35. Chapter 35
Chapter 35
Team Human.
Things could be better. Serlotminden had been gone for a long time, though I had no idea how long exactly. I was freezing. I couldn’t warm up without Mindy. I was out of water and nutritional bars. I couldn’t leave the shuttle, because the winged alien refused to budge. I always heard their talons scraping on the door, trying to figure out how to get inside, and then screeching outside. I’d tried to shoot them more than once, but the alien was smart, moving out of the way, and I wasn’t skilled with a blaster.
I couldn’t build a fire to melt snow, and I couldn’t hunt. I was trapped.
I curled into a ball around the blanket that most smelled like Serlotminden. I was going to die. I knew it, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. He was safe. Whether he came back or not, Serlotminden was safe and alive. I knew it. I refused to believe otherwise. Him living was enough. I inhaled the light scent on the blanket and curled into a tighter ball, freezing.
I awoke with a growl. Physical pain throbbed through my body, but it was nothing to the grief drowning me. My mate. My perfect mate. Bartholomew was gone. A keening sound broke the silence, and it took me a moment to realize the noise came from me.
An arm wrapped around me and a tail coiled around mine, but I didn’t want the comfort. My mate was gone. I tried to push the person away; I was unsuccessful.
“Speedy, I have you.” Kalvoxrencol, my youngest brother.
The grief was unbearable. How had Zoltilvoxfyn lived through this when he thought Caleb was gone? An agonizing sob ripped from me. It was impossible.
“Where is he?” I demanded, even though I knew the answer. I couldn’t stop the words from spilling out. I needed Bartholomew.
“Who?” Kalvoxrencol asked. “You were alone.”
His response brought a new wave of grief. I’d been rescued, but they were too late for Bartholomew. My fault. It was my fault. If I hadn’t insisted on going to the river, he would be tucked against me right now. Screams came from deep within me as I writhed. Kalvoxrencol tried to hold me still, but I kept thrashing.
“I’m going to have to sedate him again, Prince,” the doctor said as she appeared. “He must be in shock from the attack.”
I was not going to survive. It felt like my soul had been cleaved in half. Agony that had nothing to do with the injuries wracked my body. I could not breathe. I could not think. All I could do was feel his blinding absence beside me.
“Mindy.” Seth leaned over me. Human Seth.
“Please,” I begged him. He would know. He would help. He was human. “Please.” I tried to grab him. “Please, Seth.”
He shook his head, and Kalvoxrencol tightened his hold. Zoltilvoxfyn and Caleb appeared, but they could not take my focus from Seth. All I saw was Seth. Human Seth.
“Please. I need him,” I begged as another sob ripped out of me. Kalvoxrencol held me securely, and Zoltilvoxfyn joined him next to me.
Seth’s mouth fell open. “Oh my god.” The doctor approached, and Seth ordered, “Wait.”
“Seth, Serlotminden needs help,” Kalvoxrencol said.
Seth bent until he was level with me. “Don said there was a human with you.”
Tears poured out faster. My poor Bartholomew. He’d needed a better mate than I. I had failed him.
He bobbed his head. “He’s your mate.”
Kalvoxrencol drew in a sharp breath, and his arms tightened.
“I need him.”
“We scanned the planet, but all the sensors came back with was your beacon. And we found you alone, Mindy,” Seth said.
A loud, keening noise was my only response. Kalvoxrencol was joined by Zoltilvoxfyn and Caleb. They both held onto me, but Seth continued to stare at me.
“We found you in the shuttle,” he said. “Inside. Bandaged.”
“No.”
Seth said, “I need you to think clearly. Did you see the human get hurt? This is important, Mindy. Did you see him get injured?”
Emotion clogged my throat, not allowing me to speak. My Bartholomew. My mate. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. I needed the hope burning through me to be real.
Seth pulled out a touchstone. “Dontilvynsan. I need you to come to the medbay.”
“What are you doing, Seth?” Zoltilvynsan asked.
“We need to find out what happened, and Mindy’s not talking.”
Caleb moved next to Seth. “Do you think…”
“It’s a possibility. The sensors weren’t able to pick up anything. Some techno-babble I didn’t understand, and if not for the distress signal, we wouldn’t have found Mindy. And when we did, Mindy was bandaged and inside the shuttle. If it was me, I would’ve gone looking for help for Kal. Any help. Why wouldn’t this human do the same thing?”
