The Alien’s Reward by Luna Kingsley
Chapter 27
Sarah
Somethinginside of me snaps and finally things click into place. “No!” I shout, fighting against the hands that try to pull me away. “Let me go!”
“Easy, Sarah. I’m not going to hurt you.” For the first time I whip my head around to see who’s holding onto me.
It’s Kraal.
Three more warriors surround Vah’all, pushing me out of the way. His voice is so quiet, I question whether I’m imagining it when I hear him say, “Get her out of here.”
Kraal starts pulling me toward the cargo ship that’s hovering not far away. “Don’t worry, we’re going to take good care of him. He’ll get help while I help you. Come—“
I don’t want to leave him, but my indecision is interrupted by gun fire ricocheting off the rocks right next to our feet. Kraal covers me with his body while firing his weapon toward the sky.
“We don’t have time,” he shouts.
I check the skies as the nauseating burn of panic ignites as soon as I realize we’re no longer alone. Even though it’s dark, the sky is full of streaks of silver. The sounds of the next round of conflict overwhelm me while I’m stuck in the middle of a battle.
“We’re holding them off while we get you two out of here,” Kraal says. “Luckily you weren’t far away when we spotted them on the radar. They planned this ambush.” He glances back at Vah’all who’s being lifted into a second ship that I didn’t notice until now.
“He’s not going with us?” I immediately start to pull away again. “I want to go wherever he’s going, Kraal.”
Instead of answering, he throws me over his shoulder and then he’s running toward the ship’s ramp. I’m helpless to do anything about it. I can’t even help Vah’all as he’s loaded into the medical ship. They take off before the ramp has fully withdrawn, taking the choice away from me. Then he’s running up the incline to the cargo ship, slamming his hand over the button to close the outside doors behind us.
“Look.” He sets me back down on my feet and grabs onto my arms so I’m forced to focus on his words. “Your friends have asked me to fly them to Nedruinia. They’re here, on the ship. I’m taking you all back where you were supposed to go in the first place.”
I stare at him while words fail me. Before Vah’all, this would’ve been an easy decision. I would’ve run to the ship without looking back. Now, it doesn’t feel right. My heart is splitting open in my chest, an open, raw wound at the thought of leaving him behind. “But Vah’all…” I finally manage to say.
“Vah’all will take time to heal. Until then, you will be safe in Nedruinia. Safer than you’ll be here. You heard him, Sarah. He wants you out of here. When the time is right, when we’ve figured out a way for you to live safely on Bameh, Vah’all will return for you. I promise.”
I’m still torn, clutching my shirt where it’s bunched at my chest. When it’s safe we could find a way to be together. That doesn’t sound so bad except I’m choosing between my safety and Vah’all. If he were conscious and able to fight, I don’t believe he’d let me go which makes this seem deceitful and wrong.
“Sarah!” Maren runs to me, throwing her arms around me before looking me over to make sure I’ve made it in one piece.
“I told you to stay in the cargo hold where it’s safe,” Kraal says, scolding her.
“And you said it would only take a minute,” she retorts. “Come on, Sarah.” She shifts her attention back to me. “It’s finally happening. We’re getting our ride out of here.”
Kraal hurries to the pilot’s seat while Maren leads me to the passenger seats where Trinity and Willa are already strapped in and ready to go. Their faces exhibit the excitement I should be feeling but I’m too ashamed to admit that I don’t share their enthusiasm about leaving anymore. We haven’t been here that long and the time we’ve spent hasn’t been positive. But locked away in a secret place in my heart, my love for Vah’all burns brighter than ever before.
When I secure my safety harness moments later, the ship already in the sky working evasive maneuvers on the enemy ships pursuing us, it’s because of the doubt that has taken ahold of me. Doubt that I’d ever be able to survive in a place like Bameh. Knowing that a warrior as strong and fierce as Vah’all deserves someone worthy of him. Not someone who crumbles under the pressure of seeing him hurt. Not someone who failed him when he needed her most. Not someone who always fails the ones she loves.
“Sarah,” Maren says, reading the expression on my face. “It’s better this way. Safer for all of us. You’ll see.”
