by Roxie Ray
Yet. But the splashing water, the heat all around me…
“Mm,” I hummed. When I tried to speak, my tongue felt heavy, but not bad. “Really good.”
Eve.
Eve. Wake up. Wake up.
I giggled, then turned my head and nestled it against my shoulder. Distantly, I could feel hands on my body. They were big and a little cold, but I didn’t mind.
“Gallix,” I mumbled happily. It was about time he put those big, strong hands of his on me. “Mm. Really, really good.”
Eve. Eve! Wake up, Eve—
“Eve!”
I frowned, then blinked my eyes open. Immediately, I regretted it. There was a light overhead that was completely blinding.
My body didn’t feel pleasantly warm anymore. It felt like I was burning from the inside out. My muscles ached. My head hurt. My ears were ringing, and when I drew a breath, my nose was filled with the scent of bitter, acrid smoke.
“Thank the moons. There you are.” Gallix’s face moved over mine, eclipsing the light. He had a wicked cut that split his bright yellow eyebrow in two and continued down to his cheek, just missing his eye. It was still sticky with blood. His eyes were as yellow as his hair, full of concern. “Are you all right?”
“Where am I?” I tried to sit up, but my ribs hurt too much. When I touched my fingers to the back of my head, they came away wet and red. More blood. I studied it on my fingertips for a moment, wincing, then wiped them on my nightgown, which was torn all the way up to my hip. “What happened?”
“We landed.” Gallix glanced over to the source of the smoke. A safe distance away, Pax and Ronan were rushing around with buckets of water and dumping them on flames coming from the inside of the ship. The fire hissed and dissipated as the water hit. “Or, well, we crashed.”
“Are you hurt?” I reached up to touch the place on his brow where the skin was split. Gallix grimaced but didn’t pull away. Dr. Walters hadn’t ever been interested in sewing up cuts like that in the medical tent, so more often than not, people in the work camp had come into the kitchen for treatment instead. It had left me with a little experience in this kind of thing, though not much. The cut didn’t look too bad, but it was deep enough I could guess that he’d need stitches.
“I’m fine. Ronan’ll stitch me up later,” Gallix told me. He curled his fingers around mine and pulled my hand away. “I was just wondering the same about you, though. Fire on the ship’s pretty bad. Barely got you out of the cockpit in time.”
“I’m…not sure. But I think so.” I wiggled my fingers, then my toes. They worked. My head ached and my muscles were sore, but nothing hurt badly enough to worry me. “Help me up?”
“’Course.” Gallix moved an arm behind my back and pulled me into a sitting position. “How’s that?”
“I’m sore, but…I think I’ll live.” I touched the back of my head again and moved my fingers through the roots of my hair until I found the source of the blood. It was a shockingly small cut for how bad it was bleeding. Not too deep at all. “At worst…I might have a concussion or something.”
“We’ll take it.” Gallix stared at me for a moment, then wrapped his other arm around me and pulled me tight against his chest. “But dammit, don’t scare me like that again.”
I nodded as he held me. His skin and hair smelled like smoke and blood, but beneath that, there was that warm, earthy scent I’d smelled on him the night before. Masculine and soft. I breathed him in, ignoring the smoke, until I felt my heartbeat slowing and the tension easing from my shoulders.
“I’ll try not to,” I said. “But no promises. Are Ora and Marisa—”
“They’re fine. Don’t worry. Look, Ora’s right there.”
Gallix shifted back and pointed to a pool of glistening purple water across the clearing that we’d crash-landed into. The pool was fed by a gorgeous waterfall that splashed down from a cliffside onto smooth gray rocks beneath it. Near the pool’s edge, Ora dipped a bucket into the water. She traded it for Pax’s empty one as he came over to her, and she gave him a gentle smile as well.
“And Marisa?” I looked around for the curvy blonde, but she was nowhere to be found. Instead, I only saw deep green trees heavily peppered with bright fruits of every color in their leaves and a pale purple sky overhead.
“She’s sulking.” Gallix pointed to a place in the trees where I caught a glimpse of Marisa’s golden hair. She sat hunched with her back to us. “She’s, ah…not too happy about the fact that our trip has been delayed.”
