My stomach churned, and I put down my spoon in the now-empty bowl. Asha Wylfrael said something above me, his tone biting, and I jumped, my gaze swinging wildly to meet his. He was frowning. At least, I thought he was. His features were arranged similarly to a human’s, but who knew if the expressions meant the same thing? But I heard him laugh... In the entrance hall, I’m sure I heard him laugh.

He spoke again, gesturing a black claw at my bowl. Confused, I followed the line of his finger until I saw a few bits of stringy material left. Some kind of fibrous root vegetable, I was pretty sure.

I hesitated for a moment before clarity dawned.

“Are you seriously telling me to eat all my vegetables right now?” I asked, tone rising in disbelief. It was so absurd I wanted to laugh. But the last time I’d done that in front of him, I’d nearly choked to death on the spoon he’d shoved in there, and I wasn’t looking to repeat that experience anytime soon. Under his relentlessly stern observation, I scooped up the last bites and ate them.

“There,” I said, pushing the bowl and spoon away. The bowl, like the spoon, was made of some kind of stone, a different material from the crystal. It looked like marble, green with veins of gold.

I couldn’t tell if he was satisfied with that or not. His jaw tightened, his eyes pinned to me with a severity that made me recoil and turn away.

“Thank you for the food,” I said softly. I needed to cool it with the defiance and the attitude. He hadn’t killed me yet, and I didn’t need to push my luck any further. Maybe if I was a good little human, who ate her veggies and minded her Ps and Qs, he’d leave me alone long enough for me to figure out what the hell I should do next.

No one said anything, and I found I couldn’t bear the silence. Heart flailing against my ribs, I turned to look at him once more, peeking out from behind the curtain of my hair.

His expression hadn’t exactly softened, but he no longer looked like he was mulling over the idea of incinerating me on the spot. Considering the fact I’d watched him use some kind of telekinesis to manipulate the snow without touching it, burning me to a crisp with just his eyes didn’t seem too far off a possibility.

“Thank you,” I said again, trying to sound sincere. Not that he understood me. I gave him a thin smile that I hoped looked appropriately meek but that probably just came out strained.

I’m sorry.

I almost said it. Sorry for being here. For coming to this world where we so clearly weren’t welcome. I knew we were in the wrong for landing here and stealing resources the way we had. But I hadn’t had a choice in that. I’d been wronged, just like he had.

And then I remembered the chaos and the carnage of his descent from the sky. I remembered the fact it was very likely he might have killed my friends. Min-Ji and Suvi’s faces flashed in my mind, and any thought of apologizing died in my throat.

So why hasn’t he killed me yet?

Asha Wylfrael said something to the fox lady. She darted forward, scooping up my bowl and spoon.

It hit me again that I was in a building with real fucking aliens. And not just little forest creatures. Intelligent beings, with clothing and customs and language.

I couldn’t stop staring at the female one. She had a less human face than Asha Wylfrael did. She really did look like a fox. Her face was a flaming orange colour, not furry, but her skin looking like soft down. Soft white flecks were dusted across her cheeks, almost like freckles. Her nose was pink and pointed, nearly a snout, her ears high and twitchy. She was taller than me, well over six feet tall, but very lean, with long arms and legs covered in that same bright orange down. Her tail was huge and fluffy, as was a white and orange mane of fur-like hair that ran down the back of her neck. She was dressed in a shockingly pretty cream-coloured silk vest and matching trousers and slippers, the fabric embroidered with tiny pink and green triangular trees. The loveliness of the garments, the embroidered forests, made something lurch inside me. It was the same feeling I’d had in the stained-glass-like tunnel with Asha Wylfrael. A feeling of confused kinship, a heartsick nostalgia that made me wonder just how different we really were from each other.

Even though she was doing Asha Wylfrael’s bidding, I decided that I liked her. She’d been so gentle with me when she’d shown me up here, and her green, cat-like eyes held a wary softness. She hadn’t dragged me, her strong fist around my arm, the way Asha Wylfrael had. She’d seemed nearly more afraid of me than I was of her, to be honest.

Which is kind of fair. I’m the one who invaded her world.

“Thank you,” I said, this time speaking only to the tall female. I meant it more when I said it to her.

Her green eyes went huge and darted to Asha Wylfrael. She backed away, her ears flattening like a frightened cat’s.

Oops. I guess I did something wrong.

I wanted to say something else, something more to her, but decided against it. At least for now. If she came back alone, without him, I’d try again.

But for now, I didn’t have the energy for anything else. Now that I was sitting, my body was turning to shivering mush, my muscles destroyed from the adrenaline and the strain of the day. The food was warm and heavy in my stomach, and I had to stay alert and not give in to the fatigue. I waited wearily, wondering what else they’d want to do with me tonight.

Nothing, it turned out. Thank God.

Asha Wylfrael said something in a low voice, and the fox alien replied and headed for the door. Relief poured through me when Asha Wylfrael, after a long, piercing look, turned and followed her. Nothing else was said to me when he swept through the door. Just before it closed behind him, I noticed the white bandages slung across his torso and patched over his torn and bleeding skin.

The sight of those bandages filled me with despair. He had cleaned this day off of him. He would heal and would go back to whatever sort of alien life he’d been living. Meanwhile, I...

I’d still be here. Alone.

Wondering how the ever-loving fuck I was going to make it through this.

OceanofPDF.com

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER FOURTEEN Wylfrael

“Do you still wish me to bring her down to your chamber, my lord?”

I almost missed Aiko’s question. I’d been too busy running over the encounter with the prisoner, alternating between irritation and confusion.

“What? Ah. No.” There was no point, now. I did not even know what I had hoped to accomplish with that in the first place. I couldn’t understand her language, nor she mine. I’d gotten her to eat, which I considered a small victory, though a rather pathetic one. I doubted I’d get anything else useful out of her tonight.

I need to prioritise getting to Rúnwebbe as soon as possible. I had to be able to talk to her. To interrogate this little human with the summer-sweet eyes who seemed to oscillate so wildly between defiant and demure, willful and wary. This tiny invader who did not know enough of me to be afraid of me, but who felt it, sometimes, suddenly remembering the way one might remember a forgotten object in another room. I could see it when her eyes went white all the way around the gold. And when her heartbeat hammered in her throat.

An impossibly slender column, that throat. Stupidly thin, if you asked me.

Which no one did.

“Don’t you think her neck is too skinny?” I huffed as Aiko and I reached the landing outside my bedroom. “It’s a miracle she made it across the cosmos at all with a neck that breakable.”