Chapter 25
Autumn dragged her feet down the hall as she walked toward the tech room. She had to get one more part for the water collector and then it would be fixed. Then she would be shoved off to her next mission, and she would be back under the water.
Without Soulara’s protection this time.
Autumn clenched her jaw tightly, unable to have the strength to feel good about this.
The pressure built around her ribs, tightening with each passing moment as she felt stuck between two impossible choices.
Soulara.
Humans.
Love.
Genocide.
Love?
Autumn frowned and shook that thought from her head immediately.
How could she choose? There were no right answers.
Autumn wanted to be stronger. Stronger than her family, stronger than those who turned away from what was wrong and chose to do nothing. But she hadn’t done nothing. She had given the coordinates to Soulara, she had damaged the water collector, and she had already chosen a side. Hadn’t she?
And hurt her people.
Betrayed her people.
How could doing the right thing feel so much like the wrong thing?
Because it was treason. That’s how.
Cringing, Autumn turned down another corner. Voices floated down the hallway. She stopped briefly, something about their tones setting her off. Autumn listened carefully, the hairs on her arms going up. If she weren’t mistaken, the sound came from the very tech room she had been heading toward.
She was so used to fighting, growing up, that it all sounded normal to her. When the sergeants had yelled at her during training, it was nothing. But this was different. This sounded almost fearful. Like what her mother would sound like when her father was over the edge and they weren’t sure he’d catch himself before he killed one of them.
Her breath caught in her throat. A voice reached her. A voice she knew. A voice that shouldn’t be anywhere near their camp. Her heart leapt into her throat, clogging it up as she was frozen on the spot and unable to make herself move. Freeze at its finest.
“Soulara,” she whispered.
A wild scream reverberated down the hall and hit Autumn full force. She pushed her feet against the cold floor as she burst into a run. Her muscles tense. Her entire body ready for action, just like she’d been trained for.
Protect.
Serve.
Obey.
Autumn reached the open doorway. She froze, staring in horror. Soulara stood at the back of the room, crouching slightly with her eyes wild and darting around at the different humans who faced her. She had a scratch on her arm that was already bleeding. Two men were flat on their backs and not moving.
All weapons were pointed at her.
Soulara was here.
In her world.
Naked and snarling.
Bleeding and savage.
Soulara leaped forward, wrapping her arm around Josh’s neck and choking him. Autumn raced forward and wrapped her arm around Soulara’s waist, tugging her off Josh. Soulara fell to the ground in a heap, betrayal written all over her face.
“Don’t hurt them,” Autumn called out as she stood over Soulara, ready for any move she needed to make next.
Soulara lifted her head slowly and locked eyes with Autumn. That betrayal was back, and Autumn felt it deep in her soul. She wished today wasn’t happening. She wished she could take it all back and live in ignorance again. It would be so much easier. So less painful.
“What are you doing here?” Autumn softened her tone, hoping that it would ply Soulara to give her some sort of reasonable explanation. But what reason could there even be?
“I’m saving my people.” Soulara shifted around, squatting down as if she was ready to leap for Autumn’s throat.
“They aren’t your enemy. Hurting them isn’t going to save your people.” Autumn stepped forward, making sure she stood between Soulara and the techs. “They aren’t even soldiers. They don’t know how to defend themselves.”
“Humans are the enemy.” Soulara looked down, and Autumn followed her gaze. Cole was pressed against a table, legs splayed on the floor while his hands covered his face. Blood spotted his shirt while other drops spattered the floor surrounding him. His eyes met Autumn’s. He was afraid.
Autumn kept Soulara in her sights as she crouched down and gently pulled Cole’s hands from his face. Relief washed over her. He would heal. The wounds were superficial.
“They’re just humans,” Autumn said, looking back up at Soulara and shaking her head. “That’s it. They’re scientists. They work with tech like you do.”
“Humans who are helping you steal my planet’s water. My people’s water.” Soulara spat. Her face twisted, and Autumn saw the instant regret. Was it from the words or the tone? Perhaps it wasn’t regret at all but disgust.
