Page 13 of Tempting Fate

I tried to sit, but my arms lacked the strength. “No! I do not know her.”

“For now,” the female—Orukem—said, a kindly expression on her face. “Kalidi is kalidi. This year I help you, next year you help another. It is the shaa’ith way.”

Not someone new. Not today. I turned beseeching eyes to Tokki. “Please can you do it?”

Heat crawled up my ear ridges. It was pathetic, begging him to do… that. In reality, I just needed the burn of kalidi to be eased for another few hours, but it was too much change, and this soon after meeting so many new people, I couldn’t bear it.

“Fine,” Tokki said. “It’s been a long trip, and he’s exhausted. It’s no bother for me to do one more. Ruki, you can take over tomorrow. I’ll see you later?”

Orukem’s headspines rippled in a soft wave. “Count on it.”

After she’d exited the hut, a rare smile played at Tokki’s lips. “And that is why it is worth going through this. Now, let’s get you comfortable.”

Afterwards, I lay in the half dark, watching a familiar linsfai tree out of the window. Weary didn’t begin to cover how I felt. Though it was a relief to finally be here, I didn’t know what the future would bring. How would I feel once my adjustment period was over? Would I like it here?

Despair wormed its way in, coiling tightly about my lungs. Gods, the culture would be so different from everything I knew.

I forced in a jagged breath. I could succumb to panic, or I could trust in what fate would bring.

Fate. Aimanei.

The best thing about Vadias so far was a small human with a ready smile, beauty like nightflowers, and who smelled like the moon. I could only hope it was a good omen.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Old friends, new friends

Imani

FENN CAUGHT MY elbow. “You okay?”

I twisted away from the fire and accepted their hug, letting the pressure of it ground me. “Yeah. Just been a funny few days.”

I’d been so focused on Airida arriving, I hadn’t let myself think about how much I’d missed Garrison. He may have been everyone’s big brother—even if he was a few years younger than many of us—but he was one of my best friends.

The firelight cast long shadows across the dusty grass. I’d been rooting for him to get together with Shohari, no matter how improbable it had seemed. Against all the odds, they’d taken on a dangerous rescue mission and won—not just Shohari and Airida’s freedom, but each other. Yet I couldn’t help mourning my loss. He was supposed to have stayed here with us, but he’d found love instead.

I cast my eyes over the courtyard, where flames contrasted with the cool glow of electric lighting inside the buildings. It was still strange to see real fire. Though the shaa’ith were close-lipped about many things, they’d let on how much their previous homes had relied on fire, and though they didn’t need it any more, it had become part of their communal culture. I turned back to Fenn. “I tell you what, if you’d asked me what I’d be doing at thirty three, I wouldn’t have imagined this in a million years.”

“Right? Bet Garrison is more surprised though.”

I let out a soft laugh. “They look good together. I’m happy for him.”

“Same. He always did want to be out among the stars, eh?”

“Yeah.” The opposite to me. I’d longed to live on a planet ever since I was a child. And, okay, this was a moon—a beautiful one, no less—but now I was on it, nothing would get me into space again.

I refused to call Vadias a planet when its parent planet—around which we orbited—always hung low in the sky, reminding us that we were, without doubt, on a moon. I didn’t care if galaxy convention was to call any habitable natural body a planet. It wasn’t true. Planets orbited stars, moons orbited planets, and spiced alien potato was the best damn food I’d tasted since being stranded too many parsecs from the Sol system. All of these were truths, and I was sticking with them.

And, truth was, I would never tire of looking at that planet. The yellows and oranges reminded me of Saturn, as did the rings around it. So much so that, if I didn’t know better, I’d think we were on a moon of Saturn—except none of its hundreds of moons were anything like this.

Light from Airida’s hut pooled on the ground as the door slid open, and Garrison came out with his wife. His mate.

Our friend slung an arm around our shoulders and gave me a knowing grin. “What you hanging around here for?”

“Waiting to see you, of course. Or, you know, in case I can help.”

Shohari’s face twisted, and her lower lip pulled down in distaste.