Chapter 29
Autumn couldn’t believe she had said the words. Not once in her life had she ever said them to someone and meant it. She had been forced to say them to family, a ritual performed only for others. They were never said in the quiet privacy of their living space. Actions never enforced the sentiment either.
But she wouldn’t be like them.
Autumn walked through the halls with a smile on her face. She tried to school her features and return to her role as the serious token female in the troop, but her lips refused to obey.
“Walton.” Marshall interrupted her thoughts, his hand on her arm, forcing her to stop walking.
That took the smile from her face.
“What the fuck happened to you?”
Was that concern in his eyes?
Autumn’s mind raced for some kind of response. Her clothes were still damp despite her trying to dry them off on the walk back to the camp. But he honestly hadn’t seen anything? He hadn’t seen her spluttering or fighting against Soulara when she’d been taken? Cocking her head to the side, Autumn tried an answer that could be played off as a joke. “I took the long way back.”
“You’re an asshole,” Marshall snapped and turned around.
Autumn considered going after him, but what was the point?
Helping Soulara!
That was the point.
“Marshall, wait up.” Autumn didn’t catch up for several feet despite her almost jogging.
“What now?” He turned on her, sounding exasperated. He rolled his eyes when he finally faced her.
Whatever showed in her face made the anger slip slightly from his glare. They stood in silence for second before Autumn pressed her lips together tightly. Fear raced up her spine and back down it. This was either going to get her in even more trouble or it was going to work to her advantage.
“I need to tell you the truth.”
What? Where did those words come from?
Shock raced through her intensely, mirrored by Marshall’s widened eyes.
“Please.” Autumn wanted to scream at herself, wanted to tape her mouth shut and go back to not letting anyone near her, not letting anyone touch any of her emotions.
But if this was a consequence of letting Soulara in, of loving Soulara, she would find a way to live with it. Trust didn’t come easily and holding the truth close to her chest had always been the only way to live.
But that was back on Earth.
She wasn’t on Earth any longer, and maybe she would never need to go back.
Marshall gave a short sharp nod, turned toward the tech rooms, and slowed his steps to allow Autumn to keep up.
The room burned bile up Autumn’s throat. It wasn’t the same tech room, but that didn’t stop the memories of having to stand up to Soulara, of pitting herself against her love, in order to protect innocent strangers.
“You’ve got five minutes. Start talking,” Marshall snapped the moment Autumn closed the room door behind her.
She tried to swallow, but her mouth was as dry as dirt. What she wouldn’t have given for a drink. Even one of the horrid reconstituted liquids they had on base.
“I want to stop Chalmers.”
Marshall scoffed until his eyes met Autumn’s. “You’re serious? And how do you plan to do that?”
“Soulara will help us if we can find a way to disable our collectors.” Autumn clenched her fists, keeping her voice low and quiet. She didn’t want anyone to overhear, and she was really hoping this was one of the rooms without microphones on the cameras. Though she had her doubts about that.
“Soulara?” Marshall’s eyes narrowed. “The mermaid you’ve been seducing in order to steal more than the lives of these creatures?”
“That’s not what I’ve been doing.”
“You think that asshole doesn’t check what people are up to before he drags them into his office to threaten them?” Marshall hissed.
Autumn could see how much he wanted to scream at her, but his sense of self-preservation was strong. He kept his voice low, though his face grew red and a vein in his temple thumped purple as he spoke.
“Do you want to know the truth or not?” Autumn wasn’t as shocked this time though she understood Marshall’s instinct to step back.
“Fine. Three minutes.”
Autumn told him everything. About the mermaids and her new ability to swim. About sabotaging the collectors, about deciding that no matter how things went, she would not be leaving this planet. Her fate would be the same as the mermaids.
“It’s the first time I’ve understood what home is supposed to feel like,” she finished, everything about her so calm in a way she’d never experienced before. This was exactly what was supposed to happen, right? When she found love?
“Fuck.” Marshall pushed off of the control panel he had propped himself on as he listened to Autumn speak. “Okay, what were you thinking?”
“What about my three minutes?” Autumn couldn’t quite hold back the small quirk that pulled up the corner of her lips.
“Shut up and tell me what you need.” Marshall’s voice was clipped, but his own lips pulled up a little. She’d known he’d been an ally from the start. She’d just had to trust her gut.
“First, I need to know what happened at Tripp.” Autumn clenched her jaw tightly.
“Tripp?” That caught Marshall off guard for a second before he ran his fingers through his tousled hair once more and nodded. “Tripp isn’t a place. Joe Tripp is a person.”
Autumn nodded, and Marshall closed his eyes for a moment.
“Joe found out about the natives on a planet we were collecting from, not this one. My previous tour. He was the one who told me we’d been lied to.” Marshall opened his eyes again, and Autumn flinched in surprise to see his eyes glistening with unshed tears. “We were going to be married when we got back to Earth after the mission. But the stupid dumbass couldn’t bear to kill anyone. He was trained like all of us were. Trained to know that killing is part of the job. But he couldn’t do it. He refused.”
“What happened?” Autumn whispered, scared to know the answer but wanting to give Marshall the chance to unburden his pain.
“They caught him trying to sabotage the collectors. They caught him, and they made an example out of him. We were forced to watch as they locked him in a collector he had sabotaged. Then they pushed it into the water.”
Autumn’s entire body seized up. Her mind couldn’t find words, and the horror that filled her made her blood run cold.
“I wanted to run to him. I wanted to fight them. But he shook his head at me when we locked eyes. He wouldn’t let me save him. He wouldn’t even let me try.”
Marshall let his tears out, and Autumn gave him the time he needed. With a shake of his head and a clenched fist to scrub the tears from his cheeks, Marshall stood tall and looked at Autumn.
“Will you help me find another way?”
