The Complete Madion War Trilogy

by S. Usher Evans

  We chose an eastern path, pausing to check under every shaded tree and bush for suitable shelter. Twice, we saw what I thought was another feral dog, but it disappeared before I could get a good look at it. Besides, Galian had his flare gun stuffed into the waist of his pants with our last flare, should we encounter anything that wanted to eat us.

  I began to fall behind, and Galian asked several times if I wanted him to carry me. I told him I didn't need his help to walk, but the truth was that I needed some space between us. He trudged on ahead, and I watched the wet uniform stick to his muscles. He was thinner than when we'd landed on the island, but still beautiful. I was enjoying my view, until he complained about me walking too slowly and decided, unilaterally, that he was going to carry me on his back.

  Now, of course, the problem was that I had my hands around his shoulders, I could feel the muscles move under my breasts. And with my legs splayed across his back, my ability to focus on finding shelter was decidedly hampered. Every time he adjusted me, a jolt of pleasure ran up my spine. More than once, I stared at his neck, his lips, mine only inches away, wondering what he tasted like.

  Galian stumbled over a root, bringing me back to our search for shelter. It had sprinkled a little while ago, and we'd be in for another rough night if we didn't find something soon.

  I thought, a bit hopefully, that we may have to use each other for warmth again.

  Somewhere in the more intelligent side of my brain, I knew I shouldn't be indulging in this silliness. Finding better shelter was crucial to our survival. The rain was coming again, and we needed to be warm.

  But my brain refused to cooperate. Nineteen years of being the responsible, strong one, and I was finally done with it. I wanted to be a silly girl with a crush on a boy.

  I turned to look at my carrier again. Galian was uncharacteristically focused, his brow furrowed and his face stony. I wondered what he was thinking about.

  Galian

  I thought I was going to die with Theo on my back. It was a good thing she couldn't see down the front of me, because I had an erection so big that it made it hard to walk. The feel of her breasts against my back, the way her thighs tightened around my waist, her breath on my neck. I kept envisioning pulling her off, tossing her on the ground, and doing things to her that made my erection even worse.

  I adjusted her again on my back, more so I could discreetly arrange the bulge in my pants. She squeaked a little, and it sent more blood to my crotch. God, but I wanted to hear her make that noise for me.

  "Think it'll rain?" I asked, hoping conversation would help me refocus.

  "Mm."

  I sighed; of all the times for Theo to get quiet.

  "The war sucks, doesn't it?" I tried, desperate for release. Maybe we could get into an argument, maybe she'd get furious at me and I'd stop thinking about burying my head in her breasts.

  "Absolutely."

  I wish I could get into your pants. "I miss having a shower."

  "Me too."

  Damn, now I was thinking about her in the shower before the laboratory exploded. Bad conversation topic.

  "So what else is new?"

  "What in God's name are you doing?" she asked.

  "I'm making conversation," I said. And trying to get rid of this need to be inside you.

  "Why?"

  "Because it's too quiet."

  "Perhaps, then, you should focus on finding a place for us to stay, or we should go back to camp." She sounded angry with me. I didn't care. She'd be a lot angrier at me if she found out what I was thinking about her.

  "And sit in the rain again?" I asked with a snort. I'd sit in the rain for years if it meant I could be naked with her. "Weren't you the one who suggested we find shelter?"

  "Why are you snapping at me?" she asked.

  "Why are you snapping at me?"

  She didn't have an answer, and I chalked it up to hunger and being cold and wet. For me, I was tired, cold, wet, and sexually frustrated.

  Theo

  I was tired, cold, wet, and sexually frustrated. It didn't help that Galian kept adjusting me on his back, and there was now a painful throbbing in that sensitive part of my body. And it definitely didn't help that I was completely transfixed on him, instead of on the topic at hand. I was effectively useless, a besotted idiot.

  And as my stomach rumbled, I remembered that we'd eaten our breakfast this morning and, because I was with Galian instead of hunting for more, we would go hungry tonight.

