Broken Skies (10 page)

“Lir,” I say softly. “Wake up.”

His head slowly rises until his eyes meet mine. “I am not sleeping. The accommodations leave a little to be desired.” A bruise mars his cheek, expanding outward and swelling his eye nearly shut. I gasp and reach forward to put a hand on his cheek, but he flinches away from me. “What is it that you want, Jax? Come to weasel more information out of me? I must admit you guys had a pretty good set up there. How did you know we were coming?”

“What are you talking about?” I ask. He doesn’t sound like the cheerily sarcastic guy I met earlier. Though perhaps this is who he really is.

A snide laugh passes his lips. “Cut the innocent act. Obviously you have had this planned for some time. Even planned for me to take pity on you, is that it? The shaky hands, the big terrified eyes… I must say, you almost had me.” He pitches his voice up into a mocking falsetto. “Oh dear I’ve injured you come with me and I’ll help you. By the way…what are your weaknesses? How do I get into the city?” His face is cold and hard. “And when it did not work, you had your friends come to lock me up…..and now what? You are trying a new tactic?”

I back away and rise to my feet. “What?”

“The dress is a nice touch too.” His eyes run up and down my body. “Can’t beat it out of me so seduce it out of me, huh?” My face flushes, a mixture of embarrassment and anger.

Lir is on his feet before I can blink, throwing his bound arms over my head so I’m in between them. He pushes me back until my shoulders hit the door, slamming it shut, and he holds me there. “Well come on then. Though I must admit your previous attempts have been rather amateurish.” He leans down to whisper into my ear. “This is what you wanted isn’t it pretty girl?”

The phrase echoes in my brain, ricocheting around in my head… pretty girl… pretty girl…pretty girl. My whole consciousness focuses on those two words. Breathing becomes secondary, and my heartbeat sounds in my ears marking the rhythm of the words. A keening noise escapes my lips and the door vibrates against my back when Emily starts pounding on it from outside. Stone and ice shoot through my veins, stiffening my limbs, but almost as quickly a fiery heat flows through me and I’m kicking and I’m flailing and I’m biting. I’m a blur of motion, pushing back, snarling like an animal.

When I come back to myself, my cheek rests against scratchy fabric and a hand is stroking my hair back from my face.

“Jax,” a voice says in my ear. “It’s okay. You’re safe. Relax.” It’s Emily and my still rapid breaths slow. Color bleeds back in around me and the room comes into focus. My head is cradled in Emily’s lap and she continues gently running her fingers over my head. “Better now?”

I nod and shift into a more upright position, a slight residual dizziness keeping me on the floor for now. The on edge feeling that’s haunted me since this afternoon is gone though. Great cure for creeping anxiety— a panic attack. If only I’d thought of that sooner. At least I feel a bit more like myself now.

The door is wide open, but Lir sits in the corner watching me sit up. “Jax, I—” He reaches a hand out and cringes when I shy away from it. “I did not mean to… I didn’t know. They said…” Emerald eyes meet mine. “I am sorry.”

Lir shifts closer to me, bringing his bruised and battered face back into the meager light. There’s fresh blood dribbling from the side of his lip. From something I did no doubt. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, sending a streak of green blood up his cheek.

I flinch. “Sorry for the…new blood there. Friends?”

Lir eyes me for a moment, a mixture of confusion and guilt on his face, and then chuckles awkwardly. “With friends like you, who needs enemies, right?”

“Well, you wouldn’t be the only friend I hit today.”

There goes that eyebrow of his, amusement flooding into his eyes. “I at least hope I’m the only one you hit twice today.”

“I’ve already apologized for the first one though.” Forehead to palm, I shake my head. “It’s just been a bad day.”

“You’re telling me,” Lir says, raising his bound hands. “And you’re not even the one tied up.”

