Page 20

Lisa

I t takes what feels like eons for Evie to calm Jade down. At first, she refuses to believe we are real, and I don’t blame her. She is nothing but skin and bone. I can only imagine what she has been through, alone and out here on this strange planet.

Imagine is all I can do until Evie settles her. Once Jade believes Evie is firm and real, and not a figment of her imagination or death reincarnate coming to claim her, the next obstacle is the Celetans.

The aliens frighten Jade in both their wolf form—understandable—and humanoid form. I try to recall where Jade is from, if it is Terra or another mostly human planet. It would be exceptionally rare for her not to have encountered another lifeform in this day and age, but perhaps she has been planet bound. Or she is just very jumpy and anxious about everything.

While Evie settles her, and most of the pack shift outside, I shore up the fire. Jade had been trying to burn the food supply instead of the wood, which explains her pitiful fire.

Once it is roaring and the cave is filled with light, her cries and screams have stopped. Evie holds her tightly to her side, and Axyll drapes one of the spare furs around them both. He does so with careful, small movements, as Jade flinches away from him.

Soon the cave is warm and cozy. Kalpa cooks stew over the fire. His blue eyes flick to Jade every few moments with a worried expression. I can’t help but fixate on his behaviour. We’re all antsy about what she will have to say—about the fate of the others. My skin itches in waiting. I want to shake her and demand to know where the rest of my crew is. But that won’t do any good. She is traumatized.

But the look Kalpa gives her go beyond anticipation. The way his Seeker shines when he turns towards her is familiar. It’s the same gleam that happens when Axyll is with Evie, and when Juk looks at me. All I can think about now is my earlier conversation with Evie. How she’s certain there are no pheromones in the astrostingents in the air, because then we’d be lusting after each Celetan that walks by. About what she’s said about how some things can’t be explained. Some things are mysterious and are meant to remain a mystery. But if another pairing is happening before my eyes, then... well, I don’t know what to think. I don’t want to think we came here for a reason, that we were meant to arrive on this frozen rock. I’ll never accept that Chunhua and Delphine were meant to die in those horrible ways.

Fate is a strange thing though. I doubt Jade will be interested in Kalpa any time soon. She shrinks away from him as he offers her a bowl of stew.

“Thank you, Kalpa,” Evie says, accepting it on her behalf. “Jade, it’s food. These people won’t hurt you.”

Evie’s been murmuring the same things over and over for the past twenty minutes. Jade listens quietly as she explains the Celetans and the Snowscape Pack, how Melanie and Katie are alive. She doesn’t mention the rival packs or that she’s mated with the alpha.

I sit down on Jade’s other side. Kalpa hands me a cup of soup and I nod in thanks. I take an exaggerated gulp of it, hoping to prove to Jade that it’s safe. It’s a bit bland and watered down as we try to save rations, but it’s not bad. The warmth from it spreads through me, and I’m pretty sure I’ve burnt my tongue.

Slowly, Jade takes a sip. As more silent minutes pass, her shoulders start to relax. Evie keeps her arm around her, rubbing her arm comfortingly. Kalpa sits on the other side of the fire, watching Jade. Axyll murmurs something in their native tongue, and Kalpa averts his eyes and instead starts to poke the fire.

The alpha checks the cave behind us. Apparently, this was one of the bigger Snowscape caves in their territory. At one point it had been considered as a spot for a second den, generations ago when the pack was thriving, but the alpha at that time considered it too close to the Stygian territory.

“Jade,” Evie says at last. Her voice is gentle but firm. “Why are you out here on your own? What happened to the others?”

I grip my cup as Jade stays silent. Her eyes find the fire, the flames dancing in their reflection. I know the look in her eyes. Whatever has happened is replaying in her mind. I can almost see the horrors of whatever they went through flashing before her eyes.

Jade takes a deep breath and I hold mine. They have to still be alive. Gabby, Chelsea, Vivianna, Allison. Jade can’t be the only one who made it. But as she opens her mouth, something catches her attention and she snaps it shut.

Juk crawls through the hole. He has been ensuring its stability, packing it with snow and rounding out the edges so it does not collapse. Tabros and Bex will spend the night outside in their wolf forms should we need to be dug out again. And to protect the sled and supplies.

His eyes meet mine at once. I give him a slight nod, assuring him I’m OK. Jade shrinks back as he stands, the full height of him towering. There’s a swell of pride in me that I would have once ignored, but now I embrace it. The curve of his muscles, the bright tinge of his skin. I admire all of it as he walks over. He gently places his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it as he walks past to join Axyll behind us. I suspect they’re giving some space so as not to frighten Jade.

“That’s Juk,” I explain. “He’s one of the pack’s betas.”

“H-he’s so big,” Jade whispers.

