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  Kush met his eyes. “And I will help you.”

  Twenty-Eight

  “You should really try to eat something,” Caro said, rubbing Holly’s back as she sat with her arms wrapped around her knees.

  Holly shook her head, even though she knew her friend was right. She’d drunk the water they’d given her, but even though her stomach felt hollow, she couldn’t manage eating quite yet.

  Her crew mates had brought her to the tent that Caro and Bexli were sharing, and the women all sat on the woven mats and furs that covered the soft sand. A few low, wooden tables were positioned around the edges and colorful cushions served as the backs of chairs. Even though it was night, the insides of the tent were illuminated by the warm glow of a lantern hanging between the two middle poles.

  The plate of food on a nearby table had grown cold, but not before filling the tent with the savory scent of crackling meat. Although she didn’t think she could hold it down, Holly breathed in the comforting smell of it.

  “You’re sure you’re okay?” Danica asked, eyeing her as she paced a small path near the tent’s entrance.

  Holly fingered the bottom hem of the oversized linen shirt they’d given her to change into. It hung down long enough that she could wear it as a short dress until they got her a pair of leather pants that weren’t so huge they dropped straight to the floor. The fabric wasn’t as soft as the sheer dress she’d been wearing, but it was much warmer. At least her arms were covered, and half her cleavage wasn’t hanging out.

  “I checked her head,” Caro said, from where she sat across from Holly. “There’s a bump, but the skin isn’t broken.”

  Danica didn’t look convinced as she stopped pacing and dragged a hand through her blonde hair. “We shouldn’t let her fall asleep until we know she doesn’t have a concussion.”

  “How long will that be?” Bexli asked, holding Pog in her lap and petting him absently. “She looks pretty worn out.”

  “I’m fine,” Holly said, speaking for the first time in a long while and making all the women snap their heads toward her. “And you know I can hear you, right?”

  Bexli stopped stroking Pog and he rolled onto his back—or his front, Holly could never tell which was which. “Sorry, Hols. We’re just worried about you. You’re usually not this…”

  “Hey,” Caro said. “Let’s give her a break. It looks like she’s been through a lot.”

  Holly hadn’t been able to talk about what had happened yet, but she knew she’s looked pretty terrifying when she’d arrived. She’d seen the looks on her friends’ faces when they’d pulled her off the scavengers’ centipede. Without even seeing herself, she knew her flimsy dress was torn to shreds, she had T’Kar’s blood on her—and possibly sand serpent blood, and her hair was matted over a sizable lump on her head.

  “This is all my fault,” Max murmured, almost too quietly for anyone to hear. “You and Tori.”

  “Tori?” Holly swiveled her head. It was a testament to how traumatized she was that she hadn’t noticed that Tori wasn’t with them. “Where is she? Is she…?”

  Max shook her head hard. “She’s not dead, at least we don’t think she is. When she thought Mourad’s guys had killed me, she and Vrax stole on board their ship, as they were taking off.”

  Holly rubbed her head as she tried to take it all in. “Tori is on Mourad’s ship, and that ship left?”

  Danica let out a long breath. “But you know our Tor. She’s probably raising hell and heading back to us right now.”

  “So, you see,” Max said in a small voice. “It really is all my fault. Tori missing and what happened to you.”

  Holly put a hand on the leg of the dark-haired woman sitting next to her. The last time she’d seen the scientist they’d captured as a bounty, Max had been wearing a similarly gauzy dress that had been plastered to her body because of the blood rains. She’d also been hand-in-hand with a tall, dark, and smoldering Dothvek. Holly had volunteered to switch places with her and be the Crestek’s bride so that Max could be with her guy. It was a decision she didn’t regret, even now. And she knew if Tori was here, she wouldn’t regret going after Mourad.

  “If it is, then I should be thanking you,” she said, squeezing her friend’s hand.

  “What are you talking about?” Max’s voice cracked. “You showed up here injured, and as a hostage of the sand scavengers. That never would have happened if you hadn’t taken my place with the Cresteks.”