I swallowed hard. Suddenly, my mouth felt dry as old paper.
“How long was I out for?” I whispered softly.
“Not long,” Gallix promised. “Don’t worry.”
“You keep saying that, but I’m not sure I should believe it.” I glanced back to the ship. Ronan dumped a final bucket of water inside it, and the last of the fire hissed, turning to steam instead of smoke. “The ship…”
“Yeah. I know. It’s pretty bad. What the fire and the crash haven’t ruined, the water probably has.” Gallix closed his eyes and sighed. “But we’ll deal with that in a bit. What’s important is that you’re okay.”
“Water,” I rasped. “I need water.”
Gallix nodded. “We can do that. Come here to the pool with me. It’s safe to drink. You think you can stand?”
I bit my lip and shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”
I was a little shaky upon standing, but Gallix was kind enough to let me lean on him. The water from the pond was cool and crisp, so pure it was almost sweet. I drank gulp after gulp of it from my cupped hands, then splashed it on my face until I felt a little more alive.
Alive. That was a nice word to think. Between the Rutharian ambush, the crash, and the fire, it felt a little like I’d had three near-death experiences rolled into one today. I was lucky to be alive. We all were.
But alive was different from okay. The ship—Bessie—looked pretty rough, which meant we were stranded here until it was fixed. If it could be fixed. And while Edon, this planet we’d crash-landed on, was undoubtedly beautiful, what Gallix had said before we crashed was hard to keep off my mind.
For every day we were here on Edon, a year passed on Lunaria and Earth. I wasn’t the best at math. There hadn’t exactly been classes for that kind of thing in Sector Five. I was lucky that I could even read.
But I knew enough to understand that even an hour here was probably weeks on Earth.
Weeks on Lunaria, too.
“How are you doing, Ora?” I lowered myself down to the edge of the pool next to her. Thankfully, she didn’t look hurt. Actually, as she dipped her toes into the water, she didn’t even look worried.
I envied her for that.
“I was just a little shaken at first. Not injured or anything.” She smiled gently as she looked over her shoulder at Pax. “Pax pulled me out of the ship right away, while Gallix was swearing and trying to undo your seatbelt.”
“Swearing, huh?” I glanced up at Gallix, who rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.
“I’m gonna go grab Ronan and see if we can’t scout the area a bit. I’ll leave you here with Pax, okay?” he asked.
“I’m not complaining.” Ora’s soft smile turned into a wide, toothy grin as Pax stretched near the ship, then stripped his sweat-soaked shirt off and wrung it out over a few remaining embers. “We’ll stay safe.”
“Good. And, ah…if you don’t mind, keep an eye on that one over there.” Gallix pointed at Marisa again. “She was spittin’ and hissin’ like a saberclaw when Ronan pulled her out of the ship. Don’t think she’s too happy about being here, truth be told.”
Marisa still had her back to us and didn’t look like she wanted to talk. But even I had to admit, she was having a more reasonable reaction to this than Ora was.
“We’ll look after her.” Ora hopped up and offered me her hand. “Wanna go pick some fruit, Eve? The trees are so thick with them here. It’s like our own personal buffet!”
&nb
sp; “We’re not on vacation, Ora,” I reminded her as I took her hand. “We’re shipwrecked. And we don’t even know if those fruits are edible or not. They might even be poisonous.”
“Gather up whatever ones look good to you and I’ll have a look when I get back. I’ve got some experience with eating unfamiliar grub on unknown worlds.” Gallix looked down at me with a little concern. “You sure you’re okay, Eve?”
“Just…shaken. Like Ora said.” I hugged myself, knowing that was a lie. I ached all over, and I was getting more worried about this entire situation with every passing minute, but I didn’t need Gallix worrying about me in return. “I’m fine. I just hope we can get off of this stupid planet quickly, is all.”
“Workin’ on it.” Gallix went over to Ronan and Pax as Ora dragged me over to a tree with low branches, heavily laden with bright pink fruit.