I rise to my feet, pulling out a small knife that was strapped to my thigh. It’s a good thing I didn’t lose the thing when I was crawling through Dane’s window. Normally my knife would be secure in my boot, but I’m stuck in Emily’s flimsy sandals and my boots are waiting for me in one of the packs. I start sawing at the ropes around Lir’s wrists.

“Are you sure releasing it is still a good idea?” asks Emily. She glares at Lir with narrowed eyes. “I’m worried about you, Jax. You’re going to travel to the city alone? With only that alien to help? After that…” She flutters her hands and pulls her lower lip into her mouth. “I know you have some sort of agreement…but there’s got to be another way. I don’t trust it, not after what it just did. It’s dangerous.”

Lir speaks up, sarcasm biting at his words. “I am sure you are familiar enough with the distinction between male and female to realize that I am a he and not an it, correct?” Lir returns her glare. “I did not ask to be here. Who are you to question my trustworthiness? If anyone here has a reason to doubt motives, it is me. Since arriving, I have been attacked, beaten, knocked out, and tied up.” His voice gets softer. “The altercation was a misunderstanding on my part and I have already apologized.” My knife finally gets through the rope and Lir rubs at his wrists and flexes his fingers. “I gave Jax my word. I will do everything in my power to get her to the city safely.”

“How do I know your word is good, alien?” asks Emily haughtily.

Lir rolls his eyes. “What is it with you humans and your affection for labels instead of names? My name is Lir, please address me by it.”

“Okay then,
Lir
, how do I know your word is good?”

“Does it matter what you know? Can Jax not speak for herself? She obviously trusts me at least that far. You should too.”

“Jax doesn’t know any better!” Exasperation laces Emily’s words.

“What?” I’m not perfect and I make mistakes, but… “What does that mean, Emily?”

Her eyebrows draw together and she puts a hand on my shoulder. “You’re just… Your decisions aren’t always very reliable.”

I shake her hand away. “Well, this is my decision. Like it or not, this is the only way to get Jace back.” The warm friendship I’d been beginning to feel for her recedes a little. Emily is just like the rest of them, thinking I’m some fragile child. “So will your friends upstairs look the other way or not? We’ve got to get out of here.”

“I didn’t mean it like that…I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to get hurt,” says Emily.

“Stuff happens, no matter what you do. If anyone knows that, it’s me. I can’t sit here behind these walls while my brother is out there. Lir, alien or not, is the only way in I have. I know how to look out for myself.” Bringing my hands up, I place them on her shoulders and stare into her face. “If you can’t trust him, trust me. I can do this.”

Emily looks away and nods. “Okay.”

Emily isn’t quite sure where Brian’s loyalties lie and, even if I were sure of the two guards’ loyalties, they don’t seem very fond of aliens. Getting Lir up the stairs and out the door is going to be more complicated than we thought. We throw a couple ideas back and forth, but nothing that really seems feasible. Emily’s ideas mostly consist of getting more people to help, but that makes me uneasy, Lir too, though he doesn’t actually say it. The more people involved, the more potential for us to be caught.

“We’ve been down here too long,” says Emily. “Either way, they’re going to start getting suspicious, if they aren’t already. We could try again in the morning.”

“Sounds great,” says Lir, “except they plan to execute me in the morning.”

“Execute you?” It’s the first time Emily has looked even a little concerned for Lir’s safety and not just my own. “Without a trial? For what?”

Anger and maybe even a touch of fear flashes across his face. “For being an alien. You are not the most accepting lot.”

“Why are you surprised at this?” I ask. Seems I’m not the only naive one around here. “After everything you’ve seen, did you really think they’d let him go? You know how things work around here.”

“I do…but… he hasn’t done anything.”

“Nothing except being non-native to this planet,” says Lir. “Would not be the first instance of the human superiority complex. You have destroyed your planet and much of your race and yet you believe we are the enemy.”

“Aren’t you? You came to our planet—”

“The planet you did not bother to take care of.”

“Our city—”

“That you were no longer able to manage. There is plenty of space here now, why can you not share?” Lir stands face to face with Emily, glaring, his words edged with anger.

