Dread pooled deep in Tamira's stomach. "Maybe our rescuers killed them all."
"Or put a sleeping draught into the water supply," Beulah said. "This is unnatural."
She was right about that.
Hopefully, Tula would explain everything once they got to the cliff.
"I love you," she whispered to Eluheed, just in case she wouldn't have a chance to tell him again.
His hand tightened on hers. "I love you too."
10
TULA
Everyone was heading to the cliff, their fading footsteps, whispered questions, and speculations drifting back to Tula. She'd saved Tony for last, and not by accident.
The sleeping draught she'd given him was strong, and she didn't know how she was going to wake him up. She'd calculated it to last till morning, so he wouldn't spoil her escape by showing up at the cliff.
It was supposed to be a clean break.
Except now she had to wake him and bring him along on the escape she'd never imagined would include anyone but herself.
"Is there a problem?" Yamanu asked, his voice carrying that strange musical quality that made even impatience sound pleasant.
"He's drugged." The admission came out flat, matter-of-fact. "I gave him a sleeping draught earlier. He might not wake up."
Yamanu's pale eyes studied her for a long moment, and she wondered what he saw. A woman who'd drugged her lover toabandon him? A mother who'd been willing to do anything to save her child?
Both were true.
"Can you carry him if he won't wake?" she asked.
A grin spread across Yamanu's face, which was totally inappropriate given the circumstances. "I know how to wake up a guy. I can carry him to the shower, turn on the cold water, and drop him on the floor under the spray. Works every time."
Tula winced. "That seems harsh."
He shrugged. "There is no point in my carrying him when he needs to be awake during the climb down. You slipped while fully awake."
True.
As she opened the door and walked into their suite, she found Tony exactly as she'd left him hours ago, sprawled across the bed with one arm flung over his head, his breathing deep and even. In sleep, he looked younger, more handsome, and Tula experienced something akin to regret or grief for what they'd never really had.
She'd already said goodbye to him in her heart. Had already closed that door and locked it. Had made her peace with never seeing him again, with him believing she'd chosen death over captivity.
It would have been cleaner that way.
Kinder, maybe.
But now?
Now she had to decide whether to reopen that door. Whether to let him back into her life as a free woman, or whether to tell him the truth—that he should find that bioinformatician he'd been in love with before all this and pursue the life he was meant to have.
What would the clan even do with him?
Tony was human. His life was a flicker compared to theirs, and she'd already accepted that it might be better for her child not to know his father than to mourn his mortal passing.
Part of what had made leaving easier was never having to watch him age, watch him die.
