"Blaire...?" my voice barely surfaced over a whisper.
Reks' footsteps closed in behind me, saying something in a hushed tone, but I couldn't focus on anything else but the dainty shape peering down at us from the sharp-edged hole.
"Is that you down there, Aims?" she called out. "Omigod, it so is. I've been looking everywhere for you!"
My heart leaped in my throat. Her voice. Her perfect, bubbly voice. Fresh tears welled up in my eyes, and I still couldn't manage to speak louder than a whisper. "Is that... really you? You're n-not... you're really..."
"How'dya get all the way down there?" she asked, as if there genuinely wasn't anything wrong in the world.
I cried and laughed at the same time. Joy skipped through my veins as I cupped my lips and called back to her. "Hold on, I'll be right up!" I turned to see Reks standing right next to me, staring up at Blaire. A dark, unreadable expression clouded his eyes. I pressed against his arm to get his attention. "Reks, warp me up there."
He grabbed my shoulder with a firm grip, speaking low and with urgency. "Amelia. Something's not right."
"What? What do you mean?" I pulled away from his hand, pointing up as if he somehow missed a very important detail. "That's Blaire. She's alive! What's not right about that?"
He advanced closer, providing a better look at the grave expression painting his face, demanding my immediate attention. "Think, Amelia. How did she get here?"
I blinked, shaking my head. "Does that matter?"
In the back of my mind, I felt Nox trying to reach out to me, insistent and almost frantic with worry. I mentally closed off my senses to the Guide, blocking it out completely, utterly resistant to any opposing words.
"Yes." He hissed. "It's been—"
"Is everything okay down there, Aims?" More sand trickled in as Blaire stepped closer to the edge and called down to us. "Who is that guy?"
"He's a friend! Everything's fine." I cupped my hands around my mouth to call back to her, then hit Reks in the chest with the back of my hand, lowering my voice. "What is wrong with you? Get me up there before she falls."
A thud echoed from above our heads.
My eyes flashed, seeing Blaire had not fallen, but jumped down to the first beam, and was already crouching down to leap for the next.
Icy fear spiked through me.
We had both grown up racing each other on the same obstacle courses the firefighters used for training, but this... this was different. Brash and wholly unsafe.
"Blaire!" I screamed, voice breaking. "That's dangerous! Those beams aren't stable!"
Reks cursed under his breath, pulling my body behind his own. I went to fight back, but his following words turned me rigid.
"I'm sorry. But if you won't listen to reason, then you leave me no choice."
No choice?
He advanced too fast for me to stop him - before I could put together what he intended to do.
His Guide shot out of his wrist, towards my best friend.
"No!" I cried out against the blind terror choking me. I shoved Reks to make him stop—make him stop! But just as she landed on the middlemost beam, Luk lashed her across the cheek, tearing through her soft tawny skin.
My breath seized in my chest, overcome by horror. In horror of what Reks had done. And in horror of what should have happened, yet did not.
Denial dripped through me, even as proof of Reks' concern stared me right in the face.
YOU ARE READING
The Moon's Fangs | 1
Fantasy{star-crossed romance/forced proximity/18+} Normally, intergalactic drama doesn't reach into any place as backwater as the Milky Way Galaxy, let alone a planet as primitive as Earth. But an exception is made in Amelia's case. She is thrown into a d...