  Holly sucked in a ragged breath. “But if we didn’t make the switch, I never would have gotten to know T’Kar.”

  Max tilted her head as she studied Holly’s face. “T’Kar? The chancellor’s son?”

  Holly tried to steel herself as she thought about him, but her eyes burned with fresh tears. What was wrong with her? She never cried, and certainly not over a guy.

  “Hols?” Danica narrowed her eyes at her. “What happened out there that you aren’t telling us?”

  The captain had known her as long as anyone, since she’d joined the crew right after Caro, and the woman knew when something was wrong. And Holly being broken up about a man was definitely wrong.

  Max threaded her fingers through hers, the warmth of her hand making Holly smile, but also making her think of T’Kar. She looked around at the concerned faces of her friends. She needed to tell them, even if it hurt.

  “He saved me,” she said, steadying her voice. “T’Kar. At first, I thought he was just an arrogant guy, like his dad.”

  “But he’s not,” Max said.

  “No.” Holly smiled at Max, happy that someone else had known him and understood. “He wasn’t anything like his dad. He hated his father’s power grab, and didn’t want to inherit the position of chancellor. I think he felt trapped living in the city.”

  “But he went along with taking you as a hostage,” Danica said, her arms folded across her chest.

  Holly shrugged. “I think he did that to keep me safe. He knew I’d be better off with him, than with another Crestek who would have had no issues with forcing themselves on a woman.”

  “So, you didn’t have to marry him?” Bexli let out a breath and resumed petting Pog. “That’s a relief. We were so worried you’d be dragged down the aisle.”

  “No, there was a wedding,” Holly said. “And I wasn’t dragged down the aisle. I was prodded, though.”

  Caro’s mouth fell open. “You’re married?”

  “Kind of,” Holly said, twitching her shoulder. “I guess.”

  “Marriage is like pregnancy,” Danica said, raising her fingers and making air quotes. “Either you are, or you aren’t. You can’t be ‘kind of’ married.”

  Holly’s mind flashed back to walking down to aisle toward T’Kar, and her throat tightened. “Okay, then. I got married.”

  Danica reached for a jug and poured herself a glass of something amber, then tossed it back. “Of all of us, you’re the last person I ever would have imagined being someone’s wife.”

  “It wasn’t like she had a choice,” Bexli said. “Right, Hols?”

  Holly thought back to how she’d practically thrown herself at T’Kar on their wedding night, and how he’d resisted her. “I wasn’t all that reluctant. T’Kar was pretty hot, and you know I have an appreciation for attractive men.”

  Bexli stifled a snort of laughter. “Girl, you’re a connoisseur if there ever was one.”

  Holly couldn’t help smiling, even as her heart ached. “At first, it was a game to me. Just a bit of fun. But then the big bastard grew on me. He was kinder than I’d expected, and he wanted to help me get back to you guys. He never intended to make me stay there and be his mate, or wife, or whatever.”

  “So, he helped you escape?” Danica asked, the skepticism clear in her tone.

  Holly nodded. “He’s part of a separatist group within the Crestek city. People who want to reconnect with Dothveks and live like they used to before the clans split and the Cresteks built their city. They helped smuggle us out.”

&
nbsp; “The tunnel?” Max asked. “It’s how T’Kar got me and Kush out, as well.”

  “This guy sounds like a regular hero,” Danica drawled.

  Holly glared at her. “He was. He got me out and left everything he’d ever known behind. He took me across the desert, even when he knew it was dangerous. He fought off a sand serpent and got seriously hurt protecting me, and then the scavengers…” She couldn’t finish. She couldn’t say what had happened to him, even though images of him falling crowded her mind.

  She pressed her eyes shut and felt Max’s arm wrap around her shoulders. She heard Caro and Bexli both whispering to Danica, and she could tell they were angry. Finally, she heard a long sigh from her captain.

  “I’m sorry, Hols,” Danica said. “My experience with the Cresteks was pretty bad, and I was judging T’Kar based on that.”

