Spectator

Chapter Thirteen: Now

Kali would have fallen back if Jae didn't catch her, his slim arms enveloping her and bringing her back to his chest. He clutched her tightly, a comforting murmuring in her ear.

"I let him die."

"It's not your fault," he assured her. "It's not your fault. We didn't have enough time."

Nari was pale, her eyes wide - shimmering? Kali didn't even know if she could cry - but Kali watched Nari pull herself back together, slowly, until her expression was hard as stone. Zakariah had been the one who wanted to leave the most, and now they could, but he looked far from satisfied. They were all grim. Out of a desire not to appear weaker than the others, Kali shifted to her knees, pulling herself upright, even if the urge to let Jae console her was hard to resist. She didn't deserve his comfort.

He let her go without resistance or rebuttal, which was even worse, but kept a long fingered hand on her shoulder that she was selfish enough to let stay there.

The worst part of it all was that for hours, it wasn't safe to move. They had to hide there until their legs cramped, hardly any privacy to speak of to relieve themselves. But Blood Clan was still nearby, slowly retrieving Amon's body. Kali made herself look at it until Jae pulled her away.

The rest of the day went no better. When they finally started to move again, it was at a glacial place, and more than a few times they had to stop, even if it was at the bare cracking of some twig beneath a boar's foot.

"They couldn't give us a proximity alarm?" Zakariah muttered to himself, absolutely disgusted at the ants that had begun to swarm him. He might have been complaining, but he had a point. It would make avoiding the tribes much easier. At this rate, it would take weeks to reach the outpost.

"We can't go on this way," Nari declared that night as they huddled in a rocky hollow too shallow to be considered a cave, a thermal heater cast between them. "We're just going further into Blood Clan's territory."

"It's the most direct path," Zakariah said sourly. His curls seemed to have swelled to twice the size, instead of always immaculately slicked back, and Kali was just a little gratified to see his normally meticulous appearance had become as rough as the rest of him: scratches on his hands and face, tears in his uniform, the sheen of sweat on his bronze skin.

"To getting ourselves - in trouble," Jae corrected himself lamely, and even he wasn't able to make light of a traumatising event. He glanced at Kali. "What about the Water Clan?"

"What about them?" Kali asked.

"You said you ran into them. And they didn't kill you, obviously," Nari said, sitting up. "What were they like?"

"I don't know. Intimidating? But they weren't cruel, and they didn't hurt me, I guess."

"What did they say?"

"Not much. Or - not much that I can understand," Kali amended.

Nari threw up her hands in frustration. "You couldn't study one time, Kali? Were they bringing you with them as a prisoner, or a guest?"

"I don't know! And besides - they might have blown up a little."

"Blown up?" Jae tilted an eyebrow.

"Yeah. We found part of an engine. It exploded, and that's how I got away. I'm not sure how happy they'd be with me if I popped up again. But I know the first time - they didn't hurt me."

"So that's the plan then," Zakariah straightened.

"The plan?"

"We move into Water territory," Zakariah said, as if it was painfully obvious. "If the data was accurate, they stretch a long way towards the research outpost. If we had safe passageway."