by Webster, K
“What is he talking about?” I ask Hadrian.
He meets my eyes and there’s desolation in his. Death.
“It’s The Rades.”
10
Hadrian
“Hadrian,” Lyric whispers, her fingers biting into my bicep. “What do we do?”
The terror in her eyes matches my own. Everyone is looking at me for answers. Even Theron. I don’t have answers. I have instinct.
“You and I can start assessing everyone,” I tell Lyric. “We’ll be looking for any signs of illness. Fever, dizziness, confusion. They’re stage one.” Then, I point to Zoe. “Anyone who has fever and is developing sores will need to be treated by Zoe. They’re stage two and can remain in the infirmary until stage three.”
“Stage three?” Lyric asks.
“Madness.” I nod at Theron. “Third stage. Theron can head that stage up as they may need to be restrained.”
I start to walk off, but Lyric stops me. “But how do we prevent from getting sick ourselves?”
Theron bows his nog. “You can’t.”
“What?” Lyric hisses, stepping closer to regard me with a stern look. “What does he mean?”
“Means it’s airborne,” Zoe offers, her voice soft. “Willow and I reviewed the tapes. Stella and Henry never saw any of the other people. No one went into their empty quarters. Henry either brought it into the prison or it came in when the door was left open. Either way, it’s in the ventilation and everyone’s been exposed.”
“No,” Lyric murmurs before screaming. “I didn’t come this far to not see her over the stupid fucking flu!”
I grip her shoulders firmly. “It’s airborne. We’re all exposed.”
“What do we do?” Lyric has never looked so lost before.
“We make contact with Avrell back at the Facility,” I tell her. “It’s imperative we get some information to better handle this disease.”
“Let’s go,” she huffs, waving for Theron to join.
“Wait!” Zoe calls out. “You’re going to willingly go onto their ship alone with the two of them?”
Lyric’s gaze slides to mine and locks there. “We have to trust them. It’s our only hope.”
My heart races inside my chest at her words. I won’t let her down.
Leading the way, I stride down the halls back to where Willow is and peek my nog in. “Keep communication open with the Mayvina. When we can, we’ll try and lock in contact with the Facility too.”
Willow gapes. “With Momma?”
“We’re gonna rekking try,” Theron assures her.
* * *
“J-Just go up in the air and we’ll reach out,” Lyric says absently.
Theron and I exchange a look. The Rades are here and if Theron or I fall sick, communication with the Facility will cease. It’s our lifeline to the ones we love and we can’t lose it. That’s why it’s imperative we fix the transmitters.
As Theron fires up the engines, I grab Lyric’s hand and walk her into the supplies room. Her brows pinch in confusion.
“What are you doing?” she demands, her spine straightening.
The need to touch her soft face is overwhelming. So, I do. I don’t know if either of us will come down with The Rades, so I’m not going to waste any more time overthinking things. Her eyes widen when I cradle her delicate cheeks with my large palms.
“I’m going to give you my truth right now, Lyric. Everything will get a lot worse before it has any hope of getting better.” I rest my forehead to hers. “I will do everything in my power to help. Your people are my people.”
“Hadrian,” she murmurs. “I’m worried.”
Me too.
So rekking worried.
I give her a crooked grin. “Everything will be fine.”
Her palm presses to my chest. “I thought you were giving me truth. Don’t start lying now. I know which smiles are real and which ones aren’t.”
“I’m going to fix the antenna,” I tell her. “We may not get another chance. If Theron or I get sick, we may not have another shot at flying the Mayvina.”
She pulls slightly away. “I’ll go with you.”
“No,” I say gently. “You’ll stay here and assist Theron. I’m going alone.”
“Big Bird could come back,” she says, her voice shrill. “I can’t…”
“Can’t what?”
She looks away.
“Truth, sweet one.”
Her bottom lip slightly trembles. “What if I don’t want to admit my truth?”
“What if you don’t get another chance?”
We have a silent standoff as the ship moves. Theron accelerates quickly and Lyric loses her footing. My arm wraps around her and I pull her to me as I grip onto a shelf, keeping us steady. Her cheek rests against my chest as Theron takes us up the mountain. When we stop moving and it feels as though we’re hovering, I start to pull away.
“Hadrian, wait,” she says, urgency in her tone. “My truth is…I’m afraid to lose you.” Then, she blurts out, “As a friend of course.”
Disappointment surges through me.
That word.
Friend.
Aria says I’m her best friend.
Not mate. Not lover. Not husband.
“Right,” I say, releasing her and stepping away. “Friend.”
I make the mistake of looking at her. Beautiful. She’s so rekking beautiful. Everything in me screams to pull her to me and make her mine.
But she’s Lyric. Aria’s sister.
It’s not right.
It doesn’t feel wrong, though.
My truth is I want to kiss her.
“Please be careful,” she whispers, her words clawing at my heart.
I could kiss her. I could. When I leave this ship, Big Bird could eat me. I could fall down the side of the mountain. I could start feeling feverish and succumb to The Rades. Do I want to go into The Eternals without having this one gift?
The answer is no.
