Talia Jager

by Without Hesitation

  “I can tell the mood changed even if I can’t see your face.”

  “Just stuck in my head.”

  She grew quiet probably guessing what I was thinking. “What are you going to do with Nero?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You know, to talk, it requires words.”

  I laughed. “Yes, it does. I want to keep him.”

  “I guessed that.”

  “The light is getting closer. We’ll be there soon.”

  “I don’t like tight spots,” she admitted finally.

  “I don’t particularly like them either.”

  Ever gripped my hand hard and dragged me to a stop. “Something is coming,” she whispered..

  “What?”

  “I can hear them. They’re coming from that way.” She gestured in front of us.

  I glanced behind us wondering if we should go back. What if they were beasts or something worse? Before I could decide, someone yelled, “Stop!”

  Bright lights shone in our faces. “Drop the weapons!”

  We let the spears fall out of our hands.

  “Hands out!” another voice followed.

  Large guards wearing dark green uniforms surrounded us with their weapons aimed. I dropped Ever’s hand and put both of mine out in front of me. One of the men with brown hair and a long beard stepped up to us and examined our hands. Raising a gun at my head, he said, “Who are you?”

  “I’m Akacia Sparks, Empress of Valinor. We crashed on your planet about fifteen nights ago. We’re not here to harm anyone. We just want to go home.”

  He was quiet for a long moment. His eyes moved to Ever and he said, “Who are you?”

  “She’s with me,” I said. It was hard to explain why the sudden urge to protect Ever rose up in me after what she had done to me. It just felt like the right thing to do. I hoped she wouldn’t make me regret it. “Do you have a communication device we could use?”

  He grunted, turned, and began walking away. Just as I was about to call out to him, the other guards closed in on us and forced us to follow the bearded man.

  “Where do you think they’re taking us?” Ever asked.

  “Would it be too optimistic to say the comms room?” I answered.

  We emerged from the tunnel back into the bright light of the sun. The buildings were built out of different colored stones. It looked liked homes were one color and government another, maybe businesses were the third color? The city wasn’t large, but it was full of people who stopped and stared at us as we walked by. It reminded me a lot of where I lived, but Baile was more spread out.

  We were led into one tan stone building and down a hall. A door opened and the guard pointed for us to go inside. After taking a deep breath, I entered pulling Ever behind me. The guard followed and the door closed. It was a small room with a table and chairs. Guess they weren’t rolling out the red carpet for us.

  “Please hand us everything on your bodies.”

  “Why?”

  “We can’t have you attacking us.”

  I took off my holster and handed it over. I didn’t have anything else.

  Ever refused to give them anything, so they took everything. Her guns, her knives, and her jump device. Before he left, he grabbed Nero off my shoulder.

  “Pets, too.”

  “Hey!”

  “We’ll keep him alive.” The guard glared at us.

  The door opened and two men and a woman walked in. The men stood to the side, while the woman with long auburn hair and thin stern lips sat down and gestured for us to do the same.

  “It’s unusual for us to have visitors. I hope you’ll excuse the rude welcome,” the lady said. “My name is Mellie. I am the leader of Terronda. You certainly got our attention crossing the minefield. We’ll have to go plant some more.”

  “They protect you from the beasts?”

  “Yes. We surrounded our city with bombs to keep the Grimelings out. They are not smart, but they are strong and unrelenting.” She sat back. “One of our guards said you claim to be the Empress of Valinor, is that correct?”

  “Yes. Could you contact Valinor and let them know? They will send rescue.”

  “How did you get here?” She didn’t answer my question.

  “We crashed.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t really know. Ship malfunction or something.” I didn’t want to give out the information that there were people after us, that we had been attacked.

  The man on Mellie’s left crinkled his forehead.

  “And her?” Mellie asked.

  “She’s my bodyguard,” I lied.

  “Please, stay here. We’re going to verify your story.” Mellie stood and left the room.

  Looking as the two guards took their positions outside the door, I said, “They’re not letting us leave anyway.”

  “I don’t like this. Something isn’t right,” Ever said.

  “I know,” I answered, reaching over and taking her hands in mine. “It can’t be worse here, right?”

  Her golden eyes met mine. She leaned close and said, “Keep our secrets.”

  I answered her with a nod. There was no way I was telling anyone here about my nanites or Ever’s DNA.

  The silence engulfed us as we sat at the table wondering what our fate might be. Maybe we should have stayed in the wild. Built a house? Tried to survive among the monsters and crazy weather? No use fretting about it. We couldn’t change any of that now.

  Mellie returned. The guards followed. “Terronda is a beautiful planet. We are thankful for what we have here, but you’ve seen some of what we’re up against. Erratic weather and strong beasts. Our winters are brutal. We barely have enough food to get through it.” She leaned forward. “We have verified your identities. We will hold you here until we are paid for your safe return.”

  “You’re ransoming us?” My hands balled into fists.

  “Yes. We discovered that both of you have multiple people searching for you. Empress, while Valinor is looking for you, so is someone called Caspar. And you, Everleigh of the Nirvana, along with this Caspar person, you are wanted by the Authority.”

