by Hope Hart
“Come on, Racia. We need to get out of here before the guard comes back.”
She either understands or senses my urgency because she speeds up. I grit my teeth, holding on tightly. I’m not sure if the Braxians picked mishua to tame and ride because of their fearlessness in battle or because they’re the only option on this planet. But they sure didn’t pick them for their smooth ride.
I’m covered with sweat under my cloak as we leave the camp, passing a group of sentries. They’re busy ribbing one another, talking about their last battle with the Voildi.
I grimace. Rakiz should thank me for this. At the very least, I’ve exposed the numerous holes and flaws in his security. If someone as well known and distinctive looking as me can get out, then who else could find a way to sneak in?
I shiver at the thought but turn my attention to the horizon, patting the map I’ve tucked away under my cloak. I’ll head west until I’m far enough away from the camp to stop and check my map, and then I’ll adjust as necessary.
“Hold on, you guys. I’m coming for you.”
Chapter Five
Rakiz
I stalk through my camp, shaking with fury.
For once, my name isn’t called, and people don’t follow in my wake, needing my attention. Today they jump out of the way, faces paling.
Nevada is nowhere to be seen.
I would not necessarily expect to see her throughout the day, although I usually manage to at least watch some of her training with Asroz. Today, though, one of the males who tends to the mishua mentioned that he often sees her when he comes to feed the mishua, and today she wasn’t there.
The female is stubborn, but she is never late. I nodded, trying to ignore the way my stomach twisted, well aware that no one would dare touch her within my camp.
Unfortunately, one of the warriors found a servant crying behind the food kradi. When he managed to find out why, she admitted to providing Nevada with food for her journey.
The journey that began when she stole my mishua. The mishua that no one noticed missing until right now, which means that Nevada has been gone for hours.
I stride into Terex’s tent, and he growls as he pushes his female behind him.
“Where is she?” I roar, ignoring the spark of guilt as the small female cowers. Nevada would roar back at me, and the thought of her alone and in danger darkens my mood further.
Terex steps into my space, attempting to cover Ellie’s body with his. “Rakiz,” he says, keeping his voice even, “what is this?”
I ignore him. “Tell me, female,” I say, and her chin juts out stubbornly.
The sight enrages me. Panic is twisting my insides into knots. The sooner I understand where she is going, the sooner I can find her.
“Watch yourself, Rakiz,” Terex says, stepping closer, and I stare him down.
“The hellion has disappeared. I don’t believe she acted alone.” In fact, I know it. All this time, I was fooling myself believing that no one would betray me, that my wishes would be respected—if not by Nevada, then by my people.
“Is this true?” Terex asks Ellie.
“I—” she starts.
I don’t have time for this. “Where did she go?” I growl.
“Where do you think?” The female’s voice is shaking, but she manages to hold my gaze. “She went looking for our friends.”
I curse. I’ve figured out that much. “Where?”
“I don’t know. She’s been listening in and making plans. She figured out where they’re most likely to be taken.”
I turn to Terex, angrier than I’ve ever been in my life. “She took my mishua.”
Ellie covers her face while Terex stares at me in stunned silence.
“How could she have taken it?”
My jaw aches from grinding my teeth. “I had her working in the mishua pen. She likely took the opportunity to build some sort of relationship with the beast.”
I saw her talking to the mishua and found the habit cute.
Cute.
Ellie’s voice is timid. “If the mishua let her ride it, it can’t be that dangerous, right?”
I turn away, unable to speak, and Terex sighs.
“The mishua may allow her to ride it one moment and then kill her the next,” he says. “The king’s mishua is highly intelligent and easily bored. It may allow Nevada on its back purely for the chance to return to the wild.”
I can’t listen anymore. “I will find her,” I snarl, stalking from the kradi.
I go straight to the other female’s kradi, walking in and ignoring Vivian’s squeak.
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know—”
“Where?” I roar, and she pales even as her jaw firms. These human females are stubborn and loyal but none more so than Nevada.
The thought of her on my mishua, currently traveling further and further from safety…
I step forward, and Vivian’s eyes widen.
“Sh-She made a map,” she says. “She took it with her.”
“Which direction is she heading?”
She stares at me, and I force myself to soften my tone.
“She will die if you don’t tell me where she’s going, female. I can prevent her death.”
Her eyes fill with tears. “Back toward where we were found. I think she wanted to retrace our steps and look for any tracks. But she also mentioned the Seinex Forest and Nexia.”
Oh gods.
Vivian chokes out a sob, and I turn, heading straight back to my tashiv, where Anara is waiting for me, her face pale.
“Did you know?” I ask.
“No.” She shakes her head. “I swear. When I saw you two this morning…I thought Nevada had given up her plans to leave.”
I clench my fists, betrayal stabbing through me.
The best kiss of my life, and for her it was a goodbye.
Nevada
I have a lot of time to think out here alone. The sun beats down overhead, and I pull off my cloak once I’m far enough from the camp that I’m unlikely to be spotted.
The nights are still cool here, requiring a fire. But the days are beginning to warm up.
