After wrapping the rope around my waist, I twisted it back through the loop to tighten it. With my arms secured in the bag’s straps, I took a deep breath and called up for Tor to lift me out.
BOOK THREE
35
According to Traz, Lace and Elle were huddling in a cave about a mile from where Tor had pulled me from the underground river. Our clothes dried during the walk, but my hair still hung damp around my shoulders.
Traz had been patrolling to see if they’d been followed when he and Tor met up. Fortune favors the brave or some such nonsense. Seemed to me it was only fair that one thing had gone right.
Elgon lay outside the cave opening, his fur spiked up in warning as he surveyed the land for any threat to his new pack. As we approached, Tor whistled and Elgon’s ears perked. When we were within sight of the cave, the oversized beast bounded toward us, a thrumming purr emanating from the back of his throat.
“Elgon!” I hollered as he nuzzled me gruffly, practically knocking me down with his excitement.
His musty animal smell was strong and comforting. I hadn’t expected to miss him, but now that we were reunited, I felt like our family was back together again.
“Hey, what about me?” Tor laughed as Elgon licked the entire length of my arm, leaving me covered in mountain hound slobber.
“Oh my gods!” I complained.
Elgon trotted over to Tor for a rowdier reunion.
“This is the cave.” Traz directed us toward a rocky incline covered in moss and vines. “We figured it best to stay here for the day, in case anyone is searching for us. Then tonight I’ll go back and you guys can disappear.”
“You know you can stay with us,” I offered, hoping again he would reconsider. “There’s no reason for you to go back. Who knows what they’ll do if they know you helped us?”
“No, I have to go back. I have to talk to my parents and find out more about Tor’s people. If anyone asks where I was, I’ll just say I was looking at the Match books all day. They love it when people get excited about finding a Match.”
“Be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.” I imagined Traz stuck in a cage like Mintoch—Erdlander scientists poking and prodding him to try decoding his genetics. I slowed my pace, wanting time to convince him to stay with us before we reached the others.
“I will, Sera. But you needed to find your answers; now I need to find mine. Lace and I have been talking all night. There’s more here than we know, something... older going on. I can’t put my finger on it yet, but I’m going to find out.”
“You told her about me?” Tor accused, standing to his full height.
“She did just break out of the camp and run away with you in the middle of the night. I think it’s fair she knows what’s going on.” Traz kept walking, his soft voice unfazed by Tor’s aggression.
Tor caught up to him with three long steps and placed a hand on the Erdlander’s chest. “That’s none of her business!”
“Everything is everyone’s business now,” I interrupted. “This is all we have now; this is our family, our people. We aren’t Sualwet or Erdlander or A’aihea anymore. All their deceptions and hatreds don’t matter. It’s just us. And Traz is right. Lace has the right to know what she’s gotten into.” I placed a hand on Tor’s arm. “Come on. Let’s get to the cave.”
“Huh,” he replied without looking at me, but he pulled back from Traz and kept walking, slow enough for me to stay by his side, my hand wrapped around his bicep.
Elgon ran ahead to the cave entrance to show us the way. We strode through a small clearing before reaching the cave entrance. Our trek from the underground river had gone quickly, but the terrain was anything but easy. I found it so much easier to walk now that I didn’t have shoes pinching my webbed feet, but the rocky ground and steep inclines wore on my soles.
There was no trace of water nearby—no streams or springs that led to where we had emerged from the river. Our trail was hidden, and wherever Mintoch had gone was beyond our reach now. The farther we walked, the closer we came to the base of the Nalastran Mountain Ridge. Another day of travel would get us there, and we’d be well beyond the perimeter of Erdlander land.
Now and then Tor peered up at the snowy peaks, and his pace slowed. For him this was more than escape: this was hope of finding a future. For the rest of us, we simply had nowhere else to go.
Lace’s voice broke the serene landscape. “So, you didn’t drown?”
“Shut up, Lace,” I said.
