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KAIO
Neither my pack nor Gwen’s case of human medications had anything in it that might be useful to tie us together.
Physically, my traitorous brain insisted on reminding me. We were already connected mentally—bound as closely together as any two beings could ever be.
I glanced around at the foliage nearby, but it seemed the gluttonvines had taken over everything else. It was an invasive species, often carried to new planets in seed form when the planets were being made habitable for life in the early days of terraforming.
Now most companies insisted on careful cleansing of any products used during the terraforming process.
But there were always those who were willing to cut corners, and so the gluttonvines continued to proliferate throughout the galaxy.
I was impressed that they had apparently been confined to this single valley—though I suspected the falavon mist had a lot to do with that, as it kept mammals at bay.
And of course, if Bloodworm was in charge of creating the environments for the games, there was a good chance he had specifically arranged for this valley to be filled with the dangerous flora.
“What about the cloth I used for shoes?” Gwen asked when we had searched through everything twice. “Could we use it to make a rope?”
I glanced down at her tiny feet. “That might work,” I said slowly. “And to be honest, it would be better for you if you could feel the rocks under your toes as you climbed.”
Taking a seat on the ground, she began unwinding the fabric she had tied around herself hours ago.
“Leave one layer,” I suggested. “That should help protect you from injury.”
She nodded and continued removing the strips of fabric, handing them to me so I could tie them together in a rope.
I was worried that the knots wouldn’t hold, but I shoved the concern down as deep as it could go, more worried that Gwen would pick up on my concern and panic.
“Okay, that’s the last of it,” Gwen announced, re-tying her much thinner foot coverings and scrambling to her feet again.
I finished knotting the strips into a serviceable enough rope, leaving a second length on the ground.
Picking up the longer part, I wound it around Gwen’s waist and threaded it between her legs to create a harness. When I finished tying it and glanced into her eyes, I realized her cheeks had turned a delicious shade of pink, tiny blood vessels under her skin expanding and flooding it with color.
My heart thumped erratically in my chest as I wondered if her entire body would flush like that under the right circumstances.
And what, precisely, might be the right circumstances to make that happen.
My cocks twitched, straining against my uniform jumpsuit, and I turned away from her under the guise of tying the other end of the makeshift rope around my waist to create my own harness. “This is going to work just like our trek through the jungle. You will put your hands and feet exactly where I put mine. Watch me closely. And whatever you do, don’t look down.”
“Wait,” Gwen said with a frown. “What about my samples case? I can’t sling it over my shoulders, and I’m going to need both hands to climb.”
“I’ve already thought of that.” I lifted the second length of rope and strung it through the handles of the case that she’d been dragging behind her, creating two straps, which I used to slide the case onto my back. It was unwieldy, but the rope would serve its purpose. A
“Keep an eye on my pack and your case,” I said. “If either begins to come loose, call out to me and flatten yourself as close to the wall as you can get. I should be able to swing out far enough so that if anything falls, it doesn’t hit you.”
“Oh, fuck,” Gwen whimpered. “I don’t want to die on this cliff.”
Without thinking about it consciously, I found myself reaching out to cup her cheek in my palm. “You’re not going to die. I will protect you.”
Her mind filled again with visions of tumbling to her death. “But what if the rope holding us together comes undone?”
I tugged on the knots between us. “These will hold. I have been climbing my entire life. My planet, Orenda, is mountainous—it’s still a young planet, geographically speaking, and there’s still quite a bit of seismic activity. We learn at a young age to navigate treacherous terrain.”
Often with our trainers throwing simulated fireballs at us, just in case there’s ever another Incendiary uprising,I thought. J’onn was ever vigilant, watching for signs of the dark powers building again.
“Fireballs? Your people can throw fireballs?”
I brushed away her query. “Not any longer. Those insurgents were remanded to the Vanguard Prison. But our military stays prepared for another uprising—and as the chief commander of our military, I’ve been trained in all their techniques.”