Stalking back over to her, I grip her delicate jaw in my massive hand, tilting her nog back so I can look at her pretty face. Her eyes are dilated and her lips are parted. Inviting. Nervous but welcoming.
I’ve never kissed anyone, but I’ve sadly watched the other morts and humans more times than I care to admit. Always jealous. Always wishing and wanting. Now, I have my opportunity.
“I’m going to kiss you,” I warn, waiting for her to indicate she doesn’t want it. I’m not a rekking Kevin no matter how much I want her in this moment.
“Are you going to keep thinking about it or what?” A challenge gleams in her blue eyes.
I smile as I drop my mouth to hers. At first, I gently peck her lips in the affectionate way I see the others often do. Then, when she gasps, I greedily lash my forked tongue out to taste her rounded one.
“Mmm.”
We both make mutual sounds of surprise. The kiss tastes sweet and addictive. Dizzying. My fingers thread into her soft hair as I take over this kiss. I want to taste her everywhere.
“Hadrian,” Theron calls out. “Let’s do this.”
Reluctantly, I pull away from our kiss, but not before playfully nipping her bottom lip.
“If Big Bird eats me, at least I can go into The Eternals knowing I got to kiss the bravest, most beautiful female on the planet,” I murmur, my eyes drawn to her now swollen pink lips.
“Please come back because I don’t want to tell everyone I kissed the only monster on the planet who got eaten by a bird.” She grins at me, lighting up her whole face. “Super embarrassing.”
I pull away and flash her my rogstud horns. “Oh, I’m coming back, sweet one. You can guarantee we’re going to do that again.”
* * *
As I shimmy down the rope to the highest point on the mountain, I can’t help but look off in the distance. It’s really high up here. Really rekking high. But it’s beautiful too. I squint, trying to see as far as I can. The Facility can’t be seen, though.
If I saw it,
would I feel longing?
For her?
I wait for the familiar stirring in my gut, but it doesn’t come. The loss is sad, but not gutting. Something else is replacing the emptiness. Warm, strong, vibrant. That kiss was rekking everything.
A loud cawing startles me from my thoughts. In the distance, a flash of yellow. Big Bird. He’s back. I pat my thigh, making sure my magknife is handy. The beast took quite a beating but apparently survived the assault. Next time, I’ll cut its nog off to make sure.
Above me, the Mayvina hovers quietly. Everyone is counting on me. For communication and strength and leadership. Is this how Breccan always feels? Like the weight lies on his shoulders alone?
I drop down to the rocks and walk over to the antenna that is leaning, my mind on the one I’ve always thought of as a father. There was a time I was a lonely orphan, a mortling left when The Rades ravaged its way not only through my parents, but through our entire population. I remember crying and feeling so lost. And then, an older mortling, probably no older than I am now, scooped me into his arms and held me tight. He promised me the world. He promised me hope and love and safety. I was no longer an orphan. I was his.
Until Aria.
That’s where everything got so confusing.
I loved Breccan with all my being…and then Aria messed everything up. Rather than being angry with her, I wanted her for my own. So conflicting. But now that I’ve spent some time away from them, things feel different. I miss my father. Breccan. I miss him so bad my chest aches. And Aria, I miss her too. But not because I’m longing to have her as mine. I just miss her. As a friend.
When I get back to them one solar—if that ever happens—I will hug Breccan tight and not take another second for granted with him. Guilt threatens to consume me. I was so selfish. Breccan deserves love and a family. We all do.
Knowing Lyric is above me on the ship, I can’t help but feel invigorated. She does something to me—has since the first time I spoke to her. There’s a tether between us and I want to pull and pull and pull to see what happens when there’s finally no space in between. The urge to protect her is strong. The urge to hold her in my arms and kiss every part of her is even stronger.
I quickly set to opening the outer zutametal casing to look at the wires beneath the antenna. I’ve sat through enough of Sayer’s and Jareth’s lessons to know how to repair faulty wiring. I whistle a tune Molly taught me as I set to fixing the bad antenna. All the wires are exposed and when I touch a white one to a black one, something cackles in my comms unit.
“Broadcast this is Sayer from—”
It cuts off and my heart nearly stops. I wiggle it again.
“—trying to reach the Mayvina—”
Rekk!
I start twisting the two wires together, melding them as one.
“—this is Sayer from the Facility and we’re trying to reach—”
“Sayer!” I bark out.
“Hadrian?”
“It’s me!”
“Where are you?” he demands.
“It’s complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
“I’m on top of a mountain…” Cawing. Louder and louder.
“Did we lose connection?”
“No, it’s just that Big Bird is on its way and it’s not happy I tried to gut it.”
“You’re not making any sense, Hadrian. Listen, give me your coordinates and we can—”
“Hold that thought,” I grumble as I stand, grabbing my magknife.
Big Bird is angry and barreling straight for me. I spread my feet apart, readying my stance, and hold my magknife out.
Cawwww!
If I go to The Eternals, at least I do it with Lyric’s sweet taste still on my tongue. Oh, what a lovely way to go.
Big Bird’s teeth glint in the sun. Sharp. Huge.
Pow-pow-pow-pow-pow!
