GalacticFlame (14 page)

And that’s better?

She dropped her face into her hands as pain, raw and
intense, lashed her heart.

Though it hurt even more to admit it, she didn’t blame Genesis
if he did just that. She’d shown him nothing but deceit and half-truths right
to the end. Aline’s honesty would be good for him, refreshing after all the
lies she’d embraced.

And you’re still lying…lying to yourself. You don’t want
to lose Genesis any more than you want him to be with Aline.

She pressed her fingertips across her eyes, grimacing at the
vision instantly coming to mind of Aline and Genesis, wrapped in one another’s
arms, kissing…making love.

She shook her head on a pained groan and dropped her hands
that’d curled into fists. “I can’t let that happen,” she said aloud. “I can’t
give Genesis up.” She stood, determination firing through her veins, “Not
without a fight.”

Fate had seen them thrown together before she’d even thought
to lie. And she wouldn’t forget how the shields had recognized her as his!

Colin abruptly snarled and slunk into the undergrowth of a
shrub with overhanging leaves.

She looked up, searching for what had caused his alarm. Her
eyes narrowed at the distant, twin
cercannes
moving fast their way.
Thanks to the green surroundings, the usual dust trails hadn’t been made to
warn of someone’s approach.

She peered harder, her heart in her throat as she waited to
face who she assumed was her intended. She took a deep, steadying breath. It
was beyond time she explained herself fully…and beg him to stay with her.

She frowned as the
cercannes
drew close. Where was
Genesis? Hope surged. Had he sent these two men to bring her home?

She waited impatiently, stifling the urge to yell at them to
hurry the hell up. But it was unnecessary anyway, she realized. Their speed
alone suggested an urgency that had something deep within her scared.

As the two males dismounted from their
cercannes
she
asked quickly, “Where’s Genesis?”

She stood silent and confused when they failed to meet her
eyes and didn’t answer her question, each of them slinging a one-handled bag
over their shoulders and striding past her to the garden. Only as they began to
pluck the leaves and berries from various plants with fast, economical hands,
did she take note the foliage was purely medicinal.

She hurried after them. “He’s been hurt, is that it?”

When they continued to ignore her, she grabbed the muscular
arm of the nearest male. “Please as…as your princess, tell me the truth.”

He nodded stiffly. “We cannot take you to him until your
time here is done.”

“If he’s hurt I need to go to him now. Immediately!”

But the men had turned back to stride to their
cercannes
,
clearly in a hurry to return and weren’t hanging around to give her answers.

She crossed her arms, watching the men straddle their
cercannes
before spinning them around and pushing them into full speed. Her heart
fluttered anxiously. Just how badly hurt was he?

“He needs me,” she whispered. This once she wasn’t about to
let him down. She’d be there for him when he needed her and not a moment after.

They belonged together.

She turned to where Colin was hiding. “We’re leaving.”

Eden stuffed various plants down her dress, enough food to
last her a few days, before grabbing the last two bottles filled with rainwater
from the storm and sliding her footwear back on.

She felt all kinds of crazy striding through the
bolishta
herd, who were stamping their feet and looking more than a little nervous with
Colin stalking behind at her heels.

Simon trotted toward her, ignoring the
zadmet
and
trying hard to push his face into her already-occupied hands with weird,
whale-sounding vocals of greeting. “At least someone is glad to see me,” she
said with a smile.

But her smile faded at seeing his still-visible wounds. “I
wish you could take me, but it’s much too soon for that,” she murmured. She
turned, scanning the herd before finally selecting one who was well-muscled and
a little larger than most.

“Karsh
,” she ordered. The animal sat and she
clambered onto his back before calling Colin. The
zadmet
bounded onto
her mount in front of her and the
bolishta
jerked to its feet and
sidestepped fearfully.

She didn’t blame it for being skittish, it was with good
reason that every one of its flight instincts would be coming to the fore.

“Keep doing that and Colin’s claws will come out.” Besides
which, it was all she could do to hang on herself with her hands clutching the
water bottles.

