Chapter 8
Holy fuck!
What the hell had all of that been?
Autumn had allowed herself to get swept up in the magic—literal magic—and she’d made out with a mermaid in the middle of the ocean when she couldn’t even swim! And then Soulara had just up and vanished. Like Autumn had seriously offended her.
Soulara had probably just figured out what everyone else already knew.
Autumn wasn’t worth it.
The barracks were so quiet that morning, but Autumn had barely slept a wink. She needed to talk to her commander. She needed to talk to Marshall. Her entire body vibrated as she got out of her cot and dressed in her uniform. She still had two hours before she needed to report to duty, but she couldn’t wait any longer.
Marshall was in the mess hall, hunched over a table and surrounded by his buds. Autumn bit her lip, glancing around the mess and looking for anywhere she could sit or slide in to talk to him, but she wasn’t welcome at that table. Rolling her shoulders, she stepped away from the mess and immediately ran face first into her commanding officer.
“General Chalmers.” Autumn stepped back and immediately lowered her head. “I didn’t see you there. My apologies, sir.”
“Don’t worry about it.” His voice was gruff, like it always was.
Autumn slid a glance over her shoulder toward Marshall. It would be so much better if she had backup in this conversation, but she wasn’t even sure if he’d agree to what she needed to do anyway. Autumn straightened her shoulders. If she was going to do this, if she was going to try and make an impact, then she had to do it now.
“Actually, do you have a minute, sir?”
He grumbled, glanced at the watch on his wrist and nodded sharply. “Five minutes.”
She hadn’t expected him to agree so quickly. Was he suddenly caring? No. She was stupid to think that. He probably didn’t even know her name.
“Walton.”
Well, he knew her name. But the annoyed tone wasn’t what she wanted either. Autumn straightened up. “Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.” She’d prefer to have this conversation in private, but he didn’t exactly look like he would leave, and she wasn’t brave enough to even ask. “The other day, when I was down in the water with Marshall, there was an attack.”
General Chalmers’s face pinched. The change was almost imperceptible, but Autumn had spent her entire life looking for those small changes in the people around her. She weighed everything, including the energy someone gave off. That’s why whatever had happened with Soulara was so odd. Autumn never trusted that quickly.
And trust it had been.
“Walton.”
“Sorry, sir,” she said again. “I don’t think we’re alone on this planet.”
“What do you mean?” He widened his stance.
“I think there are aliens who live here, under the water, and I think because of that we missed them in the sweeps we did before.” She stopped talking, hoping that he would pick up her train of thought from there. That if there was some conclusion to be drawn he would make it for her. She wasn’t there to think for herself. She was there to do exactly what everyone else above her told her to do. And the fact that she was even bringing this up was a breach of her prescribed role.
“There’s no one else here, Walton.”
“Right. But Marshall and I saw—”
“Walton,” General Chalmers cut her off. He gave her a stern look before stepping around her and walking straight into the mess.
That was as much of a dismissal as ever. She hadn’t even gotten him to listen to the full story of what happened. Then again, perhaps Marshall had put it in his report. Autumn clenched her fists, looking all around her and sighing.
What the hell was she supposed to do now?
Soulara?
She’d left on less than good terms. Autumn would be surprised if Soulara would ever want to talk to her again. Or see her. Or kiss her. Autumn left the mess and walked aimlessly around the camp. She was lost. Completely and utterly lost. She’d never really had much of a purpose aside from the one overriding need to get away.
“Walton!” Marshall’s loud booming voice interrupted her spiral of thoughts.
Autumn whirled around, her throat closing up. “Hey. What’s up?”
“You don’t look good.”
“Oh, I’m fine.” That was a lie. And probably anyone in a half-mile radius could tell. Autumn had never been able to hide anything. Her mother had used that to her advantage so many times over the years. Autumn winced and rubbed her hands nervously over her sides. “Did you file a report?”
Marshall pulled a confused face, his head cocked to the side as he stared down at her. “A report? For what?”
“For when we were attacked.” Autumn blinked at him, her heart sinking. He was going to brush it off like nothing had happened. He was going to treat this like everything was completely normal. “The other day when we were on the mission.”
Marshall squinted and shook his head slowly. “We weren’t attacked by anything other than a school of fish that we ran into.”
Autumn’s stomach plummeted. They really were trying to hide all of this, weren’t they? Marshall, General Chalmers, every person here who had anything to say was saying and doing nothing. There were people down there—well, mermaids. There were mermaids down there! And they were fighting to survive.
But who the hell would believe her?
Because mermaids were myths. Things from story books that barely even existed anymore. Tears welled in Autumn’s eyes, unbidden. What in the world was she supposed to do now?