“Why’s everyone always saying that?” she replied with a smile, lifting an eyebrow in my direction. “So what’s with the extra weight?” She inclined her head toward Lock as she pulled aside the hanging vines to let us into the hidden cave. Elgon remained outside to stand sentinel over our temporary home.
“Later,” I replied, exhaling into the darkness, thankful for the cover.
We hadn’t talked much during the walk back to the cave, and Lock hadn’t spoken at all. Traz had told us about their uneventful stroll through camp and the north gate. Other than letting us know Elle was still not talking, we knew little more than we had yesterday. Our story was probably more adventurous, but right then, all I wanted to do was sleep.
In the dank cave, Elle lay curled up on the pile of duffel bags and knapsacks they had brought with them. Her kinked hair hung over her face, arms still squeezed around her middle.
“How is she?” I asked Lace.
“The same, mostly. She’ll walk on her own now but still won’t talk.” Lace’s voice was thick with pain, and the sound made my chest tighten.
This loss felt like something beyond agony. I didn’t understand it, but its claws raked at my insides. Had Mother felt like this at the thought of giving me up? For the first time, I understood why she had kept me instead of choosing a life with her own people. I would do anything to avoid the heartache I saw in Elle’s face.
Fighting tears, I sat next to the small fire Lace had set. The flames barely produced any warmth, but they sufficed.
“I didn’t want to smoke us out.” Her tone was apologetic, as if she hadn’t done enough to welcome us to this makeshift home.
The cave was cool but dry, and despite its size, the fire brought comfort.
“It’s perfect.” I smiled as she sat next to me—close, like a friend.
“We should eat something and get some rest,” Tor said. “We have to get moving as soon as the sun sets.” He approached Elle’s sleeping form and examined the bags around her for one that contained food.
“First I want to know why he’s here.” Lace pointed to Lock, who shivered just inside the cave entrance, his eyes downcast, shoulders heavy.
Tor ignored her. He set four cans of food by the fire, pried their tops off with a knife, and placed them directly into the flames with his bare hands.
“Or you could start with that.” She gawked at him with wide eyes, earning herself nothing but a grunt.
Traz took Lock by the arm, pulled him to the circle, and pointed to where he should sit. “Someone spill,” Traz commanded, his voice unusually stern.
“Lock...,” I began. “He told Vaughn we were coming. They were waiting when we got to the Hub.”
Lace stood up, fire lighting her stern features and transforming her into the image of a goddess wronged. “You did what?”
“I didn’t mean for them to get hurt,” Lock said in defense.
“They knew we were coming,” I continued, ignoring him. “But they didn’t know about Tor.”
Lock flinched as Tor’s fingers threw a spark into the fire.
“Freaky.” Lace dropped back down, eyes now on Tor.
“Vaughn knew what I am”—I wiggled my toes self-consciously at the admission—”and thought he’d put me in one of their testing labs. Traz, you were right. They do tests on Sualwets, and not just the kind they were doing to Mintoch. The kind of medical experiments they did to my mother... they’re still doing that, too.”
My words hung above the fi
re, choking on the smoke.
“Vaughn thought he was going to have me as a lab rat, and he promised Lock he’d be allowed to remain unMatched and live in the City.”
“Yeah, right,” Lace snorted. “No one gets to do that.”
“He promised,” Lock whispered from beneath downcast eyes. “You don’t know what it’s like to be different.”
“You’re more of an idiot than I thought,” she hissed. “Let me guess, Vaughn reneged.”
He nodded.
“They were going to take both of us to the lab,” I explained. “Vaughn wanted to study why Lock couldn’t be Matched.”
“Jikmae,” Traz breathed.
The group sat silently for a moment. Erdlanders were experimenting on live subjects, even their own kind. The enormity of what that meant for their society was deafening. No ethics, no boundaries—only the drive to procreate and destroy. Perhaps it was best if the Erdlanders did die out.
“So, how’d you get out?” Lace asked.
