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Chapter Seven

Alliana

Iopened my eyes. I didn’t know if it was day or night—because it was too dark inside the cave, aside from a warm amber glow coming from a contained, small fire a few feet away from me. I stared at the fire, entranced by the dancing apricot flames and the occasional pop, crackle and hiss of the wood underneath that was hot and burning.

My heart pounded nervously. I scanned the cave until my eyes landed on the Zunatorian. His back was turned away from me. I stared at his sculpted physique, and my heart drummed even more rapidly. He was devastatingly attractive and he acted like he didn’t know it, but he was still an asshole. I watched, entranced, by his hand and arm movements and the way his muscles shifted with each precise movement he made.

His left hand coiled around a round, palm sized rock. He scraped the rock across an axe blade, attached to a wooden mallet that he cupped in his other hand. He methodically sharpened the axe blade, seemingly lost deep in thought, as he sat perched next to the waterfall.

My eyes wandered to his leg where he’d received quite a gash from the beast from the evening before. The wound had closed and there was only a trace of dried blood around the injury site. It was no surprise to see his injury mended as quickly as it had. Zunatorian wounds repaired at least ten times faster than that of human’s injuries. My scratches and cuts, however, were still in the beginning stages of healing. I was told that as time passed, my body would adjust to living on Zunator and the elements here would give my body the ability to heal any non-fatal injury quicker than before.

I wanted to stay mad at him, but the more I stared at his gorgeous body and his glossy black hair, the harder it was to hold onto my grievances with him. I had always learned to keep my friends close, but my enemies closer, and that situation certainly applied to this hostile Zunatorian sitting a few feet away from me as well.

I also had no idea how long he’d been awake while I’d been knocked out cold in a deep sleep. What else had he been doing in and around the cave during that time? The thoughts swirling inside my brain unsettled me, to say the least.

I cleared my throat loudly to let him know that I was now awake and alert. He spun around sharply and gave me a startled glance but didn’t offer any information or say anything whatsoever. He just gave me his signature grunt. I rolled my eyes.

“Is it…morning?” I finally broke through the silence and asked.

He nodded slowly.

My stomach hurt. It felt like a heavy weight filled with uncertainty was sitting in the middle of it.

I swallowed hard and asked the question that had been gnawing at my brain ever since he had taken me prisoner.

“Do you think I’ll be executed by the King?” My voice sounded hollow and unrecognizable to myself. It probably had something to do with the fact that the situation I was in was unfathomable.

He looked up again and frowned. “You’ll be tried and then judged in the event that your mind remains closed off to those with the gift. It is our way. When someone is murder, more than just the King will demand justice and answers.”

My heart did a nosedive. They had read my mind before, so I wasn’t sure why this left my nerves unsettled. They knew very well what happened to me on Earth. It was something I couldn’t hide from them even if I tried. Now they’d know how powerless and weak I felt when I couldn’t help Roult.

I didn’t press him about his abilities, but I gathered as much that he was unable to read my mind, for whatever reason—unknown to me.

“I swear on my life that I didn’t kill your uncle Roult, nor have I killed anyone else. I’m not concealing my thoughts on purpose, either. In fact, I wish you could read my mind.”

His eyes narrowed with suspicion and he tossed me a distrusting look. He leaned over his axe blade again, fixated on it as he set back to his concentration of sharpening it. There were other hunting and fighting type tools laying beside his feet as well that I hadn’t noticed until now.

I continued advocating for myself. No one else was going to do it for me. I pleaded my case and hoped to the gods above that I would strike a cord with him somehow, and that somehow he’d be compelled enough to believe even a sliver of my story—because I spoke the truth.

“Roult once told me that he had a younger nephew who was always getting lost somewhere.”

I noticed that as I began to talk about Roult, the Zunatorian’s demeanor changed—softened slightly. He was listening intently, tuning in to every single word I said, as he continued working on his tools.

“I assume now that he was referring to you as the lost nephew,” I added.

“I wasn’t lost,” he cut in sharply. “I am a hunter. I am always on the move. I do as I please. I go where I like. I am not tied down to anything.” He had a wanderlust expression on his face as he lifted his chin and gazed out at the waterfall. “Or anyone.”

“Well, I’m sure that’s not really what Roult meant. He probably just meant that you were the traveling type, like you said.” I offered a smile as he made eye contact with me.

Maybe I could play into his sympathies and get somewhere with him. Arguing with him was obviously not getting me anywhere. It was like talking to a brick wall.

“Roult always had his own assumptions, but he loved me, and he never treated me differently. I never felt like I was being judged by him,” the Zunatorian said gruffly.

“He was quirky,” I agreed. “And a bit clumsy, too.”

A subtle half smile formed on my captor’s lips. I took a deep breath and tried to relax because I was making progress with him.

“I could never have killed Roult,” I said quietly. “He was so good to me. He was kind and gentle. He never took advantage of me. He had such a pure heart. I had no motive to do him harm.”