“Clear,” I say, and mean it.
Alex’s shoulders drop half an inch in relief. “Planet sickness?”
“Gone. Completely.” My lungs feel scrubbed clean, my pulse steady. I glance at Sarven. Whatever he poured into me, it brought me back to life.
“Tina?” I ask, gaze shifting back to Alex. “Is she?—”
“Better,” Alex says, glancing back toward the sick bay alcove. “Barely keeping hydrated on firebloom nectar, but she’s stabilizing. No more vomiting.”
A knot I wasn’t fully aware of unspools in my gut.
“Good,” I breathe. “That’s…that’s really good.”
Alex watches me for another beat, checking the glands at my throat, then leans in.
“You smell like wet rock and sex,” she murmurs under her breath.
I choke.
Sarven’s head snaps around. He doesn’t ask what she said. He heard it.
Through the bond, I feel a pulse of pure, unrepentant satisfaction roll off him. He knows exactly what I smell like. He’s proud of it.
“You smell likemine,” he projects, the thought heavy and warm and completely lacking in shame.
I glare at Alex, face burning, desperately trying to ignore the smug alien in my head.
“That is… irrelevant medical data,” I hiss. “Focus on the vitals, please.”
Alex clears her throat, straightening, professional mask back in place.
“Well, from a med perspective, you’re the healthiest patient I’ve ever seen,” she announces more loudly.
“Neat,” I say weakly.
Kol steps closer, his presence pulling focus like gravity.
“We are glad you live,” he projects, his voice rumbling through the link, but he speaks the next words aloud. For the humans. “Tell us…of the heart…cavern. The water.”
Right.
Fun’s over.
I push myself up, take a breath, and glance at Sarven.
“You first?” I offer mentally.
He tilts his head slightly in that Drakav way. “You speak, my mate. The others will understand as your thoughts bleed into the mindspace.”
I nod, taking in a deep breath.
“Okay,” I say, switching to English. “Short version: the spring itself is contaminated.”
I close my eyes for a second. “The heart of the spring is…big. The water comes in from a crack deep in the rock, fills a pool,then spills out through a narrow channel that feeds the tunnels downstream. But it’s contaminated with some sort of toxic algae bloom. Something’s heating the mountain up there.”
I turn, looking at the poor women like me who were thrown on this desert planet without having any idea what to expect.
“We can’t fix the source of the problem. I don’t even know if the Drakav know where the source is. But—” I hold up a finger. “We can filter what comes out.”