When the
bolishta
settled a little, she looked in the
direction she’d seen the
cercannes
head, aware the flowers and grasses
had already wilted under the relentless heat of the three suns.

It was only when they left her
donya
and the
bolishta
herd far behind, and the terrain was as much a mystery to her in its current
state as it was when barren and lifeless, that she really began to question her
decision to find Genesis and his camp.

With her passion for growing things, she’d always been the
rational one, the practical and diligent one. Perhaps the air on this planet
induced some kind of personality disorder?

Nothing to do with the man who’d turned her life upside down
and inside out.

Tucking one of the bottles under an arm, she unscrewed the
other one and tipped it to her lips, the water sliding effortlessly down her
throat as the heat of the suns scorched from above. As Colin snuffled
anxiously, she poured a little of the precious liquid onto her palm and offered
it to him.

He lapped noisily and she couldn’t help but giggle at his
comical expression of relief. But even he couldn’t keep her humor up for long.
As the endless day burned hotter and hotter and nothing around her looked
familiar, she knew she was in trouble.

Big trouble.

An interminable amount of time later, she realized she’d had
no idea what trouble was until she reluctantly tipped the last of her water to
her mouth, saving a few licks for Colin.

Had the situation not been so dire, it would have been
laughably ironic that she was lost in an oasis of once thriving plants with not
a drop of water to be found. Even the mountain hadn’t seemed so forbidding with
the knowledge somewhere high up there was water to be found.

When Colin had licked her hand dry, she pulled a
fimordh
from out of her dress, and sucked at its sap. She might well lose her vision,
but she had no choice but to keep hydrated when the suns wilted everything in
their path.

She wriggled, trying to get comfortable on the
bolishta
,
but where everything didn’t ache, it burned. Her skin mightn’t be red or
blistered, but it sure as hell felt seared. She blew out a breath and resettled
onto another thick patch of her mount’s pelt, which indented with her weight.

She itched to get off and walk to relieve her stiff and sore
muscles, but riding meant using minimal exertion; minimal thirst.

Ahead the flat expanse of land with its slightly wilted
colored grasses and flowers seemed endless. She closed her eyes, thinking back
to the terrain. There’d been a downhill run on the
cercanne
each time
before the land and flattened out and they’d headed toward the mountain. She
needed to find that sloping land if she had hope of locating Genesis’ camp.

Her lashes flicking open, she turned around, searching the
landscape and for the first time considering turning back and trying to retrace
their steps. But there was no visible trail through the once vibrant plants. No
recognizable path at all.

And after everything you’ve risked, do you really want to
turn your back on Genesis again when he needs you most?

Her mount abruptly swung around, heading the way she looked.
Eden jerked back the other way even as Colin abruptly lost his footing at the
sudden change of motion. He tumbled from the
bolishta
with an ear
ear-splitting yowl.

She wasn’t sure what happened next. She guessed either Colin
had snagged the
bolishta
with his claws, or his loud vocals had
terrified the poor animal. The
bolishta
reared, its eyes wild. Eden
toppled from its back and landed in the grasses with a hard thwack.

As her steed took off running, she lay unmoving in the
grass. “Well…fuck.”

The breath came back to her lungs before she was able to
sit, groggy but lucid. The
bolishta
was already a distant speck when she
yelled hoarsely, “I wish I’d ridden Simon!”

Yeah, as if the animal really gives a hoot that you
prefer one of his comrades.

Colin slunk toward her, his eyes wide. She reached out,
running a hand over his head. “It’s okay, mate.” Her hand stilled on his head.
“Who am I kidding? We’re in all sorts of trouble.”

A flock of winged, batlike creatures flew overhead, away
from the mountain. Her hand dropped from Colin and she jerked to her feet, her
eyes following the flight of the animals.

On Earth, living on the driest habitable continent in the
world, a person could depend on birds and animals to stay near water. It would
surely be little different here, in a desert environment? The winged creatures
had steered clear of the mountain. Were they one of the few animals who’d
adapted and were immune to the toxicity of the lake water? Is that where they
were going?