  "Put me down," I insisted, pushing off him. He didn't argue and I stumbled back a little.

  "What's wrong?"

  "I'm headed back to camp." It wasn't a total lie; we did need to catch dinner before it got too dark. But I also needed to get away from him before I did something stupid. I began to walk when I heard Galian's amused chuckle behind me.

  "We didn't come that way," Galian said with a small smile. "Were you not paying attention?"

  My face nearly burst into flames. "I was, but..."

  "See?" He pointed to the mark on the tree. "I've been marking the trees. They'll lead you back."

  "I knew that," I said with more than my usual amount of heat. "But I was just—"

  The ground crumbled beneath my feet and I slid downward on a bed of pebbles and stones, my scream echoing in the darkness. I came to a stop after just a few short, heart-stopping seconds. I winced as I moved, but I'd been lucky to slide down the whole way on my tailbone. Though my backside didn't agree.

  "Theo!" Galian's voice echoed above me. "Theo, are you all right?"

  "I'm fine," I coughed in the dusty air.

  Light filtered into the cave as Galian moved more brush out of the way. The slope I'd slid down was maybe six feet, and flat enough that Galian could crawl down to join me. The cave was stone and sturdy, no chance of it falling in on us. And was exactly the kind of place we needed.

  "Ow," I winced. My tailbone was now added to the list of things that ached.

  Galian reached down and helped me stand. "Are you all right?" he asked again. "Seriously?"

  "Nothing bruised but my pride," I said, dusting myself off.

  In this small space, we had to stand much closer together than usual, our arms brushing. There was hardly enough room to walk, although I was fairly sure we could fit our mattress and maybe a few other things.

  "I might be able to dig more of this out," Galian said, running his hands along the slope. "Or maybe add a little ladder or something like that." He looked down at me again with a pleased sort of smile. "So what do you think? Is this a good home for us?"

  I blinked at his choice of words. Home. A smile crossed my face. "Yeah, I think this'll do nicely."

  THIRTEEN

  Galian

  The first night we spent in the cave, Theo must've decided that we no longer needed to worry about predators killing us in our sleep. For that night, she joined me on the mattress that I'd dragged to the cave, curled into a ball, and fell asleep before I could question her. The second night was the same, as was the third. By the fourth night, I got a small smile and a "goodnight," which I took to mean she was at least not disgusted by the idea of sharing a bed with me. But I didn't want to push things further. She was sleeping next to me, but sleeping with me would be an entirely different question.

  Once we'd settled in our new cave, things became a lot more routine. Before then, we'd just been living day-to-day, simply trying to survive. But days were passing in the blink of an eye, routine slowly overcoming the ever-present worry that we would not live to see the next day.

  I'd wake first and catch breakfast, waking Theo up with the smell of roasted meat. After breakfast, I'd start working on whatever project that had piqued my interest while Theo found lunch. In the afternoons, it was my turn to find food while Theo tinkered on a new trap. Some days, I wasn't sure that we said two words to each other, but every night, we curled up in our cave next to one another and slept soundly.

  One of my more pressing projects was the hunt for some
thing other than Goddamned rabbit. Theo made no mention that she was tired of it, but I could barely stand the taste of it anymore. My options were either the birds we heard chirping high in the trees, or what we could catch in the sea. I had begun to consider options for fishing poles. On a trip back to our original camp, I'd found my old parachute on the beach, which meant I had a fishing line. But a hook was a different story. I considered many different options, from branches to using the metal pieces on my shoes. It wasn't until I ventured back to the laboratory that I found something useful—a box of metal sutures.

  "Hey, it's not much, but it's worth a shot!" I said to Theo's dubious face when I told her of my plan. She shrugged and continued sharpening the knife with a nearby rock.

  The shore of the Madion Sea was a short walk from our cave, and I carefully carried my makeshift pole and line to the edge of the water. I stood at the shore and flung the end of the suture-line into the water.