  “You’re going to sell us to the highest bidder?” I accused.

  Ever jumped out of her chair and I grabbed her hand before she could do anything stupid. I knew she had a violent streak. I had seen it when she came for me and she had told me she had killed before.

  “It’s not personal. Please understand. An opportunity came and is giving us the chance to better our lives. Wouldn’t you take it?” Mellie asked, leader to leader.

  My body was shaking in anger. There were so many things I wanted to say to them, but it was no use. I could tell they would not consider anything I said.

  “They have two moons to decide,” Mellie said.

  “And what then?”

  “You go to the one who offers the most.”

  “Will you allow me to talk to Valinor?” I could not let Ever fall into either Caspar or the Authority’s hands. She had to come with me.

  She gave a slight nod. “They requested proof of life anyway.”

  She opened her arm gesturing to the door. We both started to follow her, but she turned back and said, “No. Just you, Empress.”

  I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could say anything, Ever put her finger on my lips. “I’ll be fine,” she promised.

  Leaning close, I whispered, “Don’t try anything.”

  I was led to a room with one big screen. It must be their control room and they weren’t lying when they said they didn’t have a lot. It was bare bones. Older communication equipment. Only a few people keeping an eye on things. Nero was in a cage on a shelf. He chittered loud when he saw me.

  “Get Valinor on screen,” Mellie ordered.

  A minute later, Galton and Bristow appeared on the big screen. They both seemed relieved to see me. “Empress! You’re alive,” Galton spoke.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you okay?”

&nb
sp; “I am. I’ve heard about this ridiculous ransom these people are requesting. Caspar wants me, too.”

  “I know. Don’t worry—”

  “Listen. I need you to offer the most, not just for me, but for Everleigh too.”

  His forehead crinkled. “You’re talking about the one who turned you over to Caspar?”

  “Yes.”

  “Empress—”

  “That’s an order, Galton.”

  “I think that’s enough,” Mellie interrupted. “You have your proof of life. Two moons.” The screen went dark.

  “What will you do with us until then?”

  “I can’t let you leave, but I won’t make you suffer.” She turned to her guards. “Take her to a room. Make her comfortable. Keep an eye on her.”

  “What about Everleigh?”

  “She’s a criminal. We’ve taken her to the prison quarters.” Mellie waved it off, like she could care less what happened to Ever.

  “No. She stays with me.”

  With lips pinched tight, she said, “Maybe you didn’t hear me correctly. She is a criminal.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “We’re not letting her stay in a suite.”

  “Then put me where you’re putting her.”

  Her hazel eyes bore into me as I challenged her. “Fine. Take her to the prison quarters.”

  The guard took me by the elbow and escorted me downstairs. He pushed numbers on a keypad and a door opened. Ever was sitting on the floor against the wall with her legs out in front of her and cradling her hand. Both cots had been flipped over and a cup lay in a puddle on the floor in the corner.

  Our eyes met and a sad smile touched her lips while one of her shoulders shrugged.

  As I crossed the small room, the door banged shut behind me. I dropped down next to her and took her hand in mine. Examining the swollen knuckles, I asked, “Are you okay?”

  “I keep thinking this can’t get any worse and yet, it continues to.”

  We’re together. It was a thought. Just a thought. I didn’t say it out loud. If we were together, we could deal with this.

  We sat and we came up with crazy ideas on how to get out of this predicament. We thought up the stupidest, most insane ways to escape. None of them would actually work, but it was fun dreaming up such ideas with her and it passed the time and relieved some of the anxiety.

  They brought us food. It wasn’t much, but it was more than we had been eating. Afterward we fixed the cots so we could sleep on them that night.

  Mellie graced us with her presence again, calling us to a room to talk about what we experienced since leaving our ship. We left a lot of our adventures out. Just relaying the fight with the beasts and a few bad lightning storms.

  “Is there a reason why you don’t colonize the rest of the planet?” I asked.

  “You’ve seen the reasons. It’s too dangerous. The city is surrounded by water, which is good because the grimelings can’t swim. But the city is too small to grow food. In order to live, we had to plant crops outside of the city. We built the tunnels so we could get to the crops, but had to add the minefields as an extra layer of protection.”

  “Why not just kill them?”

  “There are more of them than there are of us.”

  “But they’re not intelligent, you said so yourself. Why not just take them out?”

  “We don’t have the resources to do that, but now we just might. It’s one of the things the reward money will help.”

  “Ransom money. Call it like it is,” Ever said.

  Mellie’s eyes shifted to Ever and she frowned. “You’re wanted for many crimes. I could give you over to the Authority just for the fame it would bring me.”

  “Then why don’t you?”

  “I need the money more.”

  Before a fight broke out, I interjected, “If there’s nothing more, could we please go back to our room?”

  Mellie nodded and the guards returned us to our cell.

  There was no fire to keep us warm that night. I curled up on the cot feeling lonely. Eventually I dozed off into a restless sleep.

  My mind and my body battled for control as Caspar burst into the room and pulled out a gun. He shot Ever and then turned to me.

  “Don’t worry, Empress. I won’t kill you. Not yet, anyway.”

