Mutual Trust

by Lea Linnett

  “Of course,” Bree said, fighting down the bitter wave of disappointment that flooded her.

  “But if it is important to you…” Marek smiled tentatively when she turned wide eyes on him. “Then I will try.”

  They stared at each other, and suddenly, Bree felt that pull again, a strange form of gravity urging her closer to Marek. Her gaze dropped to his lips, which were full and golden and not scaly at all, and a crazy, wild part of her wanted to…

  To do what?

  “Come,” Marek said, jarring her from her thoughts just in time to stop her from doing anything stupid in front of Peris. He nudged her arm, directing her forward. “We will speak again, tomorrow.”

  She nodded, following him, and studiously ignored Peris’ sharp gaze as she passed by.

  ---

  Marek had anticipated that Peris would round on him as soon as Bree was safe in her room, but he did not anticipate the silkiness with which she said, “What are you planning, halfbreed?”

  He gritted his teeth, turning away from the female as she stalked after him. “I plan nothing, Peris.”

  “More lies,” she snapped. “I don’t know why Urek trusts you when you continually sabotage his work like this.”

  “I haven’t sabotaged anything.”

  Peris scoffed. “I’ve seen the way you coddle her. I’ve seen the way the two of you conspire.”

  “You are growing as paranoid as he is,” Marek said, pacing away from her. “Does Urek threaten you now, as well?”

  “Urek knows that I am more trustworthy than you!” Her claws raked the floor as she sped up, grabbing him roughly by the arm. “You, who lies to his face and mine so you may plot with your fellow sub-species.”

  Marek forced down an enraged snarl, his throat tight as he said, “Do you know why I even agreed to this plan, Peris? Do you know what Urek offered me? I was once respected. Once, my work spoke for me rather than my blood or my lack of claws. And I have fought to regain that respect ever since my mother passed. Do you really think I would throw it all away now, when Urek has promised to bring it back within my reach?”

  “If that is true, why then do you treat the human like an equal?” Peris asked, her lip curling in derision. “Why do I catch you trying to touch her at every opportunity?”

  “Your eyes deceive you,” he said. “It is my role to study her—”

  “It is your role to find the rest of her backward kind.”

  “And how do we accomplish that? By beating her? You and Urek are no longer military. It is your ways that are backward.”

  The crest on Peris’ forehead flared with anger, her eyes blazing. “We do not accomplish it by touching the sub-species as one would a lover, halfbreed!”

  Marek froze, his heart pounding in his ears, but Peris wasn’t finished.

  “I think you are either willfully wasting Urek’s time so that you may enjoy the human’s company more,” she said, her voice a toxic purr, “or you are seduced by her stories. Do you think she sees you as one of them, Marek? Do you think you can join her out there in the frozen mountains and escape the mine?”

  He stared at her, shocked to silence. It would do no good to grow angry and deny her words; he knew from years of torment at Urek’s hands that it would only be used against him. But then what could he possibly say in reply? What denial could he give that Peris would believe?

  Especially when her words sliced through a part of him that he’d been attempting to silence ever since Bree arrived here?

  Of course he was excited by her world. Bree’s people lived untouched by the Constellation that had shadowed his entire life. She had known nothing of sub-species before she came here.

  But he wasn’t naive enough to think he could be a part of that world. He knew what he wanted—what he needed. Didn’t he?

  “I don’t concern myself with stories, Peris,” he managed to say, his mind reeling. “I treat the human as I do so that I may give Urek what he wants. That is all. If you have complaints about my methods, take them up with him.”

  Peris sneered. “You talk too much. How many words have you shared with that human, only to come up with nothing?”

  “I suggest you return to your quarters,” he snapped, the air in the corridor suddenly seeming thin as he pushed past her. “You have many more hours of guarding to do tomorrow, I believe, while the human and I ‘share words.’”

  To his surprise, she said nothing else as he fled the corridor, heading back to the small office he used as a bedroom while he was upstairs. But he felt her stare, like two burning hot lasers targeting his back.