  "Here," Theo said, appearing by my side. She pulled the line back to her and stuck a small piece of rabbit on the end.

  "Thanks," I said, grinning.

  "I still don't think this is going to work," she said, glancing out to the water. "You'd have to get farther out. I doubt fish come this close to shore."

  "What about that?" I said, pointing behind her to a rocky outcropping. "I could stand up there and toss it in?"

  I felt her unsure gaze as I jogged over to the rock and climbed up the rocky cliff face. The task was made more difficult by the fishing pole in my hand, but I made it. I stood and looked out upon the island, including Theo, who stood some thirty feet below me.

  "I think I like you better with two feet on the ground," she said. "Please be careful up there."

  "Just let me try this for a bit," I said, picking up the pole and reaching back to cast the line out. My foot slipped and I knew I was falling. I saw the rock speeding towards me. The last thing I remembered was Theo screaming my name.

  Theo

  His body fell in slow motion, and I heard myself scream his name, followed by the sickening crack that echoed somewhere in the bottom of my stomach. I scrambled over to him as quickly as I could, flipping him over in the rocky sand.

  "Galian! Galian!" I shook him then stopped, unsure if it would harm him or wake him. "Galian!"

  His eyes remained shut, his body motionless except for the small rise and fall of his chest. I pressed my hands to his ribcage to feel his heartbeat. But that didn't change the fact that he looked dead.

  "Okay, if you're playing with me," I said in a shaky voice, "it's not funny anymore. Time to wake up and laugh about it. You got me, princeling."

  I waited for his eyes to pop open, for his cheesy, smug grin, but none of it came. He was truly unconscious, and I had absolutely no idea what to do.

  "Galian, I need you to wake up and tell me what I have to do," I whispered helplessly. Panic bubbled up, but I calmed myself so I wouldn't lose my head. That, at least I was trained for.

  I considered all Galian had done for me in our weeks on this island. When we'd first crashed, he had cleaned my wounds with rubbing alcohol and made sure they were wrapped. But his injuries appeared internal, aside from a small cut on his forehead and what I assumed would be a large bruise.

  I glanced down at him again, shaking him gently to see if I could rouse him to consciousness. When he didn't move, panic rose again, and I forced it down.

  "What would Galian do," I whispered to myself. Then, in a flash of lightning. "The bag!" Galian's bag, with all his medicine, was back in our original campsite. Maybe I'd find something in it.

  But it was all the way on the other side of the island.

  I turned behind me to the forest and knew there was no other choice. I needed to get Galian to a safe place first, so I grabbed him under the arms and dragged him. It took me a while, what with my broken leg and his dead weight—a lot heavier than I'd expected—but, grunting, panting, sweating, I finally pulled him down into the cave and onto the mattress.

  I collapsed next to him, dripping sweat in exertion and watching his still form. I half-expected him to turn over and settle in, as he did when he was falling asleep at night. When he didn't, I took a few extra moments to make sure he was covered and, I hoped, comfortable.

  "Okay, so...stay here."

  I waited for him to argue with me. My eyes pricked with tears. But now was not the time to cry over him. Now I needed to get help.

  Before I'd gone five steps, I realized I had no idea where I was on the island. It had been weeks since we'd left our old campsite, and with my leg still healing, Galian had made most of the cross-island treks.

  "Think, kallistrate." I'd been in worse situations before and managed to keep my head better than this. Then again, my fears up in the sky were about my own survival, whereas now I was concerned for someone else.

  My buzzing internal monologue continued until I processed that I wasn't just staring at a tree, but a small mark in the tree. Galian had been marking the trees every few feet! I silently thanked that brilliant princeling as I passed the first mark, running my hand along the grove in the wood.

  I walked until I thought I was traveling in circles until I saw it—the wreckage of my plane. I made a beeline for the black bag on the ground. I pulled the bag strap over my shoulder and scavenged our former home for anything else that might help him.

