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  “No.”

  His nostrils flared. “You dare defy me?”

  “Yahiro’s hurt, tired, disoriented, and far too weak to stay on the ground much longer. Once the light returns, I plan to take her back to the city.”

  Sundamar felt the burn of defiance course through him. No one went against a direct order, not Galan, not Annahs, and not Quist. He bore his willpower through his brother’s puttering heart, furious that he would even chance the words aloud.

  Quist had been a heretic since the beginning of days, since before Lusheenn had left, and Sundamar abided by his brother’s ill will because their Creator had. But to utter words against his was treason. He fisted his hands at his side and his broadsword drew near him. The light that shielded them flared. The stone reacts to my will. His eyes once again fell upon it where it rested on the female’s chest.

  She holds more sway than I do now. He ground his teeth together. And she hasn’t even uttered a word. The prospect that she was hurt, that she was anything didn’t bother him because now that he was present, everything would be better, for him, for Quist, and especially for her.

  The need to have her in his arms grew with his rage.

  He heard the feathers surrounding him straighten and saw them lengthen in his periphery.

  “Calm. Calm down, Sundamar.”

  Sundamar’s hand shot out and gripped Quist’s neck just as his broadsword shot back into his hand, but not before the whip coiled around his neck.

  “What the!?” The female startled awake and tried to move out from Quist’s hold but his brother wouldn’t let her. Her foreign words fell dead on his ears. Neither one of them would hurt the female.

  “Smart to keep her between us,” he sneered.

  She stiffened and stopped fighting, her heart thundering for all to hear. He could smell her lifeforce and blood thrumming through her body. The power that screamed she was his roared in his ears. He wanted her more than anything in that moment, regardless of the noose around his neck.

  “Sundamar, don’t.”

  He heard his brother but reached for her anyway. The cord tightened around his neck, cutting off his airway.

  All shadowed dirt broke loose.

  The sword came down between them to slice the whip but it didn’t cut. The female screamed. She was thrust away out of his reach and beyond his sight behind Quist’s wing.

  His mind cleared long enough, but too late, to realize what he had done.

  “Stop!”

  Quist leaped on him, slamming him back and tightening his hold on his whip. Sundamar gasped for breath and pivoted on his side, straight into a feathered wall. The whip slithered around him, around his hand, and over his sword. He fought its hold with all the remaining light he had left.

  He lifted his sword to slash at the golden thread but not before darkness overtook him. The deep black shock of it was more startling than hearing Yahiro for the first time. He swung out without thought, desperate to go after the light and the girl who held it, fighting against the roars in his ears caused by Quist’s voice, and struck true.

  The whip released and slithered to the ground. Sundamar sucked in a painful breath and moved to rise but was pushed back and thrown to the mossy ground. The connection fading further and further away as his brother’s body landed on top of his. No.

  Sundamar dropped his weapon and caught the jerking tremors of Quist’s body. NO! His chest was quickly drenched in hot blood that wasn’t his own. I can’t see! He maneuvered the body flat onto the ground and checked for wounds, finding where his sword had cleaved Quist’s side.

  He couldn’t see!

  “Don’t return to the clay!” he ordered, pressing his palms into the gash that continued to flood his hands. Quist sputtered a wet reply Sundamar couldn’t make out. “NO!” he screamed feeling so many emotions that his mind went blank until it was eclipsed with dread.

  “You can’t go. Don’t go.” Not after losing Annahs so recently, not after rediscovering... Sundamar leaned his head into his brother’s chest and begged... Not after rediscovering sorrow. Sorrow and hope.

  The taut skin went cold beneath his palms. He prayed harder.

  Lusheenn, please. Please! The shuddering movements came to a horrible stop.

  “Lusheenn!” he screamed, and all the night animals fled.

  Sundamar fell to his side and pulled Quist’s lifeless body against his own and fell into silence.

