I nod at the sheathed dagger she has tied to the pretty blue belt around her waist. “Where’d you get that?”
“Lifted it from the weapons kradi.”
My eyes widen, and Sarissa laughs, throwing her arm around Vivian.
“A few months on this planet and my cousin is turning into a savage. Who would’ve thought?”
Vivian rolls her eyes but grins at me, and I can’t help but grin back. When we first met, I was intimidated by the woman with the sharp tongue who seemed so put together. But since we’ve been here, Vivian has mellowed in a lot of ways.
And obviously, she has hardened in others.
I pick a few more leaves and add them to my basket. We wander through the forest until we get to a tall tree with bright white flowers hanging above our heads.
Sarissa glances at me. “Poisonous?”
I smile at that. On this planet, we tend to assume everything is poisonous.
“I have no idea. I’ve never seen them before.”
The flowers are dangling from a thin branch, but they’re too high for us to reach, and I pout. Maybe I can come back and climb the tree another time.
Vivian glances at my face and sighs. “Stand back,” she says, pulling her knife from her belt. She narrows her eyes at the tree, then throws the knife, the movement almost casual. My mouth drops open as the knife hits the thin branch with pinpoint accuracy, and a few of the flowers fall to the ground.
I stare at her. “What was that?”
She shrugs, and Sarissa laughs while I use a rag to pick up the flowers, careful not to touch them with my bare skin.
“I’ll take them back to the healers’ kradi and ask Moni about them.” I tilt my head. “That knife is stuck in the tree. You’ll need a new one.” It’s too high for us to reach, the blade buried in the bark.
Sarissa smiles. “Don’t worry. She’ll get a new one.”
There’s more to Vivian than I’d ever thought, but she hunches her shoulders as I stare at her, so I change the subject. “How are you feeling?”
Vivian rolls her eyes, and I can’t help but laugh at her mock sigh of annoyance. “I swear, if anyone else asks me that…”
“No pain, then?”
“No. I owe those bastards payback for my new scar though.”
Vivian saved Nevada’s life during the battle and nearly died herself. I shudder as I remember the bone-chilling fear that hit me when I saw just who was being carried into the healers’ kradi that day.
“Zoey.”
We all turn at the deep rumble. Sarissa raises one eyebrow at me. “Caught,” she mutters.
Tagiz stands next to a large white tree, disapproval written all over his face. Even with his brow furrowed in a deep scowl, he’s still the most attractive man I’ve ever seen.
His eyes are gray and piercing, and the ridge of his brow bone would make him look almost brutish if not for his high cheekbones and lush lips. He’s huge and built, and when I look at him, all I can remember is how those muscled arms felt wrapped around me.
“You’re not supposed to leave the camp alone,” he tells us, although his gaze seems to be glued to my face.
Irritation sweeps through me. Not for the first time, I long for my life on Earth. There, I’m a trauma nurse, charged with saving people’s lives. Here, I’m not trusted to take a walk alone.
I sigh. There’s a reason for that. The Dokhalls are still out there somewhere, likely regrouping. Staying within the camp is the smart choice until they’re caught.
But I’m sick of them taking things from us. They took my health, my hope, and my freedom. And now they’re doing it again.
I clear my throat. “You’re right,” I acknowledge. He looks at me silently for a long moment, and the air seems to crackle between us.
“I’ll walk you back,” he finally says.
Vivian slides me a glance, raising one eyebrow. I shake my head at her. No, I don’t know what the hell is happening between me and Tagiz.
All I know is he saved my life. It was his voice in my ear that gave me the strength to keep breathing when I was ready to give up.
And then I kissed him. And he told me he didn’t want to hurt me.
Talk about a blow to my ego.
He reaches out to take my basket from me, and my hands tighten on it. He tilts his head, studying my face, and I release my hands, letting him take it.
I don’t know what I have to do to make him see I’m not fragile.
“Hold on, little female. Just hold on. I won’t let you die.”
I glance at him and find his gaze still on my face as we all walk silently back toward camp.
Tagiz
I clench my teeth as I walk Zoey and her friends to the healers’ kradi. She still has to take a healing tonic each day to fix the damage to her body. The reminder of how close she came to death makes me want to roar.
She studies me out of huge blue eyes. Her nose is covered in tiny brown freckles, highlighting its small shape. I spent hours counting those freckles while she was unconscious as I willed her to live.
Her lips are pink and plump, her top lip slightly larger than the bottom, and the feel of them against mine…
No, Tagiz. She is not for you.
The other females chat amongst themselves while Zoey walks silently through the forest, glancing at me occasionally. I know I hurt her that day, when she grinned up at me, full of innocence and good humor. She wrapped her hand around my neck, pulled my mouth to hers, and for a moment, the rest of the universe disappeared.
But sanity prevailed and I pulled away, attempting to ignore the dismay that entered those wide blue eyes.
Tiny, fragile human females are not for me. Especially this tiny, fragile human female.
I offer my hand
