by Zara Zenia
They watched the creatures for a while, and Margot let out a small noise.
“They are actually quite sweet,” she said. “Poor things.”
“Why are they poor?” Draklan asked.
“They’re misjudged,” she said. “When I first saw one, I thought it was disgusting . . . but look at them, cheering their friend on.”
“At least we know where the nest is now,” Draklan said. “So we can come back. But now, we need to figure how to be the bait before we starve.”
“Something tells me that part is not going to be that easy.”
“If they’re good trackers,” Draklan said, “Then it really shouldn’t be a problem. They should be close to us.”
“What do you want me to do?” Margot asked. “Just go around, yelling and waving my arms?”
“No, they would suspect that something was wrong,” Draklan replied. “Let’s take a walk, though.”
“Lead the way,” she said, and Draklan took her hand. Despite everything that was going on, it made her smile.
She assumed that he knew what he was doing and so didn’t say anything when he led her in circles around the outer rim of the cliff. However, her legs were startling to tremble and she was starting to feel faint within the first half hour of walking. She knew it was because they hadn’t eaten anything, and she had barely drunk anything either. She had never known such hunger in all her life. Margot thought that she wouldn’t last another step when Draklan suddenly decided that enough was enough.
“There,” he whispered, stopping. “They’ve seen us.”
“Where?” she asked. She followed his eye line and saw that he was looking straight ahead.
There, in the valley below them, were their two stalkers. They looked just as angry and tired as Margot and Draklan were, and they were advancing toward them.
“Do they see us?” Margot asked.
Draklan nodded. “They’re going to make their way toward us, but I’m guessing they don’t know we’ve seen them too. So, let’s keep acting normally.”
“Always the hardest part of my day,” Margot said with a grin. She decided if this was how she was going to die, at least she would die with Draklan by her side, both of them being brave.
As their stalkers got closer, she could see that they must be brothers. She could also see clearly that one of them was the mechanic from the ship. Seeing him again, in this situation, made her feel like she was somehow responsible for this. She’d had such a bad feeling about him back on Tamarax, and now here he was, causing them so much stress.
Draklan clearly felt the same about the situation because he held Margot’s hand tightly. “I am sorry,” he said.
She just tried to smile. “It’s okay,” she said. “It really isn’t your fault.”
“I should have listened to you,” he said. “My father always said to follow our gut instinct, and I’ve never been able to do that. I’ve always wanted proof.”
“That’s why you got along better with Pralmav than Bhatraz,” she suggested.
Draklan shrugged. “Pralmav, despite always believing in science . . . he could follow his gut. He just seemed to know things,” he said. “Yet another thing I was jealous of him for.”
“Do you think . . .” Margot paused. “Do you think he knows that something is wrong and that we need to be rescued?”
“Possibly,” Draklan said. “I think he would realize that I’ve been out of communication for a while and hopefully send out a search party.”
“Now would be a great time for him to do that,” she said.
“Bhatraz never had the best timing,” Draklan said. She noticed him watching as the figures approached. He seemed ready, edging them toward the nest.
“What are we going to do when they get upon us?” she asked.
“I’m going to scare them, probably with this rock,” he said, picking up a rock the size of his palm.
Margot gripped his hand and then closed her eyes. She didn’t particularly want to see this play out. It felt brutal, even worse than killing the bugs.
“Hey, you! Stop right there!” She heard one of them cry, and she tensed up.
She felt Draklan pull back and then she heard the rock being thrown.
She couldn’t keep her eyes closed any longer. They flew open to watch the rock land right in the middle of the nest.
Maybe, somehow, the bugs knew that Draklan and Margot had provided them food. Maybe they really couldn’t see that Draklan and Margot existed, since they didn’t move. Either way, the nest screamed in shock and then flew right at the stalkers.
Both of them screamed and ran down the hill, yelping in pain as they were stung again and again. It looked terrible, and Margot gripped her husband’s hand.
“It’s okay,” he said. “It’s okay. It won’t kill them. We’re safe now. And they were trying to kill us.”
“But—” Margot started.
Draklan shook his head. He reached for her and kissed her head, and she cuddled into him. “No buts,” he said. “We’re safe.”
“Would you have killed them?” she asked.
“If I had the means,” he said.
She felt a wave of courage rise up in her that she had never felt before. “I think I would have too,” she said. “I never thought that I’d feel capable of killing another being. I never thought I could even kill a creature. But when I saw them coming closer . . . I think I could have done it too.”
“Well, you won’t have to,” he said and kissed her fully.
She responded to the kiss as if she hadn’t been touched in months. She felt her whole body fall into him and she wasn’t sure if they could ever break apart.
“Draklan,” she gasped after they had been kissing for a minute, and then another minute. “I can’t . . . we shouldn’t . . . right here?”
“If you would like,” he said, just as desperate as she was. “We’re safe now. They won’t be back.”
“We have to get out of this place,” she said. “This isn’t . . . practical.”
