Chapter 7

It's all I can do to keep moving. Weariness tugs at me, but I keep it at bay with a potent combination of hard-won professionalism and adrenaline.

I'll crash, and crash hard, but not until I've helped the people bleeding in front of me.

Selfishly, I need the distraction.

The lodge reminds of something out of a child's fairytale. Were it not for the wounded lying on the long wooden tables and benches, I could almost imagine beer wenches and platters of food piled high for a feast.

Instead, I reach for more herbs, a nameless woman at my side, working feverishly to supply me with herbal ointment to apply to each laceration, each bite wound. I haven't had the time or energy to spare to ask her name, but we work in wordless accord, cleaning and bandaging.

Heat rises from my hands, the back of my neck, and a strange sense of calm pervades me. I'm in the zone. Pained expressions turned relaxed as I work, countless thanks uttered by those still conscious to give them.

It's not until I've done a second round, double-checking the dozens of injured, that their expressions all hit me at once.

There's wonder there, their eyes wide and mouths slack as I finish.

Those that aren't asleep speak in hushed whispers, casting sidelong glances at where I lean, exhausted, against the thick wooden wall.

"That was something," the woman says, and I blink at her. "You've got a rare talent. I'm glad we have you."

"Oh. I'm just a nurse, that's my job." I shrug one shoulder. Any one of my coworkers would have done the same, different dimension or not. See someone hurt? Help them. It's second nature.

"You're a healer." Her gaze turns shrewd, skipping away, across the room, to where Hyadum's horns nearly scrape a low beam. He's speaking in low tones to someone, and though I knew he was in the room, I've paid him no attention.

"Right," I agree. "A healer. I'm Mina."

"Sulen," she says, a quick grin appearing on her face as she washes her hands. "When did you get here?"

"Hyadum brought me." Uneasy, I scrub at my own fingernails. How the hell am I supposed to answer that?

"It must be overwhelming," she says, an eyebrow quirked, though her focus is on the pink-stained bowl of water.

"I've had to triage patients like this before."

"I don't mean that. I meant coming to a new world." She jerks her head at Hyadum. "He's a good man, Starbound, but you know how they are. No offense."

"No." I heave a sigh. "I really, really, don't. And I don't know enough to even be offended."

"Right." Her nose scrunches. "Well, they all went a little off, you know? After the blood drinkers came… The first time, that is, when all the Starbound women fled from Vraya. There's rumors of a curse." Her voice lowers. "That's why they wear the tattoos. Protection. But his father… the old leader of Westshear, they say he went insane." She shrugs a shoulder. "That was before my time."

"Right," I agree, as though this is a normal conversation. "And what is a Starbound?"

"Oh." Her mouth goes round. "You don't even know that?"

I shake my head, feeling both irritated and foolish.

"The Starbound were long the rulers of Vraya—of this part of our world, anyway. They—you too—that is, manifest the powers of the stars. The men, once they reach adulthood, and the women, once they are mated."

"The powers of the stars? What, like solar power? Heat?" My mind grasps for meaning, but it's useless, because this makes as much sense as working three back-to-back double shifts.

"No, you know… magic," Sulen says, wiggling her fingers and eyebrows in tandem. When I stare blankly at her, she sighs and flips her dark, glossy hair over one shoulder. "Magic. The Starbound can do magic, as gifted by their star sign." She tips her head at Hyadum, and my gaze follows the gesture. "Like Hyadum. He's House Taurus. The Bull."

"He has horns. Is that it?" I frown, not tracking.

"Well, yes, but no. He has a battle warp. You know—" She pauses, gesturing to her shoulders, as if adding bulk. "He can get bigger. More powerful. Like a bull." Her mouth twists to the side as I wait for more information. "I guess magic isn't a thing in the world you walked from." It's said as blandly as though I merely walked to the corner store, not shifted into an entirely different dimension. I close my eyes, the thought triggering memories in me.

Of our quirky but brilliant astronomer father, hoisting us up onto the roof of the small rancher we lived in. The cold press of the telescope against my eye, the twinkling of stars in the velvet swathe of night sky. The way he told us theories of dimensions like ours, but apart.

I thought they were just bedtime stories, strange ones, sure, but that was all part of our dad's quirky charm.

My stomach clenches as I remember Lana and Ali's wide eyes at that age, up too late, the roof so high. And now? Now I don't know where they are.

