Page 3 of Taken to Voraxia
I wince, even though I think Svera’s intending to be hopeful, because that really, truly is the best case scenario.And it’s still a nightmare.Marriedto one of those…those things?I look away, but not before I see Rae scowl, jerk back and slide her arm around her boy’s shoulders.
“You are welcome to choose any that please you, Raku.” Mathilda’s voice rings over the crowd, light and singsong, and a moment later the blue-grey one with the furious face steps forward and walks purposefully…
Straight towards Kiki.
It’s not possible.Oh, but it is.
“Barukh ata adonai eloheinu, melekh ha`olam, hallowed be thy name, thine kingdom come, thy will be done, aoud bil Allahi min el shetani el rajim…” Svera goes on in the language of the Tri-God, but I don’t hear her. Can’t. I just stand there, agape. Horrified.Wounded.
I knew that Kiki would get picked. I always knew. But seeing it happen again feels way too much like déjà vu.
I don’t believe in the Tri-God Svera does, but right now I pray to anyone listening. The stars. The comets. The universe. The sand, hot under my bare feet. The suns baking my shoulders from above. The rations we never get enough of. Hope. Survival.Please not Kiki, please not Kiki. Let her be spared. Let her be saved. Somehow. Some way.
I shift again so I can catch a glimpse of Kiki. Her beautiful brown skin is so dark it’s almost black. It glows where she kneels in the first row of women, in the place nearest to danger.
Her hair puffs out in an enormous shadow behind her, ending at her shoulder blades.I remember what it looked like, matted with blood.
I jump when the one Mathilda calledRakudrops down onto one knee in front of her. He falls forward onto his hands, his face pressed forward, eyes closed, nostrils flared…
“Is he smelling her?” Svera asks incredulously.
I open my mouth, jaw working.Yes, he is.“I…”
And then it hits me. A gust of lightheadedness — maybe because I’ve been holding my breath?No. The sensation is too strong for that, too acute. Toopunishing. I gulp in air and try to focus on Kiki and the monster kneeling beside her, but I can’t, the world is shifting, colors blazing together…
“Miari, you’re hurting me.”
I glance down and see my hand gripping Svera’s arm hard enough to leave bruises. I try to release her, but my knees wobble. I stumble. Dizziness morphs into full-on vertigo. My stomach cramps and I clutch at my abdomen.
“Oh thank Allah. Thank you, Jehovah,” Svera breathes at my side. “He’s not going to pick her. Do you see, Miari?”
No. I don’t.I can’t see anything past the sudden moisture filling my eyes.
“Hey, are you okay?”
Crashing into Svera’s side, I feel her scrabbling to stabilize my much larger body. My nostrils flare. I can’t breathe right.Is this how it goes? One in, two out? Two out, one in? One…one? No…
“No…I…I think I’m going to be sick.” But it isn’t sickness I feel. And it isn’t pain. Or rather, it isn’tonlypain…
There’s a coiled snake in the pit of my stomach which seems to be unraveling, lifting its head and gazing around.How long his it lived there? All this time?Satisfied with what it sees, a sudden warmth blossoms through my entire being.My stars…what is happening to me?
“It’s okay, Miari. He didn’t pick her. He’s…” And then she releases a quiet chirp. “God, it looks like he wants past the fence.”
“Comets…” My eyelids flutter and then it happens. This new serpentine friend of mine surges south in my stomach until it reaches the folds of my womanhood. Moisture collects suddenly at the entrance of my core, coats my lower lips, drips onto my thighs… Desire, need, and thirst all hit me with the zing of an electrical burn, of which I’ve had many. But I’ve never felt so shattered. So hot. Roasted alive from the inside.
“Help…” I start to crumble on myself as the sensation punishes me. The earth beneath my feet is gently pulled away.
“Miari,” Svera calls my name again as more of my weight drops onto her. “Miari!”
“No, I’m okay,” I wheeze, and it’s a lie.
I squeeze my legs together and press a hand over my crotch, trying to lessen the torturous pressure, but the threadbare brown pants I’m wearing are scratchy and, since I can’t afford to trade for undergarments, ithurtswhen the fraying fibers come into contact with my too hot, too sensitive flesh.
I whimper and the response is not one I expected — around me, the worldgrowls. The sound is deep and masculine and bellows through the empty space, shattering the composure the gathered humans once had and sending them scattering.
Svera shouts words I can no longer make out. My eyelids flutter and my gaze is pulled, as if by magnet, through the shifting bodies, people grabbing each other and darting out of the way, pushing past me without looking back.
I see him. Raku. A stone’s throw away. Just on the other side of the fence. His gaze is ripping around, tearing through the crowd like a blade. He releases another desperate male roar before his hands close on the wooden fenceposts. In one swift pull, he rips the stakes free of the packed earth and tosses them aside in a jumble of wood, metal and barbed wire.