He kissed her harder. “Practical doesn’t matter right now, does it, my love?” he asked.
“No,” she said as her body begged for release. He picked her up and began to carry her back to the cave they had been hiding in.
They both knew that they should focus on leaving this place. They both knew they should get food or perhaps just more water. They both knew there was a tiny chance that the brothers would still be stalking them.
But none of that seemed to matter as he lay her flat on the ground.
He pulled off her clothes, and she sat up a bit to tug off his shirt. Both of them were panting by this point, and they cared about nothing around them.
When he finally entered her, she felt safe, as if she were coming home. She cried out, scratching down his back and letting him set the pace.
Whatever happened from there on out, she was going to be all right. They were going to be all right.
Chapter 18
Draklan
Draklan certainly hadn’t meant to fall asleep. However, he was absolutely exhausted and the last few days had been rougher than anything he had ever lived.
He was a light sleeper, and something woke him up a few hours later. Sitting up, he realized that it was nearly dawn. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and they were back in their cave.
And he was looking down the barrel of a gun.
“What the . . .” he managed before the gun hit him in his face. His vision blurred as his head was wrenched to the side. He recognized the stalkers standing in front of them, bitten, stung, and looking extremely angry as they glared at him.
This close, he realized they were brothers as he’d suspected. They really looked alike, and he almost thought they could be twins.
“Hello, Draklan,” said the mechanic. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
His tone was incredibly sarcastic, and yet Draklan answered.
“So nice to meet you, too,” he answered. “Can I h
ave the name of the man who so rudely interrupted me and my wife?”
“I’m Skreet,” he sneered. “And I’ll be the last thing you see.”
“Skreet!” his brother snapped. “I said you could help. I didn’t say that you could make the kill.”
“But I . . .” Skreet answered, and his brother glared at him. “Fine. The last thing you will see is my brother Rabin there.”
“Draklan,” Margot said, suddenly fearful. She gripped his arm. “What’s happening?”
“Don’t worry,” he said, although he wasn’t sure how they were going to get out of this. “Don’t worry, darling.”
“I think she should worry,” Rabin replied. “Because she’s never going to see anyone she knows or loves again.”
“At least let us get dressed,” Draklan said. “If you are going to kill us, let us get dressed and die with some dignity.”
“I don’t know.” The brothers looked between each other. “Do you deserve to die with dignity?”
“Why wouldn’t we?” Draklan argued. He hoped Margot knew him well enough to know that he was buying time at this point. “We are the prince and princess of Tamarax.”
“You may be that,” Rabin said. “But your brother thinks you’re scum.”
“Ah, so he did hire you,” Draklan said.
Rabin winced, realizing he was giving away his hand. “Well, I . . .”
“What did he pay you?” Draklan tried to argue. “Whatever he paid you, I'm sure I could pay you double.”
“It wouldn’t be worth it,” Rabin said. “Because you will die and then we would never collect.”
“Well . . . no,” Draklan said, realizing that he wasn’t exactly dealing with a creature of high intelligence. “I would be making sure that I didn’t die by paying you double.”
“Oh,” Rabin said. “Oh, I didn’t think of that.”
“Have you ever done this before?” Draklan asked.
Rabin glared at him. “Of course, I have,” he said. “What do you take me for?”
“Just wondering whether my brother hired an assassin as good as my matchmaker,” Draklan said. “Now, may we at least get dressed?”
“Fine,” Rabin replied. “But only because I don’t want to see you naked any longer. Your lovely lady over here, though . . .”
“Say one more word about her and you will be the one who is wishing for death today,” Draklan replied.
“Are you kidding?” Rabin replied. “I already wish for death after those bugs yesterday. You will suffer long and slowly before you die.”
“Right.” Draklan got up and helped Margot up as well. When he picked up their clothes, he also picked up a rock. She met his eyes and he nodded as they pulled on their clothes.
The second they were dressed, Draklan turned and threw the rock.
It hit Rabin in the head and made his brother shriek in surprise and anger. Rabin’s hands flew up to his face, suddenly covered in blood. Skreet made a grab for Margot, who was closer. She screamed and struggled, but Rabin drew his gun, pointing at Draklan, who was yelling.
For half a moment inside the cave, it was chaos. But then there was silence as everyone seemed to realize the position they were in.
Skreet had Margot hostage. Rabin had his gun pointed at Draklan. If either one of them moved, they were dead.
“Well,” Rabin answered. “This is it. You want to give up now?”
This was not the first time Margot had seen a gun pointed at someone she cared about, although it did seem to contribute to her nerves. She remembered walking home from her studio one night with a friend, and a bunch of women approached them. Before she could even ask if they needed help, the women had surrounded them and started pulling their bags off them.
She remembered every detail of that attack. She remembered what the women looked like as they pulled the bags from them. She remembered her friend screaming, and she remembered feeling the strap on her purse break.
