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In the next second, as if by some miracle, the ship turned around. The jolt spiked Leah’s adrenaline even more, making her limbs shake.
As the ship glided gently forward, as if floating through fluffy clouds, not a hurricane, Leah noticed her erratic breathing. She licked her lips, trying to quiet her heart and unwind her muscles.
She also noticed her mouth was barely a breath away from the sliver of golden skin peeking from underneath Taryn’s tunic. She wanted to lick it.
Leah closed her eyes and inhaled deeply.
It was only the adrenaline talking.
“Thank you,” she said, drawing back, but still unwilling to leave his warm embrace.
His gaze snapped to her lips. It might’ve been Leah’s imagination, but his slitted pupils had turned rounder. “For?”
“Calming me down.” She nodded at the control panel. “Making sure we didn’t die.”
“To be fair.” He looked up at the sky, which was still roaring. “The danger hasn’t fully passed.”
Something in Taryn’s energy told Leah he was joking. Mostly.
So she did the most dangerous thing–she gently nudged his shoulder, a hint of a smile pulling at her lips.
She froze a second later. Oh, no. She shouldn’t–couldn’t–start feeling comfortable around him.
Leah scurried back to her seat, as if struck by lightning, feeling a mighty blush spread over her cheeks.
Not okay.
She needed to focus on what she had to do.
Damn her soul. Save Nana’s life.
Leah took a deep, steadying breath, just as the ship breached the last terrifying cloud. All of a sudden, the shadows evaporated, leaving behind a clear, orange sky, overlooking large clusters of jagged buildings.
They looked more like cliffs than houses, but Leah spotted windows and doors. Their backs were embedded deep into the rocky hills, as their towers and spires intertwined with each other.
The buildings flanked one massive street, cutting clear through the middle. It looked like a hybrid between a sleepy cul-de-sac and the beginning of an apocalyptic holo-movie.
“What is this place?” she asked, transfixed.
“Welcome to Kustume, the best market district on all of Quillon,” Taryn said, nodding at the ship as it slowly descended. “We’ll spend the night here and venture out to my estate tomorrow.” He looked at the sky above them, blistering and dark. “Hopefully.”
The vessel slowly descended toward the massive street, hovering over the coarse dirt. The rain fell over it with such force, pebbles ricochet up. But the huge droplets looked peculiar. Leah squinted her eyes out the window, still unsure. The sky was orange and black, after all.
“Is your rain pink?” she asked, still not truly believing it.
Like diluted blood, from some great war happening in the sky.
“It is,” Taryn said as the ship slowed down in front of the biggest, most jagged building in the district. It looked like an underwater rock, with nooks and crevices all over its winding towers. “And this is our resting place for the night.”
The building looked ominous enough, Taryn didn’t need to call it a resting place, too. But Leah knew how iffy their translators were. Sara, one of the other human matches, had promised to fix their design. Back on the ship, she’d started mumbling about “those blasted ear muffs” even during her sleep, according to her roommate, Erin.
Or, well, previous roommate. Now each of them was away with their respective Quillon match, just like Leah.
Of course, they’d all been a bit hesitant and weary on the trip here. After all, being told they had to marry aliens for the sake of humanity wasn’t a thing people experienced every day. Especially since nobody knew much about said mysterious aliens.
Each of them had someone they loved back home on Earth, for whom they would be willing to sacrifice everything, even themselves.
But none of the other women had a secret as big as Leah’s. Or as depressing of a mission.
