“The monster that attacked us looked like two different creatures mashed together because that’s what it was.” Rae handed Garr his knife back.
“A domé didn’t create it. Someone used this lab. Recently. And that squid beast is what came out.”
Garr shook his head. “It’s impossible. I tested it while you were inside, and I can’t enter if I wanted to.” He lifted a hand, stepped past Rae, and a flash of blue light filled the air. It coalesced into a translucent wall, which his hand pressed flat against.
“It’s reading your DNA and stopping you from entering,” Rae said. “Amazing.”
“So only a human could have used the facility.”
Rae shook her head. “Someone found a way around it. They used this lab to fuse that creature together. Sometime in the last week, they created it specifically to hunt us in Lyr’s territory. I think someone might be trying to kill you.”
“Or you,” Garr said. “When Vaya brought reports from Earth, I mentioned to my council that I was interested in you as a mate. It’s possible someone on my council or anyone who heard the rumors in my homestead would send a beast to assassinate you.
It was you who the beast most explicitly attacked, and you who Lyr ultimately had to use to coax it out of hiding.”
Rae remembered something and cool dread pooled in her stomach. “Sylla found grave berries on my clothes. So not only did someone create this monster, but they found a way to key it to attack me by sabotaging my clothes.” Rae swallowed.
“The only person besides you who was in Lyr with me was… Vaya. But how could she have created the monster if she was with you the whole time?”
Garr’s face went stony and blank. “She was sent to scout ahead on Earth and arrived at the tree house before any of us. She had more access to this site than anyone else, and went back and forth to Earth twice before I ever left.” He sighed.
“She could have bred the creature in advance. She… may have been able to thwart the scanners that bar me access using some kind of human technology stolen from Earth.”
Glancing back at the waterfall, he added, “If she betrayed me, she’s probably still nearby. I doubt she went back to Kaython’s Mouth with the sample at all. She’ll be waiting to ambush us—to finish what she started.”
Chapter Thirteen
They rappelled down the cliff and made quickly for the tree house, where Garr checked every room for Vaya before leaving Rae in the observatory with Sylla.
He assured her the room’s glassy skin was largely impenetrable, and Rae meditated on the qualifier “largely” while Garr searched the surrounding forests for his quarry.
She wound up pacing, antsy, hoping Garr and Vaya would return with an extraordinarily logical explanation. They would laugh at the misunderstanding and have drinks together.
While Vaya had irked her at times, the giantess had been an often-friendly presence during a difficult time.
Sylla provided her warm tea to soothe her nerves. After sipping it, the strong herbal brew took the edge off and Rae collapsed into a chair with Sylla opposite her. The dryad’s enormous, amber eyes were filled with concern.
“How well do you know Vaya?” Rae asked.
“Not well.” Sylla folded her hands over one knee. “I’ve only served in domé Kaython a short time.”
“I didn’t even know Ythirians could trade their domé for another.”
“Oh yes. Cultures can differ between domé, and friendly domé often trade their members to increase everyone’s happiness. I am from Tanu, to the far south, and was traded to Kaython for one of her omegas.”
“So you haven’t known Garr long?”
“No. Prime Garr rotates new omegas in and out of tasks, to acclimate us to the domé. I was selected for this journey. Prime Garr is most equitable and fair.” She bowed her head.
“Yeah, he’s swell.” Rae’s limbs felt more exhausted than her racing mind, a likely product of the climb and the fact someone was hunting her. “Do you think Vaya is trying to kill me?”
“Most assuredly not.”
The words prickled Rae’s skin and she glanced at the tea, her vision unfocused.
A terrible idea slithered into her mind, and she assembled the disparate pieces into a horrifying picture. Staring at Sylla, she tried to speak, but no words came out.
“Something the matter?” Sylla stood and fetched the teacup, sniffing it.
“You drugged me.”
“It’s taken effect faster than I’d anticipated. Human anatomy is less hardy than Ythirian, I suppose.”
“It was you.” Dread pooled in the cold cellar of Rae’s stomach. Her lethargic limbs were nonresponsive and she could not stand, let alone run. “You made the monster.”