Page 157 of Alien God

“I think we should at least go outside,” said the curly-haired woman. “See if Torrance is out there. How would he know her name if she wasn’t with him?”

I grimaced, hoping the fact that Torrance wasn’t directly outside waiting for them wouldn’t cause too much turmoil.

“We all go, or none of us do,” said the stripey-haired one.

“You have no choice,” I muttered. “I cannot leave you here.”

Though none of them understood, it was decided by a quick, whispered vote that they would all venture outside. Once they’re out there, and they see Torrance isn’t there, I must be prepared for them to try to run.

I led the group back out of the machine. When we passed the bodies of the soldiers, many of the women gasped and started crying anew. One of them stopped to vomit before shakily carrying on.

We stepped out of the machine and onto cold grey rock. As anticipated, questions of, “Where’s Torrance?” began to circulate.

None of them were running, though.

At least, not until they saw Sceadulyr.

He stepped out of a shadowy, hidden place by the machine, creating an uproar among the humans.

“Don’t let them run,” I grunted, lifting my hands and using my power to raise the grey stone into high walls that trapped the humans. One of them got away, the one with the brown skin, sprinting past me, her kinky black curls flying. She didn’t get far – I heard her gasp and shout when Sceadulyr grabbed her.

I hadn’t lost any of the other ones. They were all secured, now, in the centre of a ring of high stone walls that I knew they would not be able to scale.

“I can take her back to Sionnach first, then,” I said, turning back to Sceadulyr and the one woman who’d gotten past me.

But Sceadulyr did not look at me. Did not look as though he’d even heard me. He’d caught the woman by the arm, his pale fingers clasped around her bare wrist as she struggled to get away.

One by one, like candles being lit, the stars on his map returned, spreading outward from the place he touched her.

“I am afraid you will not be taking this woman to Sionnach, Wylfrael,” he said. A wicked grin unfolded on his face as his gaze finally flicked to mine. “It seems I no longer require your assistance. Consider the bargain fulfilled and your debt paid.”

Before I could say anything else, he’d scooped up the woman into his arms and launched into the air, his wings spreading like night as he created a sky door and went through it.

Well, that had complicated things. On the one hand, I was immensely relieved to be free of Sceadulyr’s deal. On the other hand, I didn’t think my wife was going to be happy about what had just happened.

But that woman was clearly Sceadulyr’s mate. She’d brought back his star map, and I had no right to intervene now.

Yet another thing I will have to deal with later, I grumbled, returning to the group of women I’d ensconced in the ring of stone.

They screamed and cried and fought, just like Torrance once had, but I accomplished my goal. One by one, I brought them through the sky door and back to Sionnach.

***

THERE WAS MUCH CELEBRATION upon our return. The human women in the group and Torrance all cried human tears of joy when they were reunited on the summer-warmed land of Sionnach. I hung back with Aiko, Shoshen, and Ashken as the women hugged and cried and laughed.

“We thought you were a goner! We had no idea you were still alive!” the stripey-haired one, whom I now knew was named Min-Ji, said, hugging Torrance so tightly I almost wanted to growl in warning to make her loosen her grip. But Torrance seemed happy, so I held back.

“No, I wasn’t. I mean, I almost was, but...” Torrance’s lovely gaze slid to me. “My husband saved me.”

A beat of silence.

“Excuse me, all this space travel must have completely fucked my hearing,” Min-Ji said. “Did you just say, husband?”

Through the rest of the afternoon, Torrance told her friends all about what had happened, or a version of it, at least. I noticed she left out some of my less noble moments. She didn’t tell them I’d imprisoned her, or that I’d gone on to kill her. Instead, the story she told was one that I wished we could have had. A story of two mates finding each other, learning to trust each other, and falling in love.

Perhaps that was the story we’d gotten in the end. We’d just taken a longer, thornier path to get there.

After Torrance had told her story, I suggested to my wife that we all go inside. Some of the women were looking frightfully pale, something I knew by now was not good. Who knew when they’d last eaten?

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