  Holly looked up at her and saw that Danica’s eyes were downcast. “It’s okay. I get it. He wasn’t like most of his people.”

  “You keep saying ‘was’,” Max said, her voice soft. “Is he…?”

  Holly swallowed hard. “The scavengers shot him as he was trying to fight them off. He died in my arms.”

  Bexli’s hand flew to her mouth.

  “Hols, I’m so sorry,” Caro said, her own voice breaking.

  “Watching someone die is rough,” Danica said. “Especially after he did so much for you.”

  Holly shook her head. They still didn’t understand. They thought she was upset because she’d had to watch a guy die. “He wasn’t just ‘someone’ to me. He was my… I loved him.”

  The tent went so quiet they could hear the sound of the wind rustling the nearby tree fronds and the distant snapping of the village fire. All of the women gaped at her.

  “You fell in love with him?” Caro broke the silence. “But you…”

  “Don’t do relationships,” Danica said.

  “You think love is stupid,” Bexli added. “That’s what you say all the time. That people who fall in love are idiots.”

  Holly swiped at her eyes. “Yeah, well, I guess I’m an idiot, because I loved him. I never told him, but I did.”

  Max pulled her closer. “I’m sure he knew.”

  “I should have told him,” Holly said. “And now he’s dead and it’s too late.”

  At that moment, the tent flaps opened, and K’alvek and Kush stepped inside.

  “It is not certain he is dead,” K’alvek said.

  All the air seemed to leave Holly in a rush. “What?”

  “When I questioned the scavenger, he said the Crestek was breathing when they left him. They just did not think we would deem him valuable, so they left him behind.”

  Holly leapt to her feet. “T’Kar is still out there in the desert? Alone?” She looked around the startled faces of her crew mates. “Then we have to go find him.”

  Kush jerked his head up. “We petitioned our clan leader to take a search party onto the sands. He has forbidden it.”

  Holly pushed up her sleeves. “Then your clan leader is about to have a very big, very loud problem.”

  Twenty-Nine

  “You should not do that.”

  T’Kar brushed the sand off the raw skin on his stomach and glanced over at the outcast Dothvek. The male was hunched in front of his open-air tent as he poked at a low fire. A small pond sat behind him, ringed by tufts of high grass and tall trees covered in blue bark. It was the first oasis T’Kar had seen, and he was fascinated that it existed out on the wide stretch of seemingly endless sand. It reminded him that there was much he did not know about the sands, including its healing properties.

  “It has healed enough for me to move,” T’Kar said. “I can barely feel it anymore.”

  A grunt was his only response.

  “Thank you again for saving me. I owe you my life.”

  The warrior finally met his gaze and nodded almost imperceptibly.

  “Before I go, I must know who to thank,” T’Kar said.

  The Dothvek shrugged one shoulder. “Rukken, although you will not meet anyone who will acknowledge that name.”

  T’Kar had learned that the warrior would say little about why he was alone on the sands. Only that he could not return to his clan. But he was certain that this Rukken knew exactly where his people were.

  Joining him at the fire, he squatted down across from him. “You could come with me. I could tell your people how you saved me.”

  Rukken studied him for a moment, then threw his head back and let out a rumbling laugh. When he stopped, he was grinning. “I think you do not know my people well. Me saving a Crestek would be another strike against me. I might go from outcast to hunted.”

  T’Kar wondered what that meant for his own arrival in the Dothvek village. Not that it mattered. He did not care what the warriors did to him. He had to find Holly and make sure she was safe.

  “You are right to worry,” Rukken said. “Dothveks despise your kind. You have brought death to our people.”

  T’Kar felt a pulse of anger off the male. “The females.”

  Rukken looked down, jabbing roughly at the burning wood.

  “You lost someone,” T’Kar said, sensing the choking grief radiating off of the male who was probably not very far from boyhood.

  Rukken did not speak, but T’Kar could feel the sorrow as if it were his own. “Your mother?”

  The Dothvek’s head snapped up, his eyes blazing. He held himself back from lunging, but his shoulder muscles strained from the effort.

