Chapter 2
Telok folded all four of his arms across his chest as he again surveyed his surroundings.
Thornskulls packed Kaldarak’s central platform.
The bright, colorful hides of the males contrasted with the duller, earthier tones of the larger females.
Most were gathered around charcoal circles drawn onto the floor planks, which served as fields of battle in the games of stonetoss being played.
By their cheers, gasps, chitters, and good-natured taunts, they were enjoying themselves.
Though he’d had more than he could bear of crowds during Takarahl’s offering days, and he’d not been in the mood for games as of late, Telok found some amusement in watching his friends play.
He lowered his gaze to the match before him. Urkot, the burly delver-become-shaper, sat on one side of the circle, studying the tiny stones within it closely.
To either side of him sat Rekosh, the tall, spindly weaver, and Ketahn, the powerfully built sometimes-weaver, sometimes-hunter.
The three shadowstalkers were as brothers to Telok, and their joy was his own.
Ketahn’s broodling, Akalahn, was bent down beside his sire with his hindquarters in the air, enrapt with the game. The little one’s blend of human and vrix features made him wholly unique—the first and only of his kind.
“Locking in now,” said Cole, the yellow-haired human who was kneeling across from Urkot.
His words once would’ve been meaningless to Telok. The humans’ language was strange, clumsy, and frustratingly confusing. After moon cycles of struggle, Telok had seized some understanding.
But he still didn’t understand what locking had to do with this game.
Cole brushed his fingers over the polished stones laid out before him, each of which bore a yellow dot to mark it as his. The three vrix players had their stones painted to match their markings—blue for Urkot, red for Rekosh, and purple for Ketahn.
The human selected a stone and bounced it on his palm, testing its heft. “Watch as your champion claims his title.”
He lined up his hand, inhaled, and tossed the rock. It struck a blue-marked stone within the circle with a clack, knocking it toward the boundary.
Where it struck one of Cole’s yellow stones and bumped it out of the circle.
Cole threw his hands up. “Are you kidding me? Come on!”
Telok chittered along with Urkot and Ketahn.
“The stones say otherwise,” Urkot said. “They know the true champion.”
Rekosh plucked up one of his stones with his long fingers. “Indeed they do, stoneskull.”
With a casual flick of his wrist, Rekosh threw his stone. It hit the floor, hopped, and collided with a pair of Urkot’s pebbles, sending both beyond the charcoal line.
Akalahn giggled, bouncing excitedly in place with a wide smile and bright purple eyes.
Growling, Urkot snapped his gaze to Rekosh and gnashed his mandible fangs. “What was that, needlelegs?”
“The stones speaking,” Telok offered.
Ketahn nudged Urkot’s foreleg with his own. “It seems you do not always care for what they say.”
He leaned down to choose a stone for his turn. Before he could, Akalahn reached out with two small, chubby, five-fingered hands, scooped up a pile of stones, and held them up to his sire.
With a gentle chitter and his mandibles raised in a smile, Ketahn accepted the offering and thanked his broodling, ruffling Akalahn’s gold-streaked black hair.
A strange pang pierced Telok’s chest. For a fleeting moment, he could almost see his own sire in his mind’s eye, but he thrust the image away before it could take shape.
What Ketahn and Akalahn shared was pure, joyous, and hopeful.
Telok’s view of it would only be tainted if he delved into his memories, because his recollection of his own sire was overshadowed by the final lesson passed from sire to son.
The Tangle devours all.
He forced his gaze up and back to roaming, to searching, to watching.
The sunshine was bright today, making every color more vivid and enhancing the good spirit in the air.
The scents of the gathered vrix and the food they were sharing mingled with Kaldarak’s other familiar smells—wood and growing plants, fragrant oils and dried flowers, leather and worked stone, sweet sap and smoke, refreshing mist.
Yet a particular scent was absent, the only one Telok both longed for and dreaded.
Lacey’s scent.
He clenched his jaw and drew his claspers tighter against his pelvis as something hot coiled low in his belly. Hunter grant him patience, but how could the mere thought of her fragrance rouse such a response in him?
His eyes halted on a group of humans who were crossing one of the rope bridges leading to this central platform. They walked one behind another, moving with confidence and surety that none of them had possessed when they’d first come to Kaldarak and contended with the long, swaying bridges.
