Chapter 20
Paige
M y ears are ringing. I feel like I can’t draw in a full breath after watching them take Varek away.
I want to go after him—need to—but Kylor is holding me around the middle and for an older male, he’s stronger than I thought.
“Paige,” he says in a voice that is too calm.
I want to tear from his hold and ignore him, find Varek, and say to hell with this place.
“Varek made his choice. Now it is time to focus on your friends.”
Hot tears streak down my cheeks and my insides are splitting apart. If I had known I was going to cause so much trouble, I never would have asked him to hide their existence. I would have done a hundred things differently.
I look over at my friends who are all staring at me. Lara appears as though she wants to come wrap me up in a hug, but everyone else looks confused.
Oh yeah. They can’t understand what’s going on.
Kylor lets me go and I stumble away from him, my legs threatening to give out. I feel naked in front of the Vruts now— like I’m too afraid to stand on my own. Before, I had Varek at my side. He protected me and without even realizing it, he gave me strength.
Now the other women are looking at me, waiting for me to assume the leadership role again when all I want to do is curl into a ball and cry. I’ve made so many damn mistakes up until now, I can’t risk making any more.
“Paige,” Lara calls out. Her brows are knitted as she wrings her hands. “W-what’s going on?”
I let out a ragged breath and wipe my tears. God, I probably look like a mess.
“The Vruts say you can stay. The healer is waiting inside.”
“Inside where?” Ryan blurts out. The bruise across her cheek is a nasty blueish-purple color. Draxel’s eyes snap in her direction as he hears her voice, his grip on Melina tightening.
“The mountain,” I answer, my voice shaking. “Inside the caverns.”
I can’t bring myself to sound excited, like a host ready to take their guests on a full house tour. My heart pounds in my chest. I want to go see Varek, but I don’t even know if I’ll be allowed to.
Ryan scoffs. Nicole nods and says, “Well, let’s hurry. Melina doesn’t have much time.”
I turn to Kylor who is waiting patiently, his cloak wrapped tightly around his shoulders. I can’t tell if I’m imagining it, but his dark eyes seem solemn. Regretful even.
“Ready?” he asks.
“Yes.”
He turns and leads us wordlessly inside the mountain.
I focus on my breathing as I hear my friends behind me taking in the glowhollows. The luminite in the rocky walls is shining as bright as they were the first day Varek dragged me in here, but I suppose I wasn’t paying much attention then. Everything here is gorgeous, or at least it would be if my heart wasn’t cleaved in two.
“Wow, what are these?” Nicole asks.
“Luminite,” I tell her. “Some Vruts call them the glows.”
“They’re beautiful,” she breathes, reaching out to touch one as we walk by. The path widens and Kylor takes a sharp right turn, taking us away from the private chamber I share– err, shared– with Varek.
I don’t know what the future holds anymore.
We walk further, past the kitchens and the path to the spring until Kylor stops and holds his hand up to a leather that looks freshly hung. It’s still curled a bit on the edges like the animal was only slaughtered recently and the humidity in the air of this place hasn’t yet wrung out all the tension. I swallow hard and pull the edge of the leather up for Lara to step inside first.
Nicole follows her. Then Draxel, who bows so his head doesn’t hit the ceiling—Melina in his arms. Ryan shoots me a look before following.
Kylor begins to walk away but I grab him by the shoulder, a million questions swirling around in my head. His brows raise as he waits, but then my mouth is too dry and I can’t force even a single one out. I don’t know what to ask and I don’t want to get Varek in even more trouble.
He nods his head as if he understands the torment. “You may visit him.”
A jolt tumbled through me, fluttering my stomach.
“Thank you,” I whisper. Because I can’t think of anything else to say right now.
“Hey!” I hear Ryan shout from inside the chamber. “Get your hands off her!”
I duck inside. Draxel has laid Melina down on a bed of furs and Selvara is hunched over our friend, plucking away the makeshift stint that holds her leg straight.
Ryan rears back and charges for the older woman, but Draxel springs into action. He throws his arms around her middle and crushes her to his chest, his glows flaring.
“Get the fuck off me!” she shouts, kicking and scratching at his arms.
Draxel grunts, but doesn’t let up.
“Draxel,” I bark at him.
His jaw clenches and a growl tears from his chest as he looks at me. I pull back and I shiver in fear at the terrifying look on his face—as if he would bring this mountain to the ground before letting Ryan go.
But she can’t understand him, and out of all of us, she’s going to be the least understanding of a massive, muscular Vrut manhandling her. As much as I don’t want to get involved—inject myself in a tussle between mates—I’m the only one who can translate for the two of them.
“Draxel,” I say again, my voice less firm.
He growls again, but I don’t let it intimidate me.
“She’s afraid. She can’t understand you and she doesn’t trust you.”
“She’s my mate,” he growls at me. “Her body will learn soon enough.”
I shake my head. “That’s not how it works for us.”
Ryan shouts, “If you don’t tell this asshole to let me go in a language he understands I’m going to lose my fucking mind. Let me down, you big idiot!”
He tugs her tighter and she quiets as the breath surges from her lungs.