“This is so exciting, isn’t it?” Ora gave Pax a little wave across the clearing once Gallix and Ronan departed. “We’re on an alien planet, Eve! No one to tell us what to do or where to go, and with enough water and fruit, I bet we’d be able to survive here for ages if we wanted.”
“I don’t want to be here, though.” I frowned while Ora jumped up to one of the branches, capturing a piece of fruit in her hands. Its outer flesh looked hard, like the apples we sometimes got for lunch back in the work camp, but it wasn’t all puckered and wizened like those apples. It was smooth all over. Glossy and fresh. “Remember our contracts, Ora? The ones that got us out of Sector Five in the first place?”
“You mean the ones they only let us sign once we’d verified that we were virgins?” Ora passed me the fruit, then jumped up to catch the branch she’d pulled it from. There were even bigger, shinier fruits higher up. Ora shimmied up the branch until her legs were dangling several feet off the ground. “Come on, Eve. You have to admit, Marisa had a point about that. Whatever they had in store for us on Lunaria, it probably didn’t just involve artificial insemination. When I asked Pax about it, he agreed. We might actually be better off here, you know.”
“You and Pax are getting close.” I watched Ora intently as she worked her way even higher up the branch. Neither of us had much in the way of muscle from our time in the camp. I was surprised she was even able to climb as well as she was. In my current state, I certainly wasn’t feeling up for the task. “Careful. Don’t fall.”
“Pax is…well, he’s kind to me, Eve.” Ora grunted as she let go of the branch with one hand, stretching for an especially large fruit that was just out of reach. “The same way Gallix is kind to you.”
“They’ve all been kind. I think that’s sort of their job, isn’t it?”
“You know what I mean, Eve. I like him. I think he likes me too. And the way Gallix was fussing over you after he pulled you out of the ship—” Ora let out another grunt. This time, when she reached for the fruit, her fingers brushed against it, but missed. She tried again, but mid-reach, her fingers slipped on the branch and she let out an ear-splitting scream.
“Ora!” I cried out, rushing beneath her.
Before I could even try to catch her, an orange blur rushed past me, pushing me aside. I blinked, stumbling back as Ora fell.
When I opened my eyes again, Pax was standing beneath the tree a few paces away with a giggling Ora held safely in his arms.
“Thank you,” she whispered, smiling up at him.
“The pleasure is mine,” he assured her. “But you must be more careful next time.”
I left Ora and Pax to pick fruit on their own. It was a little strange, not being the only one trying to keep Ora safe after so long at the camp together, but I wasn’t going to complain. Obviously, he was going to be of more help to her than I was—and Ora didn’t seem upset to be left alone with him in the least.
Instead, I went to where Marisa was huddled on the tree line. When I placed my hand on her shoulder and said her name, she stiffened and shoved my hand away.
“I suppose you’re happy about this too,” she spat at me. “Ora and Pax, you and Gallix. I’m sure you all must be very pleased with yourselves.”
“I’m not with Gallix. And I’m not pleased.” I kicked some of the dead leaves and sticks away from the place next to Marisa and knelt down next to her. “I wanted to get to Lunaria too, Marisa. Just like you. I’m not happy about any of this at all.”
“Oh, great.” Marisa rolled her eyes and turned away from me. “So you’re in denial then. Even better.”
“In denial about what, exactly?” I was still furious at Marisa for taking Lily’s place, and even before that, we’d never exactly been friends. Back in Sector Five, I’d kept to my people and Marisa had kept to hers. But that didn’t mean I was going to be cruel to her. Especially not when we were all stranded on this planet together. Being mean to each other at this point, when we had no idea how long we’d be stuck here, wasn’t exactly going to get us back into the sky any quicker.
“Don’t be naive, Eve. Pax and Ora coupled up almost as soon as we got on the ship, and Gallix is obviously only interested in you. Which only leaves Ronan for me—and he’s not interested. Believe me, I tried.”
“What makes you think that Gallix is interested in me?” First Ora, now Marisa. Great. “He’s just been nice to me, Marisa. They’ve all been nice.”
