I take a gander at it as we pass by. The blood spray is everywhere and the thing…well, I’m surprised I can tell it was a metlak. It looks as if it’s been chewed up and spit back out again.
I shiver and pick up the pace behind Haeden.
* * *
We keep a murderous pace through the day, and I do my best to keep up. It’s clear to me that the easy-but-brisk travel of yesterday is gone and in its place, we’re marching at a breakneck pace. It sucks. It sucks even more that he’s picking a twisty trail instead of an obvious one, keeping us near the trees or walking in the shadow of a rocky cliff instead of out in the open. That means the drifts are higher, the wind is colder, and all of the travel is just garbage and a half. Even though it’s taking everything I have, I manage to keep up (well, relatively) and Haeden doesn’t carry me.
By the time the twin moons are directly overhead and the snow is lit up with the night, Haeden steers me toward a rocky outcropping. “Hunter cave in there.”
Thank God. My legs feel ready to fall off and my toes went numb with cold hours ago. My cootie’s too tired to sing, even, and all it manages is a half-assed purr when he gets near.
So not scoring tonight.
The cave is clean of any occupants and by the time Haeden strikes up a fire, I’ve barely managed to peel my wet furs off my body. Exhausted, I let him help me undress but I don’t have the energy to do more than crawl into the freshly-unrolled bed furs and collapse.
When I wake up the next morning, he’s holding me against him, his cootie purring happily, and his finger strokes my cheek. I yawn and raise my head to look at the entrance of the cave. There’s sunlight pouring in, which means I’ve slept a good long while.
Doesn’t feel like it. I’m still exhausted.
“Sorry,” I mumble at him, and then set my head back down on his warm shoulder. “Guess I passed out.”
“You are tired.” He traces my jaw lightly. “It is understandable.”
He seems more relaxed today, and I’m too tired to think about sexytimes, so I broach the subject of yesterday’s ‘problem’. “What killed that metlak?”
“Stop asking, Jo-see.”
I ignore his sourness. It’s a ploy to shut me down and I’m wise to him, now. He gets cranky when he doesn’t want to answer. “That’s not an ‘I don’t know’. That’s an ‘I know but I don’t want to tell you’.”
He snorts.
“But you do know, don’t you?”
His hand slides to my arm and he brushes tickling little circles on my bare skin. I’m naked. Oh. So is he. Didn’t realize that until just now, but weirdly enough, it doesn’t feel sexual. I suspect he just wants to hold me. “There are…stories.”
Doesn’t sound like a good start to me. “I’m listening.”
“My father used to say that when it grew too cold, it was a bad thing. That the sky-claws would appear and hunt in sa-khui territory.”
“Sky…claw? I haven’t heard of that.” The words sound strange in the sa-khui tongue.
“There are many reasons why the sa-khui do not live near the great salt waters. The creatures in those waters are very large and aggressive, with many fangs.”
“So I’ve heard.” Harlow has shared some hair-raising stories of the stuff she’s seen. Makes me think of all the documentaries I watched on dinosaurs as a kid - the ocean here is experiencing some primordial soup or something. “And the sky-claw things live in the water?”
“No. They come from above. They snatch their prey from the ground and swallow them whole. And they are big enough to eat a kit the size of Farli.”
I feel sick. I’m the same size as Farli. In fact, I’m pretty sure I have one of her old tunics. “You don’t say.”
“I do not know for sure if it is the sky-claws,” he says, rubbing my arm as if to comfort me. “But if they are, we would do best to keep an eye on the skies.”
Weirdly enough, I think of the big shadow I’d seen flying overhead a few days ago, when I had my spyglass and was scoping out the island. I hadn’t been able to find out what it was. The thought that it could have been some sort of gigantic flying predator that eats people for breakfast fills me with fear. “So the sky-claws hang out on the coast? How come Rukh and Harlow never said anything?”
“They come down when it is cold.”
“It’s always cold!”
“Ah, but this bitter season is much colder than the last one.”
Well, goody. “Do you think they’re coming from the island?”
“Eye-land?”
I sit up and look at him. “There’s something out in the water. If you stare out at it far enough, you can see a smear of green. I think it’s an island. With trees.”