“You’re hurting her,” I say.
Draxel’s arms slack instantly. He lets her down onto her feet and she shuffles away from him, grumbling and cursing as she catches her breath. He watches her until she straightens to her full height and then stalks out of the chamber, his mane standing on end.
“We’re better off out there at the ship, taking our chances and rationing our food. If that alien puts his hands on me again, I’ll kill him,” Ryan threatens, pointing at the Vrut that is her mate. She doesn’t know it yet, but soon she won’t be thinking that.
It happened to me. Eventually, the pull will be too strong for her to ignore too.
Selvara clicks her tongue as she feels Melina’s clammy forehead.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask Selvara.
She examens my friend but doesn’t answer me. She holds a long finger up just under Melina’s nose to check for breath and then hums.
“What is she doing?” Nicole asks. She’s sitting next to Melina, holding her hand as Selvara pokes and prods down her mangled leg.
“She’s a healer,” I answer.
Lara goes to Ryan and the two settle down in another pile of furs across the chamber. The energy in the chamber calms under the soft light of the luminite, flaring and thrumming with life as we all watch the healer work.
She wets some kind of cloth in a basin of water and then wrings it out. Placing the cloth across Melina’s forehead, she reaches into the pouch slung across her back and finds a bundle of yellow and purple herbs. They’re dried and wrapped together by what looks like a hunk of hair. Selvara turns to me and points to a glowing nodule in the wall.
“Go pull a piece of luminite.”
My mouth falls open but my legs seem to move on their own. I approach the glow and slide my fingers across the gem, tapping for a spot that is weak. It glows brighter as I touch it and when my fingertips hit the edge of the rock, a hunk of it breaks off into my palm.
A flush of adrenaline rattles through me as I hold it in my hand. Even when separated from the bigger piece, it still glows like its own little ball of energy.
I return to Selvara, handing her the luminite. She reaches for a small pot and dips it into the water basin before tossing in the herbs and finally the luminite. With her own fingers, she crushes everything together until the water comes alive, shimmering and glistening.
Nicole’s eyes go wide as she watches the elderly healer. “What is that?”
I shake my head. “Of course.”
I reach for the scar on my forehead—the one that is barely visible thanks to the poultice Selvara used when I first arrived here.
“The luminite. It has healing properties.”
Nicole meets my gaze, her eyes dancing from mine to the place where I should still have a nasty cut. “Did she heal you too?”
“Yeah. When I first got here, she spread it across the cut and it seemed to heal overnight.”
“That’s amazing,” Nicole breathes. She scoots closer to Melina and as Selvara brings the cup of shimmering water to her mouth, Nicole lifts Melina’s neck to help her drink.
A small smile pulls across Selvara’s lips as the two help Melina swallow the serum. When the entire cup is gone, a little dribbling down Melina’s chin, Selvara finally speaks.
“It may not work. Her spirit is frail.”
“What did she say?” Nicole asks me.
I repeat Selvara’s message and Nicole hugs Melina closer, her eyes wet and dull.
“Is there anything else she can do?” Lara asks from behind me.
I translate to Selvara who shakes her head.
“No.”
Time feels like it slows as Selvara leaves us alone. All we can do is wait and hope that the luminite is strong enough to cure her. She’s too weak and that leg? Deep gashes slice down her leg from mid-thigh to her ankle. The wounds have festered with infection lines spreading across her skin like spiderwebs. She may never walk again.
But in the silence of the chamber, everything else hits me too. The heaviness settles over my shoulders and I sink to the soft ground, lacing Melina’s fingers with my own.
“Cristina,” I breathe. “She’s—”
Nicole sniffles.
Ryan and Lara make their way over and the four of us sit along the same furs, looking down at Melina. Perhaps we were all looking for a movement—a sign of life.
But the medicine needs time to work. For now, all we can do is wait.
Ryan reaches out and flips the cloth on Melina’s head, giving her the cool side. “Cristina is gone, isn’t she?” Ryan asks, but her voice doesn’t carry the usual bite.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t have the answers.
“I’ll talk to the council. They can send scouts, hunters out for her.”
Ryan tugs her knees to her chest and covers her face for a second, hiding the emotion choking through us all.
“They’ll find her,” I whisper.
But in my gut, I know she’s already gone.
“They’ll find her,” Nicole says softly. She clears her throat and gives us a quivery smile as tears spill over. “We will see her again.”
Lara nods. “We will.”
I’m expecting a brutal comment from Ryan, but it never comes. We all sit and soak up the pain of not knowing where our friend is.
And we could lose the one in front of us too.
The sadness is overwhelming but I can’t run from it. It’s mine to bear—more than anyone else’s.
The only way through it is forward. But at least now, we’re together. We can face it alongside each other and try to make the best of our new life with the Vruts.
But even as I think it, the pain in my chest radiates and throbs.
I need Varek. I’m terrified of what’s going to happen to him–to us. If this is my new life, I don’t want to live it without him by my side.
So I’ll fight.
Whatever it takes to be with him, to prove that this is my fault, I’ll do it.