This isn’t the first time I’ve run away. When I was a teenager, I was always playing truant. School bored me. I was smart enough to pass whatever tests I had to take whenever I was actually at school, but staying in school was a problem when I knew my time could be better spent doing odd jobs for a few dollars.
I was the youngest. My brother had split when I was twelve, and I couldn’t blame him really. It would’ve been nice if he’d called once or twice, but I think the guilt got to him. He knew he was leaving me to deal with our mother alone.
In his mind, it was probably my turn to handle it anyway given how many times he’d rolled her onto her side so she wouldn’t choke on her own puke. He tried his best to shelter me from the realities of living with an alcoholic parent.
We never knew our father. Given how different we looked and the seven-year age gap between us, it’s unlikely that we even had the same father.
I was a smart kid, and I found ways to steal food and money. During the few hours a week when my mother was sober, I could usually convince her to hand over a few dollars of her unemployment check so I could buy the bare minimum—often a loaf of white bread and some peanut butter.
“Hold on, Racia. I need to look at the map.”
She ignores me until I pull on the thin strap that passes for reins. The idea of mishua taking bits in their mouths is laughable, so the reins are wrapped around their snouts, and Racia seems to treat all my pulls and tugs as merely suggestions.
Racia snorts but finally stops, and I wait a moment. I wouldn’t be surprised if she decides to take off now that I’ve relaxed—if only so she can watch as I hit the ground.
She seems like she isn’t necessarily planning to go anywhere, so I pull out my map, examining my crude sketch.
Unfortunately, thanks to my limited knowledge of this planet and the
difficult materials I’m working with, it kind of looks like a five-year-old drew a map of their backyard. At least I have a rough idea of where I’m going. We need to travel north, through the Seinex Forest and back toward the clearing where the Braxians fought with the Voildi.
We all learned how to read maps in the military, but I never could’ve imagined that I’d be using those skills on an alien planet.
When I was a kid, I knew there was only one way out of poverty. College wasn’t in my future unless I could one day go on the G.I. Bill. The moment I turned seventeen, I convinced my mother to provide parental consent and went down to the local recruitment office.
In the marines, I found people just like me. People from all sorts of backgrounds. Some of them wanted to serve their country. Others just wanted a steady income and to get out of whatever situation they’d found themselves in.
Most of us found what we were looking for.
I make it to the edge of the forest as night falls. Ellie once described it as a “horror movie” forest, and I can see why. The trees are all bone white, reflecting the light as the sun goes down. Their branches are long and thin, stretching downward as if waiting to grab me as I move past them.
Traveling through this forest at night? That’s a nope from me. If I sleep now and get up at first light, I’ll be in the clearing and searching before the day gets too hot.
I slide off the mishua and tie her to one of the trees at the edge of the forest. The ground is hard here, and the night is cold enough that I’m going to have to light a fire, which is a risk that could draw predators close. Something tells me that I’m not going to get much sleep tonight.
“Ow.” My feet hit the ground, and I grit my teeth at the pain. Just a few hours of riding, and every muscle hurts, including my neck and shoulders—likely from the tension I’ve been holding all day.
I groan and mutter some more while I set up my camp. I have enough water in my skins to last me the night, but I’ll have to find more as soon as I’m up and moving in the morning.
I feed Racia and then curl up on the hard ground, teeth chattering as it gets colder. I wish I had a thicker blanket now, and I’d give just about anything for one of the furs I crawled under each night.
I don’t sleep. At one point, I almost snooze, but then a noise nearby makes me jump and clutch my knife in my hand, barely breathing.
When morning comes, I’m exhausted but still alive, so I count it as a win. As soon as I can see my hand in front of my face, I pack up my tent and throw the saddle on the mishua.
I manage to make it back to the clearing. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s directions, and I took care to memorize as much as I could when we were led from the ship. I tie Racia to a tree and then comb over every inch of the clearing and the surrounding area.
I sigh, frustrated, and head back to where I tied the mishua. I’m thirsty, and I can’t risk getting dehydrated. I spotted a small stream about a hundred feet away, so I lead the mishua back with me and tie her where I can keep an eye on her.
The water looks fresh enough to drink, but I don’t risk it. You never know when there’s a dead animal lying a few hundred feet away in the same water.
The Braxians have a specific type of rock that they use to purify water. I have no idea what it’s made out of, but thankfully Byni tucked a few in with my food. I didn’t even think of doing the same, and I’m glad I don’t have to risk lighting a fire.
Once I’ve drunk my fill and collected water for later, I eye the stream. It’s about twenty feet wide, but it looks shallow enough that the water would probably only come up to my midthigh.
I frown. The Braxians can smell the Voildi, and they say they stink. But what if they walked back and crossed the stream, waiting for us to leave the area before choosing a new direction?
“We need to go across the stream.”
Racia eyes it, letting out a loud snort, and I sigh as I scrabble my way back up onto her back.
“What now? You’re afraid of a little water?”
She snorts again, obviously offended, but doesn’t move.