  As I fretted around the campsite, I kept wondering why I was making such an irrational fuss over him. Some part of my brain knew he would wake up soon. And if he didn't, that would be the better for me because...

  My humanity prevented me from finishing that thought. Galian couldn't die. Galian wasn't going to die.

  The forest was dark from the thick clouds and impending dusk when I set off back to our cave. I made sure to check every tree for the mark Galian had etched into it. Each one was a reminder of him, warming me. But my leg and my strength wouldn't allow me to go much faster than a slow hobble. Although I could walk short distances on it, traveling back and forth across the island was causing me great pain.

  Just as darkness had almost fully descended, I spotted our cave, or rather, I spotted the dwindling fire he'd started hours ago. I rushed to the cave, hoping to see Galian sitting up with a smile on his face.

  But he lay in the darkness exactly where I had left him.

  Trembling, I knelt down beside him and pressed my hand to his chest, relieved that it rose and fell gently against my skin.

  "I'm back," I whispered into his ear. "In case you feel like waking up now."

  He didn't move.

  "I brought you something," I said, feeling only slightly idiotic for speaking with no one to answer me.

  I dumped the bag on the ground and scoured through the tubes and medicines that tumbled out. Our fire had grown dangerously low, and I could barely see the nose in front of my face.

  "Stay here," I said to Galian, as I stood to find more kindling.

  I barely noticed my leg throbbing from the exertion as I gathered more wood. Soon the light was shining all the way to the back of the cave.

  Galian never stirred once. I rested for a moment, hunger and pain and exhaustion gnawing at me. But I couldn't stay still.

  I sorted through the medication, reading each one and trying to figure out what they were for. Antiseptic, antacid, antihistamine, anti-itch cream. His cut had scabbed over, and I doubted that he needed a stomach settler or allergy medication.

  I looked around the cave at the mess I'd made of his medical supplies and felt even more helpless than before I'd left.

  I plopped down on the mattress next to him and ran my hands through his hair, more to comfort myself than him. His hair was greasy, but then again, so was mine. I didn't care though, I kept running my hands through it. All I wanted in that moment was for him to wake up, to tease me for making such a big deal over nothing. To smile at me with that twinkle in his eye.

  I was so overwhelmed, tired, hungry, and worried about him that tears leaked down my cheeks.
The release felt good, even though I knew crying would help no one. But there was nothing else I could do but wait. And cry.

  As gently as I could, I pulled him into my arms, his head resting in the crook of my neck. His body was warm against mine, further proof that he wasn't dying.

  In that moment, holding him in my arms, I realized that I could survive the island without him. I'd walked back and forth to the camp, I'd carried supplies. I was adept at hunting and finding food. I could stomach going to the laboratory every few days to gather water. I could live for months or even years alone.

  But as I held Galian close to me, praying he would wake up with every breath I took, I realized I didn't want to be there without him.

  Because I loved him.

  The realization poured through me like a river, awe-inspiring and terrifying at once. I had never felt so deeply about someone as I felt about the man in my arms. I'd thought I knew love—I had thought I'd loved my plane, maybe even Lanis. But this new feeling was overwhelming and beautiful and like nothing I'd ever felt before.

  I tentatively pressed my lips to his, tasting my own tears, and wishing that his lips would respond in kind. It was not how I wanted our first kiss to go, but it was a start. I told myself it was practice for when he awoke and kissed me for real.

  "I...I love you," I whispered, testing the words. They sounded silly coming out of my mouth and yet full of weight. I said it again, bolder, and then again, with all the emotion I felt towards him.

  I glanced down at his sleeping face and scowled. "If you're just pretending to be asleep to listen to me make a fool of myself..."

  But there was no smirk, no smile. No sign of my Galian.

  I kissed him again, lingering on his lips and wondering how they could be so soft after all of the hardships we'd gone through. Nothing but his soft breathing informed me he was alive. I lifted my lips again, and more tears fell.