Chromeheart

by Alia Hess

  “I did.”

  “Corvin! She is too beautiful. I can’t stand it.”

  Corvin grinned and patted Sasha’s shoulder.

  His heart pounded as Dusty approached the podium. “Oh, baby. You are angel.”

  She looked at her feet for a moment, her curls bouncing, then gave him a shy smile.

  Quietbird placed his hands on the podium and cleared his throat. “Friends, we are here for a very special ceremony today. As Elder, I have led countless naming ceremonies”—he paused and smiled at Trav—“but this is a first for me.” He gestured to Sasha and Dusty. “These two aren’t satisfied with just hanging a Couple’s Bouquet above their bed. They have to go and make a big to-do about pledging their love and being together forever. That’s Mainlanders for you, huh?”

  The crowd laughed and Sasha grinned. Together forever. He pictured Dusty with her shorn head, greasy eyeblack smeared thickly over her lids and a perpetual scowl on her tanned face. He envisioned her standing in the road in her leather boots and very holey tee shirt, hands on her hips. Tough Dusty, trading with men for machine parts and twenty tins. She wasn’t the same person anymore. Neither was he.

  This gorgeous woman is going to be my wife. I’m going to be her husband. Me. She loves me enough to want to be with me forever.

  “But in all seriousness, I am honored to lead this ceremony. Aleksandr Valentin Roborovskiy, from today forward, you are no longer just one person. You are a soul intertwined with another. Do you vow to cherish this woman before you above all others? Do you pledge your very life to her?”

  Sasha gazed into Dusty’s honey eyes. “Oh, yes. I take that pledge.”

  “Then Sasha, please place your ring on Dusty’s finger.”

  Corvin pulled a small box from his vest pocket and set a gold band in Sasha’s palm. He took Dusty’s soft, slender hand and slid the ring onto her finger, breath shallow.

  He turned to Quietbird. “I know we decided not to write vows, but I really want to say something. Can I?”

  Quietbird raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “It’s your ceremony.”

  Dusty frowned in confusion. Sasha took her hand again, running his finger over the gold band and engagement ring.

  “Dusty, I have been trying for long time to be better person. I have screwed up lots—treated people bad. Different people make me want to be better person for different reasons, and it sometimes work, sometimes don’t. But when I meet you—something happen inside me. You are most amazing woman, and you motivate me harder than anybody else to be best Sasha I can be. You make me who I am today.” His brows pushed up and he swallowed a hitch in his throat. “I feel like good man. Because of you. For you.”

  A tear rolled down Dusty’s cheek and she sniffled. Sasha put his arms around her and she pressed her head to his shoulder. The crowd murmured and smiled. Sasha shut his eyes, inhaling her delicate citrus perfume. “Not trying to make you cry in front of everybody. I just love you so much.”

  Dusty looked up at him and wiped her wet cheek. “I love you so much. I need you. I wouldn’t want to be in a world without you. And you are a good man. You lift me up and make me feel like I’m worth something.”

  “You are, baby. You are worth everything.” He took a step back, but held her hand. “Okay, let’s keep going with ceremony. I am so ready to be married now.”

  Quietbird grinned. “Dessantia Rosemary Daughter, from today forward, you are no longer just one person. You are a soul intertwined with another. Do you vow to nurture this man before you above all others? Do you pledge your very life to him?”

  Dusty’s lip quivered and she nodded. “I take that pledge.”

  “Then Dusty, please place your ring on Sasha’s finger.”

  Sasha offered his hand. “Get that ring on me, baby.” Dusty let out a laugh, another tear falling from her eye. Dewbell handed her the ring and she slid it onto his finger. He bit his lip and touched the band, heart swelling, then gazed back into his bride’s eyes.

  Quietbird said, “You two are now bound to each other for your mortal lives. May they be long and full of joy. Please seal the ceremony with a kiss.”

  Sasha grinned. “I can do that.” He took Dusty’s face in his hands and pressed his mouth to hers, tasting the warm softness of her lips—his wife’s lips. She slid her tongue over his, kissing him deeply, and he tingled with elation. Claps and whistles erupted from the audience.

  He touched his forehead to hers, gazing into her eyes. “Oh, my Dusty.” He kissed her again.

  “Okay, you two. Save some for tonight,” Quietbird said.

  The crowd chuckled. Sasha pulled back and grinned. “I got never-ending supply. Don’t worry about that.”

  Quietbird set two glass goblets on the podium. “Sasha tells me this next part is not a Mainland tradition, but one all the way from Russia for good luck.” He wrapped the glasses in a cloth and placed them on the ground.

  Sasha took Dusty’s hand and they both stomped on their respective goblets. The crowd gasped and muttered, villagers frowning and shrugging.

  Tears ran down Dewbell’s face and she hugged Dusty and Sasha tightly.

  Sasha kissed her cheek. “Love you, baby.”

  She signed the same to Sasha and Dusty.

  “I love you too.” Dusty smiled, wiping away tears of her own.

  Corvin threw his arms around Sasha, slapping him on the back. He turned to Dusty. “Dusty? Hug?”

  She nodded and gave Corvin a squeeze around the middle. “We’re friends. You don’t have to ask.”

  “That so? Former Boss and former orphan are friends now? In that case, how about a kiss, dear?”

