Page 58 of Fathom

She gave my arm a gentle squeeze, a soft counterpoint to the threat of her words as we entered a plush sitting room, warm and elegant, lined with soft velvets and polished stone. Above the mantel hung a massive portrait of Eun standing side by side with Barathice, painted in sweeping, romantic strokes, a promise of a future that I had interrupted, a future that his parents had hung in his bedroom so he could stare at it every day.

It was all so surreal.

“Why?” I asked, watching as she let go of my arm and turned toward a servant who had just entered the room carrying a large wooden box. The servant approached and opened it, revealing the glittering shimmer of jewels nestled inside.

Eunadice reached in and lifted a breathtaking tiara, its diamond-like centerpiece accented with delicate pink and greengems that sparkled in the light. Tiara was the word my mind used, but a headpiece would have worked just as well, as it wasn't designed to just sit on the top of the head. It was made to curve down around ears in a different place than mine, to sit low on the forehead and frame a face with four eyes instead of two. She turned back to me with a soft smile, holding it gently between her claw-tipped fingers.

“Whywhat, dear?” she asked.

Now I wasdear.

“You were planning on eating me,” I said evenly. I wanted to hear it from her lips, to have her speak out loud the conditions of my safety so I could use her intentions against her. "Why did you change your mind so quickly?"

Another servant slipped into the room, holding out a shimmering silver dress. It was gorgeous.

“I thought you were prey when you arrived, but you're not, you're perfect,” Eunadice said, matter-of-fact. “Do you haveanyidea how much money some predators spend to soften their features? To make themselves more palatable to the majority of the prey population? Even Eun looks like a predator. His species has dominant genes to pass on their particularly useful traits when they interbreed with other species, but their children often take on the appearance of their mixed parents. Your children will be even more useful than Eun will be, as they will have all the useful traits of his species with some of the appearance of yours, and they will pass on their cute prey features to their children. Looks are very important, and prey outnumber us in the voting booths. My family plans for the long term, and we have to change if we are going to hold onto power.”

I felt a strange fluttering in my belly, an excitement that hovered on the edge of panic. I had been bluffing when I said 'grandchildren,' but she actually believed it was a real possibility.I rested my hand on my belly, a stone-cold moment of stark reality as I realized that my lies might have stepped over the border into truth.

His mother stepped closer and placed the tiara carefully atop my head. She shifted it, the edges of it pinching against my forehead as she moved it, trying to find a way for it to settle. Eventually, she angled it up so that the hooks that went over the ears pinched down against mine, carrying the entire weight of the gaudy piece. Then she turned me by the shoulders until I faced a tall, gilded mirror, holding the dress up in front of my body.

“My dear,” she said, voice rich with sudden affection, “you are a gift, and we will treat you like the precious gem that you are. Eun has given us no end of trouble, and you were a very clever girl to snag him the way you did. The reports were delightful to read.”

I reached up and brushed trembling fingers against the crown where it sat, cool and delicate against my hair, the pinch of metal less painful then the sadness in my heart, the fact that the one person Eun thought was on his side, his uncle, was an agent for his parents.

The weight of the crown felt heavier than it looked, like it carried more than just gems.

She was sincere about this.

“I didn’t know about any of this,” I whispered. “I thought Eun was a waiter. I didn’tsnaghim. I needed him.”

The words snagged in my throat, thick with emotion.I needed him.He had been there when I was drowning.

His arms had closed around me in the dark, on a planet where everything else had wanted to devour me.

Now he thought I had betrayed him.

“He saved me,” I murmured.

I caught her eye in the mirror, sharp and calculating, and I realized I had opened up, showing my belly to a predator.

"He saved me from poverty by marrying me into a family like yours," I pivoted, regaining control of the narrative I was attempting to spin as I hung the dress up on the mirror, giving myself a moment of space through action, trying to think of what someone with her intentions would want to hear. She would want to know my intentions, to know that my loyalty could be purchased. "I will never be poor again. My children will grow up with all the wealth and privilege that this family can offer them. I intend on making certain of that. We are aligned on this."

“All you have to do,” she said, her smile warm and sharp all at once, “is keep your hold on him.”

"We won't be able to move in here at once," I said, reaching up to pluck the cumbersome thing from my head. I placed it back in the box the servant still held, and waved my hand at him as if I couldn't be bothered.

"That isn't optional," Eunadice said. "We can't have Ric or Eunadi future spouse be put at risk by living in a slum."

I bit back my words. The apartment was very nice. Even the one-bedroom that Eun had started me off in was in a decent enough area. There wasn't any grafffiti or pickpockets hanging out in the streets around it, though maybe there were different signs for an area of ill repute.

Now wasn't the time for arguing.

It was time for bargaining.

"As you know, Eun can be difficult," I said. I took the time to select some of the other jewels from the box the servant held. I began to drape myself in them, so I was dripping in gems. "He needs to be coaxed into things. If I insist we move back in here right away, it won't goover well for future decisions regarding our children. He needs to feel like he isn't being cornered into anything, and I can help him choose the right thing. I promise you I am committed to my children having the best possible life they can have. You can trust me on this."

It was easy to say those words with conviction.