  He grabbed me and pushed my face down in a basin of water. Every time he yanked my head out of the water, I glanced at Ever who was lying still on the floor, eyes open, a bullet hole in her forehead. My body was getting tired. I didn’t know how much more I could take. He held my head under longer and I started to see a light in the distance.

  “Kaci?”

  Hands were on me.

  “Wake up.”

  I bolted upright, gasping for air. I reached out and found Ever by my side. She was alive. I was alive. It was a nightmare.

  “Breathe.”

  “I…I can’t…” My heart was pounding in my chest and my throat felt like it was closing.

  She knelt in front of me, cupping my face in her hands. “Look in my eyes.”

  I stared into bright, golden depth of her eyes. They were oddly peaceful.

  “Breathe.” She took my hand, spread it across her breastbone and inhaled deeply, showing me, helping me. “Do it with me.”

  I nodded and copied her breathing as best I could. Slowly the erratic beating of my heart calmed down and my breathing followed.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t even want to think about it. I want it to get out of my head!” A tear dripped down my face. Ever wiped it away with her thumb.

  She climbed in the bed with me and lowered me back down. I ignored the way my stomach bottomed out when she held me. I ignored the way my heart kicked against my chest. I ignored the way her body felt when she settled in and molded it against mine. I closed my eyes and let sleep take over, knowing I was safe in her arms.

  At first light, I stirred. I could feel Ever’s breath on my neck, sending warm tingles throughout my body. Safe. I could spend forever in this room as long as she was with me. So I stayed there in her arms, dreaming about what a life with her might look like.

  Ever grew more and more restless as the day wore on, pacing back and forth against the length of the room. She was like a caged animal. I wondered how much of that was built in from the jaguar DNA.

  The light in the room dimmed. It would be night soon. The second moon. Ever’s pace quickened.

  “Can you calm down?” I asked, rubbing my temples.

  “How can you just sit there?” she shouted back.

  “I can’t control what happens today. I’m trying to enjoy the time with you, but…” I stood up and closed the space between us. Her eyes went wide as I walked her back against the wall. “You’re driving me crazy.”

  There it was again, that feeling in my stomach. It wasn’t easy to ignore this time. Once more, the air was thick between us. My eyes darted from her eyes to her lips. How I wanted to feel them on mine again. Inching closer, I breathed in deeply smelling her sweet, earthy scent.

  I kissed her softly at first, waiting for her to respond. She released a shaky breath, but seemed to relax and smiled against my lips. She opened up, letting me in. Our mouths collided in a wet, passionate kiss. But just as we were settling in for a deep, long, slow kissing, that could potentially last hours, two guards barged in.

  “Follow,” the one nearest us grunted.

  I pulled back, breathing heavily, annoyed that we had been interrupted. After sharing a look with Ever, I pressed my lips to hers one more time and then turned to the guards. My heartbeat returned to normal as we followed them. They brought us to the control room, where Mellie stood watching the monitor. “I figured you’d want to be here when the numbers came in.”

  “How generous,” Ever snarled.

  Mellie glanced over at her. “I am sorry, for what it’s worth. I just have to do what’s right for my peopl
e.”

  “What’s the plan tonight? Is it a bidding war?” I asked.

  “No. Whoever comes in with the highest price first wins.”

  Ever looked off to the side. Something had caught her attention. Her eyebrows were furrowed like she was trying to figure something out. As soon as Mellie turned her attention back to the computer, I made eye contact with Ever, asking her what was up. Thankfully she knew what I meant and her eyes moved to the shelves. The jump device was there along with our weapons and in a cage was Nero.

  I scooted closer to Ever.

  “The jump device. It’s on,” she whispered.

  I shrugged my shoulders to show her I wasn’t sure what she was trying to get at.

  Her eyes met mine. She used short sentences. “My ship. In range. To jump.”

  My eyes widened and I nodded.

  She hesitated, and said one word, “Risky.”

  I thought about what Galton had said. While Valinor had plenty of riches, I wasn’t sure if we had as much as Caspar or if Galton would do as I asked. There was a chance that Valinor could beat what Caspar would offer, but no guarantee. And Ever, the Authority might want her, but they didn’t have the money to pay for her. Which would mean we’d both go to Caspar. Thinking of us both being tortured by him made me sick to my stomach. This could be our way out. Our only option. Definitely worth the risk.

  I nodded again.

  Her eyes darted back and forth. I knew she was thinking up a plan. We had to get the jump device. She had to at least. There was still a chance Galton would be the higher bid for me.

  Seconds later, Ever spun around and disarmed the guard behind her. “Duck!” she yelled and I did.

  Using the guard’s weapon, she put a bullet in the other guard’s shoulder. Keeping the gun pointed at a very surprised room, she ran over and grabbed the jump device.

  I chased after her to the cage that held Nero. I couldn’t leave him behind. “What are you doing?” Ever asked as I opened the cage and let Nero climb on my shoulder.

  Ever flipped open the device. “It might not be my crew.”

  “We have to chance it.”

  Just then the door flew open and more guards poured in. “Drop the weapon!”

  Ever aimed the gun, but didn’t fire. “We’re leaving.”