  “I am sorry,” T’Kar told him. “Your people did not deserve to suffer for our arrogant mistakes.”

  Rukken’s glare softened. “It is done.”

  He reached behind him and produced a long, skinned piece of raw meat, skewering it on a stick and holding it over the fire. “Serpent meat will give you strength for your journey.”

  T’Kar tried not to flinch. He’d seen just about as much of sand serpents as he ever wanted to, the memory of the battle with the beast making him touch a hand to his side.

  “This is the one you killed,” Rukken said, motioning with his head to the searing meat.

  When T’Kar’s mouth dropped open, Rukken allowed himself a small grin. “How do you think I was able to track you? The dead serpent was easy to find, and you left a trail of blood behind you.” He brought the stick up to his face, inspected the grilled serpent meat, and handed it to T’Kar.

  Taking it with what he hoped was a grateful smile, T’Kar thanked him and took a bite. Although it was chewy, the flavor was not offensive.

  “I am more grateful than you can ever know,” he said, “but I cannot impose on you any longer.”

  Rukken nodded, standing and picking up a nearby bowl of water and tossing it onto the fire. He watched the wood smolder and hiss for a moment, then he wiped his hands on his loincloth. He closed the flaps of his tent behind him and walked past T’Kar. After a few long steps, he looked over his shoulder. “Are you coming?”

  T’Kar swallowed the bite of serpent in his mouth and leapt to his feet. “To the Dothvek village?”

  Rukken lifted his chin quickly and made a sharp noise in his throat. “I cannot take you there, but I can guide you far enough.”

  T’Kar fell in step with the Dothvek. “Why would you do this? As you have said, I am Crestek. My people are the cause of your pain.”

  The warrior glanced over at him. “I do not want my healing to go to waste.” He looked forward. “And hate is a heavy burden to bear on your own.”

  The two walked in silence, moving up and down the rolling sand dunes. Rukken had been right. The serpent meat had given him energy. Not only did his gash not twinge as he walked, the spot on his chest where he’d taken the impact of the blaster was now unblemished, the black scorch mark gone. T’Kar did not know if it was the yellow leaves, or the healing power the Dothvek claimed the sand held, or the grilled serpent or the combination of them all, but the warrior’s methods had worked. And saved his life.

  “T
ell me about your mate,” Rukken said, as they walked along a sandy ridge. “I have never seen a female so small or with hair like a flame.”

  T’Kar’s heart beat faster as he thought about Holly and burying his hands in her long hair. “She is a species called human. They have never been to our planet before.”

  “And are they all so small and pale?”

  “Not all, but I have only seen the ones in her crew. They appear to vary in coloring and slightly in size. One of the other females has dark hair cut short, and is even smaller than my mate.”

  Rukken made a noise that told T’Kar he found that hard to believe. “They look so frail. How do they survive on the sands?”

  “From what I understand, their planet is very different, with only one sun.”

  Rukken made a scoffing noise. “It must be very cold.”

  T’Kar shrugged. “I do not know. My mate did not live there. She has spent much of her life flying through space in a ship. A ship that, unfortunately for her but fortunately for me, crashed on our planet.”

  Rukken’s sloped brows popped up. “The fiery streak across the sky. I saw it.”

  T’Kar slid down behind the Dothvek as they descended from the ridge and started up another dune. “It was destroyed, so they have no way off.”

  Rukken looked up at the sky. It was clear that the idea of flying baffled him. “All the females must stay here now?”

  “Unless another ship arrives, but I do not think all of them would go. Two of them are now mated with Dothveks.”

  “And your mate?”

  “I would hope she would choose to stay with me, but I cannot say. She is determined to leave, and determined not to make any attachments.”

  “But you say you have a claim on her?” Rukken asked.

  “Yes, I have claimed her, but human females do not view things in the same way.”

  Rukken made a harsh noise in his throat. “If you have claimed the female, she is yours.”

  “Tell that to the humans,” T’Kar muttered.