They spread out as they reached the platform. Though their sizes and colorings seemed limited compared to those of vrix in many ways, the humans of Telok’s tribe were quite varied in appearance.
Ivy was in front. Her hair was long and golden, and her light skin had a pink undertone.
Callie came next, slightly taller with warm brown skin and thick, curly hair.
Ahmya was the smallest of the humans by half a head, with white skin, silken black hair and dark, expressive brown eyes.
The two males behind them were taller and broader, though the difference between males and females was both reversed and far less prominent than it was amongst vrix.
Will was the taller of the two, with short-cropped hair, dark brown eyes, and skin a similar shade to Callie’s.
Diego’s skin was a lighter brown, as were his kind, perceptive eyes.
But there wasn’t even a hint of pale, freckled skin, red hair, or radiant green eyes.
No Lacey.
Telok’s mandibles drooped, and a weight sank in his chest.
Diego and Will broke away from the females, who continued toward Telok and the others.
Ketahn, Rekosh, and Urkot leapt up once they spotted their mates, rushing to meet them and sweeping them off their feet in huge embraces.
Callie laughed as she slipped her fingers into Urkot’s hair. “Miss me?”
“Always,” Urkot rumbled.
“I missed you too.”
“What the hell?” Cole demanded as he stood. He gestured at the abandoned stonetoss circle. “You can’t just stop without calling a timeout.”
“Timeout,” Rekosh said without looking away from Ahmya.
Smirking, Cole shook his head.
As the other vrix exchanged words and affection with their mates, another pang pierced Telok’s hearts, as sharp as any blade.
How was it possible to feel alone while surrounded by his closest friends?
How could the sight of his brothers with their mates, bursting with contentment, fill him with joy and a hollow ache at once?
Telok tore his attention away from them, his eyes once more roving.
He told himself he was watching for danger. Protecting his tribe. But at his core, he knew he was looking for Lacey’s distinct red hair somewhere on Kaldarak’s bridges and platforms. She was the only member of their tribe missing from this gathering. It felt…incomplete without her.
“Where’s Lacey?” Cole’s question struck Telok like a barbed spear, its rope pulling taut to retether his thoughts to the present.
“She’s not here?” Ivy frowned as Ketahn set her on her feet. She crouched to pick up little Akalahn, who’d been reaching for her. “We thought she was here with you guys.”
“We have not seen her,” said Ketahn.
“We thought she had accompanied you, Ivy,” Rekosh added.
Callie shook her head. “She wasn’t with us.”
Telok’s hands flexed, digging his claws into his arms. A fire blossomed in his chest, small but searing, pulsing with each beat of his hearts.
He couldn’t be sure of the target of his frustration. Lacey, for her unannounced absence? The others for not knowing the whereabouts of one of their tribemates? Himself for being equally unaware, or…
Or for possibly being the reason she’d stayed away?
“I will look.” His legs were already moving before the words had fully escaped his mouth.
Telok felt his tribe’s eyes upon him as he strode away. Though his hide tingled beneath their stares, he did not falter, did not so much as glance backward. He could guess at their thoughts.
Why was he going to find Lacey when the two of them couldn’t go more than a few moments without trading glares and barbed words? Why Telok, when she would’ve been happier to see any other member of their tribe?
Because someone had to act. Because he had to act, before idleness allowed his thoughts to run as wild as storm winds tearing through the jungle. It made no difference that there was no cause for alarm, or that there were many simple, likely explanations for her absence.
Lacey might’ve been resting. She might not have been in the mood to attend so large a gathering, which Telok thoroughly related to. Perhaps she’d merely forgotten or had become so focused on her work that she had lost track of time.
Or she knew I would be here and decided not to attend.
The fire in his chest intensified, spreading roiling heat beneath his hide.
Regardless of the reason, he had to know. He had to see, with all eight eyes, that she was all right.
And if she was avoiding him…it was for the best, wasn’t it? The best for both of them. But she didn’t need to deny herself the company of her friends to stay away from him.
His path led him across Kaldarak to the human dens at the far edge, which had been built upon three platforms connected by wooden stairs.
The lowest, largest platform held Will and Diego’s den, from which they provided healing to the tribe, and a bigger building the humans called the lounge.
They sometimes gathered there to eat and hang out, though as far as Telok knew, there was no hanging involved.
The uppermost platform held Cole’s den, with its impressively crafted deck.