“No, they were attacking the vessel,” Autumn tried again. She crossed her arms and tried to stand up as straight as she could. She needed just one person to believe her. Someone who would stand by her side when no one had ever done that in her life before.
“No, they weren’t.” Marshall laughed lightly. He clapped a hand onto her shoulder and pushed her back and forth. “It was a school of fish that we ran into.”
“Marshall, that’s not what happened.”
“It is.” He gave her a strong side-eye, a warning look. Autumn had seen that look so many times in her life, not from him, but from all the adults, everyone who she dared try and push.
“I…” Autumn stopped. She was about to agree with him just to end the discomfort of this conversation. Something niggled inside her, a strength she didn’t know she ever possessed. She’d seen people with it. Soulara had it in abundance. Even spending what little time they had together, Autumn could tell that. But Autumn had never been accused of having gumption before.
“If that’s what you believe happened.” She shifted directions, not wanting to agree with him but not wanting to tick him off either. “And if you didn’t make a report, then I guess you’re saying it never happened.”
Marshall made a pinched face, gave her a long look, and then firmly nodded. “See you around, Walton.”
He left with a pat on her shoulder, as if Autumn was a dog who had done well to listen. It disgusted her. She stayed where she was, watching him walk off to do whatever he was doing. She had a little time before she was supposed to report for duty, but she had no idea where to turn now. She was being shut out.
Autumn walked fully around the camp once before she found the exit she needed. She slipped through the line. It took her ten steps before she could slide into the tree line. Autumn paused and looked back at the camp, hiding as best as she could to see if anyone had followed her. Her heart was in her throat, her entire body tense with worry and fear.
What was she supposed to do?
Autumn waited to make sure that no one else was coming, and she slipped deeper into the forest. She weaved herself through the woods, following the coastline from a distance. If she closed her eyes, she could hear the water beating against the beach. If she closed her eyes, she could see Soulara, naked in all her glory, droplets of water cascading over her skin, her breasts and peaked nipples, the sun at her back—
“Fuck.”
Clenching her jaw hard, Autumn took a sharp turn and headed straight for her little oasis. She needed to think. She needed to figure out exactly what she was going to do next—if there even was anything for her to do. Marshall had pretty much told her without telling her that she couldn’t say anything. General Chalmers ignored her.
Would she cry? Or scream? Or would she rage and run out into the ocean and pretend she could swim and drown?
Wouldn’t that be ironic?
Drowning.
She’d never had enough water to even consider it.
She’d never seen enough water until she came here.
Energy filtered through Autumn’s body, piling in her chest and then her limbs. She couldn’t wrangle it enough to make it useful. She couldn’t even force herself to sit down. Autumn bit her lip and spun in a circle. Flinging her hands to the sides, she spun again. It was the best way to release her energy right now. She had never done this before in her life.
Why was this so important?
Autumn covered her face with her hands, letting everything roll and move through her. She had kissed an alien, and while that wasn’t a foreign concept—they’d met aliens before—she’d never thought anyone as stunning as Soulara might be interested in her.
And that’s really why this was important, wasn’t it?
Soulara.
Soulara, this strange creature from under the waters, someone who seemed to know exactly who she was, someone who had confidence in spades. But her magic? Was Soulara manipulating her? Was Soulara making her think and dream and feel things that she normally wouldn’t?
Autumn swallowed that lump in her throat.
She didn’t want to believe it. If there was anything she could believe, it wasn’t that. Soulara wouldn’t want her for the same reasons no one else wanted her. And she wouldn’t fall in love with an alien. She wouldn’t fall for someone who was impossible.
Autumn put her hands out to her sides, stretching her fingers out before curling them back in. Her eyes locked on the small clearing Soulara had come from before. She shook her head. She wouldn’t walk that way. It would be stupid to think that Soulara would ever want to talk to or see her again, especially with the way they had left things.
But her feet moved.
One step after the other, Autumn’s boots crunched in the sand, twigs breaking under the weight of her body. But she couldn’t stop herself. She was being pulled as if by a string, straight toward the water’s edge.
Straight toward the mermaid that couldn’t exist.
Right to where she knew she wasn’t welcome.
Autumn stopped on the beach. She squinted against the sun reflecting off the water as it rose higher into the sky. No one from Earth would believe them if they talked about this world. They’d never be able to imagine a world with this much water.
Blowing out a breath, Autumn shaded her eyes as she looked out again, something splashing loudly in the distance. This world and its people, its living creatures, were nothing like her own. She was a grunt, and she would never be anything else.
She needed to fall in line. She needed to do exactly what Marshall had subtly told her.
She had to give this up.
She had to forget Soulara existed.
Wiping the tears from her cheeks, Autumn turned away from the one place she had ever felt safe, despite its obvious danger.