Page 60 of Tharn's Hunt
Her cheeks stain pink as she flushes slightly, the color creeping up her neck. "Weird ones. Probably just the fever."
Before she can say more, footsteps echo from the cave entrance. I tense automatically, my claws flexing instinctively before I catch the familiar scents. Jus-teen. Rok.
But Jah-kee does not know their scents.
Jah-kee startles as Rok steps into the cave. Her entire body stiffens, her eyes going wide as they lock onto his tall, lean form. Her trembling hand instinctively reaches out toward me. “Tharn?”
Before she can continue, another figure appears behind Rok, smaller and quicker.
Jus-teen steps into the cave, her face shadowed at first but quickly brightening when she sees Jah-kee awake. Her eyes widen, and then her expression crumples, her lips parting with a sharp inhale.
"Jacqui!" she exclaims, rushing forward in a blur of movement.
Jah-kee barely has time to sit upright before Jus-teen drops to her knees beside her and throws her arms around her—tightly, desperately, like a hunter clutching a kill. No. Not like a hunter. Like someone holding the most precious thing in the dust.
Emotions ripple through the cave. Raw and sharp, impossible to ignore even for one like me. Jus-teen shakes as she holds her sister, her entire body trembling with relief, with the weight of fear finally lifting.
"I thought you were dead," Jus-teen chokes, her voice breaking. "I thought—" Her words cut off, swallowed by a sob that echoes through the mindspace like a distant storm.
Jah-kee’s arms come up slowly, as if she doesn’t trust her own strength, but then they tighten around Jus-teen with equal ferocity. "I thought you were dead too," she whispers. "I came looking for you... and I—I didn’t know if I’d make it. I didn’t know if you were even alive."
Jus-teen pulls back just enough to look at her sister’s face, her hands framing Jah-kee’s cheeks as if she needs the physical proof that she’s here, alive, breathing.
"You stupid, stubborn idiot," Jus-teen says, her vocalizations thick. "Why didn’t you stay with the group? Why didn’t you wait?"
Jah-kee lets out a trembling laugh, one that sounds wet, as if she might choke. I stiffen but force myself to remain still. "You left first, remember? What was I supposed to do? Just sit there while you wandered off into this deathtrap of a desert?"
Jus-teen shakes her head, laughing and releasing wetness from her eyes at the same time. "Of course, you came after me. It’s what you do. God, Jacqui..." Her voice cracks again, and she pulls her sister back into a fierce embrace, clutching her like she’s afraid she’ll disappear.
Water swells in Jah-kee’s eyes, too, spilling over to streak her cheeks. The sight makes me stiffen some more, but Rok's steady “Do not be alarmed” holds me still.
"I’m alive," Jah-kee murmurs. "I’m alive."
"But you almost weren’t," Jus-teen vocalizes fiercely, pulling back again to scan her sister’s face, as if memorizing every detail."You almost—" Her voice stops, and she presses her forehead to Jah-kee’s, her hands still cupping her cheeks. "Don’t you ever do that to me again. Do you hear me? Don’t you ever scare me like that again."
"I won’t," Jah-kee whispers, the vocalization breaking. "I promise."
She smiles faintly, but the expression falters as her water-filled gaze flickers past Jus-teen’s shoulder to where Rok stands near the cave entrance. Her hands tighten on her sister's arms.
“You sent an alien to find me,” she vocalizes. “You made friends with them. Are there more?”
Jus-teen pulls back, glancing toward Rok and then back at her sister, her lips twitching faintly. "Yeah, there are more of them. They’re called the Drakav, and they’re the reason we’re all still alive."
“All?” Jah-kee’s eyes search her Jus-teen’s, almost as if they have a mindspace of their own. “The others?”
Jus-teen does that chin-to-chest thing, more water swelling in her eyes, and they embrace once more.
For a moment, the cave is silent except for the sound of their breathing, the quiet sniffles as they hold each other. Even Rok stands quietly at the edge of the space, his expression solemn.
I step back, giving the females space for their reunion, though every instinct screams to remain close to Jah-kee. Rok joins me, his expression knowing as he observes my obvious reluctance.
"Your female awakens," he projects privately, his mental voice tinged with satisfaction. "Good. The bond will strengthen now that she recovers."
I bristle at his phrasing. "She is not'myfemale,'" I project back sharply. "At least, not in the way of the Law of the Dust. She is Jah-kee. She is..."
I falter, unable to define exactly what she is to me. Not prey. Not clan. Not... anything I have words for.
Rok's smug knowing floods the mindspace. "Yes, brother. I recall similar protests when Jus-teen first arrived." His gaze shifts to where the two females embrace, his expression softening. "At first, I thought her a brazen male scouting to destroy us andI, too, denied what the light revealed."
