I stop myself from hissing at him, letting him continue after he shakes his head.
“This might be our second time talking, naga, but I’ve talked to others like you, others demanding things, things that I’m not willing to give. I have an operation to run and you’re beginning to waste my time. So what is it that you want? Because I know you want something if you’re trying to establish trust,” the Commander says, practically grimacing with annoyance. “At least I can surmise you’re not after one of the women.”
What I had planned to ask him falls from my lips. Suddenly no longer interested in the information he could possibly provide, I straighten until I tower over him and meet his glare head on. He does not frighten me. But the implication that he may trade away the females in his care…
“All I care about is that Julia does not come to any harm,” I say.
Commander Graft’s brows drop. “So, that’s all?”
“You have a bad opinion of my kind, and with that, I cannot argue. We have not been kind to each other, let alone to the few humans that have ended up here. But there are some of us that only wish for peace.Ionly wish for peace and for the safety of the females I have given you.”
He squints at me. “Why didn’t you keep one, if you care so much? And no, we have not been kind to each other, and despite this conversation I don’t see that changing. You're lucky that my men and machines haven’t opened fire at you, that I’ve deigned to speak to you at all, risked my life and the lives of my men to open communication between our species.”
“Will Julia be safe here or not?,” I snap, irritated by his insipid posturing.
The older male shakes his head, his expression morphing into one of disbelief. “Safe? Nowhere is truly safe. You try fighting a losing war, naga, like we are. You’d find out real quick what truly matters and what doesn’t when the losses start to hit. You can’t count on tomorrow. Only today.” He looks up at the sky and sighs before throwing out his arm to indicate to the few soldiers around him that it is time to leave. Without another glance my way, he turns on his heel and trudges back towards the encampment.
The soldiers slowly lower their weapons and back away, soon turning around themselves and following their leader. Their machines trail after them from above.
For a time, I stay where I am, gazing past the ships and to the camp—to the many smoke trails rising into the air.Julia will be nearing one of those fires and I will not know which one…
But it is for the best. She will be safe. As safe as she can be, anyway. From my kind, especially. There is no group of nagas big enough to attack and take a camp as large as this one.
It is not until I slowly loosen the fingers of my right hand that I realize my fists have been clenched. I run it over the shaved side of my head, feeling the hair she cut for me, the soft evenness of the strands. Pressure floods my core and I hiss. No matter that my mind knows better, my body only knowswant.
Still…
Commander Graft’s words will not leave me.
Nowhere is truly safe.
Shifting my gaze from the smoke trails to the flying robots guarding the camp’s perimeter, a pit in my stomach threatens to form. I have to believe she will be okay. I have to believe that we are making the right choice.
I knew she did not want to say goodbye, at least the goodbye I forced upon her. But I could not linger over it… I could not bear the pain. Perhaps that was selfish of me…
I frown at the bright sunlight beating down on me from above, heating my scales. Reluctantly, I return to the shadowy forest, where I immediately hear a hiss come from within the thickest group of trees. Approaching the location of the call slowly, the same mixed-breed I spoke to last time appears from the branches and climbs down. The male’s light brown eyes peer at me questioningly as he makes his way to the ground.
“Are you trying to gain their trusssst, Krellix?” he asks as he straightens.
I slip by him deeper into the forest. “No.”
“You have delivered two human females. Women many of our kind would kill to have. That seems to me like you are trying something.”
I turn on him. “What’s your name, mixed-breed?”
The smaller yet still muscled male coils his tail under him and rises on it. “Nepsh.”
“You have been watching the entrance to the encampment, Nepsh. Why?”
Depending on his answer, I might let him live.
He eyes me with more wariness. “The humans are interesting. I find them entertaining.”
“You are not here to steal a bride?”
His eyes narrow and mine narrow back.
“If one came upon me, and wished to be mine,” he says carefully, “I would not refuse her. But no, I am not here to steal anything. I came out of curiosity and I stay because…”