  13

  Bree lay on the floor of her room, her hands clasped across her stomach and her head tilted back, watching the light snowfall from upside-down and forcing herself to just breathe.

  From this angle, the snowflakes appeared to float upwards from a gray ground into a blisteringly white sky, and she tried to imagine them taking her restlessness with them. It didn’t work, and her feet returned to their rhythmless tapping against the furniture.

  She’d barely been able to sit still since Marek said he’d try to take her outside the day before. It hadn’t been a plan—it hadn’t even been a promise—but now that it was out in the open, Bree realized how much she needed it. Being stuck in this room was driving her mad, and the windowless observation room was even worse.

  The worst torture was being left alone with her own thoughts so often. It had once been something she cherished, wandering out in the wilderness by herself and emptying her mind. Here, her thoughts kept circling back to Marek, and that strange compulsion that had come over her as they stood by the windows.

  A part of her had ached to feel whether those lips would be soft against her own, and how his strong hands might hold her if they weren’t pinned under Peris’ watchful eye or separated by a table. Did levekk even kiss? Humans certainly did, and Marek shared their blood. She remembered how his bright, blue-violet eyes had burned like firestones in the gym when he looked at her, and her gut tightened.

  God, what was wrong with her? This was all in her head, right? A product of her captivity? This place was breaking her down, dangling her at the end of a rope that was rapidly fraying, so her mind had turned to the one comfort she had left.

  Marek.

  She had to ignore it. She had to keep herself focused on the priority here: escape.

  Which meant she had to get outside, away from the fortress-like metal walls of this place.

  Her thoughts were interrupted by the snap of the door opening, and she shot to her feet. It was too early for Peris to come collect her, and yet it was Peris who entered, her green eyes raking over the room.

  “What’s going on?” Bree asked. Even though the female couldn’t understand her, it had the desired effect of drawing her gaze. “Is it time to go?”

  Peris snorted derisively, her primary response whenever Bree spoke, and snatched the pile of leathers from their spot on the desk.

  “Don’t touch that!” Bree stepped forward, but the levekk ignored her. She unfolded the clothes roughly, shaking them out and throwing them to the floor, and then crossed to the bed. Before Bree could react, she ripped the sheets from their frame, leaving them in a heap.

  She was searching for something, Bree realized. She was searching her room.

  “What are you doing?” she said, her voice rising as she reached for the levekk. Peris pushed her aside, using her greater size to her advantage, and disappeared into the bathroom. Inside, cupboard doors slammed and fittings rattled as she searched.

  A fierce anger boiled up within Bree that surprised her. She hated this room, hated being trapped here, but it was still the only place she could call her own. And Peris was invading it, treating it like it meant nothing. Treating her like a criminal.

  She glared at the levekk when she emerged from the bathroom empty-handed. Bree had little in the way of personal effects, but they’d all been scattered, leaving her room a mess.

  Bree thought she
was finished, but then Peris’ sharp gaze found the box Bree kept beside her bed.

  “Kik kehr ka?” she barked, advancing, and Bree was thrown against the bed when she tried to block the levekk’s path.

  “I said, don’t touch!” But it was too late to stop her, and she was forced to watch on as Peris opened the box and threw aside the material covering, fishing out one of the shattered pieces of Bree’s mother’s bow.

  “Sikina,” Peris said disdainfully, throwing it down with apparent disgust. “Te salehni.”

  She snapped the lid shut, and to Bree’s horror, started to leave with the box still clasped between her claws.

  “Hey!” Bree yelled, grabbing the levekk by the arm. “You can’t take that!”

  Peris moved lightning fast, dislodging Bree’s grip and hauling her out into the corridor one-handed. Bree grunted with pain as sharp claws dug into her own arm and her feet slipped out from under her.

  She didn’t know where the levekk intended to take her. She didn’t care.

