“I need to make an untraceable, off-the-grid call. This will help me do that.”

“Is it safe?”

He gave me a fierce look. “I would never do anything that would put you in danger.” His voice was firm but had a tinge of hurt in it. He was mad that I would even question that, but what he didn’t get was that I always had to make sure.

I let out a breath. “Okay.”

“But, as I said, you need more help than I can give. You need to talk to another Aunare.” He powered them up and started tapping his fingers in the air. “Hey.”

“Is there a problem?” A rich voice came through the line. He sounded worried, but the voice—the timbre and texture of it—sent shivers through my body, and I’d pay my hard-earned money to listen to the man talk all day.

I’d thought that Declan’s voice was nice, but this one was out of this world.

I almost laughed at that thought. Whoever he was, he was out of this world. Literally.

“No problem. At least not how you mean,” Declan said.

“What does that mean? Did you find her? Is she okay? What’s—”

“She’s here with me now. She’s fine. I’m—”

“You’re in the air then? When do you—”

“No.”

“What do you mean?” The voice deepened to a low rumble before he switched to Aunare. I gasped as Declan did, too.

I’d only heard it in old videos, but it was a beautiful language. Full of lovely hushing sibilant sounds that soothed my soul. I didn’t understand the words, but they felt familiar.

Mom said my first language was a mix of Aunare and English. They decided before I was born that she would speak to me in English and my father would speak to me in Aunare. But once Liberation Week happened, it was too dangerous to say even a single Aunare word. Ever. The brain wipe the doctor had done got rid of every Aunare word I knew.

Now the language seemed familiar but forgotten. Like if I could just clear away the fog, then I could understand what they were saying, but as it was, I didn’t understand a single word.

“Is that my dad?” I asked. The voice sounded familiar, but I didn’t know how. Maybe it was the memory wipe.

Declan and the other man stopped talking.

“Amihanna.” That one word felt like a caress that slithered its way into my heart and grasped it. The timbre of it surrounded me, and all of a sudden, I was filled with heat and drowning in want.

My throat was dry as I blinked my eyes, trying to figure out why the light was suddenly so bright, but then I realized it was me. One word to me from the Aunare man and I was wrecked.