I nod. “He’s the tallest, yes. All the Celetans are taller than us. But as Evie said, they are kind. They saved us and took us in. And now we’re here to save you—and the others.” I emphasize the last point.

“What happened, Jade?” Evie asks again gently. “Start from the beginning.”

Jade turns her focus back to Evie. Tears brim in her eyes and as they run down her cheeks, they leave clear tracks in the grime on her face.

“T-the cargo hold broke off from the ship,” she says, her voice shaking. That blank look in her eyes returns as she remembers. I can’t imagine what free-falling in that tin can must have felt like. To my own surprise, I reach out and place my hand on her knee. She glances at me before looking back at Evie. “It was horrible. W-we had barely anything to grab onto. It felt like we were falling forever before we crashed.

“But we all survived, somehow. Vivianna’s leg was broken. One of the crates crushed it as the cargo hold flipped on the way down. Allison and Chelsea set it and wrapped it as best as they could. That was the worst injury. Gabby’s leg is still in pain, too. None of the equipment works, so we couldn’t communicate with the bridge. Raegan would go and hunt food for us, while Allison and Chelsea would keep the fires going and melt snow for water. We set up a camp but argued about sending someone out to go find you guys. We didn’t know where to start looking or if you had survived.

“Four days ago, Raegan went out to search. She never returned. And then t-two days ago...” her voice hitches. The tears pour faster down her face. I squeeze her knee, holding my breath. “There was an earthquake.”

I close my eyes. The feel of the quake shakes through my memory. The sound of the crumbling rocks, the dust of the rubble left behind. Katie and Hazen trapped on the other side.

“We felt it,” Evie says as Jade falls silent. She glances towards me and I sigh.

“Katie was with us,” I start.

“D-did she die?”

“No,” I say. “She and one of the Celetans were separated from us. Trapped on the other side of a cave collapse. They’ve assured me—us—that she’ll be fine, and that they’ll find their way back to the Snowscape’s den.”

“What happened with the earthquake, Jade?” Evie asks gently to steer us back on track.

Jade’s hands shake as she looks back at Evie and gestures towards her, setting the scene. “W-well it was in the morning—as you know. A few of us stepped outside to, you know... do our business. We set up a ‘latrine’ area in a little hollowed out rock a few feet from the ship. I was the last to go...”

She takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a moment. The flames’ light dances off the tears glistening against the seam of eyelids. “The ground started to shake the moment I stepped outside. Allison and Navi started to run back for the ship. They probably thought it was the safest place to be, as I did. I started after them, but tripped on the lip of the hollowed out rock on my way out. It crumbled apart like a house of cards, and my foot was stuck. I wasn’t hurt, thankfully, but... that two-minute delay changed everything.

“Navi and Allison made it back to the ship. The ground was shaking so much, I could barely run straight. And then, suddenly—”

A loud sob escapes her and Evie wraps her arm around her. My heart thumps hard in my chest, waiting. Waiting for whatever terrible ending fits Jade’s story. Something horrible has happened, and I can barely contain the anxiety crawling under my skin.

“What happened, Jade? Where are the others?” I ask. I try to keep my voice soft, gentle, to keep it monotone, but it comes out snappish. This whole trip has been to find them. If it was all for nothing...

Evie shoots me a look, but Jade sobs out her reply. “The ground opened up—s-split open right down the middle of where the ship rested. It swallowed the cargo hold whole.”

Jade’s breath stutters as she sucks the snot back into her nose, her tears uncontrollable. My lungs cease working, unable to take in any fresh air.

“There was nothing I could do,” Jade cries, her attention turned to me. As though I would blame her for a natural disaster, one that has already separated part of our group. “One minute the ship was there, on shaking ground. The next it was gone—p-plummeted to the bottom of the newly made gorge.”

Any further attempt of explanation is lost. Jade’s words turn incomprehensible as her cries become louder and her breaths shallow. Evie holds her as Jade sobs on her shoulder, her own face now white as the snow outside.

Jade’s cries turn to white noise in my ears. All I can hear are the screams of the women in the cargo hold as it ripped from the ship during our crash into the planet. They had to experience that freefall again? It was miraculous that they survived the first time. A second would be unlikely.

All at once, I feel light-headed. Maybe it’s grief, maybe it’s the hard labour of the travel catching up to me, but I sink to my knees. Far away from Jade’s cries, I can hear Axyll and Juk speaking together in their native tongue. Their words are quiet, fluid and foreign to my ears, nothing but whispers among the white noise of the cave.

“I need some air,” I gasp, suddenly desperate to get out of the cave.

Before anyone can stop me, I race for the snow tunnel. The icy walls bite into my hands as I scrabble out as fast as possible.

This is it, I think. This is the end. There is no saving everybody. There is no finding scrap parts in hope of communicating with an embassy or passing ship. We’re really stuck here.

Forever.