Page 88 of The Hunter

“I’m so sorry,” Cole said with a softness Lacey had rarely heard from him.

Lacey couldn’t find words. She’d never been close to her family, and she hadn’t had siblings. Hadn’t even really had friends before all this. But she guessed the pain of losing a sibling had to be similar to what she felt when she thought about losing any of the members of her little tribe, human and vrix alike.

When she thought about losing Telok.

“It’s all right.” Sophia lifted her eyes to Cole’s and gave him a small smile. “I’ve had a long time to grieve, and I know there’s nothing I could’ve done. Not for him or any of them.”

“Doesn’t make it hurt less,” he replied.

“No, it doesn’t. We joined the Initiative together. I was a bank teller, doing the nine to five and barely scraping by. Damián was a contractor, getting construction work wherever he could, and had finally had his divorced finalized. He’d been miserable in that marriage for so long, and both of us were just so worn down by life that we decided to make a change together. Fresh starts for the both of us.”

“And we get to have that, even if it’s not what we thought it would be,” Lacey said quietly. “But it’s not fair so many others didn’t get the chance.”

Sophia shook her head. “It’s not fair. Nothing ever really is, is it? But it was my brother that kept me going. I kept hearing his voice telling me not to give up, to be strong. He was always there for me, helping me with homework, encouraging me when I had a test coming up, cheering for me at sports games. Celebrating my every little accomplishment, even when they seemed so insignificant. He would have wanted me to live. So despite how hard it was, and how alone I felt, I kept going.”

Tas leaned toward Sophia and placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “You are strong. Your brother’s spirit surely floods with pride and love when he looks upon you, Sophia.”

Covering his hand with her own, Sophia smiled at the winddancer before facing Lacey and Cole again. “I think it was Tas showing up that kept me from losing my mind. Though I found him completely terrifying at first, I started to look forward to his visits every day.”

The winddancer huffed. “I am not terrifying.”

“Not anymore.” Sophia reached out and caught one of his fluffy mandibles, giving it a wiggle. “You’re actually quite cute.”

He chittered and brushed her hand aside. “My broodlings are cute. I am handsome. Shir has said so, so it must be true.”

Everyone laughed and chittered.

Lacey looked in Telok’s direction. He remained in the same place, watching them. She longed for him to join, had even begged him to when they first arrived, but he’d said he wanted her to have time to speak to Sophia, and that hearing about so many human things he wouldn’t understand would make his head hurt.

That still didn’t make her feel any better about him excluding himself.

“So, how did you guys wake up? Some kind of malfunction like mine?” Sophia asked.

Lacey turned back to Sophia. “No. A shadowstalker named Ketahn found our part of the ship.”

“He fell into a big ass pit,” Cole said, pantomiming Ketahn’s fall with a hand and a little whistling sound.

Lacey chuckled. “Basically, yeah. Turned out to be pretty lucky for all of us because that pit was the impact crater from our crash. He found our pods inside and accidentally initiated the wakeup process on Ivy’s pod. She woke the rest of us later.”

Sophia’s brows rose. “Us? How many of you survived the crash?”

“Originally, there were eight of us…” Cole said.

With uncharacteristic solemnity, Cole told Sophia about Ella. And at the woman’s gentle prompting, he continued into the rest of their story, with Lacey joining in to recount both the hardships and unexpected joys they’d found in this alien world. It felt surreal to be talking about all of it to another human who hadn’t been there with them. For nearly eight months, they’d thought the seven of them had been the only ones left.

“And you’re all in Kaldarak?” Sophia asked.

Cole tossed a piece of roasted whiteroot into his mouth. “Yep. Diego, our own personal doctor, is shacked up with Will, who was a computer tech from the crew. And Ivy, Ahmya, and Callie all live with their vrix mates.”

Sophia’s eyes flared, and the nearby winddancers fell suddenly silent.

“What… What do you mean their vrix mates?” Sophia asked.

Cole glanced at the others, looking uneasy with so many eyes upon him. “Uh… Exactly what I said. Isn’t that the word the vrix use? The whole nyleea, luveen thing?”

Tas leaned closer to Lacey. “You said the human who killed the shadowstalker queen lives in Kaldarak with her mate and youngling.”

“I did,” Lacey said. “Ivy’s mate is Ketahn, and the youngling is their child.”