The giant yellow beast jolts and jerks before falling out of the air and slamming to the rocks below. It rolls and rolls and rolls until it falls off the ledge. I jerk my nog up to see a small masked figure with a smoking zonnoblaster in her grip as she hangs out the side of the Mayvina.
Lyric.
Brave, beautiful Lyric.
I flash her my rogstud horns and she nods before disappearing back inside the ship.
“I’m back,” I tell Sayer. “What’d I miss?”
“Rogshite,” he grunts.
“What?” I demand.
“You rekking did it!”
Before I can ask, I hear Willow’s voice.
“You have my mother?” Willow asks through the comms.
“I do,” Sayer rasps. “You look just like her. Incredible.”
“Willow?” I ask. “Can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, alien dude,” she chokes out. “We have visual on…them. You did it.”
“I’ll grab Aria and Molly,” Sayer says excitedly.
“Say,” I rumble. “Get everyone. Avrell too. We have to talk. There’s been an incident…”
A beat of silence. “You sound serious,” Sayer mutters.
“Say, it’s…” I pause and let out a huff. “It’s The Rades. We’ve all been exposed here.”
Our victory is short-lived because the truth is staring us in the face. We may never see each other alive again.
“I’ll gather everyone.”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
To him. To Aria and Breccan. To everyone.
But especially to her.
Lyric.
I’ve given her Aria, only to tease and taunt. If The Rades attacks like it did my parents, she’ll never get to hug or touch her sister. It’s cruel and devastating.
I just hope Lyric will let me hold her through it all until the end.
I refuse to allow her to go to The Eternals alone.
No one should have to feel lonely at the end.
I’ll make sure we have each other.
11
Lyric
It’s okay.
It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.
That’s what I keep telling myself as I isolate myself in the infirmary to let Theron and Hadrian chat through the comms line with the others at his facility. I can’t bring myself to watch the screens in the command center alongside Willow to await the resolution, so I bury myself in work with Zoe. I want to talk to Aria, but I don’t want our first conversation to be when I feel like I’m going to fall apart. I need to get ahold of myself, to find the strong woman who’s been leading the prison.
In the time while I’m there, three more people get sick. Two women and one of the old, horrible guards named Bruce. We put them in the isolation unit with the others and give them as much medicine as they can stand, but nothing seems to touch the fever that burns from the inside out.
“Ma’am?” Julie, one of the women who volunteered to help, asks. She’s a pretty little thing with big blue eyes and her sandy blond hair is in a cute pixie cut, accentuating her delicate nose and sharp chin. It’s longer on one side and shaved on the other. A combination of sweet and badass.
I lift my weary eyes to hers. All I want to do is sleep, but there will be no sleep until Hadrian gets back. Until we have answers. “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me ma’am? It’s Lyric.”
She smiles a little, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Sorry. You asked for us to do a headcount of all the prisoners and guards.”
Pressing my fingers into my eyes, I nod. “Right. Any news? Has anyone else reported symptoms?”
“No one.” She doesn’t have to say yet for me to hear it. “But…”
My heart stumbles. “What is it?”
“It’s Stella and Henry. They’re missing. No one has seen them since they left the door open. We’ve checked everywhere. Willow ordered the nonessential personnel to return to their rooms for the headcount. They aren’t in theirs. Or anywhere else.”
I think of Big Bird, the armworms, The Rades, and the countless other unknown dangers they c
ould face outside the safety of these walls. Why did they run? Are they okay? I wish I knew.
“Thank you for letting me know. As soon as we have things settled here, I’ll send out a search party. Go take a break, you look dead on your feet. I can’t stand to lose anyone else. We need you.”
Julie nods and heads to the elevator.
“You should get some sleep, too,” I say to Zoe, who sways a little at the monitor by the isolation unit.
She shakes her head. “I can’t sleep. I’m the only one with any training whatsoever to take care of these people. If I’m not here, there’s no one else.”
“There won’t be a you unless you get some sleep. Go on, sleep on one of the med-beds. I’ll wake you up when we have news or if anyone else gets sick. I promise.”
I don’t react as her shoulders slump. I can’t. I have to be strong for her, for everyone.
“Or if these three get worse. I mean it, if their temperatures climb more than two degrees, if they show any signs of rash or madness, you wake me up the second you notice.”
I forget sometimes the reason why Zoe is so brash and…well, kind of a bitch. It’s because her heart is so big, she cares so much, that it nearly consumes her. Seeing people you care about being hurt and unable to do anything about it, well, it must drive her a little mad.
“I promise.” I nudge her shoulder with mine. “Now go. Get some sleep. One of us should.”
Zoe does as I order and that’s when I truly know how tired she must be to comply without more of an argument. She climbs into bed with her shoes still on and pulls the thin sheet over her body. There’s a few minutes peppered with the sounds of her rustling around to get comfortable, and then she’s out like a light.
Pain in the ass she may be, but she’s good people. I guess I’d consider her my family after all we’ve been through together, overtaking the prison, restoring order. Without her and Willow, I’m not sure I would have survived it. I can’t imagine losing them now after finally regaining our freedom. I can’t imagine getting this close to seeing Aria again and not being able to hug her—one last time.