  Bree struggled against the alien’s hold, a wordless cry rasping from her throat. Her rubber foot-coverings caught the metal, regaining her balance, and Bree used it to yank Peris closer. With momentum on her side, Bree braced, sinking her shoulder deep into the levekk’s stomach.

  Peris hissed in pain, something that must have been an curse rushing from between her lips, and Bree took her chance.

  She lunged for the box.

  Peris was faster.

  The levekk caught her by the arm, sharp claws ripping her bodysuit as she was spun around. She struggled, but Peris was too strong for her. She pulled Bree’s arm behind her at a wrong angle, and Bree gritted her teeth against the pain.

  “Fuck you!” she yelled, not caring who heard, and kicked back.

  Peris snarled as the foot connected with her oddly-shaped knee, her grip loosening. Bree hit the floor and kept moving, but hesitated when the box holding her mother’s bow fell to the floor with a crack.

  In that instant of doubt, Peris struck. One hand found Bree’s neck, the other smashed into her stomach, and all the air was forced from Bree’s lungs in a single exhale. The box lay abandoned where it had landed a few feet away, but Bree could barely see it, her vision eclipsed by stars.

  Then, claws on her scalp, pulling on her hair hard enough to make her cry out.

  They’d barely scuffled, but Bree was weak from sitting on her ass all day for weeks, and despite her training in the Barracks, she’d underestimated the sheer strength of the much larger female. Yanking on Bree’s hair, Peris shifted them around, repositioning her arm behind her back at an excruciating angle. “Yumin shekra,” Peris snarled in her ear. “Urek misalak sintra keirana.”

  Peris’ hold on her hair tightened so much that Bree screeched with pain. There was a sharp yell from elsewhere, a voice she recognized, but Bree couldn’t identify it, not with her scalp on fire and blood roaring in her ears. The pain continued for one second, then two, and then the hands released her and Bree screamed, her nerves on fire.

  She fell to her knees as her scalp throbbed, unable to decipher the raised voices arguing over her head. Then, the scene slowly resolved, revealing Marek standing over her and hissing angry words into Peris’ face as the female bit back with even more venom.

  Bree sucked in air, forcing herself to her feet, and familiar, clawless hands found her arms in an attempt to support her. Marek said something in his language that she couldn’t fathom, but instinctively, she understood what he meant by his gentle touches.

  “Don’t push yourself. Be careful.”

  Fuck that. She drew herself up, pushing Peris away from them with as much ferocity as she could muster. “Don’t you dare fucking touch me again!” she snarled at the female, and Peris’ cat-like eyes blazed with fury.

  Then, Peris turned away, snatching up the box from where it had fallen and spitting something in Levekk so hateful in tone that even Bree’s skin crawled. She turned on her alien heel and fled.

  “You are all right?” Marek asked, thankfully in English this time. She doubted he’d even noticed his earlier slip.

  “I’m fine,” she said, even as her scalp ached. Her gaze followed the retreating levekk’s back. “She took my bow.”

  He stared at her with an unreadable expression, and after a long moment, he seemed to come to a decision. “Come with me.”

  Marek’s hand found hers, and that touch alone was enough to shock Bree into following him. They didn’t speak as they moved through the corridors—and truthfully, Bree didn’t want to, content to focus instead on the way his cool palms soothed her feverish skin, her elevated pulse throbbing through their linked hands. Marek seemed to be in a hurry, and he peered warily around every corner even though she was sure more of the alien cameras were capturing their image, anyway.

  He took her to a part of the upstairs she’d never seen before, and as the unfamiliar corridors slid past them, he murmured. “Next time, aim for her crest. Or her ear—we are all sensitive there.”

  Bree blinked at him, squeezing his hand. “Thank you.”

  They slipped into a room that looked much like the mud rooms her people had in their homes. There were benches built into the walls made of the same black metal as everything else in this place, and small closets every five feet. On the opposite door, hanging on the wall, were three full-length bodysuits.

