The lake was beautiful, and even as tired as I was, I couldn’t help but stare in wonder. Darkness had fallen, and the clear skies were filled with a million stars, the largest of which glittered back at us on the surface of the water. The jungle treeline receded onto soft, white, sandy beaches by the edge of the water, while across the lake, a sinuous cliff line slung around the water’s edge.
A tiny island sat in the middle of the lake, but it seemed to drift lazily left and right. When I stared a little longer, I discovered that was because they were massive leaves lying on the water. Even bigger white flowers unfurled, beaming brightly at the stars. It was a little fantastical, like something from a story, and I was instantly curious whether I could stand on one of those massive floating leaves.
Jaxin did not seem nearly as impressed as I was with the view, but it was just as interesting to watch his dark eyes appraise the water. He exuded so much confident competence that I kept feeling a powerful lure of attraction I doubted would be reciprocated. When I squinted at the sharp angle of his pale gray jaw, I recalled the sensation of his skin against the pads of my fingers.
“I’m going to have to scout,” he grunted. “Stay here,” he added, and he began to slide me to the ground. I wobbled in his grip, enjoying the heat of his massive hands as they enveloped my waist. I didn’t mean to cling, but I found myself clutching his wide shoulders. His armor was slick and tough, and it clung to each line and ridge of muscle. Good handholds they were not, but I tried to hold onto him anyway.
“Where are you going?” I asked, and my voice came out in an embarrassing squeak. The dirt and mud of the jungle still clung to my boots, and the sandy beach was soft, making them sink in an uneven wobble. Jaxin gave me a look that felt gruff, a bit stern, as if he was fed up with my clinginess, and I quickly yanked my hands back.
“Sit down before you fall over, Dani,” he told me, still gruff. My heart stuttered in my chest.Dani?Nobody had ever called me that before, and it sounded so incredibly intimate and familiar. Names were a point of pride for Aderians, with patterns to names that often ran in families. That was why I was Danitalin, and my sister, Koratalin. To cut that piece that identified my bloodline… it felt as if suddenly the name was all aboutme. It felt like a thing alover might say.
He’d caught me off guard by calling me Dani, and I must have frozen rather than leaping to obey. Not that I would have leapt, but he certainly wasn’t getting the response he was after. His hand folded around my good shoulder—warm, strong, and just a little forceful—as he pressed me down into the sand. I sank to my knees in what surely had to be a clumsy sprawl, the dirt wet and cool against my shins.
“Take this,” he said next, and he swung the strap of his only-barely-portable laser cannon over his head and casually held out the massive weapon to me one-handed. I did not lift my hands but gave him a helpless look; was he nuts? I could not lift that thing, it would crush me. His eyes flicked from me to the weapon, and abruptly, he huffed out a sound that might very well be a laugh. I felt a tingle rush through my veins, my stomach doing somersaults.
Stretching my burned-out senses, I searched, desperately wanting confirmation that what I sensed was true. A pang of pain in my chest, a shiver of something warm—yes, perhaps that was what his amusement felt like. My eyes sharpened on his chest, but I could not see any injury there. So, was I feeling something real, or just imagining things?
“I guess you’re a bit too small for not-Bex, aren’t you?” he drawled when the surprised laughing noise petered out. He sank onto his haunches and carefully placed the laser cannon in the sand next to my hip. Then he fetched a thick branch from the jungle and used it to prop the barrel end of the thing up. As soon as I saw that, cold fear shot down my spine. He really meant to leave me behind; he wouldn’t set up his weapon like he meant for me to use it if he didn’t.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I can’t fire that anyway. The backlash of such an act would cripple my mind forever.”Blind panic began rushing through me because he was calmly continuing his setup, and now he was even placing my hands on the controls. I tried to pull them away, but his grip grew firm, not allowing me to retreat.
“Dani, listen,” he ordered, and the tone of command made me snap out of the spiral. “This is for show as much as it is for defense. That Radin Giant is no dummy, and he knows the damage the cannon did. If he sees it, he’ll stay away. If he comes anyway, fire. You’ll miss, but I’ll be here. Understand?”
He didn’t have to make so much sense when exhaustion made everything feel twice as bad. I felt unsteady, and much more frightened by the prospect of him leaving than I normally would. I preferred being alone most of the time, in fact. Even Jeltom, calm as he was, still took a toll on my senses, but not Jaxin. He made me feel safe.
“Okay,” I whispered, because what else could I say? No, not okay? Don’t leave me? Take me with you? He wasn’t going far, just to scout for a safe place to make camp, and I absolutely couldn’t walk any farther—not even after resting in his arms for several hours. How could I expect him to carry me more, when he’d already carried me for hours without complaining? Then I recalled the forceful way he’d slung me over his shoulder, and an irrational wave of anger crashed into me.
“Stay, point, shoot, watch for the recoil,” Jaxin said, oblivious to my turn in sentiment. “I’ll be right back,” he added, and dipped forward, almost, I thought, as if he were going to brush his blunt, wide nose into my tangled hair. Maybe he was even going to kiss me. The bright starlight reflecting off the lake glinted against the sharpfin rising from his back. His hand found mine, pressed it to the cannon’s controls again, and then he was gone, jogging down along the sand and diving into the water silently, without so much as a ripple or splash.