“If you make me go through it alone, I’m going to tell every single one of the mishua back at the camp when we return. You’ll be a coward. A laughingstock. No one will respect you anymore.”
I yelp, almost losing my seat as the mishua throws her head. Her gaze is dark red with fury as she turns her head, staring me in the eye.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she started breathing fire.
“It’s true,” I say, somehow preventing my voice from shaking. “Come on, Racia. What’s a little water?”
She trembles, her head lowering, sharp horns glinting at me in the sun. Somehow, I know that she’d like nothing more than to pierce me with them and throw me off her back to choke on my own blood.
Finally—finally—she turns, slowly walking toward the stream. She picks up her feet, and I choke on a laugh as she prances like a show pony, slowly moving through the water and then rushing up the bank. I curse as I nearly fall, but I give her a pat as we make it up the small hill.
“Oh my God.”
On the ground six feet in front of me, half buried in the dirt and standing out like a flag…a scrap of pink material that looks suspiciously like Ivy’s Minnie Mouse pajamas.
I slide off the mishua, my entire focus on the material. Ivy seemed smart and capable when I met her, and I mentally high-five her as I pick up the pink cotton. She’s counting on us to find her and was resourceful enough to leave us a clue in case we came looking.
My hands shake, and I swallow down bile. Rakiz’s men obviously didn’t cross the stream. They’re so used to following their noses that they didn’t expect the Voildi to outsmart them. If Rakiz had let me go with his men when I first asked, we’d be so much closer to finding them right now.
Despair and determination battle within me, and I grind my teeth. I’m here now. If Ivy’s left one clue behind, she’ll have left more. I just need to find them.
I glance at the mishua, who seems strangely calm. I move closer, and she sniffs at my hair as I tie her to another tree.
“You stay here for a few minutes. I’m going to search this area and figure out which direction they would’ve traveled in.”
Racia ignores me, and then she jerks up her head, almost impaling me with one of her horns. I scowl at her, and then my breath leaves me.
Someone is coming.
Chapter Six
Nevada
A branch cracks, and I freeze.
Oh shit.
I whirl, and my heart leaps into my throat as I meet Rakiz’s dark eyes.
How the hell did he find me?
He rushes me, and I jolt, completely unprepared for the movement.
I sidestep, but he’s on me, and he blocks my right hook as I swing, so I follow it up with a knee to the gut.
Oof. That hurt my knee, so it must’ve hurt his abdomen, right?
He simply steps to the side as if my knee never connected. Great.
Rakiz’s eyes narrow dangerously, and I bare my teeth in a feral grin. For such a huge guy, he’s fucking fast, and I’m mentally thanking Asroz for my fancy footwork as I dart away, dodging his attempt to grab me.
I bat his hand away. “What the hell are you doing here? You can’t leave the camp!”
“Strange, you took the words out of my mouth.” Rakiz glowers at me and then glances over my shoulder, eyes widening slightly. I turn my head to see his mishua watching us intently.
Then I’m cursing as he lunges forward, taking advantage of my inattention and batting my punch away as if my arm is a particularly annoying insect.
I trip him, but he takes me down with him—twisting so I land on top of him as he prevents me from hitting the ground.
Those protective instincts cost him, and I have my knife out and nestled against his throat when we land.
He ignores it, rolling his body until I’m trapped under him. He surrounds me on all sides, leaning down u
ntil his face is inches from mine, my knife still pressed against his skin.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Why did you follow me?”
“You know why.”
“I’m not going back.”
“You’ll do as I say.”
I snarl, and his eyes drop to my mouth before his gaze returns to mine.
Suddenly, his face is no longer furious, and I can feel him hard and thick against me.
“Um…your point is made. You can let me up.”
“I don’t think so.”
I blow out a frustrated breath. I can’t deny the fact that it’s nice to see him. But it’d be a lot nicer if he wasn’t here to drag me back to his camp.
“You disobeyed me.”
I sigh. Some people are surprised to learn that I have issues with authority. After all I’m a marine, and I’m used to taking orders…right?
Wrong.
“Once again, you’re not in charge of me.”
“You’ll soon learn otherwise.”
I open my mouth to give him a piece of my mind, and he obviously sees the move as an invitation because his mouth is suddenly there, his lips caressing mine as his hard body shelters me protectively.
Kissing him is like riding the biggest roller coaster at my favorite theme park…twice.
Rakiz seduces my mouth, and I open further, my body relaxing under his as my brain turns off, and all that matters are the electric charges sparking around my body.
He moves back, and I stare at him, stunned. My head feels dizzy and my body fevered, and all I want to do is drag him closer even as my brain turns back on.
He leans forward, and I slap my hand over his mouth. “No. Get off me.”
He stares at me for a long moment, and then I feel him grin against my hand as he rolls off my body, getting to his feet without using his hands. “I scare you.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
“You want me, and it scares you. Good to know. Get on my mishua. We’re leaving.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He ignores that, walking toward Racia. A snort leaves him as he takes in the dirt I smeared on either side of her body. I glance around. He must have brought another mishua with him. Maybe while he’s distracted, I can—