She strode in the direction they’d flown, Colin
automatically trotting behind her. She pulled out another stem of the
fimordh
from her dress, sucking its bitter juice. She’d keep hydrated at
the risk of losing her vision. She’d be stumbling around blind anyway if her
body was starved of water.

Yet as she walked, all she could think about was Genesis,
her heart as if a stone in her chest. His men had come and snatched the
medicinal plants needed before leaving again in all sorts of a hurry. As much
as she’d been trying not to think too deeply about it, he must be hurt bad.

Dizziness suddenly assailed her. Oh shit. A curtain of
semidarkness obscured her vision and she stumbled, then fell. She landed hard,
her forehead smashing on something hard in the grass.

She lay still, battling to stay conscious even as nausea
pressed at her from all sides. Worse was the panic that followed soon after as
an overwhelming inky blackness set in, stark contrast to the bite of the three
suns.

But nothing could stop the inner darkness from dragging her
into its arms and into the blissful chasm of oblivion.

~

She was lost, totally lost, floundering in a world with red
skies and red sand.

She searched frantically for Colin, but he was nowhere to be
found. Seemed he too was lost.

Biting back a sob, she took a step—tried to take a step—but
her feet were too heavy, weighted. She looked down, her heart thumping into
double time when she realized she was stuck…and sinking.

Holy shit! Quicksand!

She fought to lift first one leg, then the other, but the
squelching, suctioning sound told her that struggling further would only make
things worse.

Much worse.

Panic suffused her from the inside out, clutching at her
throat and taking away all ability to scream. Then she did, her voice shrill,
piercing. “Help me! Someone, help me!”

But there was nothing on this world but a sea of red, her
eyes jerking back and forth as she hoped, prayed for someone to magically
appear. She coughed fitfully, her throat burning with thirst. Damn it! She
couldn’t fail Genesis now…he needed her!

The larger-than-life figure stepping into sight as though
through a vortex was a godsend. Her one and only hope. Her blood pressure
spiked, some inner knowing revealing that the person stepping robotically
toward her wasn’t going to be of any assistance. Her eyes narrowed as
uncertainty besieged her senses. “Genesis?

He didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. As he stilled just out
of reach she could see it was him—his body—but there was no soul within. His
eyes were empty of warmth, vacant of love or care. Breath shuddered from her
lungs as she perceived her fate. He wasn’t here to help her and she didn’t even
blame him.

Even so, the instinct for survival couldn’t be quelled. She
reached out a hand. “Genesis, help me, please. I love you, I’ve always loved
you.”

The eyes on the body of Genesis were no longer vacant. As
though flicking on a switch, they abruptly burned into life. But it wasn’t with
love. His stare seared her with hostility, the windows to his soul revealing
every dark emotion he carried and then some.

She felt hollowed out, as empty within as the man before her
had been just seconds before. But the hollowness scraped her raw inside and
profusely bleeding when her sister appeared beside Genesis and, ignoring her
outstretched hand, took his instead.

“I’m not a baby, Eden,” she said in a faraway voice, “I can
take care of myself.”

In that moment a baby’s cry filled air. Aline’s free arm
adjusted to form a cradle, just as an infant’s shadowy form flickered in and
out of her sister’s hold.

Eden’s heart twisted. “No,” she whimpered, dying a thousand
deaths. And as they turned, their hands interlinked, and walked into the haze
of a red sky, she screamed manically, “No!”

She twisted, writhing away from the sudden strength of
invisible hands on her shoulders, pushing her down into the inescapable,
sulfur-scented quicksand. But even as she scratched and clawed, a far-off voice
penetrated her senses.

“Eden, it’s me! Genesis.”

Her eyelids flickered open, hoarse breaths wheezing in and
out of her lungs while she stared up at the man she loved with all her heart,
her soul. The real man who was caring and thoughtful and everything that was
honorable in the world.