He snorts derision. “Trees are pink. Like you.” His hand smooths down my arm and he gives me a hungry look.
My nipples harden and I remember that I’m naked and giving him some full frontal action. I tap his chest with my hand, because he’s starting to look distracted. “Pay attention, Haeden. Trees are green on my planet. Chlorophyll or some shit. Anyhow, I took this glass thing from the elders’ space ship and it lets you see long distances. I promise I saw a bunch of green and I’m pretty sure it’s an island. Do you think the sky-claw things are coming from there?”
He shrugs. “Does it matter? This area is not safe. We need to avoid the coast and head inland, toward the tribal caves.”
“All right.”
“Which means we should leave soon.”
I groan and flop on the blankets, face down. I’m a heavy sleeper and I need my rest, and I feel like I need a heck of a lot more of it. “How soon is soon?”
He chuckles. “Very soon.”
And then the bastard rips the blankets off of me, leaving me bare-assed in the cold.
* * *
I’m dragging.
I can’t help it. I’m exhausted. Haeden’s trying to be understanding, but he wants to go faster. He’s set another bruising pace today and I’m doing my best to keep up. But every time he wants me to walk nearer the trees, I find myself edging out a bit further. I can’t march like a soldier and somehow plow through the thick drifts and somehow keep up with him. Something’s got to give.
As the day wears on, Haeden’s temper grows shorter. “Hurry,” he snaps at me. “Do I need to carry you?”
“I’m hurrying!” I yell back at him, doing my best to drag my happy ass through the snow. The suns are high in the bleary sky which means we won’t be stopping anytime soon. Harlow and Rukh’s cozy seaside cave is no longer an option - Haeden’s taking me deep into the mountains…which means more snow. Which means it’s even more difficult to keep up. And do I bitch? No. I shut my mouth and walk faster, or try to. I’m covered in sweat, though, and my furs are freezing against my skin. My poor cootie is thrumming, but I’m pretty sure it’s expending most of its energy trying to keep me from being a human Popsicle instead of getting me pregnant. Priorities and all. Meanwhile, Haeden just storms through the snow ahead of me, faster and faster, like it’s nothing.
I glare at his back and his twitching tail. He’s carrying my pack and his, and I should be grateful, but I’m so stinking tired. I just want to rest for a day or three. There’s no rush, I tell myself. There’s no clock to beat. The girls in the tubes are safe for another week or three or even a year. We can camp out in the next little cave for a while and relax. The idea sounds like heaven, and my frozen feet slow even more. I’m exhausted. Maybe he does need to carry me for a bit this afternoon, because I don’t know—
A shadow moves over the ground and glides over me.
I freeze. “Haeden?” My voice is a mere whisper. I clutch my stupid little knife - the one he tells me I need to keep out at all times - tight in my hand. “I think I just saw something.”
He doesn’t turn, too far ahead of me to hear my words.
“Haeden,” I call, louder. This time, he turns. “I think I saw—“
A screech.
The shadow falls over me again.
And then I’m plucked from the ground and something hot and wet surrounds me like a vise. There’s a horrible stink and something hard and pointed drags against my bared skin. Teeth. The vise flexes and then it grows completely dark.
Oh my God. My thoughts are in an utter panic — I’ve just been eaten alive.
“Jo-see!”
17
HAEDEN
“JO-SEE!” My mate’s name is ripped from my throat at the sight of the sky-claw as he descends on her and his pointed mouth plucks her from the snow as if she is nothing, a mere tidbit of meat.
My heart stops in my breast. I stagger to my knees.
My mate.
My everything. She’s gone.
No. No. No.
“NO!”
The life crushes from my chest as I watch the sky-claw flap its wings and lift into the air again. It begins to soar, all wing and sinew and massive, massive jaws.
My mate.
I let out another anguished cry of her name, staggering after the creature even though I know there is no way I can catch him. I cannot fly. Even if I could, my Jo-see is gone. Gone.
I am in agony. I watch the creature soar away and turn my knife to my breast. I will not live without her. I cannot. There is no world if it does not have her smile and her bright, sparkling eyes in it.