Chapter 14
I walkalong the spiral paths, trying to work up the courage to leave. I know what’s out there. Snow, animals that want to eat me, and my busted-up ship. And days of waiting. This time I don’t even have my knife.
Maybe I’m unconscious in my ship and my brain is swelling and creating this weirdness, and me wanting to leave is me trying to wake up. Although what does it say about my mind and me, if the first thing I do in a survival situation is fuck the first guy to help me?
I’m not sure I could’ve imagined this place. The walls feel solid beneath my touch as I walk upwards. I go all the way to the top again and sit with my back to the wall. Through the opening several meters above me I watch the sky darken, and the stars come out.
I’ll stay the night in one of the common rooms, and in the morning I’ll collect my bag from Indiz’s room and leave. It’s not a good plan. I should stay another couple of nights. But is it safer in here than out there?
I watch the sky darken completely, then I think I see a falling star, but it’s joined by another darting across the sky. Not stars, but the little lights. There’s no way I can climb out the opening at the top to see what they’re up to, but it’s the first time I’ve seen more than one.
Below, the cavern is softly lit in pastel pink, broken only by shadows of absolute black where anything or anyone could lurk. I haven’t seen Indiz since he announced that we’re mated. I’m hungry and even though I’m bundled up in the fur, the cold is seeping into me. The worst in the thirst. I’ve been sitting here for too long, mostly to avoid him. I don’t know what to say.
If I’d followed the rules, I wouldn’t be mated to the believed dead Selouan Prince.
The rules matter.
Clearly, he doesn’t care too much since he didn’t search for me. Although since I was the one to storm off, maybe I’m the one who needs to go back. For a few moments I consider grabbing my bag, his staff and leaving tonight just to avoid my new husband. I’ll risk the ship sliding off the mountain. I’ll wait for my people.
And if they don’t come?
For how many days did Indiz sit outside waiting and willing rescue to come as hope slowly died? If I’d been here a hundred years, I’d have probably jumped the first sentient life form and hung onto them with all my strength too.
But that doesn’t mean I forgive his arrogance.
Nor does it mean I’m willing to freeze to prove my point. My muscles scream as I move. My joints feel locked in place, and between my legs aches. I slowly make my way down on numb, and then prickly feet as circulation returns.
I haven’t gone far when I notice several lights darting about in the foyer at the base of the cavern. I’m no glowing orb expert, but they seem agitated, bouncing and flickering. First one before I was attacked by the kot. Then I’d glimpsed a couple in the cavern during the day. Then two above, now six inside. Something is going on, and I need to know what because nothing has made sense since I crashed.
I move quickly and quietly, my soft-soled boots almost silent on the stone. The lights dart off together and if I don’t move faster, I’m going to lose them.
Urgency fuels me. I run down the slopes and stairs. I come to a halt when I hear voices. Like actual voices other than Indiz’s or mine. They aren’t speaking Basic, so I have no idea what they’re saying, but it doesn’t sound like a pleasant conversation.
I creep closer, listening and trying to work out how many voices there are. They are in the common room where Indiz fed me and fucked me and then ruined everything by claiming me as his.
Heat races up my neck and bursts on my cheeks even though the people in there don’t know what went on—or at least I hope they don’t. I think there’s four of them. One sounds female, but I could be wrong. Then Indiz speaks. It’s him, even though I don’t understand the words. I risk peering around the corner.
He’s on his knees before five others, head bowed, hands behind his back, though they aren’t bound. They all have the same purple-pink skin color and are all wearing the same simple pants and tunics, no shoes, and no fur. They seem to glow and crackle with light, but weirder still, they are all different species.
There’s a woman with sweeping horns, a man with a tail, a being with a snout and eyes on stalks. I don’t even know what they are called or where they are from. I stare, not sure what to make of the scene.
So many aliens…
The realization blooms slowly and terribly. They all crashed here. That’s why it isn’t just one species. Indiz said his skin changed, that he changed living here, and their skin changed too, making them one people despite their differences.
I draw back and lean on the wall. My stomach spins in an uncontrolled fall.
They are the lights. The glowing orbs. Indiz doesn’t need to eat all the time and has no fear of heights anymore. He disappeared the first day after hiding me in his room. His, because the others belong to those people. He is one of those people.
Indiz was the light that explored the ship and found me on my first night. He came to the city to get dressed and returned in time to stop me from being kot dinner. All those pauses, those micro hesitations he wasn’t lying, but he was trying to figure out which part of the truth to tell me. Which parts he was allowed to tell me.
I know in my gut that he shouldn’t have brought me here. He shouldn’t have spent the day with me. They would’ve noticed he was missing and come looking.
He hasn’t been here alone the whole time. I’m so stupid and gullible and it’s no wonder boyfriends take advantage of me, and I’ve let it happen again.
Fuck, Rin, when are you going to grow up?
I tip my head back against the wall and stare up at the glowing bridges and the stars. Somewhere out there are the ship and my people. Further away my home world. I could’ve been an algae farmer. But no, I had to see the galaxy and travel the stars. Well, look where my ambition got me this time. My mother always said I had too much drive.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
This is the first time I’ve gotten married though. And been stranded. No one can accuse me of going into something half-heartedly. If I screw up, I go all out. Will divorcing a prince be a galactic incident? I have no doubt he is a prince.
If I leave, I’m leaving him here with his purple friends.
A muffled cry of pain tempts me to peek again.
Nope. I will not look. I’m going to go back the way I came and get my things and leave. That’s the plan, and I need to stick to it. No more stopping to dally with sexy aliens.
I take a step away, and then Indiz cries out in pain.
