hands and watch as they step out, weapons drawn and ready, their backs together as they scan the area around us. Moments pass in tense silence as I try not to even breathe, but then, slowly, they relax, sheathing their weapons and gesturing for me to come out.
Moving out onto the grey, dead land, I wince at the sharpness of it under my feet, even through the shoes I found in the okkren. It seems like every inch of this planet is made to hurt…so how could Takkar even survive here? I don’t want to voice it, but they must be thinking the same thing.
“It is a dead world,” Dev growls.
“Where do we even start?” Sev questions, his disappointment evident. I guess we didn’t think through what would happen when we got here. I just hoped there would be a sign, a symbol, or something, to lead us to him—
I gasp and stagger back as my stomach clenches. Sev and Dev quickly rush to me, wearing snarls on their faces. Dev instantly pulls his weapon, panic shining in his eyes, but I hold up my hand as I straighten hesitantly.
“Mate, what is it?” Sev demands.
“I-I don’t know.” I shake my head, feeling foolish. It must have simply been a hunger pang or—fuck!
It comes again, so strong I almost fall to the ground, but as I focus on it, it fades to a dull ache…almost like a tugging. Blinking, I stagger forward as Sev and Dev talk, concentrating on the sensation filling me. It increases, but it’s not painful now, just uncomfortable, insistent. I step again and again, and with each stride I take, the feeling gets stronger.
Frowning, I turn, and it lessens, so I still and step to the left, it decreases still, and when I step to the right, it’s the same… What the—
“Do you feel that?” I ask them, interrupting their discussion.
They both frown, and I turn back to the way I was originally facing and walk, the tugging growing stronger, and Sev gasps. “I felt that through you!”
“He’s this way,” I murmur. “I can feel it.”
“Harlow…do you think it’s him?” Dev hedges. “I’ve tried to reach for him myself, but I can’t feel him. Neither can Sev.”
“I really don’t know.” I sigh before looking at them. “But we have to try, right? We have no other options.”
“She’s right, Harlow is somehow clearly linked to Takkar after seeing him in her dreams. We would be stupid not to trust this feeling, it could be him reaching out again,” Sev reasons excitedly, and Dev nods but seems more reluctant, less hopeful.
“Let’s follow it. I’ll grab some rations since we don’t know where it will take us. We have to be careful, on full alert. If Takkar is here…” Dev trails off and looks at me.
Then so are the people who captured and hurt him.
Forty-Four
Takkar
Something wakes me from the exhausted slumber I have slipped into. A warning growl forms on my lips, my fangs gnashing as I lift my head and jerk in my chains, trying to attack whatever I can feel. The planet under me almost vibrates with the sensation, the same way it does when they come.
The pain I know will follow snaps the last shred of my sanity, and I snarl and tug at my restraints. My vision turns red, and I am unable to see or hear through my anger and fear.
The constant physical pain gets pushed behind all of that, since my emotions are what have kept me alive. The almost feral state I’m in clouds my mind until I simply don’t care anymore.
Anyone who comes near me will die.
I will rip them to pieces and bathe in their blood. Eat their bodies and use their bones for toothpicks.
The vibrations stop, and I sag in my chains as exhaustion battles with the need to fight, but as always, the animal side of me wins. I turn my head and smash it into the hard dirt floor, trying to knock myself out so I don’t have to remember what is to come.
Again.
And again.
Bang.
Bang.
I feel blood tracing down my head and taste the copper on my lips, but it only makes me howl until I have no choice but to give up and lie back in the chains.
When my breathing evens out, I turn my head, and my eyes land on Bakkar. I’m tied down on my back, giving me an unobscured view of him, but my wounds burn in this position as dirt seeps into the