Chapter 14
Cody
Iwake up slowly, which is unusual for me.
Normally, I'm a zero-to-sixty kind of guy. The alarm blares, and my feet hit the floor, with my brain booting up after I'm already on the move. Years of military life have drilled the lazy mornings right out of me.
But this morning, I surface gradually, awareness seeping in layer by layer. The first thing I am aware of is heat. A deep, pervasive warmth that has nothing to do with blankets and everything to do with the body draped over mine. A whisper of breath brushes over my collarbone, slow and rhythmic.
A'Vanti.
My arms tighten around her before I'm fully conscious of doing it. She's draped across me like I'm a body pillow, one arm slung over my chest, one leg hooked over mine. Her hair spills across my shoulder in a river of gold, and her face is pressed into the hollow of my throat.
I've never woken up next to anyone like this.
That's not entirely true. I've woken up next to people before.
But never like this. Never with this feeling in my chest, this quiet certainty that the person in my arms is exactly where they're supposed to be.
Like every wrong turn and hard choice and lonely night was the universe's way of steering me here, to this cave on an alien planet, with this woman tucked into my side.
I press my lips to the top of her head and commit this moment to memory
She smells like the mineral water of the springs, slightly metallic with an undertone of sweetness that is uniquely her.
I noticed it the first time she let me get close enough to catch it.
It's not perfume or soap. It's deeper than that, a scent so enticing that defies description.
Pheromones, maybe. The Cerastean mating bond is supposed to be partly biological.
Something about scent triggers that rewire neural pathways.
I don't know if that's what's happening to me. I don't know if human biology even works that way. But I know that the scent of her has burrowed into some primitive part of my brain and set up permanent residence, and I wouldn't evict it for anything.
A distant rumble shakes through the stone beneath our makeshift bed, so faint I feel it more than hear it. The storm must still be raging above us.
I should care about that more than I do.
Instead, I lie still and watch the play of light across the tent ceiling.
The lanterns we set up last night have dimmed to a muted glow, but the springs themselves provide a steady, otherworldly illumination.
Pale blue light shimmers, reflected off the water's surface, making the whole cavern look like a fever dream. Or a fairy tale.
A'Vanti stirs.
It starts as a small shift, a tightening of her arm across my chest, followed by a subtle shift in the tension of her body. Then she makes a sound, low and questioning, like she's not sure where she is. Her fingers curl into my skin, exploring, and I feel the moment awareness returns to her.
She goes very still.
I don't dare move, stupidly afraid that she'll pull away. That the daylight, or whatever passes for it down here, will burn off the magic of last night, and she'll retreat behind those walls I've spent months learning to navigate.
But then her hand spreads flat on my chest, right over my heart, and she exhales. A long, slow breath that I feel all the way to my toes.
"Good morning," she murmurs.
"Morning." My voice comes out rough, with sleep or with nerves, I can't tell. "Or afternoon. Or evening. I genuinely have no idea what time it is."
"Mmm." She doesn't move. If anything, she burrows closer. "I do not care."
A grin splits my face. A'Vanti – my precise, composed, schedule-minded A'Vanti – doesn't care what time it is. I must be dreaming.
"How'd you sleep?" I ask, running my fingers through her hair. The strands are soft and fine, like silk threads, and they catch the blue light of the springs as they slide through my fingers.
"Better than I have in a long time." She lifts her head just enough to look at me, and the sight of her face – sleep-soft and unguarded, her amber eyes heavy-lidded – is devastating to my composure. "You are very warm. Like sleeping against a furnace."
"Is that a good thing?"
"It is an excellent thing. Cerasteans are endothermic, but we prefer external heat sources when sleeping. On Ceraste, our homes often had heated sleeping platforms." She rests her chin on my chest, studying me. "You are better than a heated sleeping platform."
"That might be the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me."
Her lips twitch. "I state only facts."
We lie there for a while, wrapped in blankets and each other, listening to the distant pulse of the storm and the murmur of water moving through the cavern. I keep stroking her hair because I can't seem to stop.
Eventually, practicality reasserts itself. My stomach growls, loudly enough to make A'Vanti lift her head with an arched brow.
"That," she says, "was impressive."
"I'm a man of many talents." I sit up reluctantly, already missing her weight on top of me. "Breakfast?"
