by Ciara Knight
“If w-we fly out in the m-morning.” Raeth spoke with a blank stare at the control panel. She touched buttons and studied controls. “Th-this is a Boulton V25. I-I can fly it.” Raeth swiveled the chair to face me. “But for once, m-my brother’s right.” Raeth gave a teasing grin. “We sh-should travel during th-the day. S-sleep for now.” She swirled the chair back and pulled her knees to her chest.
Within a minute or two her breathing changed from shallow quick breaths to long heavy ones. Her nose whistled. How’d she close down so fast? One minute she’s planning to fly us out, the next she’s off in another world.
“She tends to check out on occasion, but if she says she can fly it, she can.”
“But what if she ‘checks out’ while flying?”
“You’ll be flyin’ the ship, then.”
“I wasn’t trained to pilot. I mean, I know the basics but flying was considered beneath a princess.” Secretly, I’d always wanted to fly, but Mother would have never allowed it.
“Hate to break it to you, but you ain’t no princess out here. Besides, you and machines will blend well with your power.” He gave a teasing smile. “Now lay back. I need to work on your leg.” He shimmied down between me and the back of the side-by-side chairs, the space barely big enough for one, let alone two people.
His skin pressed against mine and my body reacted with pleasurable surges. Lukewarm strokes raced up and down my arms. My heartbeat quickened at his touch.
He rolled on his side and pushed my hair from my eyes. “You did great.”
Maybe he could get past the implant. Maybe he’d forget about it.
His fingers raked across the edge of the metal device in the back of my neck. I tensed and waited for his response. He looked away and let go then rolled over. “We should get some sleep.”
Disgust, that was what he felt.
Tears stung my eyes, but I swallowed them back and faced the wall. Pain shot up my thigh and I grabbed my leg, sucking in a quick breath. Muscle spasms ravaged me from foot to stomach.
Ryder’s strong hand pressed against the back of my thigh. Soothing vibrations rumbled over each fiber until they all calmed.
He scooted close and pressed against my back. Scent of Cedar and musky earth relaxed me into him. His hand raked against my pants until his arm encircled me. Two fingers rotated around the wound with a soft touch and rested to the inside of my thigh.
His thumb continued higher until it stopped above the wound.
I shivered. No man had ever touched me in such an intimate way. Even if he only meant to heal me, I still trembled from his touch.
He didn’t move for a moment.
“How did you get these?” he said in a raspy tone.
“What?”
“Scars.”
I didn’t want to tell him. It was embarrassing and he already thought of me as a Slag. “I, um, I’ve had them for a while.”
He pressed his lips to my temple above my ear and whispered, “Tell me.” His breath teased my resolve.
“I got them because I was disrespectful.”
“Sounds harsh. To who?”
I swallowed hard. “The general.”
“He did this?” Anger dripped from his voice.
“Yes.”
“Your mother didn’t stop him?” An arctic blast shot from his mouth across my cheek bringing with it the chill of death.
“She ordered him to do it, while she sat back and watched.”
The seats vibrated behind him. The temperature dropped several degrees.
“Razrušen kučinja! They’ll never touch you again. You have my word as a Neumarian.”
White puffs lingered with each exhale. He needed to calm down before he froze us all. Why was he so upset about what the general and Mother did to me, a Slag? If he was that upset about a few scars, imagine how he felt about what happened to Raeth.
My chest tightened and heat steamed off of me.
My mind spun and I laced my fingers with his and squeezed tight. He must never learn the truth. I couldn’t bear it.
Our powers merged. We both calmed, and I relaxed back into him.
He let go of my hand, his fingers and thumb pulsing and massaging in tiny circles.
A burning chill radiated deep into tendons and bone. A steady charge surged into the wound and I knew bit by bit the skin began to heal. After each pulse, miniscule vibrations trailed up and down my leg—a side effect of the healing.
I closed my eyes in anticipation of the next wave. Slow breaths. Lips pressed together.
The soothing reached the top of my thigh.
