Chapter 23 Tai
TWENTY-THREE
Tai
Bri chews on the inside of her lip, punishing herself for the accident. The normally confrontational attitude has been replaced with avoidance. She will hardly even look at me, and I find myself wanting to cheer her up even though I was the one shoved into the oasis.
I don’t need to lecture her. She’s clearly scolding herself enough for the both of us. When I dragged myself out of the water, I was prepared for her to be unapologetic and blame me. I was wrong. And the way she is gulping down water makes me think she might genuinely have heatstroke.
“You look like a drowned rat,” she says, finally looking me up and down. I can tell she’s masking her vulnerability with jokes.
“I’ve heard rats are very intelligent and incredibly attractive.”
She smiles at me out of the corner of her eye. It feels good when I make her smile. That thought sets off a deadly chain reaction. If it feels this good to make her smile, there are a few other emotions I’d like to wring out of her. Every once in a while, I let myself remember that night.
I replay the scene in my mind, every perfect detail. I reached for her when I woke up, but she was gone. Bri never mentioned it again. So, I did what I’m best at and buried the memory as deep as possible.
A dried piece of grass from Daisy’s lunch sticks to Bri’s shoulder. Without thinking, I brush it off. The feel of her skin sends a vibration up my bionic arm.
She leans into my touch, and the back of my hand skims her neck. The entire world melts away, and it’s only me and Bri. Everything fades away except her eyes locked with mine, until they flicker away to focus on something over my shoulder.
“Don’t look now, but Boss is watching,” she says and lays a hand on my chest.
I don’t need to look back to know his beady eyes are on us.
The rational part of my brain says to pull away, to not aggravate the situation. The other part of me wants to kiss her, to send the message that she is mine, not his. She draws me in closer. I’m powerless to the way she looks at me. Like I’m hers as well.
I’m so focused on her and the sound of my heart hammering in my chest that I don’t hear the commotion around the h’axom at first. Yelling and pounding hooves break the spell and jerk me back to reality.
Three h’axom stampede straight for us, their leather reins hanging loosely.
I pull Bri up and spin us around, putting a palm tree between us and the charging animals.
We stand there slack-jawed and watch the h’axom throw themselves into the holy water of the Wahadi.
“Oh…that’s bad,” Bri says.
In shock, the brethren all stand suspended in silence as the h’axom spout water in the air from their trunks. Bri holds a hand over her mouth, desperately trying to hide the horrified smile on her face.
“Don’t you dare laugh,” I tell her, biting my cheek to hold in my own laughter.
The brethren drop to their knees. They plant their faces on the ground and wail even louder. Next to the remaining tied-up animals, Boss is not on the ground like everyone else. He stands there staring at me.
Somehow, I don’t think the h’axom got loose on their own.
With a handful of dried grass and a deadly calm gait, Boss approaches the h’axom.
His demeanor is at odds with that of the distraught brethren, who resume making those awful sounds.
It doesn’t take long for the h’axom to catch the scent of their next meal, and they follow Boss out of the Wahadi and back into the shade.
“What’s his fucking problem?” Bri mutters, watching Boss as closely as I am.
“I don’t know. Whatever it is, I don’t like it.”