"Please."
We disentangle from the blankets and set about the mundane business of making ourselves functional. I dig through the emergency rations from the shuttle while A'Vanti uses the water purifier to fill our canteens from the pool.
The rations aren't exactly gourmet: protein bars, dried fruit, and some kind of nutrient paste that looks like baby food and tastes like unseasoned hummus. But we're not starving, and we've got enough to last several days.
"I've eaten worse," I announce, biting into a protein bar.
A'Vanti examines her own protein bar with deep suspicion before taking a precise, experimental bite. She chews slowly, her expression cycling through what I can only describe as the five stages of grief.
"This is not food," she declares. "This is a punishment."
"Welcome to emergency rations. Where flavor goes to die."
She takes another bite anyway, because A'Vanti is nothing if not practical. "On Ceraste, even our field rations had spice. My grandmother would be horrified."
"Your grandmother sounds like she had the right idea."
"She was a formidable woman." A'Vanti's expression turns fond. "She loved to cook."
"Well… then I would have adored her. I love to eat."
"She would have liked you." A'Vanti says this with the casual certainty of someone stating a known fact. "She valued honesty and humor in equal measure. She would have found your goober nature entertaining."
"High praise."
We eat in comfortable silence, sitting side by side at the edge of our shelter, staring out over the pool. The mineral water glows before us, pale blue shifting to white where the dim light catches the steam.
I try the comm after breakfast. The static is thick and unrelenting.
The storm is doing exactly what D'Rett warned it would, turning our communications into useless noise.
I cycle through frequencies, trying every trick I can think of.
On my fourth attempt, a voice breaks through. Fragmented, but recognizable.
"…ody? Cody, do…read, over?"
"D'Rett!" I grip the comm tighter. "Yeah, I read you. Barely. We're okay. Sheltering in the caves beneath Brishar."
"Copy…storm is…" Static swallows his words. "…Stay there. Storm is bigger than…projected…could be…" More static. "…at least another day, maybe…"
"Say again? You're breaking up."
"…stay put. Do not…fly in this. L'Zaen says…" A burst of interference. "…everyone here is…safe. Chelsea sends…"
The transmission dissolves into white noise.
"D'Rett? D'Rett, do you copy?"
Nothing.
I lower the comm and look at A'Vanti. "Sounds like the storm's bigger than they expected. He said at least another day."
A'Vanti absorbs this with characteristic calm. "Then we make ourselves comfortable."
"You're taking this remarkably well."
"I am trapped in a beautiful cave with healing springs, adequate supplies, and—" She pauses, and a playful expression crosses her features. "Acceptable company."
"Acceptable." I put my hand over my heart. "You wound me."
"I would not want your ego to become unmanageable." But she's smiling. That real smile, the one that reaches her eyes and transforms her whole face. The one I'd do just about anything to earn.
"Acceptable," I repeat, shaking my head slowly. I close the distance between us in two strides, and her eyes widen. "I'll show you acceptable."
I catch her around the waist and pull her to me, and the laugh that escapes her, startled and unguarded, echoes off the cavern walls.
The sound does reckless things to my pulse.
She doesn't resist. If anything, she leans into me, her hands coming up to rest on my chest, her fingers curling into the fabric of my shirt.
"That is not what I—"
I kiss her before she can finish the sentence. Not gently. Not slow and tender. This one has a point to prove, and I make it thoroughly. Her protest dissolves into a sound that vibrates on my lips, and her hands stop pushing and start pulling, fisting my shirt and dragging me closer.
"Still acceptable?" I murmur against her mouth.
Her answer is to hook her fingers into my collar and walk backward, towing me toward the shelter. She moves with fluid grace, navigating the uneven cave floor without looking, her eyes never leaving mine.
"That," she says, her voice low and slightly raspy, "remains to be seen. Perhaps you should make your case more convincingly."
I don't need to be told twice.
I follow her into the shelter, and for a good while after that, neither of us has much to say at all.
Afterward, we lie in a tangle of blankets and limbs, pleasantly wrecked, staring at the tent ceiling with matching stupid grins.
"Verdict?" I ask.
A'Vanti rolls onto her side and props her head on her hand. She studies me with a look of exaggerated appraisal.
"Adequate," she says.