There are four in all, along with three drones, all pointing their weapons at Krellix. And not to my surprise, all four look as exhausted and unkempt as I feel.
“Go to them,” Krellix hisses behind me. “And do as they say.”
Keeping my aim steady, my eyes narrow. “So that’s how you want to do this, huh? Fuck you, Krellix,” I half-yell, half-whisper over my shoulder. But I lower my rifle and let it hang limp at my side, hurt that he would risk his life to ensure I go. I peer back at him and shake my head, my lips flattening as my frustration flares to true anger.
He doesn’t want a goodbye?
He wants a sharp split?
Then so be it.
Ignoring what the soldiers are saying, I walk forward—then straight past them to the new group already heading our way. I don’t look back as I stomp my way to the second wave and allow them to surround me. One takes my weapon as another reads the label on my jacket.
“You’re a soldier, too? What squad?” he asks, and I nod sharply.
“A dead squad and Iwas. I don’t know what I am anymore.” And as the words leave my mouth, they taste bitter with honesty. They can try to force me to work for them but as far as I’m concerned, my military contract burnt up over six months ago when that same squad left me to rot with theWinged Ransom’screw.
“Come this way. We’ll get you to the infirmary and looked over. Did it hurt you?” The soldier, a young man with curly red hair glances past me, assumingly at Krellix.
Does a broken heart count?
Without sparing a single glance back myself to see him one last time, I stride past the last of the log piles and mounds of dirt, past the spaceships and towards the barricade wall.
Once I’m inside it, I may never get the chance to see him again. But it isn’t me who chose this. It was him.
THIRTY-TWO
THE OTHERS UNDERNEATH
Krellix
I wait as longas it takes for Commander Graft to appear, long after Julia has walked away and been led into the camp. Beyond my reach now, she is behind the walls of the barricade and safe. Safe from becoming a victim of the forest, or befalling a worser fate… one I nearly lost her to with Sada. If I ever see the Boa again, I will not hesitate to end him. He gets one life from me, not two.
But, if nothing else, almost losing Julia that way was a good reminder why she was left to stay at Zaku’s all this time and why I had avoided her. No matter how much I want her and want to be with her, it will never be as much as my need for her to be safe.
The weary old human male that leads this encampment stops several body lengths before me. He eyes me like I am an oddity, one he is surprised to see again. His messy uniform is even messier, and has not changed since the last time I saw him. Inhaling his scent in the air, he smells worse too.
“So you brought me another refugee, another human woman even. A soldier, one of my men tells me. You’re not like the others of your kind, are you?”
“No. I am not… but then we are all different. Will she be safe here? Taken care of?”
The Commander tilts his chin up, briefly flicking his gaze to my tail. Coiled under me, I keep it primed, ready to block any weapon that might be used. The other soldiers, the few that stayed behind to guard me while waiting for their Commander to arrive, keep their guns aimed at me. I pay them no mind, having answered their silence with silence of my own. As long as they do not openly attack me, I will not threaten or initiate violence against them. I am not a fool.
Humans, like nagas, are quick to action.
“She will be safe and kept away from all of this,” —he waves his hand at the forest and me— “as long as she stays out of trouble, but that’s for her to decide, not me. Is that why you wanted to speak to me, why I had to trek all the way out here? So you could make sure the latest refugee issafe?”
Yes.But I do not tell him that. I am not certain that our former alliance will do Julia any favors with her own kind. “I've brought you four of your people,” I remind him instead.
He squints at me, his lips twitching downward. “Four? I only remember the girl and her.” He points his thumb behind him and at the camp.
“There were two males, Benjamin and Quinton.” I had not thought to inquire about their well-being, I just assumed they made it. The nagas haunting the outskirts of the camp would likely not have been interested inthem.
“Ah, yes. Those two. Why do you ask? Are you suggesting I’m indebted to you?”
This time it is I who tilts my chin at him. “No. I simply mean to demonstrate that I can be trusted. That we do not have to beenemies.” It is hard for me to say, especially knowing this male is standing on land that Copperheads once ruled. But I must make certain Julia will be okay.
His eyes narrow further. “As opposed to the barbaric others of your kind? The ones that hang around my camp’s walls threatening my soldiers? Or how about the ones that try abducting our women? I can trust you, you say—because youknowthe others of your kind are giving you a bad name. Hah. I don’t trust anything I can’t throw, and I sure as hell can’t throw you.”
