
“But I’ve changed.” Scooting closer until the outside of their thighs touched, he took both her hands. “You brought out a lifetime of dormant feelings in me, and that’s where humans come in.” Squeezing one hand for emphasis, he added, “The Way wants to join our two societies. What’s happened with me, they want the same for the other clones, maybe even for themselves to some extent. And eventually, they want us to interbreed. That’s the real reason for the exchange program—to see if it can work long term. They want to form a colony where humans and L’eihrs can coexist.”
She tipped her head while considering what he’d said. “So it’s like an experiment? A test to see if we can play nice?”
“Basically.”
“And that’s it?”
He nodded.
“But that’s not such a big deal,” she said. “Why the guilt?”
A rush of panic surged inside him. The time had come, but could he really admit what he’d done? Would Cara forgive him when he might have doomed the future of her entire race? He wasn’t sure. His resolve faltered until the last drops of it evaporated completely. Maybe she didn’t need to know.
He could take his secret to the grave and find a way to save mankind if the alliance failed, even if he had to steal the technology and bring it back himself. But he had to tell her something—she was waiting.
“I discovered a problem,” he told her, “two weeks ago—something your government has been hiding from you for years. My ambassador asked me to keep it to myself, but I think you deserve to know.” He quickly clarified, “Only you, though. Nobody else can find out, or it would incite panic.”
While Cara pulled a pillow onto her lap and hugged it, he told her everything he’d learned about the growth particles affecting Earth’s water supply . . . with two major omissions: that mankind’s survival was contingent on the alliance and that the contamination had spread worldwide.
She sat there in silence a while, then asked, “Are you sure? I mean, I can’t believe nobody else has noticed.”
“Some humans have noticed. It’s just been covered up.” He took her hand, which had grown cold, and pressed it between both of his to warm it. “At first, I didn’t believe it, either. I took two more samples before I contacted the ambassador.”