He stopped and fell against me. His slow steady breaths left me in sensory overload, in the silent, dark night. Both Ryder and Raeth slept, but I couldn’t, not with my body craving more cool energy like a drug.
For hours I remained still, eyes wide, fighting the urge to pull his hand back onto me. Finally, I gave into exhaustion and drifted off to sleep.
My insides began to dance in anticipation. Hair rose. Goose bumps covered my flesh.
Dreaming?
No, I opened my eyes and realized Ryder’s hand cupped around my wound, healing me again.
Small pulses…warm vibrations. He grasped my thigh tight and I tensed as one last electric current shot through my thigh to my stomach, chest, and scalp.
A thousand tiny strokes of pleasure ignited. I raked my tongue across my teeth. “More,” I whispered, my mind ruled by my body. I pressed against him.
He moaned and kissed my ear. Lips traced up my neck until he reached the implant and stopped.
Raeth started fooling with gadgets on the console. “I s-see you t-two are awake.”
Oh God, I’d forgotten Raeth was there. The deep throbbing pressure of his powers shattered, leaving only a cold sting. I shot up, still a little wobbly from my leg wound.
Ryder sat cross-legged, a boyish grin on his face. He pulled a compartment door open, flexing his biceps. “We should try to dislodge the ship and be on our way.”
I pushed up onto my knees. Dull pain pulsed in me, but I refused to mention it. In the grand scheme of things, a little discomfort was better than acting like a spoiled princess.
No. Instead, I’d prove myself to him. I scooted forward between Raeth and Ryder, both seated in the pilot and co-pilot chairs, and I pressed my palms to the console.
“What are you doing?” Ryder asked.
I didn’t answer. I concentrated on the ship.
“I got it,” Raeth mumbled before her arms waved stale air into my face.
Somehow, Raeth always knew what I had in mind. We had connected in the engine room four years ago. My heart warmed at the thought of Raeth, my friend, working by my side.
A golden snow storm erupted outside. Engines stuttered, cogs and wheels grinding from behind. The ship shimmied and jolted. A controlled stream of hot energy exited my hands into the ship’s console. Two light indicators popped. Glass shards flew in all directions, yet I remained calm and focused on the engine.
Orange and blue swirls became clear from the rising sun. A dirt wall remained around us, but nothing covered the ship as Raeth remained in control of the earth.
My chest tightened when I scraped the wings against the wall causing sand to trickle down in long, thick tendrils.
I changed my focus to the gears and clucked my tongue at the overwhelming taste of lubricant. The smell of oil gave me confidence that I controlled every gear, cog, and lever of the ship.
Ryder whistled from my side. “Impressive. Only two days and you can control an entire scout ship.”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I continued to ascend the ship until I could see over the top of the dune.
Raeth fell back into her seat as the roar of sand below the ship jostled it to the left. I compensated and pulled us further into the air.
Distant screeches sounded over the engines. It was time to go. Who knew when the next creature would attack? Even with the shields up, we could still be forced down. Was there time
to land the ship and relinquish control to Raeth safely?
A sermechtapede bolted from the sand and plunged back down. No.
I wavered and Ryder grabbed my waist.
“Enough of this. You need to rest.” He stood by my side, but when three more sermechtapedes lunged into the sky and landed only a few hundred meters away, he shut up and sat back down. “Go, go, go!” he urged.
Two rose and dove at us, missing by a few meters. It was almost as if the ship attracted them.
Of course. That was why the scout ships flew so high. Too high to see a single straggler, but low enough to detect activity. That was also why the queen wouldn’t travel in the direction a scout ship didn’t return from.
My index finger traced the raised surface of the booster gauge and the ship propelled straight up. I fell and slammed my head on the storage bin. Higher and higher we ascended.
Ryder offered his hand to pull me back to the control panel. Before I could grasp it, the engines shut off and we plummeted in a downward spiral.
I ricocheted off the seat, storage bin, and levers, until I lodged between Ryder’s seat and the bulkhead. Red lights flickered. Low-pitched warning alarms clambered all around.
