by Poppy Rhys
I’d make sure before I started on my routes. When I got closer to the block bank, Rezz came shuffling up to me and I gave his chest a good pat as he accompanied me the rest of the way.
He kept cutting me off, walking around to trip me up or herd me. “Rezz,” I growled after tripping over him the third time.
Ever since Charlie got here, he was getting ornerier. I smirked. Her attitude was rubbing off on him. Normally he slept near Kahn, but since I’d brought the human woman here, Rezz slept beside whatever bed she was in that night.
I was starting to think he had a thing for her.
We all did. Couldn’t fault him.
Her unique human scents that none of us were sure of at first had become ingrained into our memories. It was a blend of pheromones that differed day to day and mood to mood, and it kept me on my toes. All of us on our toes.
There were many layers to her that we had yet to discover and I found myself excited to see what the day would unfold each time she woke.
I’d tried to make sense of the dark flecks all over her softly browned skin—freckles, she’d called them, a human gene mutation—but it was a continuing puzzle I’d probably never solve.
She was one thing I’d borrowed that none of us wanted to give back. Each time she asked about the surface, I could see the disappointment in her eyes when she didn’t get the answer she was seeking, but we couldn’t give her up.
I knew the day would have to come eventually, once it was safe, and none of us were looking forward to it, but I knew we wouldn’t trap her here. Not if she didn’t want to stay.
My steps slowed when I spotted Lonan in the distance. He was alone.
My brow wrinkled, eyes scanning the rows to see if Charlie was somewhere nearby.
Lonan lifted his gaze, a frown tugging his mouth downward when he saw that I didn’t have Charlie with me.
Something was wrong.
I hollered, “She’s not with you?”
Immediately, he stopped what he was doing. My innards twisted.
“She was asleep when I left,” Lonan replied once he got closer. We both scanned the area.
Rezz swiped at the sand, our attention diving to him. His tail rattled with agitation and he turned, galloping toward the front of the city.
Lonan and I shared a look.
He’d been trying to tell me something this whole time.
Lonan grated, “Get the others.”
We ran.
NINETEEN
THE ERO’HA DOVE INTO the depths below me, disappearing from sight.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit!
It looped in my head as I swam like I was competing for the Olympic gold. When the water rushed me again, I didn’t stop to look.
I couldn’t stop to look!
My breath was coming in shallow gusts, the water rushing in and out of me, my weight fluctuating with every exhale as I tried not to drop my pack.
It was harder to swim every time I was filled with water.
Slap!
The fin whacked me again, hitting so hard it whipped me into a spin until I was facing the wrong direction.
Quickly, I corrected course and kicked. The fucker was toying with me. Playing with its prey.
It looped up, swimming into my path. I spread my arms, stopping myself. That’s the first time I got a really good look at it.
I wished I hadn’t.
I wished he’d come at me from behind so I couldn’t see my death staring me in the face.
Its jaws were long, narrow, with thin, sharp teeth as long as my fingers lining its dark gums, both top and bottom.
He could cut me in half with one bite.
It was terrifying to behold, and I couldn’t believe it was real. For days, there’d been no shadows. They were gone.
Why was this one here?
As long and as wide as a shark, with silver scales and black stripes, it darted to my left, a streak of glinting scales in the stray shaft of sunlight.
I swam again, my arms and legs working in sync. I couldn’t die without trying to escape!
Again, it looped to my front, and this time it was ready.
But so was I.
I could see it in its large, calculating eyes. He was going in for the kill.
The liquid rushed from my lungs and I watched as he cut through the water like a silver bullet, mouth wide and ready to sink into me.
My jaw tightened, teeth clenched and holding my pack securely in place, and I gripped the shard of rock in my hand, ready to stab.
Beat-beat, beat-beat, beat-beat went my pulse in my ears.
I narrowed my eyes.
A rush of water knocked me to the side like a punch. It was so tangible, like an actual god-sized fist. My gaze darted around once I got my bearings.
The watery breath left my body.
The four.
They looked different, vicious, decked in their battle forms just as I’d seen in Lonan’s memory.
Sharp, spiny fins ran down their backs and along their arms and legs, and I suddenly understood why they always wore thermal pants that stopped just below their knees.
Every other part of their bodies had grown weapons.
Claws extended from their fingertips reminding me of Ghishwy’s opalescent ones. Their fangs had doubled in size, giving the impression of sabretooth fish-men when they opened their jaws wide in warning.
Their faces had also morphed, the skin pulled tight against bones that looked acute enough to cut if they angled them just right.
Monsters. They looked like dangerous monsters.
They swirled around the ero’ha like a whirlpool, tearing it apart like a pack of sharks. The last blow was Lonan as he lit up like I’d never seen and fried the giant predator.
The water around me moved, forming a channel of fast flowing current that—no matter how much I fought against it—swept me further away from them.
It was pushing me toward the underwater cliff, the way I’d been swimming before the attack. I stopped struggling.
My body rushed through the water, the current carrying me straight to the channel until my head broke the surface. The water catapulted me up and onto the bank where I landed on hands and knees.
