Broken Skies (13 page)

Lying back down on my side, I move closer and examine his forehead. His skin does have a very faint gold sheen to it. So it was probably this that reflected the fire light last night and made him appear to be illuminated. Good to know I’m not entirely crazy.

When I bring my eyes back down, Lir’s awake, his eyes little more than an inch away from mine. He blinks slowly once and my body startles into action, pulling my face back. I scramble out of the sleeping bag and turn away without a word, a hot flush of embarrassment building a fire behind my cheeks.

“Jax?”

I don’t turn around. “I was just, uh, checking your injuries. Looks like they’re healing nicely. We should probably still try to find someplace to clean your arm today though.” Holding my breath, I set my shoulders.
Please don’t say anything. Please don’t say anything.

“Sounds like a plan,” he says slowly. Rustling signals his exit from his sleeping bag. “Should we pack up or eat first?”

“Pack,” I reply immediately. It’s as if he knows I needed something to do with my hands to distract me from what just happened.

By the time we both have our stuff folded or rolled neatly into our packs, I’m calm enough to meet his eyes without getting flustered. I pull out the map and estimate our location before we set off.

The hike today is a little more difficult, the trees closer together and the incline steeper. What the route lacks in ease, it makes up for with isolation. We’re quite a ways from any large settlements and those humans that chose to live on their own normally stick to the abandoned towns rather than deal with the wilderness. At least I hope so. After Lir’s reception in Bridgelake, I’d prefer not to run into anyone else, human or alien.

Despite the rough terrain, I set a fast pace and Lir lags behind early on. I make sure to keep him within sight, but I’m well in the lead. It’s midday before I slow my steps and sit down up against a tree. Lir joins me a few minutes later.

“Perhaps after our rest you could slow down a bit so I am not constantly in fear of losing you?” A bead of sweat trails down his neck and he’s slightly out of breath. He must have sped up when he saw me stop. “All either of us needs is to get injured because we’re rushing.”

He’s right. I’ve been punishing myself for my fascination with his touch and his skin this morning and I didn’t even take into account that it made Lir suffer too. It’s not his fault that I wish I’d gotten a chance to run my finger along his cheek to see if his skin
felt
any different.

I close my eyes and bite my lip. “Sorry. I didn’t really think about it.”

“I realize that this is…uncomfortable for you, but you are going to have to trust me and—”

“Just like you trust me? What happened to the guy who thought I was going to seduce information out of him?”

He cringes. “That was… a mistake and one that I’ve already apologized for. Today you have pushed yourself to the brink of collapse just to get out of speaking to me. I am not someone you need to fear. If I desired to harm you, haven’t I had plenty of opportunity?” One finger under my chin, he pushes my face up. Instinctively I close my eyes and prepare for the creeping chill of fear…but there’s nothing but a warm calm flowing through my limbs. I slowly open my eyes and he smiles. “I will not hurt you. If you’re curious, please just ask. I much preferred our conversations from yesterday to the drudging silence this morning.”

“Okay.”

Lir stands and reaches a hand out to me. I eye it for a moment before accepting it and allowing him to pull me to my feet. Trust has to start somewhere I guess.

* * * * * * *

It’s still cold once the sun goes down, but our campsite doesn’t feel quite as dreary. We had stumbled across a stream and, although the water was a bit chilly, I’d certainly underestimated the effect feeling clean could have on morale. Even better, the stream fed into a small pond that had a bunch of watercress growing in it and my snares had managed to snag three rabbits. Dinner is actually going to fill our stomachs and there will even be leftovers for tomorrow.

I teach Lir about the different sizes of firewood, show him how to build the fire and even let him start it. When I offer to show him how to clean a rabbit though, he declines, saying, “I do not believe that is a skill I will ever need.”

“What do you guys normally eat? Obviously not fresh game, but what else is there?”

He lets the silence draw out for a while before answering. “As you know, we stay within the city and are restricted by that...limitation. We primarily eat vegetable matter that is grown hydroponically. Meat isn’t something we cultivate so much as synthesize. We require very little of the synthesized compound as it is highly concentrated.”

“I bet it tastes like crap too.”

A laugh bursts from him mouth and he nods. “Very true.”

“So, if you have everything you need in the city, what were you doing out here?” He opens his mouth, shuts it again and presses his lips together, obviously uncomfortable. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“It’s not that I do not want to, more that it is complicated and there are things… that have changed and—”

He hasn’t pressed me on my issues, I won’t press him on his. “Don’t worry about it.” I take a bite of a rabbit leg. “So tell me about the scales.”

His brow furrows. “What about them?”

“Like do they mean you’re reptilian or something? Cold-blooded?”

“Reptilian?” Another laugh escapes from him. “The scales are more ornamental than anything. The colors are determined by our family line, so anyone can tell just by looking at me that I’m of Vestra and Linaud descent. Well, any E’rikon could tell at least.”

“Does that mean everyone with the same color is related?”

“To a point, yes.” A wrinkle forms between his brows and he thinks for moment before continuing. “But there are degrees of color and even differences in the shades that we would recognize that a human would not. For example, one of the males from the clearing whose coloring you probably saw as silver, actually has a distant relation to the Linaud line.”

“His hair did have a gold tint to it,” I say.

Lir eyes widen in surprise. “Interesting. I was always told most of the more subtle color variations were not visible on the human spectrum.”

I shrug. “I just have good eyes. Jace does too. He’s the best hunter in Bridgelake because he’s fast and has near perfect aim.”

“Impressive.”

“My dad always called me his little redtail.” He looks at me blankly. “It’s a type of hawk. Hawks have great vision…”

One of his hands comes up and rubs a strand of my hair between two fingers. “And you are red.”

