“I don’t know them, but they all follow the same rules.”
There went any idea about fleeing down the mountain to a more welcoming tribe. “And you don’t get to choose which elemental you join?”
“No. They choose. This is their home.”
And I hadn’t been invited in. Indiz had tried to smuggle me in through the back door and had gotten caught. “When do we have to leave?”
“Dawn. They aren’t heartless and they protect what is theirs.”
They hadn’t protected Indiz. They had hurt him. “And if we don’t leave?”
“They will physically force us out. It isn’t hard to create a storm around one person.”
I sigh. So tonight we rest, and tomorrow we leave the dubious safety of the city. “Can you make it to your room?”
He sucks in a breath as he rises to his knees. “Yes.”
We go slowly, and he lies face down on the bed. I fetch water and clean his back, then crack open the first aid kit. There’s one small bandage, a half-used tube of antibacterial cream, and one rubber glove. No one had bothered to restock it. Given that it was Sawle’s ship I place the blame at his dead and cold feet.
I mutter a curse and slam the lid closed. “I need to go to my ship.”
“It can wait.”
“You can’t see your back. The burns are messy.”
“I can feel it. That is enough. We will go together tomorrow. Lie with me.” Even with him sprawled in the middle of the bed there is still room for me, but I sit on the edge.
“Why can’t they let us stay here?”
“Because it’s not their way. I survived before and I will survive again. This time I have you and I know about the elementals. There was a time when I thought my mind was slipping and I was seeing things. We will be fine out there. I will protect you.”
I want to believe that’s true, but with his injuries I’m not sure. I’m having visions of watching him die of blood poisoning and me dying not long after. An easy meal for one of the big predators on the planet. “I should pack. We should take some meat and vegetables from the cold room.”
“Rin, we cannot steal food from here. We may only take what we are wearing.”
I don’t like these rules, but then I am an outsider and they are protecting their way of life. “There is sentient life here. The mining company has no claim on the planet. Someone needs to get the word out.”
“That has been argued many times. If they speak out, then others will come to study them or to try to join them. That is not their way.”
“That’s why no one can leave.” They keep those deemed worthy and let the rest perish protecting the planet and themselves. “What happens when a ship comes looking for me?”
“That depends on how close they get. You were close for days. We were watching and waiting. The Storm are the first line of defense.”
“You brought down my ship.”
“Not me, but others.”
My jaw clamps shut. I want to push past the anger and understand, but it pulses within me. “Are you sure it wasn’t you because you wanted a mate?”
“We bring down all ships. We do not know who is inside until they crawl out. That was when I first saw you, and my hunger for contact rose. I admit, I didn’t want you to meet the others and choose someone else.”
“What if after ninety-nine days in the wild you no longer want me?”
“That is not possible. I knew you were my mate the moment I saw you. I felt it.”
“And what if we survive and then I want out?”
He frowns. “That doesn’t happen among my kind.”
“It does among mine.” And I had a lengthy history of bad choices. But this hadn’t been my choice. Maybe it was out of my hands. At his aghast expression, I go on. “We don’t have mating instincts.”
“Oh. So you do not feel attraction and the need to couple?”
“Of course I do, and I wanted you, I just didn’t realize it was forever.” I stare at the carved walls of his room. “They will not want rule breakers in their tribe.”
Maybe Indiz hadn’t integrated well, and they were getting rid of him. I lie down, wrapped in my fur, and stare at the ceiling. I can’t imagine surviving ninety-nine days out in the wild. I don’t want to imagine what it would be like to lose Indiz.
