Lowell

Chapter 10

"I don't get what ya see in him," Damuron said as he and Hanna ate dinner at a quaint restaurant. "He's a weirdo, Hanna. Plus, ever notice how he doesn't eat."

Hanna laughed. "Lowell's a great guy. He's kind and generous and- "

"Probably a guild spy." He interrupted and took a bite of his curry. "If I were you I'd distance yourself."

Hanna smiled giddily, and worry filled Damuron. "Actually." She held up her hand where a beautiful ornate gold locket sat. "He says that he wants to marry me." Hanna's hands ran over the locket's surface. "He said, that he didn't have money for a ring just yet, but that he wanted me to have this. Isn't it lovely?"

He looked at the joy in Hanna's face. It was so strong and pure. Damuron didn't like Lowell much. Didn't trust him. The guy just showed up and started swooning over Hanna like an idiot. Plus, he was a Krytian. Nothing good could come from this kind of union. "Hanna, have you thought about what this means? You've only known the guy a few years. And, he's a Krytian. They'll never approve the marriage."

Her face soured and she put the locket back in her pocket. "I know. I've thought it over a long time." Hanna's eyes sparked with a new fire. "I'll stand by Lowell come hell or high water." Damuron sighed and let the matter go. If Hanna was determined there was nothing he could do about it. "Besides, the sex is amazing."

He spat out his water and coughed.

He watched Yuri show up from a distance and felt a shiver flow through. Why would the boy come here? He was choosing death. Once Alexei saw him, then he'd probably send someone for his head.

The commandant's cold eyes drifted to Yuri and he placed a hand on his shoulder. "What is it doing here?" Alexei hissed. "You said it was disposed of."

He tried to laugh it off as a coincidence. "It sure looks like him, it's probably just a look alike."

Alexei stared at the boy and snapped his fingers. A medic came running up nervously. "Yes, commandant?"

"I want blood samples taken with today's physical." The medic nodded and walked off. "Hmm, if he is the child then he could be useful." A smile graced Alexie's lips. "Your blunder might have helped us out in the long run."

Flynn had of course been angry to see Yuri there, but not surprised. He should have known better than to think that Yuri would stay back. That wasn't his style. Getting into the knights wasn't hard, at least for him.

Yuri, on the other hand, was outed as a halfer in the first few hours. The man doing his physical had freaked out and sanitized his hands until they were raw. He muttered under his breath about halfer diseases and plagues. Of how Yuri had cursed him. His eyes rolled.

Right, because he could do that.

If Yuri had a gald for every time some idiot mentioned him being cursed, then he and Flynn would never have gone hungry. Oh, well. Not his fault people were xenophobic. Yuri from that moment on dealt with the whispers people made and the venomous glances. They stopped when the commandant approached him.

He felt his body freeze as a cold sweat broke out. Red smoke drifted off him and the scent... The scent was the deep irony tang of blood muddled with ozone. "What's your name, boy?"

Yuri straightened up and remembered the note he'd found in his pocket when he arrived. The person who put it in had smelled eerily familiar. The note had said to run and not let anyone know his name. While looking at this man, Yuri felt the need to trust the note.

"It's Yuri, just Yuri, sir. I don't have a full one." He was orphan so it was a buyable excuse.

The commandant's smirked. "Well, we'll need to fix that. How do you expect to rise through the ranks without one?"