  Marek headed straight for them, pulling the smallest down and handing it to her. “Put this on.”

  “What is it?” she asked, fingering the thick material. It was heavier than what she wore now, with stiff panels running up the sides.

  “It will keep you warm in the snow. I know even you will be cold without your animal skins.”

  Bree’s jaw dropped. “You mean—we—we’re going outside?!”

  Marek paused, staring at her intently. “I do not care what Urek says. I do not care if I am punished. It is wrong to treat you like this. You wish to see the outside, so I will take you there.” She stared at him, dumbfounded, and he drew in close to her, pushing the garment towards her chest. “Peris will no doubt fetch Urek. We do not have long.”

  That kicked her butt into gear, and she pulled the heatsuit on over her skintight clothes just as he did. The suit clung to her just like the others, and even the toughened fabric surrounding her feet tightened to fit her. “What about those?” she asked, spotting a set of facial masks and head coverings high on the wall.

  Marek followed her gaze. “Levekk can succumb to the elements within hours if they are not careful,” he said. “But we are not levekk. We do not need them.”

  Bree’s stomach flip-flopped, barely believing her own ears. Her heart pounded, adrenaline pumping as if she were still in the middle of a fight, and she thought she must be dreaming when Marek activated the door panel and a flurry of cold snow rushed in.

  She was going outside. After weeks of seeing the same black, metal walls and the same twenty feet of snow through her window, she was going outside.

  And it was all thanks to Marek.

  14

  Marek didn’t realize that her eyes were brown until she stepped out the door and into a shaft of sunlight. Bree’s face lit up, a wide smile overtaking her features as she tromped through the loose snow and spread her arms wide.

  She was beautiful. That wasn’t a new discovery, of course, but he’d spent the past two weeks trying to convince himself otherwise. It wasn’t right for a levekk to notice such things.

  But as a man, it was almost unbearable. Her wavy, brown hair framed her face, the heatsuit hugged every curve of her athletic body, and she moved through the freshly-fallen snow with an ease that he envied. Before, her eyes had appeared wild, her fight with Peris still fraying her nerves, but it was as if exposure to the open air had cleansed her. She turned on the spot, the look of bliss on her face stealing his breath away.

  “What is this place?”

  He’d brought her into a large, caged area, surrounded by tall fences and a roof all
made of twisted wire. For now, the storms had passed, but the snow had fallen thick recently, piling up high in places and creating a maze of ice and snow.

  “It is the sehela pen,” he explained. “But you can see we do not use it anymore.”

  Bree’s eyebrows furrowed. “Se-hii-la? What’s that?” But before he could answer, her lips parted in realization. “The big cats? Those creatures that roam around and kill our game?”

  He ducked his head, glancing around at the disused cage. “They were originally kept as protection against the wildlife here.” He pointed up at one section of the ceiling at the far end of the cage, where a gaping tear had been repaired with wire of a different color. “The records say that the entire pack escaped many years ago and was never recaptured. I am sorry that they have created danger for your people.”

  “We have ways of dealing with them,” she said with a shrug, and then her eyes narrowed in thought. “I never told you about the firestones, did I?”

  “You did not.”

  “They’re this blue stone that comes up from the ground every so often,” Bree explained. “We used them as flint, at first, because they make fire so easily, but then someone realized that, somehow, they could be used to keep our fires burning indefinitely.”

  Marek frowned, distracted by the human as she stepped gracefully around a leaning column of snow. “You use stones as fuel?”

  “Yeah, but that’s not the craziest thing about them. I don’t know who first discovered it, but it turns out that the big cats—the sehela—hate firestones. Won’t go near them. So our hunters began taking shards of them as talismans whenever they left the village. No one has been attacked since.”

  “This is…” Impossible, was Marek’s first thought. Fanciful was the next. Sehela were intelligent hunters, and he wondered if a member of the pack had once been burned by one of these ‘firestones’ and learned to avoid them.

  “You don’t believe me, do you?”