“To sabotage them?” Marshall asked, as though confirming that was indeed what Autumn meant.
“Yes. I want to destroy them. I want to save not just this planet, but the next planet Chalmers wants to destroy, the next people he decides are worthy only of genocide.”
“He won’t stop. If we destroy the collectors, he’ll simply get more. He won’t ever stop.” Marshall scoffed. “Out here, he’s God.”
“What can we do to destroy them?” Autumn ignored that last comment, though she agreed with him.
“Joe wanted to reach out to the natives. He wanted to see if they would defend themselves. But he never got the chance.” Marshall shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Soulara and her people are preparing to defend themselves.”
“Are you sure they need our help?”
“Would you have given the natives any help they needed to win? Would you have done everything you swore not to do in order to save Joe?”
“Yes.” Marshall didn’t hesitate.
“That’s how I feel about Soulara. I want to arm her with every chance to stop her people’s annihilation.”
“Good.” Marshall smiled in a way that sent a shiver of fear running down Autumn’s spine. “I have something better than sabotage.”
Autumn looked at him with furrowed brows.
“Meet me here tonight at twenty-two hundred. We’ve got some work to do before the last collection.” He looked almost giddy in his boots.
“You know when it is?” Autumn stared at him with wide eyes.
“Yep. And the entire fleet is heading down. Every single collector will be in the water.”
Autumn closed her eyes, the weight of that knowledge pulling against the hope she had allowed to grow within her. Everyone was going to be under the water? Was she now going to kill her entire troop?
“It’ll be okay.” Marshall placed a hand gently on her upper arm. “It’s better this way.”
“Will the planet survive?”
“You already staking out a piece to call your own?” Marshall chuckled.
“It’s beautiful, Marshall.” Of course she had. From the moment she decided she would do everything in her power to help Soulara and her people survive, she knew where home would always be for her.
She smiled as she thought again about the warm days lying naked on the beach with Soulara, the water lapping over them and Soulara’s scales glinting in the sunshine. She imagined finding a way to live on their island, and to swim beneath the water, even if it were only for small moments at a time. Every one of them would be worth it.
“It is. And we’ll make sure you get to keep your home.”
Marshall stood in the line of the trees while Autumn stood ankle deep in the water. It seemed like lifetimes ago when Autumn hadn’t known what the embrace and caress of water felt like. Now, it lapped around her ankles and eased the nerves that caused her pulse to thump away at her temples.
Her fingers still trembled as she ran them over the soul stone in her pocket. The warmth in her chest came faster than it had the previous time, and she smiled. Had Soulara told Nylah to be ready to hear from Autumn? The faith Soulara put in her filled her heart with joy and just a little nervousness.
Was she really worthy of that level of faith and trust?
Soulara believed so, and Autumn would spend the rest of her days proving her right.
Closing her eyes, Autumn thought as loudly and as clearly as she could to Nylah.
Please ask her to come. Tell her Marshall is on our side, and he is going to help us win.
Autumn’s shoulders dropped a little as the warmth from the soul stone soothed the nerves she had been feeling. Autumn nodded, staring out over the water. It was one of the many signs she and Marshall had worked out before they left the tech room during their late-night rendezvous.
Step one done. Autumn sat in the sand to wait. She hoped Soulara wouldn’t take as long to come this time. She wanted to see her. Autumn also wanted to rid herself of the fear in the back of her mind that they would be caught. That despite Soulara’s promises she would die horribly, drowned in the mechanical monsters she hated with all her might.
But it wasn’t long at all.
Autumn saw Nylah first, the real solid ray who came as close to the shore as they dared, lifting one fin and then the other. It took all of Autumn’s self-control not to lift her hand and wave.
She scanned the water, her heartbeat picking up speed when it took far too long and far too many sweeps over the horizon for her to see Soulara’s head come out of the water. Her silver hair glistened as brightly as the sparkles of light winking on top of the water.
Soulara disappeared and then in moments resurfaced so much closer that Autumn let out a small gasp. She knew Soulara was fast, but seeing the speed demonstrated so effortlessly in front of her was incredible.
Autumn watched as Soulara came closer. She wondered how Soulara could be so close now and still only have her head out of the water.
Their eyes locked, and Soulara pointedly shifted her gaze from Autumn to the line of trees and back again. Autumn understood and slowly with intentional exaggeration nodded and smiled back at Soulara.
Soulara closed her eyes, and for a moment Autumn feared that the faith and trust Soulara had in her did actually come with limitations.
“Come into the water, please,” Soulara called out on the breeze, a soft melody of rustled leaves and whispering trees.
Autumn smiled. She was being ridiculous. Soulara trusted her.
When Autumn reached Soulara, the water had lapped up as far as the bottom of her ribs. Soulara met Autumn at eye level, her breasts glistening in the sun while rivulets of water ran from the tips of her hair. Autumn noticed that not a single scale of Soulara’s tail could be seen above the water. She didn’t begrudge Soulara the caution though it hurt a little to know that there really might be a limit to her trust.
“Hold your breath, my love.”
“So it’s another kidnapping, is it?” Autumn winked. The tension she had felt as she walked into the water dissolved the moment Soulara’s soft voice tickled her cheek.
“I prefer to call it foreplay.”
Before Autumn could respond, Soulara’s arms wrapped around her waist. Autumn had just enough time to gulp a lungful of air before the water washed over her. Soulara moved them through the water at even greater speed than Autumn had experienced before.
She would have laughed at the sensation if it wouldn’t have risked her precious air supply. Though the temptation to laugh anyway almost overtook her. This was what others spoke about. That line between pleasure and pain—or for Autumn, fear and joy. It didn’t really matter what names she put on it.
All she knew was that this was the beginning of a whole new life. A life of her own choosing. A life she could be proud of.