Immediately, I dropped my pack and gurgled liquid. It forcefully expelled from my lungs, leaking from my nose and sputtering from my mouth as I ejected every drop and sucked back dry air.
It burned, and I coughed again until the weight of the water was gone, and I felt human again.
The channel splashed me from behind. I whipped around in time to see Rezz catapulted onto the bank and all four valos bursting from the river behind him, the water unnaturally rising up to spit them out.
They landed on the grass, their movements precise, unlike my ungraceful sprawl. I knew Dason or Zaid must’ve been controlling the current.
I barely recognized them. Their battle forms might’ve scared me if I didn’t know they wouldn’t hurt me. Even so, it was unnerving, especially the frenzied desperation in their violent eyes.
Kahn sprung, taking me by surprise and pinning me on my back.
“You could have died!” he roared, his monstrous face hovering so close to mine, the droplets of water were still tepid when they sprinkled my skin. His hands trapping mine were warm—too warm—and I could feel the bite of electricity he was attempting to hold back.
I recognized anger. I knew anger. I could deal with anger.
My own irritation rose, bent on meeting him head on, but then he asked, “What were you thinking?”
The desperate plea on the last word, and the pinch to his silver brows, doused my temper. His white eyes, streaking with bolts of beautiful lightning, peered at me like he was trying to see into my soul, and somehow, I knew the question alluded to something else.
The silent shock in his gaze asked, instead, ‘Why did you leave us?’
Maybe I was wrong, maybe I was right, but either way, it brought about an ache in my chest. I’d never seen such raw emotion in Kah
n’s eyes, and I instantly regretted that my actions brought him to this point.
The moment ended just as quickly as it began, and Kahn’s face relaxed, moving back into an almost blank expression. The nakedness of his thoughts gone.
He stood up, pulling me to my feet—and straight into his arms.
I was too stunned to do anything more than stand there against his soaked body as he hugged me so tightly. It was almost like he was constricting around me, and I couldn’t breathe, but it still felt good.
It wasn’t long before I was pulled out of his arms and into Lonan’s. My hands rested on his chest as he squeezed me to him.
“You scared us, little human,” he murmured, his hands burying themselves in my soaked curls as he tilted my face back. The milky storms in his eyes raged on, windows to his true thoughts.
Dason’s grabby hands snatched me out of Lonan’s arms and right into his, making me feel like a ragdoll being fought over by grown alien men, but surprisingly... I didn’t mind.
It made me feel... feel...
Something that I didn’t recognize.
He tightened his embrace, and I started to wonder if one of these valos were going to pop one of my ribs.
“You didn’t trust us,” Dason accused, my cheek still squished against his warm, wet chest. Instantly, my defenses sparked alive, even though I knew he was right.
“You guys don’t understand.” My words were muffled against said warm chest, but I knew they could all hear me. How could I explain that, back on Earth, I ruled my life?
It wasn’t dictated by the migratory habits of predatory fish.
I couldn’t explain it, because this wasn’t Earth, and this situation was anything but normal.
“I’m sorry.” It was the only thing I could say. I truly was sorry. I wasn’t just saying it. Not after hearing their words or seeing their worried expressions.
Zaid stole me from Dason, wrapping his big arms around me and lifting until my feet dangled off the ground. I looped my arms around his neck, careful to not bump his spiny fin, and buried my face under his jaw.
“You didn’t say goodbye,” he rumbled near my ear, the hurt so palpable. I felt like shit.
No, I felt like Ghishwy.
Fuck, I’m awful. I’m awful!
She was the one that left without a word. I’d thoughtlessly recreated a moment in Zaid’s life that had left him feeling incomplete for a portion of his existence.
“I’m so sorry.” What else could I say? I squeezed him harder, knowing my words couldn’t reverse my actions.
My apologies didn’t make me feel any better because I knew, one day, I planned to leave again if I could figure out a way how. For good. Back to Earth.
I pushed that thought away.
“We’re coming with you,” Kahn insisted in a tone that left no room for argument but, naturally, I had to.
“No, you’re not.” I wiggled. Zaid set me down then threaded his fingers through mine to hold my hand. My insides warmed that he didn’t want to let me go.
“Yes, we are, Charlie,” Kahn growled, and if I had any good sense, that would’ve been the end of the conversation. Something about these four just egged me on.
“No,” I shook my head. “I’ve overstayed my welcome and you guys have helped me more than was necessary. Thanks for that, but enough is enough.”
“Do you even know which direction you’re going?” Kahn smugly crossed his arms over his chest.
Fuck, that got under my skin because no, I had no damn idea what way I was going because this part of the river didn’t look familiar to me. At all.
“Yes,” I blatantly lied, and I didn’t even feel bad, especially when Kahn’s smugness got smuggier. Even though that wasn’t a real word, it was a real thing. A real Kahn thing.
“Well, which way?”
My teeth clenched together and suddenly, I wanted to leave all over again.
No, I didn’t. I didn’t want to see the hurt in their eyes a second round. I wasn’t ready for that yet.
He stared me down, waiting for me to make an idiot of myself, and I hated him—and myself—a little bit for it.