  Chapter Eight

  YAHIRO

  She gripped the tree, heaving, trying to catch her breath, her eyes tearing up from the stress of the moment. Of waking up to a strange alien man staring down at her, of him grabbing hold of her arm and forcibly pulling her from her safe cocoon within Quist’s arms. Even now as she bent over, her free hand rubbing the cramps from her side, she felt the alien’s grip on her. Saw his molten precious metal eyes.

  Too much. Her throat burned from the chilly air. I can’t take much more. For the next several minutes all she could do was cough, catch her breath, and tame the nerves that remained intact.

  What had she been thinking? Yahiro dropped to her knees on the cold forest floor. Every time I let down my guard, the carousel jumps off the rails. She rubbed her nose against her shoulder and caught hold of her talisman, leeching its warmth for her own.

  When she began to shake, feeling a full-blown panic attack arise, a sorrowful bellow filled the night. She shrank further into herself, barely holding back her screams. Her hands left the stone as her shivers became trembles. She pressed her nails hard into her skin and up her clothed arms, over her neck until she streaked them over her scalp. I can’t take anymore. Tears streamed down her cheeks, desperately missing Quist. Yahiro pulled at her hair.

  The pain stabilized her.

  She didn’t know how much time passed. She didn’t even care, as she warred to keep her mind from shattering while part of her wanted to give in.

  Please, Quist, find me. Where are you? Find me. Where are you? She couldn’t muster the willpower to look up, crying and begging for her alien in her mind. But as more time passed and her head went numbingly clear, she realized he wasn’t coming. I’m not in your sight anymore. She sniffled back a cry.

  It wasn’t until another horrible, gut-wrenching roar sounded that she realized the worst of the panic attack had ebbed and she’d come out the other end sane and alive. Her body missed Quist’s warmth, his strength, his steady presence. She knew she was being irrational, but he was the first good thing to happen to her and she’d latched onto it. Now she was attached to the point that even after just a few days, she didn’t think she could face this new world without him.

  The connection that zipped and zinged through her whenever they touched had felt so right, so perfect. It was as though their bond had been predestined straight from the beginning despite the billions of miles in between.

  Yahiro pulled herself back up to her feet, even more tired than before, and chanced a glance around her. It was still dark but it now had that gauzy feel of early morning. A stringy path of light shot out from her stone that led her back into the dense forest. It was the same airy trail that had appeared that first night in the swamp.

  And it led me off a cliff...

  She wiped her hands on her shirt and followed it anyway, already knowing exactly where it was leading her. It wasn’t long before she came back upon the stranger who had grabbed her.

  She tiptoed toward him and Quist, who was lying on the ground, and choked. Yahiro rushed to his side without a thought to the other alien. Quist was motionless and covered in blood. Her eyes immediately fell to the wound on his side and the large hands that put pressure on it.

  “What’ve you done!?” She dropped to her knees with a cry and peeled the stranger's fingers away but quickly stopped when the blood started running again. “Oh my god.” Yahiro clenched her eyes shut and forced the nausea back down her throat.

  “I killed him,” the strange alien answered her, his voice dead. She glanced up to see h
is features no longer painted in wild aggression. They were now numb and zombielike. “It’s my fault.” He briefly looked at her, shadows and light danced across his somber features before he huddled back over her alien.

  Her heart was in her throat and fear clogged her head. He can’t die. Quist promised. You promised! She tore off her necklace and the stone attached and placed it on his chest, hoping for something, anything to happen. Nothing did. Helplessly, she wiped the blood off her hands over the moss, pausing when she felt a stray feather beneath her fingers. She lifted it between them and clenched it into her fist.

  “You’re not dying on me. Not now!”

  She turned away, stumbling over herself and got to work picking up all the loose feathers she could find. Her hands were filled within seconds. Her eyes landed on the fallen broadsword and with gritted teeth and pain, lifted and dragged it away. The other alien didn’t even notice.

  “Help me!” she screeched in frustration, unable to watch Quist die, unable to look directly at him for fear she’d be too late.

  Somehow the new alien heard her and straightened, his fingertips dripping with blood, his shadowy gold eyes piercing through her soul. “There’s nothing we can do!”

