FOUR
I wakewith Jamie’s elbow jabbing into my cheek. He’s always been a damn wriggle monster, rarely keeping still.Monster. The thought freezes the breath in my lungs. It takes five long seconds before I can exhale and draw in another breath. Another five as I tentatively peer around the sectioned-off part of the cave where we rested our heads.
The eyes that I half expected to see homed in on me are not there even though the sense of being watched was what first dragged me from my sleep. I inhale a little shakily, focussing on my surroundings.
The stone walls are smooth, interrupted by the occasional shelf cut into the hard surface. All are covered in the soft green light of devices dotted around the room. Before we slept, Solan explained that a gentle wave of a hand in front of any of the devices could brighten or dim them. A lot like sensors on Earth.
But with no wiring or batteries in sight, it’s not electricity as I know it powering them.
A sound beyond the open archway sends my heart skittering. It’s a soft scrape and what’s definitely a noise coming from him. Solan. Jamie’s still sleeping soundly, so I stand, the fluttering inmy chest increasing as I make my way outside of the room and into a larger living space.
It’s brighter out here, a brilliant beam of green light entering from a skylight of sorts. Because yeah, I didn’t imagine that the skies are green in Terrafeara.
I spot Solan immediately. Broad shoulders are showcased by leather bands of some kind of halter, not doing a thing to conceal his defined muscles. Said muscles are thick and in slightly different positions than a human’s, but there’s enough similarity between his body and the genetic makeup of mine—at least on the surface—that makes his form familiar somehow.
It’s the only explanation I have for why, despite the pounding of my heart increasing, I’m not shit scared of the monster’s form before me. Sure, Solan is physically intimidating, and I still have no clue why his hair—though I’m not sure it’s technically hair like I know it—practically dances and moves like it—they?—have a life of their own.
Despite my galloping pulse, I stay stock-still as I watch Solan. In one hand, he grips a carrying device, something between a woven basket and a backpack. In the other, he holds the bow and arrow he so expertly used yesterday.
Whether it’s the short inhale that garners his attention or something else, I have no idea, but his body turns rigid even as his deep red strands flow like they’re feeling the air around him. “Jack.”
The gruff tone sends goose bumps skittering across my skin. It’s the turn of his head, his gaze locking with mine, that sends my mouth outback dry.
Somewhere between his tone and the intensity in his stare, I feel fully snared. Legit feel trapped with barely the ability to take a breath. Add in the errant thought of him being criminally hot—I have no idea what it says about me that my dick is rock-hard and pressing uncomfortably against my zip—and I begin to believe I do have a concussion from yesterday’s explosion.
Though, was it technically an explosion that ripped the dimensions apart?
“You managed to sleep?”
His question cuts through the cotton wool filling my brain, and I immediately nod, fighting hard not to adjust myself. “Yeah, thanks. Jamie’s still asleep. Are you ready for us to leave?” Because that’s all that should be on my brain: getting back to my property and figuring out how fucked we are.
“It would be best to leave. Thechalkabirds have yet to rise, and the day is not yet hot. The sooner we discover the location of the rift, the sooner we can make preparations.”
I balk, his words sounding far too doomsday-prepper-like for my ears. I have no choice but to trust him, which is not as hard as I think it should be. But what the fuck do I know? It’s not like I’ve been in this situation before.
“Okay, I’ll wake Jamie.” I turn on my heels, but Solan saying my name stops me. I ignore the gooseflesh peppering my skin and turn back to him, my eyebrow raised. Yep, nothing to see here, folks. I’m not in any way affected by how my name sounded on his lips.
“It will likely be dangerous. Theklaustrasfound you by the merge point, yes?”
I blanch just thinking about the monstrous beast. “Yes.” I nod.
“The boy child, Jamie—it would be safe if he did not come.”
The hairs on my arms shoot straight up, an argument on the tip of my tongue.
Solan’s remarkably humanlike hand gesture as he tries to placate me has me pausing. “I would struggle to leave him behind, too, if he were of my blood. But he is not fully grown, correct?”
My nod is stilted.
“Theklaustraspack will be alert, have found their dead by now.” Solan studies me carefully, his expression soft, each roughly spoken word of English deliberate. “Their senses are unlike any others’ in Terrafeara,” Solan continues, his voice low, laced with a careful warning. “Klaustrasare highly evolved to hunt, especially the young. If they catch Jamie’s true scent, they will pursue him relentlessly. Their hunger for youths’ flesh is… instinctive. They won’t stop until they taste it or I’ve killed them all.”
The breath catches in my throat. My body turns rigid, fighting the instinct to shout that no one, nothing, is going to lay a finger on Jamie. Solan watches me with that soft intensity as though he understands exactly what I’m feeling.
“Back in my world, I used to be a hunter,” Solan explains, his eyes catching the green light spilling from above.
He was a hunter? A tendril of fear unfurls in my gut. Something tells me he’s not talking about hunting for wild dogs or fresh meat. Questions burn on my tongue, but I swallow them away.
Do I really want to know what exactly he means?
