squeezed her eyes shut, locking those memories away.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “I know.”
There were many species at the Pit that day. Thanks to the Luxirians, they were freed of that place. And until Jaxor, she’d been very close to returning home, back to Earth. Back to California, back to Jake and Ellora, back to her students, her old life.
Now what?
A drop of fat fell from the meat and sizzled in the fire. A shriek from the tunnel came echoing down. The kekevir seemed more active that night and she spared the darkness behind Jaxor a nervous glance.
“Are they…” she trailed off, not quite sure how to phrase her question.
“I will work on a gate in the morning,” was all he told her.
His response gave her pause and she tilted her head as she looked at him. A gate?
“Why haven’t you built one before?” she questioned.
“Because I can handle a kekevir if it makes it into my base,” was what he said in reply. His unspoken implication was that she could not.
Erin’s brows furrowed, not certain whether to feel thankful or insulted. Even still, him building a gate…that was a big undertaking, wasn’t it? Did that mean he expected to keep her around? That she would remain here? And for how long? Did that mean he’d decided not to trade her off to the Mevirax?
She processed this quietly, trying to decipher what this meant.
Erin decided to change the subject. If she questioned him about it, he would close off. He was finally speaking with her and she couldn’t waste the opportunity.
“Where did you go today?” she asked instead, pulling the fur he’d draped over her shoulders earlier closer as the wind howled louder. She didn’t know how long he’d been gone, just that she’d slept and then awoken to him tearing the door off the cave’s entrance. At least a few hours, she decided, especially since it got dark not long after he returned.
Jaxor watched as she draped the fur over her body, huddling into its warmth. She still wore the tunic she’d gone to sleep in the night before he’d abducted them. Her legs were bare, the material was thin. If she was going to be there for a little while—at least until she saw her crazy plan through to the end—she would have to try to procure more suitable clothes. These were beginning to smell.
“To check traps and get more fuel,” he replied, sliding his arms away from his knees, planting his hands behind him and leaning back. The muscles in his chest shifted with the almost lazy movement, but Erin darted her gaze away.
“And now is when you finally rest for the day?” she asked, seeing a heavy trail of blood leading from the tunnel entrance. She wondered if it would seep into the stone of the crater floor. She’d found the droplets of her own blood she’d left behind and had scrubbed at them with a spare rag she’d found until they were clean. She didn’t need Jaxor inspecting them close enough to see she didn’t cut her foot near the fire pit, but rather in the tunnel.
“For tonight. There is a storm coming. It will hit soon.”
Erin tipped her head back, exposing the column of her throat. The air felt humid but cold, a strange combination. Was that how he could tell? There was still a heavy cloud covering, no different than it’d been that morning.
“Where are we, exactly?” she questioned. She thought it was innocent enough, until he exhaled a rough breath.
“Nix, rixella,” he rasped.
Erin returned her eyes to him, pressing her lips together. “I just meant are we north? I heard it’s colder in the north on your planet.”
“Tev,” he finally said. “We are north of the Golden City.”
It told her nothing, just as he knew it would…which was why he told her in the first place. Anywhere was north of the Golden City, it seemed, based on the locations of the outposts she’d gleaned over time.
He was watching her, as if waiting for her to make a biting comment back or rise to the argument. Perhaps he liked fighting. Maybe he got off on it.
Erin wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, though the need to make a retort burned in her blood. Instead, she forced a small smile and said, almost sweetly, “That was all I wanted to know.”
He mumbled something under his breath, in Luxirian, rubbing a hand over his right horn. His horns were dark, lifted off the crown of his head,