“I need to speak with her.”
Vruksha growls. “That’s not what we decided, mate,” he lingers on the word. “If she is safe, that is all you need to know. If she is within the facility and back with the other humans, there is nothing left that you or I can or will do for her.”
Silence settles between us again. I finger the wrapper of my ration, hating it.
“Get some sleep,” he says, startling me.
“You should be the one to rest.” I sit up. “I can take the first watch.”
Vruksha grabs his spear and ducks out of the alcove with a hiss. “I’m going to scout.”
He slips away, and I stumble out, going after him. “Wait!”
Vruksha twists back and catches me just as I trip and fall.
“Female, you will hurt yourself further,” he growls.
I push off his chest. “Why are you upset? What’s wrong?” I hate seeing him this way.
“Everything,” he quips, squeezing my shoulders, steadying me while being brutally honest. He grabs me against him and carries me back to the shelter.
“I understand you’re mad because of Daisy, but I can’t live knowing she’s out here alone, possibly in desperate need of help, and I did nothing. I’m not doing this to hurt you.” I need him to know this. I don’t know why, but I do. “I won’t leave. I promise.”
“I would never let you leave,” he says. “I have told you this again and again.”
I search his face. “Why are you so angry then?”
Vruksha keeps me in his embrace, even when we’re back inside. He clutches my chin between his fingers and brings my face to his. “Angry? You think I’m angry? I’m furious,” he seethes.
I flinch.
“You,” he begins but stops. “You…”
“Me what?”
“You didn’t choose me!” he roars. He drops my chin and pushes me to the ground. His face is a mask of darkness as he leans over me. The outline of his fangs, his scowl. It steals my breath. He takes my hands and traps them above my head.
Like an animal about to devour his prey, he pants, holding me down. His powerful body trembles. Warmth rushes to my cheeks. An ache swells between my thighs.
My legs fall open unwittingly. “I did choose you.”
“You chose Azsote, your humans, this Daisy, and even old tech over me, female. You haven’t chosen me.”
My brow furrows. “I—” How can I answer that?
He lifts off me, and I scramble onto my elbows as he leaves the alcove again. “Sleep,” he orders, his voice gruff, agitated. “You’ll need your strength.”
Grabbing his spear with finality, he slinks into the forest and vanishes. I bring my legs together and hug them, feeling more alone than I’ve ever been before. Hurt that I offered my body to him and he rejected me.
My heart aches.
He’s right.
I lean my face into my knees.
Now he knows I’m truly not fantastical after all.
The next morning, I rise bleary-eyed, rubbing my joints where they locked overnight. When I’m done, I find Vruksha perched on the ruins of the building, his tail hanging down the side, watching me.
I inhale sharply.
He could’ve been there all night while I waited for his return, and I would’ve never known. He jumps down and, without a word, checks my bandages. He slips our supply bag over his shoulder after handing me a ration.
“Eat.”
“Last night—”
“We’ll talk later,” he says, rounding his arm under me to help me stand. He lifts me, but I push him away, keeping my feet on the ground.
“I can do this.”
For once, he doesn’t argue. Instead, he takes the lead, leaving me his tailtip to grasp if I need it. And for the rest of the trek, we’re climbing, moving from one ledge to the next, working our way up. Each step is easier than the last. He doesn’t speak, and so I don’t either.
He intimidates me, I realize. It’s not that I fear him; I’m intimidated by him. I don’t know how to… make things right. Every time I want to, my tongue grows big and my throat constricts.
I try and focus on our surroundings while I swallow all of my words.
The trees have grown thick and tall, and there are fewer of them with leaves and more with green needles and cones. As we journey higher, I catch glimpses of the horizon and survey the terrain. There is a giant lake far in the distance, and I see streams and ponds. There are mountains around the facility—I knew this going in—and the forest is thick. But peering down into the gorge we were in earlier, I find dead spots here and there. Little patches where there are no trees but ruins.
We’ve come across many things, broken structures, overgrown buildings, and even items in the forest. I try to commit them to memory so I can use them as landmarks in the future.
Vruksha always seems to know where he’s going, despite how many miles we travel, even without a compass or a mapping system. To me, it’s amazing.
Seeing a spot of color by my foot, I lean down to pick up what appears to be a doll. Brushing the dirt off it, Vruksha pivots back to me and tugs me into his chest.
I tense, waiting for him to tell me what’s wrong, but when a minute goes by and he doesn’t, I start to get afraid. I whisper, “Do you hear something?”
“Another naga.” Holding me hard to his chest, he moves us to a nearby tree, ducking under its low branches. He scans the canopy above us.
I search with him. “They’re still out here?”
His eyes slide to me. “They live here.”
“So close to the facility? Isn’t that dangerous?” I shiver.
“This was our land first.”
“What do we do?”
“Move quietly and not alert them that you are here.”
My eyes go wide. “And if they find out I am?”
“I kill them and you run.”
I drop the dirty doll and grip my walking stick. “Fine. Okay.”
“Stay close to me.”
I nod.
Vruksha helps me out from