Did Soulara see Autumn as just another one of these disgusting humans?
“Don’t hurt them, please. They didn’t know. They only want to save their people.” Surely she could reason with Soulara. She wasn’t an unreasonable mermaid. They’d had many conversations since they’d met, and Soulara had always been willing to listen.
“By killing my people.” Soulara sounded so sure.
And Autumn knew she was. That was exactly what was happening.
“They didn’t know,” Autumn repeated louder, standing back up. She faced Soulara, her back to the other techs. Maybe if she said it enough, Soulara would understand. Maybe if she could just get it through Soulara’s thick skull—
“And now that they do, will they stop?” Soulara challenged, her eyebrow raised up, her entire body tense.
Autumn parted her lips, ready to tell Soulara that they would, but she stopped. Marshall knew. Chalmers knew. That sinking feeling was back in her chest, and it was impossible to get rid of it. It consumed her in an instant. Autumn had no answers to that. What could any of them do? She was no one. The techs were no one. And Chalmers wouldn’t let this information get out beyond them.
As though reading Autumn’s thoughts, Soulara narrowed her eyes on Autumn. “Will you finally do something about it, or will you continue to whine about how powerless you are?”
Autumn gasped before anger rose in her chest. That hurt. That was undeserved. She clenched her jaw and glared. “I’m doing what I can.”
Soulara scoffed. “Which is exactly nothing.”
“It’s not nothing!” Autumn screamed back, her voice echoing through the room.
Soulara didn’t even flinch. Her cheeks reddened. “It isn’t enough.”
Autumn’s eyes stung with tears she couldn’t give into. She was a solider, damn it. “Don’t make me choose, Soulara.”
“You already have.”
A cold shiver washed over Autumn. Hadn’t she just been thinking that? Autumn broke because Soulara thought she chose the humans. Soulara thought Autumn wasn’t choosing her, but Autumn had. Time and time again, Autumn chose the mermaids.
“No. We can find a way. This doesn’t have to be a war,” Autumn said, trying in vain one more time to convince Soulara that it wasn’t that bad yet. They still had time.
“The war’s already started.” Soulara straightened up, her hair wild around her face, her muscles strong and still ready for her to pounce at any second.
“Soulara.” Autumn’s voice shook.
“What did you do, Walton?” Cole’s voice hard and accusatory despite being muffled behind his hands.
Autumn ignored his question. She couldn’t do this. Not with everyone staring at her, accusing her of exactly what she had done. She had betrayed her people—not Soulara. She had proved to everyone, to herself, that she was no better than the family she despised. The family she had run away from, swearing she would be different. But she wasn’t any better than any of them. But it wasn’t too late.
She hadn’t realized it, but Soulara had been right.
She had chosen, and now she had to choose again.
Autumn wouldn’t let Soulara kill these humans. She couldn’t. They were doing the job she hadn’t. They were just trying to save their people. And they were ignorant. They didn’t deserve to be murdered for ignorance, did they?
“I won’t let you hurt them.” Autumn’s voice trembled in her own ears, but she couldn’t back down. This was her job as a soldier.
Soulara blinked, looking as though the words had hit her like physical blows.
“We didn’t know!” One of the techs pleaded from behind Autumn.
“And that makes the genocide of my people okay?” Soulara was reaching a frenetic level of chaos.
The room tensed as Soulara’s voice grew louder. Autumn had taught Soulara the word but not the power it wielded. And that power struck them mute. Genocide. That was exactly what this was.
“Why did you come here?” Autumn asked finally, trying to figure out a way to keep Soulara occupied long enough to get someone else there or get her out.
“To play my part in this war,” Soulara said in such a flat voice that Autumn wondered if the emotion she had heard in the past had truly ever existed.
Her heart felt as though it were being ripped from her body and shredded into pieces in front of her. She should never have allowed herself to become tangled up with this mermaid, to think that it could possibly work out between them.