  Yahiro quickly turned away and lowered her feathers into the water, drenching them. “We can save him if we hurry!” she said it more for herself than for him. She returned to Quist’s side and laid his feathers in and over his wound, hoping they would help him like they had helped her. Immediately the blood stopped flowing and her heart skipped a beat.

  Please, please, please! Please work. “I need a-a knife, a dagger?” she stumbled over her request as she cleaned Quist’s wounds, hating that her alien showed no sign of life. “I can’t lose you now, I’ve lost so much...”

  The other alien produced a skinny curved blade and handed it to her. He remained silent, but watchful. Her adrenaline pumped through every fiber of her being while her heart cracked like glass with each passing second.

  She removed the feathers and checked the wound, disgusted by how deep it was, but moved on quickly. Her hands shook as she worked. First, she pulled the thread from Quist’s hair and had the new alien rinse it in the water; while he did that, she shaved the frills off of one of Quist’s shorter feathers and made a shabby needle out of its stem. Her eyes brimmed with tears, looking at her handiwork with shame, but threaded it anyway.

  “What are you doing?”

  Yahiro pinched the bloody-again skin together and sucked in a breath. She had been trained for emergencies but she only had second hand knowledge of sewing wounds back together.

  “I fucking miss Earth,” she hissed as she poked the feather stem through Quist’s skin, and with many mishaps, proceeded to sew his wound together.

  Time passed with numerous curses, choking retches, and the other alien sitting on the other side of her constantly cleaning and changing the feathers she gathered. No matter what he did or didn’t do, she didn’t think she could forgive him.

  When her makeshift needle broke, he prepared another one for her. Neither of them checked Quist’s pulse, neither one wanting to know if their effort was for nothing. She told herself it was better off not knowing, not yet at least, not until she had done everything she possibly could to save him.

  It seemed like hours had gone by before she finished stitching his skin.

  Finger joints aching, Yahiro rubbed her nose over her sleeve and sat back, eyeing her work for any gaps that she may have missed but found none, only red and swollen skin. She startled when an arm nudged her to the side and the other alien, so alike Quist yet not, took over.

  With his hand filled with freshly wet feathers, he tenderly placed them over the wound until it was fully covered, and she reached forward to use the others to clean off the rest of his golden skin. His beautifully honed skin... Her eyes fell upon it, the piercings, the star shapes, and the silken hair that haloed his head. She took him in, remembering the feel of it all over her not an evening past. Her own skin grew cold from the thought of never being warmed by his again.

  Yahiro pressed a hand over her heart, wishing the ache would stop. None of it made sense to her. None of it. Only that she had bonded to Quist so suddenly, so absolutely it was like Cupid himself using Apollo’s bow and arrows shooting her straight to soul. She sniffled and pulled her knees to her chest while hovering over his face, brushing her fingers over his brow, and losing them in his hair. She leaned down and kissed his unresponsive lips and nuzzled his face. Please.

  With her breath against his cheek, she murmured, “Please, Lusheenn.” The grey and gold blending of early dawn flowed now throughout the glen.

  “Who are you?”

  Yahiro looked up to see the other alien staring at her intensely. She wiped her tears.

  “Yahiro of Quist,” she breathed.

  His face softened into shock before it was quickly gone and he nodded, keeping his eyes on her. His gaze was heavy and made her feel small. He makes me feel like a butterfly next to an eagle. She did her best to keep her courage in place. But the longer they looked at each other, the more she saw the resemblance to Quist in him.

  Major differences aside, being this new valos had no wings and was in a full suit of gilded armor, their build and shape were the same. Even the color and length of their long hair were the same. But for some reason, she had the notion this one was a lot older and it wasn’t for his rugged, hard appearance... He had an air about him that intimidated her into a puddle of mush. Where Quist was pierced by metal, this one had no piercings whatsoever.

  She tore her gaze from his and ran it over his armor. He looked like a medieval knight, straight from the Templars, or from some alternate fantastical world where paladins existed and they embodied righteousness. He screamed authority without opening his mouth.