  He stooped down as Dusty pushed up on her toes, kissing his cheek and leaving a pink lipstick print.

  Sasha smirked. “Just don’t ask me for kiss.”

  Corvin’s brows furrowed.

  I shouldn’t have said that—he’s so touchy about those kinds of jokes.

  He shrugged. “I can settle for Dewbell.”

  Dewbell smacked Corvin in the chest as Gentlewave approached. He wiped his eye and hugged them. “That was a really sweet ceremony. Strange, but sweet.”

  “I agree.” Trav leaned in for a hug. “I lived on the Mainland for three years and still don’t understand a lot of the customs.”

  Darksky, Trav’s father, jostled Son of Owl on his knee at the front table. The baby fussed and reached for Owl. She scooped him up, and he pulled at her pearl necklace. “Well, I thought it was very nice. I never wanted a Mainland wedding here—it took me a long time to even accept these people calling me Trav’s wife—but if I did, I would want it to be simple and sweet like yours.”

  Corvin bent to Son of Owl and booped him on the nose.

  Owl smirked. “So, brother, I hear people around town are calling you and Dewbell husband and wife now too, because you’ve been living together for six months.”

  Corvin stiffened. “Yeah…” He put an arm around Dewbell and kissed her temple. “It’s a little weird. And trust me, if I were going to marry Dewbell, it would be a much bigger to-do than villagers calling us married.”

  Sasha laughed. “I can only imagine.”

  Dusty brushed a stray ringlet of hair from her eyes. “Do you think you will someday?”

  Corvin shared a look with Dewbell, who smiled coyly.

  “We’ll see.”

  Sasha twined his fingers in Dusty’s and pulled her to a central table facing the crowd. They sat at the bench, thrown clay plates and silky napkins arranged before them.

  “You ready to try pizza, baby?”

  She chuckled, then her mouth trembled. “We’re married now.”

  He touched the band on his finger and nodded, then pulled her close and squeezed her tightly. “That’s right, Mrs. Roborovskiy. You are stuck with me now. Feels good, don’t it?” He stroked her soft hair. “My beautiful Dusty.”

  She climbed into his lap and put her arms around his neck, summer sun playing on her long lashes. “Yes. It feels g
reat.”

  “You look so beautiful today.” He trailed a finger across her collarbone, then grazed his lips over hers. She kissed him tenderly, running her nails along the back of his neck. He shivered. “Oh, I just want to throw you on top of this table right now. Don’t care who’s watching. You got that sexy underwear on, yeah?”

  Dusty laughed. “This is a wedding. Show some restraint, you pervert.”

  “I can’t help it. I got weak heart.”

  “No, you don’t. Not anymore.”

  Sasha grinned.

  The story isn’t over yet!

  Wolfwater (Travelers Series: Book III), is available now.

  A familiar atmosphere of unease overcame Owl as she stared into the inky gaps between the trees. She strained to catch the shadows moving, but there was nothing.

  Maybe it’s just because I’m not used to being in a forest. I can’t see all the flat land and distant hills like I could if we were farther south. Making me claustrophobic.

  But was that it? Really? There were forests on Nis—different than this one but forests all the same—and she never felt this itchy foreboding.

  More strings of beads occasionally hung from boughs, and the forest grew denser, strangling out the sunlight. Owl peeked over her shoulder, wishing for the warmth of the flowery clearing. Every crunch underfoot was deafening in the still air, and she jumped as a raven cried out in the distance.

  She slid her hand into her cloak pocket, touching the knife there and wishing she still had her machete.

  Ahead, a plastic baby doll dangled upside down from a branch, sinew tied around one foot. Its lidded blue eyes stared vacantly as it twisted gently in the gloom.

  “What is this creepy shit?” Mothwing whispered. He craned his neck toward another tree, also hanging with baby dolls; moss crept down the rotting plastic torsos.

  Gentlewave drew his gun, although what he planned to shoot was unclear.

  Some of the dolls lay in the dirt, half-covered with leaf litter. Dusty picked one up, rubbing soil from its face with the sleeve of her coat. “I think they’re kind of cute. Or, well, they probably were at one time.” She turned the doll over in her hands, shot Owl a conspiratorial glance, and stuffed the doll in her pocket.

  Beyond the baby doll trees, more beads dangled, interspersed with other salvaged decor hanging from the branches like mobiles: rusty spoons, light bulbs, strange symbols carved from wood and painted in bright colors, scissors, shotgun shells, and plastic bottles.

  Bright paints slathered the trunks of the tall trees, symbols painted in seafoam green, white, pink, and sky blue.

  Mothwing batted a bottle away from his face as he passed by. “I’m seriously weirded out. I’ve never wanted out of a forest so much in my life.”

  Follow Owl, Dusty, Sasha, and Corvin as they embark on their most difficult and dangerous journey yet, in Wolfwater.

  Order here.

  ~ About the Author ~

  Alia Hess grew up in the middle of the Idaho desert and spent their hour-long bus rides to and from school reading books on UFOs and the paranormal. As they grew older and developed a passion for art and writing, they never shook their love of the fantastic and unknown.

  They live with their son in the wastelands of America, keeping a close eye out for drones and trashdogs. When not hunched before a computer screen, Alia can be found hunched over their art desk.

  Alia enjoys post-apocalyptic novels, coffee, and eavesdropping on the character conversations in their head.

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