– but in the specifics, she was quite obviously different.

She had a more rounded, heart-shaped face, for one. Her features were rounder, her nose more of a cute button than Lelia’s slender one. Her lips weren’t as full and sensual as Lelia’s. And she had blue eyes, not emerald green.

But she had a gigantic, warm-hearted smile, and her eyes sparkled as she spoke.

“Jack, this Oona!” Lelia called out. “She thought I was dead! That is why she is so happy to see me! She says the tribe is near us!”

I trundled over through the snow and raised my right hand in greeting as I lowered my gaiter with my left, exposing the lower half of my face.

“Hi, I’m Jack,” I said, before I remembered that this new woman had no idea what I was saying.

My actions and words had a seriously unexpected effect, though.

Oona cried out in terror and stumbled backwards.

“What?” I asked Lelia in surprise. “What’d I do?”

Lelia grabbed Oona’s hand and started talking rapidly in her own language. She sounded like she was alternately trying to comfort Oona and figure out what was wrong.

But Oona wouldn’t be comforted. She wailed and shook her head in terror.

And she babbled incessantly. I didn’t understand 99% of it, obviously, but I caught three words over and over again: skiris, vaklik, and rakala.

Damn – were their people’s legends really that terrifying? Lelia had acted weird when she found out about the avalanche, but not this weird.

And how the hell did this woman know I’d died somewhere else and come back to life?

Lelia looked at her with wide eyes, then tried to quiet her friend in a calm tone of voice. Again, I heard her saying vaklik several times.

When it finally appeared that Oona was no longer going to bolt into the forest, Lelia turned back towards me.

“What’s going on?” I asked. “Is she afraid of me because I’m a vaklik?”

Lelia looked dazed and seriously spooked as she answered. “Not because you are a vaklik… but because you look like another rakala she saw.”

“Another one? I thought you said you’d never seen one before me.”

“I haven’t… but Oona has seen one since I left.”

My stomach did a backflip in my gut.

I immediately thought of Katie, and wondered if maybe it was possible she could have come here after she died, too.

“Was it a woman?” I asked.

“No. A man.”

“Why was she so scared?”

“Because,” Lelia said quietly, “the other rakala is ruler of the skiris now… and he sent the skiris to kill Oona and the other women in my tribe.”

20

I stared at Lelia in shock. “Was he white? Like me?”

Lelia nodded.

“And he was human? I mean – he looked like me?”

Lelia nodded again.

“She’s sure?”

“She is sure,” Lelia murmured.

This was fucking crazy.

There was somebody else on this planet who was like me… and he’d somehow conquered a bunch of abominable snowmen and made them into a small army.

What the fuck?

I was seized by two opposing emotions:

The desire to protect Lelia and her friends from this asshole…

…and the need to find him and ask him a thousand questions.

How had he gotten here?

Had he died like me and come back?

Was it an avalanche that did him in, or something else?

Did he have any idea where were where, or how it happened?

And why was he doing conquistador-type shit with the skiris?

“Did you tell her I’m not like that other guy?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Tell her I’m not going to hurt her.”

“I did.”

“Doesn’t she believe you?”

“She thinks you have… I do not know the word… it means to make someone do something you want them to do…”

“I never forced you to do anything,” I protested.

“Not force,” Lelia said. “With special ways of doing things.”

“Oh… you mean ‘magic’?”

“What is magic?”

“It’s a way of doing things with secret powers.”

“Secret powers, yes,” Lelia nodded. “She thinks you magic me.”

“It’s ‘use magic on me,’” I said. “Or I enchanted you.”

“Enchanted?”

“To use magic on someone.”

“She thinks you enchanted me.”

“Magic is bullshit, though,” I said. “It doesn’t exist.”

Though they didn’t have bulls on this planet, Lelia had heard me use ‘bullshit’ often enough to know exactly what it meant.

The beginnings of a smile appeared on Lelia’s lips. “She thinks you enchanted me with your cock.”

“Wha– oh,” I said, suddenly a bit embarrassed.

And happy, too.

Hearing a chick say you enchanted her with your cock is a pretty big ego boost.

Dick-notized her, I guess you could say.

But I still protested.

“I didn’t do that.”

Lelia broke out into a full-on smirk. “Maybe a little.”

My cheeks flushed even hotter as I grinned. She grinned back.

Then I grew serious. “Well, tell her I’m not a bad guy.”

“I did.”

I sighed. “Well, is she going to run away screaming from me again?”

Lelia said something to Oona in her language.

Oona looked at me fearfully, then said something back.

“She says she will not run… if you do not try to use your cock on her.”

“I’m not going to do that!” I yelped.

No wonder Oona was afraid of me, if she thought I was going to rape her.

Lelia frowned in confusion. “Why not?”

“What?! I’m not going to force her to – to make her – ”

“No, not force,” Lelia interrupted. “Use cock magic to enchant her.”

I just stood there staring at her like an idiot. “…what?”

“She does not want you to use cock magic on her to enchant her, like you did me.”

“Uh… okay…?”

Lelia said something to Oona, and Oona answered reluctantly.

“Alright, she will not run,” Lelia said.

“Uh… Lelia?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you say, ‘why not’ about the… uh, the cock magic?”

“You do not find Oona pretty?” Lelia asked.

This was a trap.

It had to be a trap.

“Well, I mean, sure, she’s pretty – but not as beautiful as you.”

“Thank you,” Lelia said with a big smile – and then frowned. “But you do not think she is pretty enough to use your cock on her?”

What the HELL?

“I thought you and I were… you know,” I said.

Lelia frowned. “No. I do not know.”

“I thought it was just you and me. That we love each other, and you would only want

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