Species Traitor: A Science Fiction Dystopian Novel by Kate Mary (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📗

Anara’s smile faded and she shook her head. “By then relations between Veilorians and humans had gotten even worse. The District had been built, but integration efforts had not yet been abandoned completely. Still, things had gotten so bad that most Veilorians did not leave our part of the city. I did, though, visiting your father in his new home where we continued to try to figure out a way to fix the canyon separating our people.

“It was a little over two years after Landing Day that we finally gave in to our feelings. Your mother had not spoken to him in months and refused to let him see you, and when I arrived at his apartment that day, he was despondent. I only intended to comfort him, but after months of denying my feelings, I no longer could.” Anara stopped, giving me an apologetic smile. “I won’t go into any more detail than that.”

“So, you had an affair with my dad?”

I looked behind me to my cousin, confused and wanting to gain some kind of comfort from her presence. She was as shocked as I was, and Rye and Finn wore expressions that said they also hadn’t known about the relationship my father and the council leader had shared. There was something else, too, though. The cousins were staring at each other, not speaking but acting as if they were having a silent conversation.

“I did,” Anara said, drawing my focus back to her. “And I loved him very much.”

Things were starting to fall into place. My mother’s bitterness, the vague memories I had of living somewhere else, somewhere nicer. Why my mother hated Veilorians so much, and why my father, who I’d always remembered as being happy and loving, had left so suddenly.

“Your parents were already divorced by then, and he was having such a difficult time. I just wanted to comfort him. To take away some of his pain,” Anara explained, and even though her tone was gentle, it wasn’t apologetic. This woman had loved my father, and no matter the outcome, she didn’t regret what had happened between them. “Your mother refused to let him see you except one time. She brought you to him, and you spent the day together in his new home.”

“I remember that, but I never knew the rest of this,” I said, shaking my head as I sorted through all this new information. It was so much to take in, almost too much, but I had to know more. Had to know everything. “What happened to him? You said he was dead.”

Just thinking about him being dead made my throat tighten with sobs desperate to escape. I thought he’d abandoned me, but he hadn’t. He’d wanted me, but my mother had kept me from him. Then he’d died, and she never even told me.

Anara glanced toward Melora, and the other woman nodded, and beside me Finn stiffened like he was trying to brace himself for an impact.

When the council leader turned her gaze back to me, her expression was sad. “Admitting our feelings for one another gave your father a sense of renewed purpose, and he became more determined than ever to set things right. When he learned a half-human child had been born and was living in the District, he thought it was the answer he’d been looking for. The child was over a year old by then, but very few people knew of its existence. Terrified of how humans would react, the mother had kept the birth quiet, but the father was a close friend of your dad’s. The child gave him hope. He thought if humans could see the baby, could see how normal and nonthreatening it was, they would change their views. He thought it would make them understand how much we could help one another. He thought everyone would be able to see the miracle he did.

“He set up a Veilorian-rights rally where the baby’s father announced the child’s existence to the city. Only things didn’t go as planned. The humans were outraged and even more threatened than before. A riot broke out, and while trying to protect the baby and its mother, the child’s father was injured. Your dad did everything he could to save his friend, but they were attacked before they could get away, and a man was killed. It was self-defense, plain and simple, but he was still arrested, and the child’s father was left to die in the streets.” Anara paused to take a long, slow breath, then said in a quiet voice, “Two days later, your father was publicly executed for his crimes.”

I gasped, shocked and hurt and horrified that I’d thought so many awful things about my dad over the years, and turned tear-filled eyes to my cousin. “Did you know?”

“No.” Ione shook her head, her own eyes misty. “No one ever told me.”

How had I not known? How had I not looked for my dad? If I had, I could have learned the truth earlier. Might have realized my mother was lying to me.

Anara took my hand, and I looked back to find her holding one of Finn’s as well. “That rally killed both of your fathers.”

Her meaning sank in, making my head spin.

Both of our fathers, meaning Finn’s, too. Which meant he was the baby. The child of my father’s friend.

Finn stood, pulling his hand from Anara’s, his gaze focused on his mother. “Is this true?”

“It is,” Melora said, her voice gentle and soothing. “You were the first half-Veilorian born on Earth.”

Finn’s expression was a mixture of confusion and anger and betrayal. “That can’t be. I’m only twenty, and we’ve been here for twenty-two years. I know half-Veilorians who are older than me. I’ve met them.”

Melora’s gaze flicked to Anara, and when the council leader nodded, she once again focused on her son. “You were a little over one Earth year when your father died,” she said, her mouth turning down to emphasize how painful the memory of