Nissa tugged one of the blankets around herself and huddled on the co-pilot’s chair. Her eyes burned with exhaustion, but she stared out at the jungle, unable to sleep.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Justyn yanked on his backpack and ruthlessly tightened the straps. He’d already placed the beacon and what rations he could carry inside. He also had his ion blaster strapped to his hip, and his favorite knife tucked into his boot. Finally, he hefted a machete he’d found in the weapons locker.
Not far away, Nissa was putting her own backpack on. Every now and then she looked his way, but he ignored her.
He was still too fucking angry.
“Ready?” He made his way to the door.
“Ready.”
He activated the manual override to open the door. No vines or other deadly vegetation or unknown jungle creatures waited for them. A moment later, they stepped outside into the dappled morning sunlight. The humidity hit him like a bad transition to interstellar speed, slapping him in the face. Perspiration broke out on his brow. Great, nothing like a hike through a killer jungle on some alien planet with humidity you could barely breathe in.
Turning his arm over, he stared at the mini-Sync he’d attached to his forearm. It showed the terrain map and the glowing gold cross that indicated their destination.
“That way.” He pointed with the machete.
Nissa lifted her own large blade and they headed off.
As Justyn hacked a path through the undergrowth, he half expected the vines to rear up and attack them, but everything was still.
Really, really still.
“Don’t you think it’s weird that we don’t hear any wildlife?” she asked. “No birds squawking or bugs chirping.”
Yeah, it was definitely strange. He ducked under a huge neon-purple flower. “I’d prefer not to run into any wildlife. Let’s count ourselves lucky and keep moving.”
They found a steady rhythm hacking away at the vegetation. In some parts it was less thick and they could duck under or climb over the growth. Justyn found it an excellent distraction from his fury at the woman beside him.
She’d betrayed him.
He hacked into a vine as thick as his thigh. Okay, maybe he’d known she didn’t fully trust him, but he hadn’t expected her to compromise their safety. He sliced through a dangling plant covered in blue flowers the size of his palms. Maybe it was time to accept that Nissa Sander would never trust him the way he needed her to. That she might give him her body, but she’d never surrender her soul to him.
He slashed at the jungle with single-minded thoroughness, eager to block all the dark thoughts in his mind. And the pain in his heart.
Eventually, he paused for a break, swiping his forearm across his face. Sweat was dripping off both of them. “Take five. Have a drink.”
She chugged back some water. “At least we crashed on a warm planet. If we’d crashed on an ice world—” she shook her head “—reptilians don’t do well with ice.” She drank again and a small trickle escaped her mouth, running down her throat, along her collarbone, before soaking into her tank top. He watchedthat trickle with envy as it followed that smooth, smooth skin, tracing the edge of her scale design. His fingers twitched.
Dammit. He looked away, staring at the giant neon-red flower towering over him like a huge solar shade. Its petals were as long as he was, and in the center…his nose wrinkled. Well, it almost looked like a mouth ringed by protuberances that wobbled in the breeze.
He took another drink. Something touched the back of his neck.
Justyn jumped and swiveled around. Then he laughed at himself. One of the petals had drooped enough to touch his skin.
“Scared of a flower, Phoenix?”
He raised a brow at Nissa. “I’d be stupid not to be scared of everything on this planet.” He rubbed at his forearm and the phantom ache there from the bloodsucker-vine-leech creature.
“Are you going to keep ignoring me?”
He scowled. “I’m not ignoring you.”
“You’ve barely said anything to me.” She rubbed her cheek against her shoulder, wiping away the sweat from her face. “And you won’t look at me.”
“I’m pissed at you.”
