Stone Odega
His hair was disheveled, his chest and feet bare, as if he’d run there from sleep. Black liquid dripped from his skin, smattered across his face, collecting in the deep rivers of the scars that lined his shoulders and chest.
“Are you alright?” He extended his hand to help her up.
She swayed on her feet when she stood, a sharpness blooming behind her eyes. “I think so.” A flush of embarrassment washedover her. She hadn’t even been here a full day and she was already in need of saving.
Some warrior, she thought.
“What were those things?” She pulled her hand from Stone’s, not realizing she was still holding it. “They knew my name. They knew–” She bit her tongue. Did he hear what they said about her? The secrets they spilled?
“Crawlers.” Stone passed by her without a second glance to pick up a towel from a crate. He wiped the black from his face, then his hands and chest. “Was a matter of time before they showed up. Curious little creatures.”
“What do they want?” The ache in her skull blurred her vision and she didn’t remember wobbling but she must have because when her vision refocused, Stone was there, holding her up. His scarred hands were rough against her bare arms.
“We need to get you back to bed.” It wasn’t a question, but an order, and if there was one thing true about Aesira, it was that she knew when to follow an order. “They dwell in the deep desert,” Stone said as they walked to her room. “They feed–” He glanced her way so quickly she thought she’d imagined it.
“What do they feed on?”
He cleared his throat and she looked away from his well defined frame where lines and lines of scars marred his skin. “They are in constant search of a soul to claim, to split amongst their hive.” Her mind raced to the row of black eyes and jagged teeth waiting for her on the desert floor. “They feed off fear,” he said. “Or at least that’s what I’ve been told.”
It was shameful to admit she was afraid. Her whole life, her whole career, was based on the virtue of bravery. And yet one night crossing the desert had left her cowering on the floor.
“The first time I saw one,” Stone continued, as they crept their way down the dark corridor to her room, “Patch barely saved me in time. The crawler told me things I’d never admitted to anyone. They told me how to make my pain go away.” He whispered the last part, maybe hoping she didn’t hear him.
“And what did you hear tonight?” She wondered if he could hear the real question she was asking.
What did you hear aboutme?
There was a long stretch of silence before they got to her door. Stone opened it and then stepped aside. “I didn’t hear a thing.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “It wasn’t after me. At least not this time.” He pushed the door open further. “Get some sleep, Commander. Frightful as crawlers are, they’re just the beginning.”
Eight
Aesira
Warm, orange light filtered through the small porthole window, dragging Aesira from her restless sleep. She leaned over the edge to find the bottom bunk empty. Nora must have gotten a head start on the day.
Slumping back on her pillow she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and gasped when she looked out the window. The red sand that she’d become accustomed to in Vargah had become a sea of shining black granules. Pink clouds dotted the horizon, giving a false sense of serenity.
After the crawlers last night, she couldn’t look at the desert thesame way again.
“I told you to fuck off!” a voice shouted from above deck. Aesira jumped off the bed, pulling on black armored pants, a short sleeve tunic with a built-in breastplate, and her boots.
“Go back to where you came from!” the same voice bellowed down the empty hallway as she poked her head out of the door. It was a feminine voice, but not Nora’s, so it had to be one of the two women part of Stone’s group.
An arid breeze scalded her cheeks as she climbed the same ladder as last night. Like the wind, images resurfaced in her mind, frenzied and blurry.
The ladder.
The wraith.
The loss of control over her body.
Stone.
“You! I need your help.”
“As good a greeting as any, I suppose,” Aesira said, following the woman. Her short, sleek hair bounced lightly as she stomped across the deck. Her angular, onyx eyes gave Aesira a quick glance over her shoulder before she turned away again. “Okay, well I’m—”