Anger gone, fear seeped back in, along with confusion. Why had he gone into the water? He had gills; he could breathe just fine in there. But I couldn’t, and I was already cold. I didn’t fancy wet clothes on top of that. Not that it was cold, exactly, out here, Radin’s continent enjoyed an eternal warm season.
Not long ago, I’d slipped from the research base to enjoy a quiet walk in the jungle alone. It had felt peaceful, safe, even familiar to wander beneath the massive trees by myself. I could not find that same peace of mind this time. I sat in the sand, wetness soaking through my pants, and my hands shook against the cannon. Every sound I heard made me twitch and crane my head. Was it the giant? Was it D’aron come to torment me some more?
Lifting one hand from the cannon, I brushed my hair behind my ear and then checked the strap of my satchel, which held research data and samples. All I needed to continue my research was there, but it made me feel extremely uneasy to have it all on me—especially knowing a hired thug had been after my work for some unfathomable reason. A thug possibly hired by my very own sister. I did not want to entertain that thought, not even a little.
When my eyes did not scan the dark treeline, they were focused on the water. No matter how hard I tried, I could not see any sign of Jaxin beneath the glittering surface. Once, I thought he might be all the way at the center of the lake,near the strange island of leaves—a silhouette, a gray-and-black shape, there and gone again.
Then a crack came from the woods, like a branch breaking, followed by leaves rustling. I jerked toward the cannon, discovering my hands had completely drifted from the controls. Heart pounding in my throat, I searched the trees, skin prickling with unease along the back of my neck. Someone was watching me, and I didn’t think that was sleep-deprived paranoia talking. The giant, it had to be him.
There, I saw him as he pushed a massive branch aside with an equally massive hand and peered around the edge of a thick tree trunk. A hundred yards away, he still seemed huge, almost as tall as the trees themselves. His chest was bare, slashed with red mud but also with a smattering of cuts from the exploding tree. A wild beard and hair were covered in the same clay-like substance he’d used to decorate his barrel-shaped chest. I did not see the black, segmented tail, but I knew it was there.
When he did not move closer but continued to watch me, I wondered if he was actually worried about the cannon or simply studying me. What was he thinking? Could I sense what he was feeling? I cursed internally when my ragged gift refused to obey this time, offering me not so much as a hint of insight. Was he too far away? It was on my lips to ask him to move closer, and then I wanted to curse myself for thinking of something so stupid. Not only did he not speak my language, closer was the last thing I should want. He was so big he could crush me under his massive foot or squeeze me to pieces in his fist.
He shifted, and the forest seemed to groan in response, or maybe that was just the fearful soundcoming from my own chest. What had Jaxin said? Fire, aim, squeeze? Or was it aim, squeeze, fire? Hadn’t he said something about calling him, or about missing? I couldn’t remember a single thing, and my hand was trembling so badly on the trigger that I feared I’d set it off by accident. Right, wasn’t there something about recoil?
The giant took another step, and now he was out from behind the trunk, a massive target. Was he daring me to shoot at him? Testing my resolve? If he was, he’d find that I had none. I feared shooting him as much as I feared him. He took another step closer, and I almost tumbled backward as I jerked my hand away from the trigger. I was convinced that if I shot the giant, I’d kill myself. The emotional recoil across my burned-out senses would destroy the pathways forever and cause a brain bleed I could not recover from.
Then he did something that made my chest grow tight with shock: he raised his hands in the air in a universal signal of surrender. His tail curled around his middle, as if he were showing me that it was restrained, harmless. He wasn’t here to attack; he was here for something else, but what? When he rumbled in a deep bass, the sound vibrated through my chest, but it did not resolve into anything that resembled words.
Impulsively, I freed my tablet from my satchel and tried to search for his language. If I could upload that to my implants, perhaps we could communicate. “I’m sorry,” I told him, as I frantically searched for a file that might not even exist. “I don’t know what you want, but I can assure you that we mean you no harm. I have nothing to do with the Kertinals occupying your world.” But did it make me any better, coming here without his permission and taking hisflowers to create a cure for people he didn’t even know existed?
The giant spoke again, and, oddly enough, it sounded soothing, like he was tellingmenot to be scared of him. It could just be that his big, crude features were beginning to grow on me, but he seemed less savage and kinder, too. Interesting. I wondered if that was just a matter of changing expression, or if it was a more intriguing ability. Listening to the drone of his low voice made me want to nod and agree, almost. It made me want to offer him the cannon lying on the cold ground next to my legs.
My fingers tightened against the metal, and the sharp edge of the grip bit into my skin. I jerked upright, realized I’d sunk into a relaxed pose, and noticed my tablet lying discarded in my lap. “Oh, ooooh, you’re a sneaky one,” I murmured, surprised. He cut off his low murmur, and I swore his mouth tilted into something that could very well resemble a smile. It wasn’t a nice smile, but it also wasn’t threatening. It felt, just a little, like I might have just earned his respect by resisting that hypnotic drone.
“Trust me, buddy,” I told him. “If I weren’t experiencing burnout right now, this would be a whole different game. No tricks, can you show me what you want? We’re not here to harm you; we just want to leave.” I flicked my hand from myself to the water, then pointed up. Unfortunately, my current lack of empathic ability meant I couldn’t tell if he understood that or not.
The Kertinalhadgiven some of the giant’s tribal leaders translator implants so they could negotiate a treaty. At least, that’s what the Aderian security brief on the planet had indicated. This guy could be one of them, butfar more likely he was not. I had to assume he understood me as much as I understood him.
