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“Grath, please!” she began in a small voice. “Please…it’s me—it’s Mattie. Please don’t hurt me!”
Tears began to fill her eyes as she pleaded with him. Grath took a step towards her…and the red suddenly disappeared from his eyes, leaving them midnight black again.
“Don’t cry, baby.” His voice was deep and hoarse and the flames running up his hands and arms extinguished themselves suddenly, leaving only steam rising from his bare skin, which was still glowing with heat. He reached for her, but Mattie shied away from him uncertainly.
“Are…are you all right? Are you in your right mind?” she asked and she couldn’t keep her eyes from flicking to the still-twitching body of Luke lying on the floor. Mercifully, his head had rolled away—maybe under the bed—so she couldn’t see it. But she still felt horribly shaken up. She wasn’t sure but she thought she might puke.
“I’m okay,” Grath assured her. “Look—I know I’m probably too hot for you to touch me right now, but come with me, little girl. We need to get you out of here!”
Mattie couldn’t agree enough.
“Yes, please—I need to get away!”
She scrambled to the end of the bed and jumped off, running for the open door. An icy breeze was blowing in—it made her shiver and her teeth chatter but Mattie didn’t care. The wind smelled of fresh, clean snow and pine needles—it wassomuch better than the horrible stench of death she was leaving behind.
“Hey, be careful, little girl!” Grath said behind her, as she stumbled away from the cabin and into a snowdrift that had accumulated around the base of a large tree. “You’ll freeze to death!”
“I’d r-r-rather f-freeze than stay in that horrible p-p-place one more mu-minute!” Mattie exclaimed, her teeth chattering.
“I’d rather you didn’t fucking dieat all,”Grath growled. “That’s why I came back for you. Hang on just a second…”
Leaning down, he plunged both arms, up to the shoulders, into the snow drift. There was a hissing sound and two puffs of steam rose from the holes he’d made in the snow. When he stood up again, his skin was no longer glowing with heat. He held out his arms to her and rumbled,
“Come here, little girl.”
With a little sob, Mattie ran to him. Grath held her close for a minute and then swung her up into his arms, which were still wonderfully warm. He cradled her against his chest and Mattie pressed her face to his throat and breathed in his familiar, spicy scent—the scent of safety and love and of home.
“Oh Grath,” she whispered. “It was awful…soawful!”
“I know, baby…I know,” he rumbled soothingly. “Come on—let me get you back to my ship and you can tell me all about it if you want to.”
“I don’t want to but I…I mightneedto,” Mattie whispered. She shivered again—despite his warm arms, the wind was cutting through the trees like a knife.
“Come on,” Grath repeated.
And he carried her into the night, away from the horrible cabin and its many “works of art,” towards safety and healing.
FORTY-SEVEN
MATTIE
Once they were safe in Grath’s ship, Mattie took a long,longshower. She needed it—she had to get the stench of death off her skin and out of her hair. She was never going to be able to wear the gorgeous crimson dress again. Even if she dry-cleaned it, she was sure the ghost of that smell would remain.
At last she stepped out of the shower stall in the fresher at the back of Grath’s ship and wrapped herself in a towel. She used another towel on her hair, shivering as she did so. It wasn’t as cold as it was outside but it was still chilly getting out of the shower. She supposed the ship could probably only do so much when it was running on reserved power, which Grath had explained to her.
“Might get a little chilly tonight, but I don’t think we’d better risk flying out,” he’d told her. “The snow is coming down thick again. Hopefully it will stop by morning.”
Mattie didn’t mind staying the night in the ship. She didn’t feel like she could face her family right now, though she didn’t want them to worry. So she had borrowed a Think-me from Grath and used it to call her sister, asking Anna to reassure everyone that she was all right.
“What in the world happened to you and Grath? We’ve all been worried sick!”Anna sent.
Mattie knew she ought to explain, but she just wasn’t up for it right at that moment.
“Ooops, you’re breaking up,”she sent to her older sister.“Sorry, these things aren’t always reliable in bad weather. I’ll call you tomorrow!”
“But tomorrow is Christmas!”Anna protested.“Are you and Grath going to be with us for Christmas dinner? What should I tell Mom and Dad?”
Mattie had no answer for that either.