I hooked two fingers onto the ledge of the control panel and I pressed my thumb against the wires leading to the ignition button. Sparks flew and the ship pulsed twice, sending us faster to our death.
I grasped the back of Ryder’s now empty seat and caught a glimpse of his contorted body between the two chairs. Everything continued to spin and my stomach twisted and felt hollow. I steadied myself and planted my palm flat on the ignition button. The engines sputtered, we stopped our decent and rose into the sky, then they cut off.
Chapter Fifteen
Ryder reached for Raeth, who clung to the side of the hatch whimpering, but the force of gravity pinned him to the bulkhead. She grew white and her eyes rolled back in her head.
My stomach floated somewhere up in the sky while my body catapulted to the ground.
Smell of burning flesh drew my attention to the ships controls.
“Semara!” Ryder clung to the seat, but tilted his head to my hands. Crimson spread from my palms, still pressed to the console to the side of my hands. I hadn’t felt it. Staring down at my seared flesh, it took a second until my brain caught up to the sound of my skin sizzling.
“Ahh,” I cried out. A jolt of fire exploded against the console. Instinctively, I pulled the hand away. Somehow I managed to concentrate enough to keep the connection with the ship. It tilted up and my knees slammed to the steel floor. Raeth thudded between Ryder and I. She moaned but smiled at me.
My eyes burned from the pain and tears streamed down my face, but the ship steadied. Ryder crawled over and lifted my left hand. Blisters formed in white bubbles, rimmed in red.
Shaking his head, he frowned. “How can you hold on? Even now…grown men would crumple from less.” He stroked my wet cheeks. I could see my pain reflected in his wide eyes. He pulled my palm close to his chin. His nose crinkled and he coughed.
“I know it smells bad.” I tried to make light of it to keep from showing how much it really hurt.
The blisters swelled and he blew a long frosty breath over my wounds. Each small water filled bump oozed then shriveled up.
I sighed and relaxed under his breath, almost forgetting about my other hand still burning against the console. He doubled over and fell against the pilot chair.
“Stop. You don’t have the energy after working on my leg all night.”
His facial muscles twitched in reprimand, but he pressed on until I pulled my hand away.
“Enough, you need your strength. Don’t waste energy on small things.”
With the distraction, the ship wobbled. Raeth jumped into the seat and took control. She fidgeted with some buttons and moved the throttle handle forward. The ship gained altitude and sliced through the sky, leaving behind a tangled mess of creatures.
Peeling my damaged hand from the controls, I relaxed for the first time in twenty-four hours.
Ryder collapsed against the steel wall.
I gave him a reassuring smile. “Thank you,” I whispered through steamy breath.
“You’re the heroine. Saved us all from mutant creatures and busting into a million pieces.”
“I shouldn’t have…I almost killed us—”
“No. You were perfect.” He smiled.
The ship continued east, toward the rising sun. Hopefully we’d make it to scavenger territory and retrieve the necessary supplies to continue on to Old Chicago, and ultimately to the coast.
My stomach tightened and I looked between brother and sister. Yes, both possessed powers. One fell in and out of reality. The other was hot headed and damaged. And me, I had only discovered my powers two days ago. They would be volatile at best for months, if not years.
He continued to hold his hand out, waiting for me to take it. “Not even a seasoned Neumarian could’ve maintained control with her flesh burning. Instinct would kick in and cause them to pull away.”
Did I impress him? Could he understand that I wasn’t a murderous Slag princess? If I told him the truth, would he forgive me and know that I wanted nothing more than to help Raeth?
Clank. Raeth’s foot banged against the floor each time she spun back and forth manning all the controls solo.
We both glanced at her, and when he looked back I saw it in his eyes.
Hatred.
His hand slipped back to his side and he looked away.
The bright sun glared back at us as if to warn of the hell we were about to enter. No one had ever gone this far and returned alive.
Many could only guess at what resided in the old abandoned cities. I’d been through that region. It was desolate, a breeding ground for wild animals. Fallon could’ve been fed bad information.