Emily doesn’t back down. “Why couldn’t you stay on your own planet? Why are you here?”

Lir breaks her gaze and his eyes shift to the side. “We have our reasons.”

I throw my hands up. “Why the hell are you guys arguing? None of this is helpful. Emily, they’re here and they have Jace, that’s all that matters.” I turn to Lir and poke him in the chest with one finger. “And you… drop it. Seems like you have your own complex. Stop lumping all humans together. Most of us weren’t even alive during the Collapse and had no part in any of it.” Lir smirks and Emily looks at me in surprise. “What?”

Emily’s eyes flick from my face down to my hand— which is once again lingering too long on Lir’s chest. It’s one thing for me to allow others to touch me, a completely different thing for me to touch someone else and, once again, I’ve unconsciously touched Lir. What is wrong with me? Even after… I pull my hand back quickly, like it burns. Maybe it actually does a little because my face heats up.

I direct my gaze to the wall. “Can we just get on with it? We’re wasting time.” The steam of my irritation flows out and my shoulders droop. “Who knows what they’re doing to Jace.”

EIGHT

It ends up that Emily calls the guards down to “help us with the unruly prisoner,” Lir knocks them out and I tie them up. Simple enough really once the two of them stopped arguing and we worked it out. Emily is staying behind. She’s tied up too, better to sell the story that the alien escaped with me as a hostage. That way no one will get in any real trouble, except me— hopefully.

Lir and I slip up the stairs and into the open air. As soon as he’s outside Lir takes a big breath and lets it out slowly. “Smells much better out here,” he says.

There’s really nothing for me to say to that. I’m glad he’s enjoying his freedom, but we don’t have time to waste.

I grab his shirt and pull him in the direction of the packs and the West gate. The moon rests behind a cloud and there’s little light to navigate with, but we manage. He follows close behind me, darting in between buildings, and hiding in doorways. We try to avoid the main street, but are forced to travel the last few blocks on it after making a quick detour to grab the satchel. There aren’t many people, in fact, we’ve only seen six and they were guards on patrol. The festival must still be going on.

An open grassy area stretches between the edge of the last building and the gate. Unfortunately, it’s also well lit by two lampposts on either side of the gate. I scan the surroundings.

No guards in sight. Where are they? There’s always someone on duty. There. A shape to the left of the gate pulls my attention. Only one guard tonight and he’s sitting against the wall, looking in the opposite direction.

The packs are waiting behind a bush along the wall to the right, about twenty feet from the gate and thirty feet from the guard. He may look like he’s not paying much attention, but I’m not going to risk both of us getting caught. I glide to the right, my back pressed against the building. Once I am directly across from where the packs are supposed to be, I take a cautious step forward. Lir steps up behind me and I shake my head, pointing at him and then back at the building. He nods and fades back into the shadows.

Quick and careful steps bring me to the bush and I sit down beside it, out of the sight line of the guard farther down. The rustle of the branches makes me cringe, but I have no choice, I’ve got to get the packs. Not only for the food and water they contain, but I damn sure can’t waltz around in the woods in a dress. I can’t wait to get back into a pair of pants. My wardrobe will have to wait though, at least until we’re well away from here.

The guard is just sitting there, not even scanning the area. What is going on? I’m pretty sure Dane wouldn’t put up with that level of incompetence. Something isn’t right and a twinge of anxiety creeps down my back. Lir slides up to the wall beside me, startling me into nearly screaming. As it is, I jump and then turn to glare at him.

“What are you doing? I told you to wait.” The whisper hisses past my teeth.

“That guy is not going anywhere.” He points toward the guard.

I follow his finger and really study the guard leaning against the wall. He’s not moving and, now that I think about it, he hasn’t moved since I first observed him. Is he sleeping? I shoulder one of the packs and skirt around the bush and press close to the wall on the other side. Slow side steps take me closer to the gate and the guard. Lir mimics my actions behind me, joining me in scooting closer.