“I set them on fire and blew up the wall,” Tor said in his blunt and concise way. The morbidity of the statement didn’t stop me from smiling at him. His gruff outside didn’t fool what I knew of his gentle touch.
“But you saved this slug why?” Lace insisted.
“He’s my friend,” I said. No matter what Lock had done, he still meant something to me. I couldn’t have just left him to die.
His head hung impossibly low as the group eyed him, waiting for some kind of explanation, anything that would excuse what he had done. But he remained in silent remorse.
“Well, I’m not sleeping without someone making sure he doesn’t run right back and tell them where we are.” Lace, always the practical one.
“I won’t do that,” Lock said.
“Why not? You turned on your friend, gave her up to a monster. You knew what they were doing, and you still led him to her. You were willing to let Traz, Elle, and I wait out here forever, never knowing what happened to them, and with no idea how to live on our own! All for what? So you could avoid Matching? Everyone Matches. What makes you so special that you don’t have to?” Lace was yelling now, Elle’s slumber forgotten in her fury.
“I... I can’t,” Lock admitted.” I don’t know why, but I just can’t.” He sent a pleading gaze in my direction.
“Why?” Lace demanded. “I did, Elle did, everyone does. And all we get from it is pain, but we have no choice. Why do you get to be above it while Elle has to suffer?”
“I just can’t!” Lock yelled back. “I tried. I did! I was medically Matched once, remember? It was a disaster! I tried to feel the way I was supposed to, but I just didn’t!” He covered his face with his hands and sobbed. Once the first hiccup broke free, the oncoming deluge rained down, leaving him hunched forward, hands grasping his head.
Tor placed a warm hand on my back as Lock’s diminishing gasps surrounded us.
“I’m sorry, Sera,” Lock sobbed. “I really am. I didn’t think Vaughn would.... I’m so sorry.”
I nodded in response, not quite able to forgive him yet.
“I’m not going to go back,” he went on. “I can’t go back. You can tie me up if you want, Lace, but I promise I won’t go anywhere.”
“I think we should push him back into the river,” she grunted without passion. They had been friends too, in their own way. “I know things were hard for you, Lock, but damn it.”
“I know. I know. I’m sorry.”
Tor reached into the fire and plucked out the heated cans. “We should eat.”
He placed a can—too hot for anyone but him to touch—in front of each of us, before producing four forks. We ate in silence. Vegetables and protein chunks mixed together slid down my throat. Either the food was bland or exhaustion and sorrow were too all-consuming for any flavor to reach me.
36
I slept wrapped up in Tor’s arms, warm and comfortable in his embrace. Even the hard cave ground couldn’t compete with the peace I found when he held me.
We didn’t tie Lock up. If he went back now, he was just as likely to be accused of helping us as he was to lead them here, and something in his desperate pleas for forgiveness told me he wouldn’t go anywhere. If anything, he wanted permission to stay. Desperation can make people do unreasonable things, and while I couldn’t forgive him for betraying us, I understood what being pushed to that point might feel like.
Lace slept next to Elle, curled around her friend’s exhausted body, and Traz sat near the cave entrance. I succumbed to sleep long before he even looked tired.
Tor and I lay pressed against the cave wall behind the pile of bags. I slept sandwiched between the cold wall and his warmth, which soon melded to the curve of my spine, my brain convincing me I was comfortable. Sleep washed over me, and for the first time since the cove, I drifted peacefully.
***
Ancient birds swoop from the sky. Tor’s heavy head rests on my stomach, his body draping across my lower half. But the sounds of death fill my mind as they dive toward the sea, impossibly large, plucking Sualwets from beneath the surface as easily as if they were fodder for seagulls.
Above the water, the monstrous beasts fly, reptilian but for their beaks and wings. The crunch of Sualwet bones crackles in my ears as the whoosh of another bird passes by. Along the shore, groups of Sualwet run for the safety of the trees only to be shot down by hidden gunmen. I watch helpless as Mintoch bursts from the surf and runs toward the tree line. He races along my cove, searching for cover and dodging unseen bullets.