Raeth’s morbid humming and rocking drew Ryder’s attention. “What—”
Dread slipped down my spine one vertebrae at a time. “There. Look!”
Large black masses sped toward our ship in a head-on collision course.
“Spiderats?” I asked.
The black billowed in the wind, bronze and gold reflected below it.
Ryder shook his head almost imperceptibly. “No, not—” He leaned forward, narrowing his gaze. “Sranje! It’s scavenger patrols. Might complicate things.”
He looked over at his sister. “Sis, not now. We need you.” He shook her shoulder but she only pulled the little red ball from her pocket and rolled it in her palm. “Semara, chair—now.”
I guided Raeth out of the chair onto the floor behind us and jumped into the pilot’s chair. “Why does this complicate things? We brought the gift—”
“Hope we’d make it further into the territory. Not sure these lowlifes will be agreeable to our gift. Scavenger patrols are outsiders, even to the scavengers”
An explosion sent our right wing up and we banked left. Another one ahead. She pulled up and over.
“Time to see if Uncle’s gift will be enough.” I slowed the craft.
Scavengers were soulless creatures who roamed the Wasteland, stealing and pillaging anything they could. My stomach twisted in knots at the thought of them scrapping the ship, and probably Raeth’s leg.
“I’ll do the talking. I’ll tell them I’m the Kantian princess and—”
“No. Can’t let them know you’re Kantian.” He scanned my body. “You’re dressed like a Neumarian, yet could pass for human. Scavengers detest the queen. These scavengers of the desert are the closest thing to a resistance in the territories.”
“Then we’ll tell them we’re part of the rebellion.”
“No.” The ship came to a sudden halt. “They only care about one thing. Scavenging for materials and gifts.”
The round, massive, bronze and gold-trimmed vessel with large sails circled around and landed in front of us, casting a shadow of doom. Guns pointed in all directions. Skulls hung from the sides of the ship as prizes of t
heir conquests.
Ruthless creatures that enslaved or murdered everyone they encountered.
Like Ryder, I hoped the gift was enough.
A rhythmic tapping caught my attention. Raeth sat with her metal leg extended bouncing the ball in front of her.
Three scavengers landed on the top of the ship with a thud. “We know ya in there. Open the hatch or we’ll knock it in and cook ya inside.” The scavenger’s voice sounded hollow through the hatch.
Flames licked at the windows. Orange fire blasted from the end of a large silver tube. The man stuck his face to the glass. Gold teeth, hook hand, and a missing eye. They were what I had feared.
“This here’s ya last warning.”
Hair stood at attention on the back of my neck at the sight of the silver pack on the man’s back sputtering to life.
Another larger man with dreadlocks, body piercings, and orange colored eyes, straddled the main window and raised a large anvil overhead. A battery acid junkie. Another tale whispered about to scare children away from the Wasteland. Only it wasn’t a story. The man stood over us ready to fry and serve us to the crew for dinner.
Chapter Sixteen
Ryder shoved me to Raeth’s side. “Stay behind me.”
Adrenaline spiked electric pulses through my brain twisting and turning through my veins and wires.
Ryder punched the hatch button.
Raeth bounced her ball with more vigor.
He leaned back on his right leg and lifted his glacial blue hands to the runt of a man with the gold teeth and silver pack. “Requesting some supplies in exchange for gift.” Ryder retrieved the small satchel Fallon had given him, and jingled what was inside.
“I’ll be takin’ that.” The man lunged for the opening. The smell of cool rain rushed by and the man screamed. His feet flew up in the air and he flipped back.
A burly man rested his arm on one knee against the hatch opening. “Might want to rethink that.”
A hiss sputtered from Ryder’s hands and he collapse to the floor.
“Warned ya. Don’t use ya powers, or we be stopin’ ya.”
“We brought a gift.” Even while I stated the words, I readied to defend us. I concentrated on pulling energy from the metal hook of the runt, and opened my mind for a rush of energy I hoped to blast at the conceited animal in front of me. If not, these scavengers were going to gut us before we had a chance to deliver our gift.