A piercing shriek rang through the silence, and Lily’s body erupted in pins and needles. She sprinted around the corner to the source of the scream. Her stomach plummeted.
Alex was hanging over a ledge, scraping at the mud for purchase. Without any roots to cling to, she was slipping away quickly. Lily dove, gripping Alex’s wrists just as she was about to fall. She held on with both hands and pulled, digging her elbows into the thick mud. Through gritted teeth, she said, “What the hell happened?”
“The ground gave out under me!” Alex kicked at the wall of dirt before her, trying to find a foothold, but she only managed to pull Lily through the mud until her head hung over the edge and Alex was dangling from her wrists. Tremors wracked Lily’s body, and her mind blanked for an instant as if wanting to retreat.
She tried to lift Alex’s weight, but the ground was too slippery. The earth below her torso sagged. They were going to fall. The weight of Alex was slowly dragging Lily over the edge, and she had nothing to brace against. She forced herself to calm and assess the situation like her mother had taught her.
Alex’s eyes were wide and panicked. “Don’t let go!”
Lily turned her focus to the river below and swallowed. Rapids. “Alex, look at me.” Alex’s wide eyes kept searching around her for something to grab onto. “Alex!” Lily shouted, drawing her attention. “I need you to listen carefully.”
Alex nodded, and tears leaked from her brown eyes.
Lily tried to keep her voice even and calm, but it trembled all the same. “We’re going in the river. There’s no way out of it.”
Alex released a quick sob but kept listening.
“When we hit the water, you need to flip on your back and float. Make sure your feet point downstream. Do you understand? If we get separated, don’t wait for me. Remember what I taught you and find a town. Keep heading downriver.” The ground below them dropped a few feet, and Lily yelled, “Don’t try to stand up or swim! If you go under, try to float on your back until you surface again! I won’t let go of you! Don’t—”
Before she could finish, the ground gave out and they were falling.
After they hit the water, everything was a blur. The ice-cold rapids sucked them under and buffeted them around. Lily managed to keep hold of Alex’s hand for longer than she’d have thought, but then they were rammed into a boulder and Alex was wrenched away from her. The sudden lightness on her shoulder told her she’d lost her bag as well. Lily stifled the urge to kick upward and instead rolled until her body was flat. Eventually she felt air on her face and gulped in a deep breath before being sucked under again. Each time she surfaced, she tried to tilt her head and look for Alex.
At last she spotted her a little farther upstream, floating on her back. Relief made Lily cry out just as she was sucked back under. When she emerged again, she lifted her head a fraction and spotted a large downed tree jutting into the river about half a mile downstream right after a relatively calm stretch of river.
Each time her face emerged above water, she screamed and pointed at the tree, hoping Alex would understand. Once the menacing undertow of the rapids lessened, she turned on her belly and swam across the current, positioning her body in the path of the tree. Chancing a glance over her shoulder, she saw Alex was doing the same. They might make it through this, after all.
As the tree drew near and the current picked up speed again, she braced for impact. Her feet hit first, sending shockwaves through her ankles and shins. Instead of being caught by the trunk, her body was dragged underneath it. She thrashed her arms, reaching out for any limbs she could grasp before the current swept her away, and clutched a sapling vine. She pulled on the vine until she surfaced again, then flipped onto her stomach and dragged her body halfway out of the water and onto a tangle of branches still clinging to the trunk.
She turned her head just in time to see Alex coming toward her. “Grab anything you can!” she screamed over the roaring sound of the rapids.
Lily’s stomach flipped when she realized Alex hadn’t swum far enough over to catch the tree. She scrambled as fast as she could up onto the trunk itself and shimmied toward the jagged edge sticking out into the river.
Alex managed to grab a single branch hanging from the tip of the tree, but the current was dragging her back toward the middle of the river. Lily crawled up the trunk as fast as she could; the broken nubs of lost branches cut into her inner thighs, but she barely felt the sting. All she could think about was the despair and sheer terror in Alex’s eyes. When Lily reached the edge of the trunk, she stretched her arm toward Alex as far as it would go. Alex kicked and thrashed against the current, trying to get closer, but it was no use.
The branch cracked near the base. Lily stretched, cantilevering herself over the rushing water toward the branch, just out of reach. She saw the moment Alex understood. Her eyes hardened like they had on the first night at the edge of the forest. Just before the branch broke off completely, she rolled onto her back.
“No!” Lily’s scream rose above the roar of the river as Alex’s dark brown hair disappeared under a swell.
Chapter 2
One Week Later
Verakko’s gaze raced over the multitude of screens in front of him, unbelieving. He knew of the Insurgents and their plan to abduct and experiment on humans. He’d even heard first-person accounts of their treachery from the humans themselves, but a small part of him had clung to the unreasonable hope that no member of their supposedly advanced society would stoop so low as to cage sentient beings in such a vile way.
Here, in front of his very eyes, was irrefutable evidence that his people were no better than any other. Feeds of miserable human females and a solitary male were being broadcast to his screen from over five different facilities across Clecania.
“Fuck,” Luka croaked from behind him.
Verakko shot a sympathetic wince over his shoulder at the glaring male and saw his face had paled and his eyes were searching the screen with an undercurrent of rage.
Was the anger glimmering in his eyes for himself or his mate, Alice? Both Luka and Alice had been held captive in a different facility identical to the ones covering the screen. They, and a small group of females—two of whom were still missing—had escaped a little over two weeks ago.
Arguably, Luka had received the worse treatment while prisoner. He’d been beaten and drugged, but as Verakko studied Luka, he felt as though this male didn’t care about his own experience at all. Bright blue mating marks, only the second to be seen on a Clecanian in centuries, ran over the large male’s wrists and hands, and as Luka’s gaze darted from the facility feeds to the exit of the small cabin they were currently in, he continued to absently run his fingers over the marks.
Verakko returned his attention to the task at hand and attempted to clear his mind of the unwanted pangs of curiosity nibbling at his senses. It wouldn’t do to start daydreaming about someday finding a mate for himself.
His nimble fingers flew over the holographic control panel to his right. Almost ready.
To his relief, there were only about two or three guards manning each facility. For the past few minutes, Verakko had been trapping them as quietly as he could. Most had been easy to lock up as they sat in their facility’s control room and didn’t notice the sound of their door locking. But others had been wandering the halls. He’d lured them into vacant cells by broadcasting the sound of static. When the guards had investigated the faulty equipment, he’d sealed the door behind them. Only one guard remained.