Page 42 of Matched to the Alien King
“Maxx.”
“What?”
“Are you shrinking?”
I snapped my gaze to his to be sure he wasn’t joking—he wasn’t—and then to my surroundings. The large, leafy trees seemed to be…growing.
But then I looked down at my feet, now completely covered by the bright-orange sand I’d been standing on top of. Just a circle of it in the middle of the usual white color and surrounded on all sides by leafy green.
And the sand was steadily climbing toward my knees.
I sucked in a shocked breath. “Not shrinking. Sinking.”
“Are you serious?Quicksand? It exists?”
“Yes, I’m fuxxing serious.” Why did he sound way too excited by this?
I’d sunk three-quarters of the way up my thighs by then. Squirming and kicking seemed to sink me faster. I grasped for the edge of the caved-in circle, where the orange sand met the white, but the edge was too far away to reach. For more arm length, I took out my machete—or I tried to. All but the hilt had vanished under the sand, but it wouldn’t budge from my homemade scabbard even though it should have.
Normal rules for how things worked obviously did not apply here.
“Well…well, grabholdof something,” Axxel sputtered. “Get out of there.”
“Genius advice, only it’s not working,” I snapped through gritted teeth.
Just then, beyond the cover of trees, Earth Space Fleet’s trapdoor opened. My scales rippled with hope, which sank me even faster.
Nera could get me out though. She could do anything.
Except it wasn’t Nera.
One officer leaped out onto the sand, dressed in full military battle gear with guns and other weapons strapped everywhere, and then more flooded out after her. Without waiting for the rest of their comrades climbing up, they advanced toward the jungle.
Toward me.
A Faid.
Of course they didn’t know that. But even if they saw me, the king of Xenoxx, here on Klio-3 and caught in quicksand, they would certainly ask too many questions.
“Maxx, talk to me.” Panic seeped into Axxel’s voice. “Are you looking for a way out, or are you really just standing there like an idiot right now?”
“Earth Space Fleet is here,” I muttered.
“Yeah, Iknowthat,” Axxel fired back. “Focus on your current situation, Maxx.”
“No, I mean. They. Are. Here. They’re coming right for me.”
“Then yell for help.”
I shook my head. “I can’t let them know I’m here. They kill Faid.”
“Only ones wholookandspeaklike Faid. Maxx!” he shouted. “I will not watch you die again.”
The emotion, the volume, the heartbreak in his voice pulled me up short. Not literally though because the sand was creeping up past my shoulders.
I’d destroyed him the day I died in the explosion with my wife, which was why he’d worked tirelessly to bring me back as a Faid clone of myself. When I’d—awakened? Was reborn?—however you want to put it, he’d hugged me to him with tears streaming down his face.
I would never forget that. And I would forever owe him my life.