My eyes are so transfixed by his hand in my hair that I miss what he says next. “What?”

“I said, it’s a beautiful color. If you were E’rikon, you would be of the Reva line.”

“Oh.” He’s still staring at my hair and running his fingers across it. When he turns his eyes back to my face, the intensity there freezes me in place. My mouth goes dry and I’m struggling to swallow, not from fear, but something else. Heat gathers in my stomach and races down my arms to my tingling fingertips. Lips parted, I raise one hand and reach toward Lir’s cheek. A green branch pops in the fire and my hand jerks. What am I doing? I avert my eyes and twist my hands together in my lap.

Releasing my hair and with one brisk shake of his head, Lir stands and walks over to the packs. “Are you ready to get some rest?” I nod and manage to stammer out a yes. He pulls both sleeping bags out and lays them side by side. “Last night… I thought… but if you’d rather…” He gestures from one side of the fire to the other. “I can…”Under almost any other circumstances, I’d laugh at how flustered he is.

“No it’s fine.” I slide into my sleeping bag beside him and lie on my back with my arms crossed over my chest.

Slipping into his own sleeping bag, he settles in next to me. “May I ask…the nightmares are they—”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

He simply nods and closes his eyes. I can’t help but notice the hand he leaves extended out between us. I
can
help my urge to grab it and I dig my fingertips into my biceps. instead Soon after, he has drifted off and I’m left staring up at the stars through the tree branches.

Unwilling to subject myself to the dreams if I don’t have to and maybe even a little because I just crave the comfort and connection his touch brings, my hand finds his as I surrender to sleep.

This night is not so bad. The flash of a knife. Ice and fire in my veins and then I’m flying. Swooping, drifting, diving, a hawk on the wind with wings outstretched. Peaceful blue sky with white puffy clouds. I’m looking down on myself with my red, red hair and a smile on my face.

ELEVEN

The next three days pass in much the same way. Easy conversation during the day when I can laugh and joke and then my slowly escalating nightly freak out once the sky darkens. The shifts have become more rapid and unpredictable and the back and forth is exhausting for me. I can’t even imagine how it must make Lir feel. He doesn’t complain and he doesn’t push me though, so our friendship continues on, a careful balance of acceptance and shared experiences. There have been no repeats of…whatever almost happened between us the night he touched my hair.

The nightmares still come every night, not that I expected them to stop. But they’re shorter and, more often than not, the truly scary parts get run out of my head by other things. For some reason, there’s a lot of me in my dreams. It’s odd really. Of course, I’ve always been in my dreams, but from a first person perspective. Now I’m like an observer. And from the outside looking in I hardly recognize myself. I stand tall and my hazel eyes aren’t quite as haunted. The sunlight brings out shades of burnished copper in my hair. I smile and laugh and talk with my hands. If only I could be that version of me…

Dinner last night was less than meager. I haven’t caught any fresh meat for the past two days. I’ve been pushing the pace and we just haven’t remained in one place long enough for snares to be truly effective. We saved the last rabbit from a few nights ago for breakfast this morning and after that… I’m not sure what we’ll do for protein.

My mouth tastes horrible and it’s been two days since the last time we found a small creek to get cleaned up in. I’ve already cycled through the clothes I’ve packed and what I’m wearing is stiff with dirt and sweat. I feel gross. What I wouldn’t give for a stream, a lake, some water I can swim in and dip my head under. Exhaustion and hunger are just beginning to take their toll on both of us, forming a sea of tension that is slowly rising to a boil.

I push my sleeping bag down and crawl out. Lir’s stuff is already packed up and he’s not here. Since the morning he woke to find me studying his skin, he’s started getting up early. I’ve gotten used to his early rising and morning walks, so I don’t worry anymore. He’s also better about not getting lost now.

I leave most of my stuff where it is, taking only the satchel with me, and walk into the trees. After taking care of other needs, I wrap my legs around the trunk of a tall tree and climb up until I can see the path ahead of us. This has been my routine since the third day when we spent hours going around a ravine that we could have avoided if I’d scouted our route better. There’s nothing I can see that will require a change of course today. I pull the map out and try to work out where we are. We’re heading North now and it looks like we should soon run into the secondary road that can take us over the mountain and toward the city.

Rustling noises come from the campsite as I return. “It looks like we might hit the road today, means easier walking at least. I hope—” I stop, my feet skidding across the ground. It’s not Lir moving around the campsite. A large black bear has ripped open Lir’s pack, strewing items everywhere. It’s already been through my things. Open mouthed, I take in the destroyed backpacks, ripped clothing and shredded sleeping bags.

For a moment, I’m frozen, not able to do anything but watch the big, hairy brute rummage around with its snout. What are you supposed to do when you run into a bear? I back away slowly, pulling my knife from my boot as I go. At least I’ll be ready if it decides to come after me. Not that my small knife, sharp as it is, will have this huge effect on it, but at least it makes me feel a little more in control.

Once the bear is out of sight, I circle around the campsite, hoping to catch Lir before he stumbles upon the thing. He
really
wouldn’t know what to do. I take sideways half steps, crouching slightly and keeping the knife in front of me. A loud noise brings me spinning around, blade at the ready.

Lir steps out from behind a tree with his hands up, eyes wide and on the knife. “What’s going on? You know I was not going anywhere. I was—” Ripping fabric and a sound somewhere between a snort and a growl, silences him.

“Bear,” I say. “We need to go, now.” I don’t even wait for him to follow before I start hiking through the woods, quickly but quietly, away from the campsite.

“But what about our supplies?”

I look back over my shoulder. “Would you like to fight the bear for them?” His eyebrow is just itching to creep up. “It’s all ruined anyway.”