  Yahiro looked back at Quist’s wound. The feathers were unblemished with blood but it didn’t make her feel better.

  The paladin cleared his throat and it made her heart skip a beat.

  “Where are you from?” his voice was razor-sharp with demand. She frowned, hating the way it made her feel.

  “Earth.”

  “I’ve never heard of them.”

  Them? Yahiro leaned over and rested her head against Quist’s chest, hoping to hear a heartbeat, knowing he may not even have a heart.

  “Earth is a place,” she whispered, her mood sinking further.

  “In the sky?”

  She closed her eyes. Please stop talking.

  “Sure. Yes.”

  “I’ve never heard of this Earth,” he murmured, his voice directly beside her now. She stopped herself from flinching and fleeing, reaching out instead to clasp the stone she had placed on Quist’s chest and pressed it between her palm and his chilly skin.

  “You wouldn’t have.”

  “My name is Sundamar...”

  “I don’t care!” Yahiro snapped out, feeling a little guilty when he didn’t say anything after.

  The hours slipped by until the morning light streamed through the trees like thrown spears and as she knew would happen, the stone held between her and Quist vanished as daybreak stole away the night. She clung to it, to him, as hard as she could even knowing Sundamar was right across from her waiting and watching. Yahiro didn’t care. She didn’t even know if she hated him; she just wanted one thing to go right in her miserable life.

  One. Damn. Thing.

  He remained unmoving under her cheek and she was about to accept the fact that he was gone when a beam of light hit them directly and his wing flopped.

  “Quist?” her voice came out hoarse and thick. She lifted her head and looked over his body, hoping for more movement but nothing happened and the glen dipped back into waning light and tree-shadow. “Quist?” she sniffled and peeled back the damp wings over his wound carefully. Sundamar stood abruptly, giving her room, and moved away as if her closeness suddenly bothered him. She paid him no mind as she switched out the feathery bandages.

  Sudd
enly crunching and crushing sounds filled her ears, startling her backward but not before her eyes filled with blinding sunlight.

  “Stop!” she shrieked, unsure why, trying to see but her eyes wouldn’t dilate fast enough. Branches, leaves, and bark rained down around the area, all of it missing her and Quist, and under the ruckus, she heard a moaned gasp escape his lips.

  Yahiro turned back toward him and cupped his cheeks. “Quist? Wake up. Please. You’re safe, I promise. Please wake up!” she begged but he did nothing by squirm and groan. The sun continued to fill the space until she sat within a ringlet of gold and had a wall of broken up and cleaved brush around her.

  The sun is helping him.

  She shot to her feet and tore away any of the remaining brush, following the other alien around as he slashed his sword in powerful arcs, one-shotting trees straight in half. Each one that he felled made her heart race faster, all honed down to land opposite of her and Quist. Yahiro dragged the sticks away and returned her focus on keeping the area around them clear, and when that was done, when the other alien was single-handedly creating his own little field, she worked on dousing Quist’s body with fresh water and wiping the sweat that poured from his skin. She created a leafy pillow for his head to rest upon.

  Time continued to pass and she eventually got rid of the bandages altogether, shifting her alien’s body so his wound had direct light. When his eyelids fluttered and a soft breath escaped his lips, she curled up into herself and cried.

  His chest fell and rose as if he was in nothing more than a deep slumber. When her tears dried and her skin tightened under the rays of the sun, she squeezed his hand and made her way to Sundamar, who had yet to stop his deforestation.

  “Sundamar?” she said, hesitantly. When he continued on as if he didn’t hear her, his armor clanking under another powerful swipe, she grasped the cloth furrows between the armored slates at his back. “Sundamar, he’s fine.”

  It was the least she could do. Before he answered her, she turned around and went to the water. His heavy steps snapped the fallen branches but she refused to look, knowing he moved to Quist’s side. Yahiro didn’t want to thank him. She didn’t want to look at him. Instead, she wanted Quist to get better so he could pick her up and fly her somewhere far away.