She seemed to be trying to get closer to him, trying to climb into him.
“Shh. I’ve got you, you’re ok.” Silas felt her body begin to shiver, a sign of the shock leaving her system he hoped. He carried her slowly out of the water and to the shore. She didn’t fight him anymore. Instead, she turned her face into his chest and curled up into a small ball when he laid her down, her hands like claws gripping him until finally, she slept. While Silas watched her, she slowly settled, a shudder disrupting her still form now and again. Her knees remained close to her chest but her hands relaxed. He stayed as he was, holding her tight to him, fully aware of how close he had come to losing her. It was in that moment that his pity turned to something else.
* * *
The scent of cooking meat woke Rowan as the sun’s final rays disappeared into the horizon. She was lying on her side on the ground with her fur wrapped over her and her head resting on Silas’ shirt. She knew it without having to look at it: his scent clung to it.
Slowly, the events of the day came back to her, how she had lain down to take a rest and when she’d woken, the creature had been resting its head on her lap as if waiting for her to wake, its body already having trapped her legs, the feel of it, its weight, its texture still very vivid on her mind.
She shuddered and sat upright, gasping. She turned to where the sound of crackling wood came from to find Silas tending the fire, watching her. Meat smoked on a stick suspended above the flames and she knew where that meat had come from. Her stomach heaved at the thought but at the same time, hunger made her mouth water.
“Feeling better?” Silas asked. The look in his eyes was something unreadable, not quite angry but not wholly tender either. She knew from looking at them that there would be a reckoning and soon.
“Yes,” she said, pulling the fur tighter around her shoulders. “Thank you for…”
“Saving your life?” he asked, filling in when she hesitated.
Rowan dropped her gaze and nodded.
“What are you doing out here? What were you thinking?” he asked, turning the meat.
“I thought I could go back on my own. Make a deal with the captain. Turn myself in in exchange for returning your son and leaving the settlement be.”
He nodded and took the meat off the fire, tearing off a piece and tasting it. “Come here and eat.”
“Silas, I…”
He lifted his gaze to hers, the look halting any more words she would have muttered. “I said come here and eat.”
Rowan rose and went to the fire to sit sat across from him. When she looked up at him, she found him watching her.
“Here,” he said, holding out a piece of meat.
“Is that the snake?”
“Yes. We don’t have anything else so you’ll eat it and you’ll be grateful for it.”
“I don’t think…”
“I said you’ll eat it and you’ll be grateful for it. Is that clear? I don’t have a whole lot of patience for you at the moment, Rowan.”
She lowered her lashes and took the meat from his hands. “Thank you,” she said, placing a morsel onto her tongue. It tasted good, if she could only get the image and the feel and weight of the thing’s head lying on her lap out of her mind long enough to enjoy it.
She took the next piece he offered and they ate in silence, him watching her, her with her head bowed but for occasional glances at him. Once they were finished, Silas added some wood to the fire and turned to her.
“I’m sorry,” she muttered before he said a word.
“Sorry for what exactly?” he asked.
She only dropped her gaze. “I…”
“You only needed to do one thing: stay put. The reason I put you where I did was because the walls underground are too thick for the signal from the colony’s tracking device to transmit. What you’ve done now with your incredibly naïve reasoning is put not only yourself in even more danger but the village as well, not to mention my son.”
“I didn’t mean to. I only wanted…”
“There are a lot of things I want too, Rowan, but I also know I have responsibilities and I think about those responsibilities before I act on impulse. Do you even realize that if I hadn’t found you when I had you’d be dead now? You’d be in the belly of the snake rather than the other way around,” he said, his tone angry now. “Do you realize it? I mean, do you get that?” He shook his head and took a moment before continuing. “Ok, let’s put that aside, say you got to the colony… eventually. What do you think would have happened to the villagers in that time?”
“I don’t know!” Rowan yelled back.