Page 58 of Galaxy Games Four-Book Box Set (Galaxy Games)

58

This Moment

1 213

I know how to slay a humanoid in one second. I’ve been taught to kill using everything from my thumbs to a simple ceramic cup. My masters trained me in every type of weaponry from antique swords, bows and arrows, to laser cannons.

I’m defenseless. I have no weapons other than a small, sharp knife. Strong as I am, my fangs and claws would be no match against that large creature whose spiked teeth are dripping with saliva at the thought of eating us. He stands on two gigantic hind legs. If his arms were longer, they’d reach us, but they’re small things and despite his efforts, can’t reach farther than ten feet below us.

Sadie’s making a guttural noise from the back of her throat. Her eyes are wide in panic. I think she’d be screaming, except she’s afraid to make things worse.

“He can’t reach us. See? He’s straining and the highest he can reach is two branches down from us.” I try to reassure her.

“Yeah, but what happens when his momma shows up?”

She reeks of fear. I rub her back as I think.

“Want to move higher? I can carry you.” When I stand and open my arms to her, she looks down in fear and freezes. “Close your eyes. Trust me.”

Shockingly, she does.

I stand her up, ease her onto my back, and climb the trunk past two sturdy branches, then settle on the third. Thanks to my primate DNA and my claws, we’re much higher now. I hadn’t climbed this high the first time, thinking she would be terrified of this height.

“You might want to keep your eyes closed,” I say as I settle her on the branch next to the trunk and we resume our previous position—facing opposite directions. Originally, it was so we could keep lookout in different directions, but I don’t think she’s going to want to open her eyes.

I enjoy it because it allows me to keep my arm around her. I like her warmth and her soft body pressed against mine. It surprises me when she circles her arm around me as well. I know it’s to keep her balance, but I pretend she does it on purpose to stay close to me.

“Why keep my eyes closed?” her voice is tense, verging on panic. “Is it coming up after us? Are we about to die?”

“You’re safe, Sadie. I just thought the height might frighten you.”

Her eyes pop open. “No. I’m fine. That gymnastic training I told you about? It got me a job at Eleura Cirque. It was entertainment like vids, but it was live. I danced in the rafters on long silken sheets. It was almost this high.”

“Really, Sadie?” I almost tell her I’d like to see it someday, but odds are we’ll be dead in a day or two. And if we live through this? She’ll never want to see me again. Why would she? I’m a geneslave.

“If we live through this, I’ll show you,” her voice is almost light, as if she’s forgotten the monster grunting at the bottom of the tree.

“I’d like that.”

Our gazes meet for a moment and everything slips away. I push everything out of my mind but her. Ignoring the gargantua butting its body against the tree as well as its trumpeting bellows, I push away my awareness that if we fell from our high perch, we’d crash to our death. I forget Zedd and the network and the fact that when they said Down to Two, they meant only two out of one hundred would walk out of here alive.

I fall into Sadie’s gaze. I still smell her fear, but I somehow know she’s holding onto me as if I’m the only thing between her and certain death. She’s counting on me to protect her. For the first time in my life, I’m important not for what I am, but for who I am. She’s not looking at me as if I’m a tool. She’s looking at me as if I’m 1213.

The beast down below quits bellowing and butting the tree, but doesn’t amble away. He’s rooting at the vegetation around the bottom of the tree.

Sadie

It looks like we’re going to be stuck up here a while longer. I don’t want to talk about our circumstances. What is there to say? We’re going to die.

I don’t want to be left alone with my own thoughts, either. That would be too maudlin.

Nor do I want to ask about his childhood. He’s already given me enough hints that I’m not sure I want to know more. I’ll throw him a softball question. That will get him talking, keep my mind off the dire reality of my life, and let me get to know him better. He probably doesn’t want the silence any more than I do.

“What’s your best memory?” I ask.

He tips his head thoughtfully, then cocks it in the other direction. Shit. The pain on his face is obvious. I thought I’d asked a neutral question. No. A positive one. It’s heartbreaking that he has no answer for this.

Finally, I see he’s come up with something. His shoulders loosen and he gives the slightest nod.

“This moment,” he says, his canine lips curling into the tiniest smile.