She’d hated that she hadn’t done anything that night. She’d hated how frightened her friend looked, and she’d hated that she hadn’t screamed or kicked at the women. She’d promised herself that she would do something if she were ever robbed again. She would be a little braver than she was afraid.
Today was the day that she was going to be a little braver than she was afraid. She wasn’t going to regret this day, no matter what the outcome was.
“Giving up now would seem a bit easy,” Draklan said, looking Margot right in the eyes.
She knew this was her moment. She had to be brave, and she had to be brave now.
She could see Skreet's gun out of the corner of her eye. She just had to find some way to distract him enough because his grip on her was too tight.
Margot looked forward, squinting into the distance as an idea hit her.
“Look!” she said. “An Apex!”
Apparently, the brothers were traumatized enough by their experience the day before to be startled by that. Skreet jumped and she grabbed his gun. She pulled the trigger as she did and it went off, shooting him in the leg.
Rabin turned around to see if his brother was all right, and Margot tossed the gun to Draklan. Without hesitation or even blinking, he shot them both in the chest.
Margot screamed as they fell to the floor. She could see right away that they were both dead.
“I’m sorry,” Draklan said.
Margot shook her head, her eyes already hardening. “No,” she replied. “You had to do it. They would have killed us if you hadn’t.”
“Yes,” Draklan said, holstering the gun. He bent down to check their pulses, but his aim had been accurate. Both of them had been shot right in the heart, which had stopped right away. “Come on, we need to go.”
“Go where?” Margot asked. “They’re dead.”
“Yes,” Draklan replied. “But I want to get you home, and they had to get here somehow. There’s a shuttle that we have to find.”
“Right,” she said. “So . . .”
“Let’s start walking,” he replied as he checked them both for weapons and picked up another gun, which he handed to her.
He looked like he expected to have to argue with her about it, but she took it without hesitation.
“Do you know how to use one of those?” he asked.
“No idea,” she replied. “Literally none. But I will figure it out if I need to.”
“That’s my girl,” he said and then headed down the hill. “They have to have a shuttle around here somewhere.”
“What if we can’t get in?” she asked. “Like, what if we don’t know how to fly the—”
“We’ll be fine,” he promised. “As long as we find it.”
It didn’t take long. The brothers must have been trailing them for a while and using the shuttle as their rest stop. They’d even left the door open, which made Draklan pause.
“What?” Margot asked.
“I think . . . that it might be booby trapped,” he replied. “Give me a moment.”
He picked up a rock and tossed it at the open shuttle door.
Sure enough, lasers shot through the air, making Margot jump and scream. As soon as she calmed down, she realized something.
“Wait . . .” she said. “Why didn’t it just . . . cut the metal? Why is there no damage?”
“Because those lasers are meant to only wound bio matter,” Draklan said after a moment. “Are you all right?”
“I’m all right now,” she said, shaking her head in shock. “That’s something Pralmav would be proud of.”
“Yeah, I can’t wait to tell him when we get back,” Draklan said with a hint of sarcasm. “My first thought is getting back though, Margot.”
“Of course,” she said. “I just . . . it’s odd to think we could be safe in a day or two. I’m trying to be positive.”
“I know,” he said, kissing the top of her head. “Come on.”
“What if there’s another trap inside?”
“I think it’s all right,” he
said, squeezing her hand and leading her aboard.
As soon as they got aboard, they heard a familiar voice coming through the communicator.
“What’s happened? Where are you? Are they dead?”
Margot froze, looking at Draklan. It was Bhatraz's voice on the communicator, and he was clearly demanding information from the brothers.
“Shh.” Draklan put his finger to his lips and then indicated that they should creep around the corner. Margot nodded, and they approached the communicator from opposite sides. Luckily, it wasn’t on a video call. Both of them stayed quiet as they approached the communicator. And then they hit both the speaker and the Call End button at the same time.
It shut down the call, leaving them in silence.
“Well . . .” Margot said. “I guess that confirms my suspicions about Bhatraz.”
“Yeah,” Draklan said. “Hearing his voice, though . . . there’s really no way around this. He did it.”
“You need to talk to him,” Margot said, seeing pain in his eyes, “and find out what motivated him.”
“He’s a jerk,” Draklan said.
Margot shook her head. “You need to know for sure, Draklan,” she said. “You need to know that this isn’t entirely a misunderstanding, that someone hasn’t positioned you two against each other.”
He blinked in surprise as he started the ship. “Why are you defending my brother?” he asked.
“I’m not,” she said. “I’m just . . . looking at the future. I guess I’ve been thinking about the future for the last few days.”
“A future with me?” Draklan asked, looking hopeful.
“A future with you,” she assured him as the ship took off.
Draklan kept looking at the screen and then back at Margot. Finally, he sighed as they flew.
“I need to talk to Pralmav,” he said. “I know that may be a risk, but I need to talk to him. If Bhatraz did this to me, who knows who else he could do this to?”
“Yes,” Margot said. “I agree with you. But let’s make the call . . . quickly, in case he’s chasing us.”