I snagged Seth’s hands, and Kalvoxrencol growled in warning, but I ignored him. My breath turned harsh as I tried to drag Seth closer. “Please. Please.” I didn’t even know why I was begging, but I couldn’t help it. “Please.”
The door opened, and Dontilvynsan staggered back. Zoltilvoxfyn immediately moved to his side. My surging emotions were probably too much for Dontilvynsan’s inner fire, which allowed him to experience them with me, and as much as I wished to spare him, there was no controlling the twining agony and hope spiraling inside of me.
The closer Dontilvynsan came, the more his breathing harshened. When he reached the side of the bed, his pupils were blown wide and his nostrils were flared.
Seth stepped aside. “We need to know if he saw the human being injured and if he bandaged himself.”
With a shaking hand, Dontilvynsan touched me, the contact allowing his gift to strengthen. I sobbed as the grief tore me in two. My mate. My perfect mate. But he might be alive. He could be waiting for me. I had to get him. Dontilvynsan ran his fingers through my hair, and waves of calm rushed into me, stealing the grief.
“I have you, Speedy. I will always have you. What is their name?” he asked.
Bartholomew. “Please,” I begged, the calm cracking in my mind. The waves grew stronger as Dontilvynsan’s face scrunched and his breath sharpened. He was taking my grief while he pushed calm into my mind.
“Bartholomew,” he said.
“Yes.”
“His mate?” Seth asked.
“Yes. Speedy thinks he’s gone. An alien I don’t recognize attacked them.”
Arms tightened around me as Kalvoxrencol and Zoltilvoxfyn whispered comforting words. Dontilvynsan kept pushing soothing thoughts, but it only dimmed my pain, not erasing it.
“Mindy, when did you last see them?” Seth asked. “Think about it. Please.”
My thoughts turned back. The kissing. The happiness. Laughing. I was running toward Bartholomew to play with him, then it turned to something else entirely. The pain. Landing in the snow. Bartholomew above me, then nothing.
Dontilvynsan panted, fingers tight on my cheek. “He last saw Bartholomew in the snow. Not in the shuttle.”
“He could still be there,” Seth said. “We have to go back.”
“It’s not our space. It’s Maykian territory. We already violated it once,” Zoltilvoxfyn said. “If we get caught…”
“It’s a human and Mindy’s mate. We have to,” Seth said.
Caleb bobbed. “We have to. Team Human to the rescue.”
“I need him,” I cried, trying to get up, but pain shot through my abdomen. Kalvoxrencol and Zoltilvoxfyn held me fast while the doctor came closer. “I have to have him.”
“I know,” Seth said, bending closer. “Trust me, Mindy. I will never leave a human behind. Neither will Caleb. He followed me here, remember? If Bartholomew is there, we’ll find him, even if we have to search the entire planet. I will go myself.” Kalvoxrencol started to protest, but Seth continued over him, “He’ll see a friendly face. A human one.”
But what if Teddy was gone? How did someone learn to live without their soul? They didn’t. They couldn’t. It wasn’t possible.
“I’ll go too,” Caleb said.
“No, you will not,” Zoltilvoxfyn immediately said. “The cold is not good for you.”
“Team Human to the rescue,” Caleb shouted over his mate. “Led by our fearless leader, Seth.”
“Me? Why am I the leader? You thought of it.”
Caleb scoffed. “I’m a poor choice. Come on, Seth. Be serious.”
The two humans continued to bicker, but my attention ripped from them when the doctor injected me with something. I lurched and gripped Dontilvynsan’s biceps, his scales shiny.
“I have to get him,” I said.
“The next time you wake, he will be here. Beside you. Trust us,” Dontilvynsan whispered.
But our thoughts were too entwined; he was lying. Dontilvynsan didn’t know if Bartholomew was alive or not. He had no idea if it was possible to bring my mate back to me. His hold on me shattered, and he broke away, panting. All of the grief came back, crashing over me. I tried to fight the medication as I struggled to a sitting position.
Kalvoxrencol held me fast, forehead against mine. “I will find him, Speedy. I promise. None of us will leave what is yours behind.”
My tongue became heavy and my thoughts turned wispy. “Bartholomew,” I breathed before I was whisked away.