In a daze, I stare out the window as we speed through the sky, leaving the mountain pass behind us. After a while, I’m vaguely aware of Trinity and Willa’s concerned stares. They’re all exchanging nervous glances with each other, and I can’t bring myself to care. I’m too busy swallowing my tears and trying to convince myself it’s better this way. Better for Vah’all and better for me. But no matter how many times I repeat it like a mantra in my mind, it doesn’t make the growing ache in my belly go away. It only grows the further we get from him as the realization hits that I made the wrong choice.
Maren’s hand closes over mine, squeezing tightly. “Hey, everything’s going to be okay. Why the tears?”
When I turn to look at her, my vision is clouded, my shirt collar wet from the tears dripping off my face. “It might not be safe, but I shouldn’t have left him. Not when he was hurt. Not when he needed me.”
“They’re going to take good care of him, honey.” Trinity chimes in from her seat a row in front of me. “There’s nothing you could’ve done anyway if you stayed. Their medical procedures are different from ours.”
Willa hands me a tissue but doesn’t try to give any advice or make me feel better. Once I pull myself together, it gets quiet again, mostly because the girls don’t know what to say. What do you say to someone who’s fallen in love with an alien? We were doomed from the start.
“If you’re really miserable without him, you can always fly back with Kraal,” Willa says. Finally, I perk up. Because she has suggested exactly what I want to do. What I’ve been wanting to scream at Kraal since he carried me onto this ship. I want to beg him to take me back with him, damn the consequences. I want to be by Vah’all’s side while he heals and recovers even if there’s nothing else I can do for him besides be his moral support.
“No,” Maren says to Willa. “No, she can’t.” Then she turns and speaks directly to me. “You can’t go back. Not yet. Not until it’s safe. You were a part of that craziness as much as I was. They hooked us up to those machines and kept us locked in that room like we were lab rats. Some of them are good…I’ll give you that. They stuck their necks out for us to get us out of that hell hole. But some of them are very, very bad and if you fall into the wrong hands again, who knows what they’ll do to you.”
She’s still squeezing my hand, imploring me to listen to her words and see the reason behind them. “I understand your concerns…I do. But, somehow since the crash Vah’all has come to mean everything to me. Don’t ask me how it happened because I don’t know myself. But all the sudden, the thought of never seeing him again…I can’t fathom what that would be like. I came on this trip to learn all I could about medicine, so I’d never fail someone again when they needed me. But guess what? That already happened. There was nothing I could do medically to help Vah’all when we were attacked.” I’m shaking my head, so damn disappointed in myself and the impulsive choices I made instead of taking a breath back there and thinking things through.
“What I can do, though, is be there for him. Be a shoulder to lean on when he needs me. Be strong enough to endure the uncertainty of our future as long as we’re fighting for it together, side by side. All I need to do is not give up. So, I need to go back, even if it doesn’t make any sense.”
Now that I’ve admitted it out loud, a weight has been lifted. If I wouldn’t have been embarrassed to admit how I felt from the beginning, I’d be sitting by Vah’all’s hospital bed right now. Instead, I’ll have to wait until we drop the girls off in Nedruinia before I can catch a ride back with Kraal.
Now it’s Maren’s turn to get teary. “I’ve never seen you cry before, Maren. Is this because I’m going back?”
“Oh, I don’t know.” She angrily swipes her tears away. Then she exhales deeply before fixing me with a sad stare. “That’s not true. I do know. I’m going to worry about you back on Bameh all by yourself. You’re a grown-ass woman so you can make your own decisions, but I still say it isn’t safe. I wish you’d give it more time before returning. Just enough to let Vah’all and his men get everything figured out on their end of things. Have you thought about where you’ll stay? It’ll probably be on the military compound with all the other male warriors!”
These are all things that should concern me, but don’t. Because all I want is to get back to Vah’all. If I’m by his side, everything will be okay.
Willa giggles from her seat before hiding it with a cough. Honestly, she doesn’t care what I do. She’s just happy to be going home. The two of us are on the same page about that because as soon as Kraal lands, he’s going to take me back.