Out from the cover of the forest canopy steps Ash. His hair is cropped short, not styled in the floppy fashion he usually wore. He lacks the smile that always greeted me in Pod Thirty-four. Instead, his face is stern and cold as he aims his gun. I scream and watch as the bullets take down Mintoch mid-stride.
***
Shocked awake, I braced my arm against the cave wall. Its cool surface brought me to reality, and I let the chill soak into my pores and wash away the panic from my dream.
“Are you all right?” Tor whispered in a sleepy voice.
I relaxed at the sound of him, feeling the weight of his arm as he moved next to me. “Bad dream.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
I lost myself in his impossibly blue eyes, which were filled with concern and something deeper and truer, and shook my head. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to exist in the place my dreams had taken me. I only wanted to exist with him. As we gazed at each other, a spark lit between us, fizzling out before it could reach my skin.
Tor’s lips were soft against mine. He kissed me gently, barely touching me other than the hand he had placed along my side. With a sigh, I reached for him, my hands gripping the rough hair that fell down his back. My kiss wasn’t soft, and I didn’t want to be gentle. I wanted to feel safe for just a moment. I wanted that moment with Tor.
The flame in his eyes and the light blazing within me intensified. I wanted to melt into him, disappear into his fire.
“What about the others?” he whispered.
“They’re asleep aren’t they?”
He peeked over the pile of bags and supplies to the other side of the cave where everyone else slept, and returned to me with a smile. “They’re completely out. Lock is drooling.”
I giggled and pulled him back to me. “Quiet.” I whispered, pulling one of the blankets we’d brought over us.
Tor’s kissed me as he settled back on the ground, slipping an arm beneath my body and pulling me tight against him. Arms wrapped around each other, our passion blazed. Something within me released and relaxed. A rush of calm passed through me, and I smiled.
“Tor?” I whispered, pulling his attention back to me.
“Hmm?”
~Orda sual fazla,~ I confessed, repeating the words that had escaped when he kissed me in the pod. Now I knew that I meant them.
He smiled and tilted his head to the side. “What does it mean?”
“It’s Sualwet. Th
ere isn’t really a translation.”
“Try.”
“Something like, ‘I’m yours... I’m yours to take, if you will have me.’”
“Orda sual fazla,” he repeated, mangling the language but getting the meaning. “I know its translation.”
“Oh, yeah?” I whispered into the darkness.
“Mm-hmm.” He kissed me lightly before continuing. “I love you.”
The words hung in the air around us, sweet and pure, like the first spring fruit or a shooting star. “I love you, too.”
We slept the rest of the day wrapped in each other’s arms, unwilling to move apart until the sun set.
37
A chill woke me, creeping across skin and nipping at my mind. Tor was gone, but he had draped his shirt across me. Joy radiated through me and dissipated the cold.
Shifting my weight, I stretched to relieve the aches from sleeping on the cave floor and then pulled yesterday’s clothes on. The scent of the river still clung to them, waking my mind with its clean fragrance.
At the cave entrance, Tor, Elle, and Traz were sitting around a small fire. I crept past Lace and Lock’s sleeping figures to join the others, letting the fire draw me in. When I sat, Tor placed a hand on my back and pulled me closer. His lips touched my forehead before he handed me a meal bar. He sat shirtless. I kept my head down but wanted to drink in the sight of him, his scars, his beauty. The group ate in silence, not breaking the peaceful morning air.
Traz spoke at last. “I’m going to leave as soon as you guys are ready to go.” Dim light from the cave opening outlined his silhouette. “I have to go back, see what happened.”
“I wish you’d stay with us,” I admitted, knowing he wouldn’t.
“There are too many questions. Too much we don’t know.”
“What will you do when you find your answers?” Tor asked. His hand moved up and down my back, soothing me with his warmth.
Two Moons of Sera Page 23