“I don’t want war,” Autumn whispered, the tears pushing their way down her face. Crying was an ugly thing. Autumn had watched herself too many times in the mirror shards back on Earth. She knew her face would be red and blotched, the heat blossoming in uneven patches over her cheeks and down her neck. But why was she crying?
Because it wasn’t war.
It wasn’t death.
It was her dark night.
“This is war.” Soulara stalked past Autumn, not looking her way. The techs shrank back as Soulara’s long legs glided her past them. Even on land, her grace was mesmerizing.
Anger bubbled up again, tinged with that anguish Autumn didn’t want to name. Autumn clenched her fists and spun around, watching as Soulara walked toward the door.
“I’m not the only one who has made a choice!” Autumn forced the words out before Soulara disappeared through the doorway. She needed Soulara to look at her just one more time. She needed those stunning blue eyes on her face, watching her. Maybe it wouldn’t be true then.
Soulara stopped and faced Autumn. Their eyes locked, the space between them so wide that Autumn was sure they’d never be close again. This was the end. This was her fault for entertaining dreams.
“I’m doing what’s right for my people.” Soulara’s voice was a low growl. “Get off my planet while you still can.” Soulara turned away and disappeared from view.
There was no escaping the silence.
And there was no running away from the consequences of her choices. Autumn didn’t want to turn around. She didn’t want to face the music. She didn’t what to know how Chalmers would have her murdered for being a traitor.
“Did you know there were other people on the planet?” One of the younger techs squeaked out.
“What?” Autumn focused on the young man. Acne covered his cheeks, and his shaved head made him look even younger, which she imagined had been the opposite of his desire for the haircut.
“Did you know about the native people on the planet?” He seemed so curious, like this was an experiment with a hiccup, not a war already begun.
“Not people,” Autumn mumbled.
“What are they then?” Another tech asked, disgust evident.
“They’re mermaids. And no…” She finally pulled her eyes away from the empty doorway to look properly at the tech. “I didn’t know they were here, not until after we arrived.”
“What do we do?” Cole asked as he pushed himself to his feet, leaning heavily against the nearest wall.
“I suggest all of you do as she said, and find a way off of this planet while you still can.” Autumn straightened her shoulders. “It’s about to get bloody.”
“And what are you going to do?”
Autumn didn’t answer. She looked them over, unsure of what to say next. She walked away from the tech room. It was a good question. What the hell was she going to do? She thought she had made her decision, again. Why was it such a hard choice to make, to stick to? She was sick of this gray space between right and wrong.
She had never felt so weak in all of her life. She had tried to save the mermaids and ended up betraying her people. She had tried to save the civilians and broken what she had with Soulara.
Her footsteps echoed, each one a boom in her skull.
“Walton!” Marshall snapped her name as he stepped in front of her. “Chalmers wants to see you. Immediately.”
“Why?” Autumn looked up to meet Marshall’s eyes, but he avoided her searching gaze. Well this couldn’t be good. Surely they hadn’t heard about Soulara’s intrusion already, had they?
She looked at the small rectangular windows beneath the top of the walls. The blackness of the night had turned into a dull gray. How long had she been walking aimlessly around the corridors?
“Now,” Marshall ordered before turning on his heel and heading back the way he had come.
Autumn had no choice but to follow.
Choice—as though she had ever truly had one. Her entire life had been filled with the decisions of others.
“General.” Marshall saluted as he and Autumn were granted permission to enter Chalmers’s office. “Walton as ordered.”
“Thank you, Marshall.”
Marshall nodded and then shuffled as though he were about to leave.
“Why don’t you join us, Marshall?”
“Sir?” Marshall’s voice slipped out of the clipped tone he had been speaking in so far.
“Both of you take a seat.” Chalmers’s words were orders, nothing so kind or polite as requests.
Autumn and Marshall took the chairs across from their general. Autumn didn’t dare speak. She kept her eyes on Chalmers, not trusting herself to get a peek of Marshall’s face.
She was fucked.