Divided Read online

  “Truth!” she shrieked, motioning wildly. “Truth, watch out! He’s—”

  But just at that moment, the deadly point of Garron’s ghat pierced the dark twin’s chest. It slid in with horrible ease—as smooth as a knife gliding through butter—and came out his back like a long, bloody exclamation point of pain. A pain that Becca felt through their bond—a ripping, slicing agony that hurt like hell and scared her to death.

  “Truth!” she screamed again, feeling like the force of her shriek might rip her throat out. “Truth, no!”

  The dark twin looked at her and then down at the blade piercing his chest in apparent confusion. Then he looked up at his younger brother, one eyebrow raised as if in question.

  “Sorry, Brother,” Garron said grimly. With a swift jerk, he withdrew the blade and stepped back.

  Truth looked at the gaping wound in his chest and opened his mouth, as though he wanted to say something. But instead of sound, a trickle of blood came from between his parted lips and rolled down his chin. He looked at Becca and shook his head.

  “Truth!” Becca was wailing now, disbelief warring with horror in her shell-shocked brain. “Oh, please…please, no!”

  “Re…becca…” It was little more than a whisper. Then his pale gray eyes rolled up in his head and he crumpled slowly, face down to the ground.

  Dead.

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Oh no. Oh, no. Oh, nonononono…

  Becca pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes, trying to get rid of the image, trying to unsee the dark twin’s final moments. But no matter what she did, she couldn’t stop the memory from spinning like a loop inside her mind.

  The shocked look on Truth’s face, the bloody blade poking out of his back, the way he had said her name and then fallen to the ground… She was caught in it, like some dark spider’s web that wouldn’t let her go. Wouldn’t let her forget that he was…

  “Dead. Truth is dead and I declare Garron the winner of this Y’grin,” the Ancient’s voice penetrated her frantic thoughts. “He has the right to Truth’s female and his pick of any other asset of his fallen foe that he chooses.”

  “Very good,” she heard Garron say. “I will take the female and my brother’s ship.”

  She forced herself to open her eyes and watch what was going on. Had she really just been won like a piece of property by Truth’s brother?

  “His female and his ship. That is acceptable,” the Ancient said.

  “I will also take charge of Far, my brother’s twin,” Garron continued.

  There were restless murmurs among the Rai’ku.

  “I see,” the Ancient said. “And why would you wish to do this?”

  “Just look at him.” Garron pointed at Far’s prone form contemptuously. “With the poison from S’reth’s talons in his blood, he won’t last long. I will bind his body in the char tree in the Forgotten Hollow and let the animals eat his flesh. That way he won’t desecrate the hallowed ground of the elder trees when he dies.”

  “What?” Becca couldn’t keep the horror out of her voice. She covered Far’s broad back, which was barely rising and falling anymore, with her own slighter frame. “No, you can’t—you can’t!”

  “I will take Truth’s body and dispose of it the same way,” Garron continued pitilessly.

  “That is not usual,” T’lar objected, stepping forward. “It is the custom after a Y’grin for the pack to feast on the flesh of the losing contender.”

  Garron spat on the ground at his uncle’s feet.

  “Are you saying you wish to pollute your body with tainted meat?”

  T’lar looked taken aback. “No, I never—”

  “I didn’t think so.” Garron raised his voice. “Both of these interlopers will be bound to the char tree to feed only the lowest beasts of Pax. No dr’gin of the pack will partake in this feast of shame!”

  “Agreed,” said the Ancient before T’lar could protest again.

  “Thank you, Ancient.” Garron bowed his head. He unstrapped the ghat from his forearm and then knelt on the freezing ground to unstrap the weapon from Truth’s still form as well.

  Up until now, Becca had felt frozen to the spot. Now she found she could suddenly move again. She jumped up, leaving Far for a moment to go to Truth. He was lying face down but his head was turned to the side and she could see his face. His eyes were closed and his lips were parted a little, allowing a trickle of blood to drip to the ground below.

  “Truth?” she whispered, putting a hand to his cold cheek. “Truth, please…please don’t be dead.”

  “Come, Becca.” Garron put a hand on her arm to help her up.

  At his light touch, Becca felt something snap inside her.

  “You bastard!” She turned on Truth’s younger brother, her hands hooked into claws, and went for him. “How could you? How could you? You killed him!” She couldn’t see past the red curtain of rage that had fallen over her vision. For a moment her sole purpose in life was to scratch his pretty turquoise eyes right out of his head.

  Garron caught her by the wrists and squeezed hard.

  “Becca, no,” he said fiercely. “Stop it. Just stop it now.”

  “I can’t stop. I won’t stop. You killed him! Your own brother! You bastard.” She was crying now—sobbing actually. Garron still held her by the wrists but he had a helpless look on his face, as though he had no idea what to do with her.

  Suddenly the fight went out of her and Becca slumped down. Garron let her go and she found herself lying on Truth’s bloody back, weeping uncontrollably. They were gone now—both gone. She couldn’t feel either twin through the partial bond they had formed. Her men were dead or about to be dead and she was all alone on an alien world, eighty million light years from home.

  Becca didn’t know how long she cried—it seemed like ages before her tears ran dry and she simply lay there, huddled beside the dark twin’s fallen body. She had never felt more desolate or alone in her life. Truth and Far were gone and it was her fault. All her fault.

  Though she had never entertained thoughts of suicide before, even when Kenneth was shot, now she wished she could die. Well, just give me time, she thought bleakly as her hot tears cooled and then froze on her cheeks. As cold as it is, it shouldn’t take long. She shivered but only a little. The frigid weather wasn’t bothering her nearly as much as it had been. In fact, as strange as it sounded, now that her tears were spent, she was beginning to feel sleepy.

  From far away, she heard the Ancient talking.

  “This judgment is over and you are all free to go,” he said.

  There were some grumbles of protest but one by one the Rai’ku males began to step away from the clearing. From eyes still blurred by tears, Becca saw some of them transform into the floating, flying dr’gin beasts while others simply walked away into the night.

  When the last of them had left, Garron breathed a deep sigh.

  “Thank you, Ancient,” he said.

  “I am sorry things happened as they did,” the old man said. “But you have three burdens to bear and there is only one of you. If you had a dr’gin within I would say that you could fly them on your back. But as you do not, or at least it still has not manifested—”

  “I will help.” A large form came out of the shadows and Becca saw it was a Kindred of some kind. She didn’t know which kind until his eyes flashed golden in the firelight.

  Oh, a Beast Kindred, she thought, hardly interested at all. The cold was beginning to make her feel sleepier and sleepier.

  “I will as well.” Another Kindred came forward. “Apologies, Brother,” he said to Garron. “We didn’t hear of the attack on your lodge until well after it had happened. The Rai’ku told us nothing.”

  “That’s because they knew we would’ve stopped them,” the first Kindred growled. “Sometimes I wonder why we stayed on this benighted planet at all. If my mind hadn’t aligned with a female from Pax…”

  “Time for that later,” the second Kindred said. “W