“No one is that naive.” Marisa shook her head. “I know what men look like when they want a woman, Eve. It’s no different for aliens, as it turns out. You’re young and dumb and about as clever as a bag of rocks, but you can’t honestly tell me you haven’t noticed it.”
I bit my lip. Of course I’d noticed something about the way Gallix interacted with me. He seemed to go out of his way to care for me. There’d been comments here and there that had made me think, or maybe just hope, that he found me pretty and likable…even desirable. Before we’d crashed, he’d even called me his good luck charm.
But given that our ship had crashed and burned, leaving us marooned here on Edon, I didn’t feel quite so lucky now.
“Even if he does…like me, we all signed our contracts. Gallix knows that he has to take us to Lunaria.” Except that, before the crash, I clearly remembered an argument exactly against doing that.
“We’re not getting to Lunaria now,” Marisa scoffed. “They’ve explained to you how time works here, haven’t they?”
“A day to a year.” I hung my head and sighed. “It’s not great. I know.”
“Oh, it’ll be great for you and Ora. I’m the one left out in the cold.” Marisa hugged her knees to her chest like she could actually feel a chill, even though the temperature was balmy and warm. “We’ve been here for hours already. Back on Earth, they’ll have already realized that something went wrong and found new women to send to Lunaria in our place.”
Marisa left space for me to argue with her, but there wasn’t anything to argue about.
She was right. Of course she was right.
“I know you hate me.” Marisa shot a quick glance at me, then stared down at her knees again. “But now that we’re stuck here, you should be thanking me. Your friend Lily is probably on her way to Lunaria right now to go enjoy the life we were promised. I saved that skinny little brat the second I took her place.”
“She’s not a brat,” I said softly. “And I don’t hate you.”
“That’s sweet.” Marisa shifted away from me. “But I don’t care.”
This conversation was over, I could tell. I picked myself up and brushed the dirt and leaves from my knees.
“Well, if you…need to talk, or want company or anything—”
“I don’t. I won’t.”
“You know where to find us,” I said with a shrug.
“Of course I do.” Marisa looked up at the canopy of trees overhead. Through them, the pale purple sky was just barely visible. “There’s nowhere else to go.”
When I returned to Ora and Pax’s fruit-picking spot, Gallix and Ronan were back from their scouting mission. Ronan’s brow was furrowed. All four of his a
rms were crossed over his chest. Neither looked particularly happy, but when Gallix saw me approaching, he smiled at me.
Suddenly, my stomach was filled with excited fluttering.
Did he like me? Ora saw it, and Marisa was obviously convinced. Even I had to admit, a few of the things Gallix had said to me since we’d met had been a little bit beyond flirtatious.
If I did have a wife, I’d want her to be able to keep me on my toes. Like you.
“How did it go?” I asked. I couldn’t keep thinking about this. Not right now. Entertaining the idea was cute and all, but it wasn’t worth obsessing over.
No matter how much Ora liked it here on Edon and how unlikely Marisa felt it was that we’d ever leave this place, my focus right now needed to be on getting out of here. Edon was beautiful, yes, but it was no place to live. Definitely not for Marisa. Probably not for any of us.
If we could still find a way to make it to Lunaria, a life of luxury awaited us. Even if I did have to become some Lunarian lord’s concubine, we’d have good food, hot showers and comfy beds there.
For the first time in any of our lives, Marisa, Ora and I would have a home.
“There’s good news and bad news,” Gallix said. “But none of it’s going to get us anywhere today.”
“You’re sure?” I glanced at the sky overhead. I didn’t know how days worked here on Edon, but judging by the position of the sun, on Earth it would have been about mid-afternoon. “Every hour we spend here, every day—”
“We know, Eve,” said Ronan. “But this is not a problem that we will be able to solve in one day. We need to secure this clearing. Make camp. We will be sleeping here tonight.”
“Probably for several nights.” Gallix gave me an apologetic shrug. “Sorry, bright eyes. I know that’s not what you wanted to hear, but it’s what’s happening.”
“Okay.” I nodded, resolving not to argue. If they said it was going to be several nights, then they were right. We’d need to make the best of things. “Then how can I help?”
