The Rapture

THIRTY-FIVE

DUMUZI

Shadrach was aware of my thoughts before I entered his room, so it was unsurprising that he ignored my entrance. It irritated him he was not on Lare, the planet where his experiments were conducted, but on Nibiru. His mind was fractured, split into an amalgamation of scathing thoughts and bitter resentments.

I never understood how my brother could view the world so darkly.

"You already know my answer, brother," he ground out.

"You cannot fault me for trying."

He sat his book on the table in front of him and met my gaze. The prospect of returning to his old room miffed him. Numerous texts lined the walls; Shadrach had always been an avid reader, even of non-science or astronomy-related subjects.

He was reading an ancient story about a land battle—Krohean—that was not from our world, but from a species we created, the Qhuktex. They had perished centuries ago; they were warlike creatures.

What was the reason for him to dedicate time reading such materials?

"We cannot allow Degnath to be the head of the council. Since I am leaving, you need to take my place," I began.

"No."

"How can you tell me no? After everything you have done—taking Pearl and François to Earth when it was due to be destroyed. One could argue that you owe me this."

His fist collided with the table, jarring items. He was more irritable than usual; it was his illness. It turned out that the Sohme pair was indeed not rare.

Not when humans were around.

The bond required us a mate to survive; our hormones contaminated our blood, causing us to be on edge and callous until the issue was remedied and we gave in. Shadrach would never. His essence was likely pulling him back to earth, to find his missing half.

He had many years before he got to the point that I did, but it still disturbed me to see him under the effects. A current of empathy pushed through our brotherly bond, but this only made him angrier.

"I owe you nothing! You are only leaving the seat because you are emotionally incapable of dealing with your mate, and I find it weak to abandon your responsibilities."

"As weak as enabling her to sway you into leaving Lare?"

He did not respond.

I sat across from him at his table, my gaze drawn to a piece of equipment used for power conversions. I took the item, carefully rotating the flat, triangular slab of metal. "You took this from our vessel. Why?"

"For François. She may find it advantageous for her work. Will you leave? I care not about your personal issues with Pearl, or of the seat."

Something occurred to me. He didn't know Pearl was with child. How could he have missed the announcement? Perhaps because he was still enraged with me for threatening to remove him from his council seat. It is also possible that his illness was worse than initially thought; he wasn't paying much attention.

"You haven't heard?"

He cocked his head to the side. "About what? Are you blind to me wishing to be undisturbed right now?"

He rose to his feet, gesticulating with his hands for me to locate the exit. Peculiar, because although he was my brother, I was above him in rank. He never had the audacity to demand anything of me. "Watch your tone with me, Shadrach. You will listen to what I have to say before you give a true answer. You may want to say no, but you owe it to me to listen."