“Stop it, Kahn,” Zaid came to my defense and I squeezed his hand, my body gravitating toward him.
My hero.
“We’re going with you.” He speared me with a that’s that look, ruining my previous inner declaration.
My mouth opened and Lonan spoke before I could utter a word.
“What will you eat?” He grabbed my other hand, his thumb rubbing over my skin, distracting me. “Where will you sleep? How will you defend yourself when you need rest?”
My teeth dug into my bottom lip, and I groaned, especially at the wave of sincerity in his gaze, unlike Kahn. Smug asshole.
“Ugh,” I griped. “I can’t think while you’re both holding my hands.”
But they made no moves to let go, and neither did I. They were holding me hostage and I let them. The fact that he made valid points irritated me all the more, because I’d thought about those things too.
I wouldn’t let my pride get in the way of common sense—again. They knew this planet, I didn’t, and while I was determined to die trying, the survivalist in me knew my best chance was with them now that they stood here.
“Fine,” it came out as a tight grumble. “I hate it when you make sense.”
Lonan grinned, and I noticed his teeth had shrunken back to normal size—which was still abnormally long. He leaned down and planted a kiss right on my lips, lingering just enough to make me tip forward when he pulled away.
My middle tightened.
Kahn growled something I couldn’t decipher, and I turned a narrowed gaze on him. “Maybe if you’d said it nicely instead of all demanding, I’d kiss you too.”
I got a small ounce of satisfaction at his scowl, because his smug grin was nowhere to be found.
Rezz decided at that moment to shake, sending water droplets flying in all directions.
“Rezz!” we all hollered in sync.
His tail rattled.
TWENTY
WE UTILIZED THE DAYLIGHT once I explained I’d been at a bend in the river, and which direction I’d been running from. They seemed to know the area I was talking about with Dason’s help, and when I described the predators that had attacked that night.
“Ak’rena,” Dason supplied. “Blind, but vicious. Their territory isn’t far from here.”
It’d been while we were walking that I realized how awful prison shoes were. No cushion or arch support whatsoever, but I persevered without complaint. Every break we took, they’d suggested.
Personally, I just wanted to keep trekking, though I had the sneaking suspicion they were breaking for me. They weren’t too good at pretending to be tired.
Come to think of it, the whole time I’d been with them in Ghi, they’d never yawned or seemed to show any signs of fatigue except that one and only time they’d run a train on me—okay, so I’d started that.
Momentarily, I had to concentrate harder on staying focused and not let my mind drift back to that night of debauchery.
Anyway, I’d always closed my eyes for the night first. The only time I saw them in their beds was after I woke up in one of them the next day.
“Where are you going, little human?” Lonan asked, a curious lilt to his voice when I got up to start walking again after another break. I paused, peering over my shoulder just as Kahn came to place his hands on my arms and turn me around.
“Wrong way.” He smirked.
“Well, I don’t know! This tree looks just as enormous and brown as that tree.” I tossed my hands in the air and started in the direction they told me to, falling into place behind Zaid and in front of Dason.
“That way,” Kahn gestured, bringing up the tail, “is Ventos territory.”
“And?” Like I knew what that meant.
“And we don’t go there.”
“Thank you,” my eyes rolled, and I sent a glare his way, “for that ela
borate explanation.”
Dason chuckled at my back.
“The Ventos manipulate air,” Lonan explained at the lead. “They’re too unpredictable.”
The idea of someone messing with the air I breathe—not gonna lie—made me extremely nervous. I wondered what other races there were and what they could manipulate.
“As I said,” Kahn dryly reiterated, “we don’t go there.”
“Probably a good idea.”
Rezz bumped his big head into my side and I absently played with his fluffy feather mane while we traipsed through the thick forest.
I tried to brush up against as little vegetation as possible, especially the bushes that looked like they were bleeding. Yeah... bleeding.
The white leaves had little beads of red liquid bubbling upon their surfaces and when it got to be too heavy, they dipped, and it drizzled off their tips like strawberry syrup. A bleeding bush. Didn’t help that it smelled like orange blossoms.
Instead, I kept close to Zaid’s back since he was twice as wide as me and cleared a pretty good path.
WE WERE MAKING PROGRESS! The minutes were ticking down, and every step brought me closer to Preta. That was my hope, anyway. She had to be alive. Had to.
Walking into the meadow was like a breath of fresh air. Somehow, I’d taken the lead in my eagerness to see the wide-open space. Neon green grass was dotted by crimson flowers that flickered gold in the slight wind that was no longer blocked by the trees. It felt nice against my damp skin.
I was halfway across the large meadow when the ground subtly vibrated like a low scale earthquake. Just a tremor.
We all stopped moving, the others looking at the ground below them when I turned. “What’s going on?” I realized there was only three of them. “Where’s Dason?”
The tremoring quickly gained intensity, followed by the sound of snapping branches off in the distance.
Dason crashed through the clearing, a cheeky grin plastered on his face as he ran like his life depended on it with a football-sized something tucked under his arm.
“We should run!” he hollered as he zoomed past us. I had to pick my jaw up off the ground.