Fuck.

I close my eyes, a breath hissing from my clenched teeth.

"It must be hard to be here," Sulen says, her voice sympathetic, her hand patting my forearm. "But just think, once you are mated to Hyadum, you will have powers of your own. How fantastic."

I crack one eye open, surliness rearing its ugly head. "Oh, is that right?"

"Yes." She nods enthusiastically. "You are very lucky. Hyadum is very handsome, and then you will be able to protect Westshear together."

"So lucky," I manage through gritted teeth. What in the patriarchy have I stumbled onto? I have to mate the grumpy dude with massive bull-horns to get powers? That is some antiquated shit if I've ever heard it.

I suck in a breath as it dawns on me.

If they think I have a mate, and Hyadum is mine… and they said Ali and Lana were scooped up, protected by their mates… are they being told the same shit? That they have to have sex with some random dude to get powers?

I swear on all that is holy, if someone pressures Lana, who is emotionally fragile beyond anything I've ever seen right now—if they pressure her to have sex with them, I'll go nuclear.

I inhale, trying to force my pounding heart to slow, to put up that veneer of calm.

But I have to trust. I have to trust Arietis will find them safe, or I will go out of my mind with worry. I've seen it happen firsthand, after all.

"What is wrong?" Sulen's head tilts to the side. "You cannot avoid it, if that's what troubles you. You two are like the polar stones, yes?"

Her odd choice of words pulls me out of my murderous train of thought.

"Polar stones?" My nose scrunches as I try to make sense of it.

"Yes, exactly." Sulen stretches her hands wide, then brings them together slowly. "You two will be drawn together, by fate, until you seal the mating bond."

Magnets. She means magnets. This place is fucking trip.

"And after it's sealed?" I ask, refusing to linger on what she means by that word. "He would leave me alone then?"

She looks at me like I've lost my marbles. "You will not want him to, not after that. And no. He would not. Not Hyadum, not any of the Starbound men."

I blow out a breath, slumping against the wall and tilting my chin up. Great. Fucking great. My sisters and I are here in some fucked up version of Narnia and all of our choices have been taken away.

"Do not worry, coruscant." Hyadum's rasp of a voice makes me turn my head. "If you do not want me, you do not have to say another word. I will not lay a hand on you." His tone is granite-hard.

"It is against all of our ways to force a mate, or any woman," Sulen says on an exhale. "Though the blood drinkers?—"

"Enough," Hyadum cuts off. "Mina, you did well."

"She was incredible," Sulen gushes, staring up at me in a way that makes her look younger. "What is the rest of your name? Your family name?"

"Mina Kat Orio." It comes out automatically, though there can't possibly be a chance of playing the Who Do You Know game here.

"Minatak." Hyadum's voice surprises me. "Orion. The hunter."

"Yeah," I say, confused. How the hell would he know my dad named us all after the stars in the Orion constellation? No one ever picks up on our anagrammed names.

Realization dawns, and shock sweeps through me.

My dad—our dad—he knew. He knew.

He warned us about this, in farfetched bedtime stories and midnight astronomy lessons. Named us after the stars themselves.

If there were any doubt remaining in my mind about my sanity, about the truth of where I am, it's gone now. It doesn't make me feel better.

It leaves me cold.

Hyadum's drawn closer, standing so near now I can feel the weight of Sulen's explanation. The magnetic pull of him, threatening to override my good sense and exhaustion both.

Sulen's right, though. For as alpha and bossy as Hyadum can be, sleeping with him wouldn't be the worst experience of my life. In fact… it would probably be pretty damn good. He's packed with muscle, the kind that comes with decades of hard work. His face, though not typically handsome, has a brutal and intriguing quality about it. Even the small scar that mars his left eyebrow is compelling, his lips full and kissable.

I sway slightly. The last thing I fucking need right now is to think about how kissable his lips are.

How would I even know if it was me thinking it, or some strange foreign compulsion?

"You need rest, coruscant." Hyadum's deep voice rolls over me, dark and sweet as honey.

"But the injured," I say, waving a hand. "They might need me again."

"You've worked most of the night," Hyadum says, stepping closer.

Sulen's head swivels between us. "I will look after them. My cousin is, too," she adds, and I notice another woman making the rounds.

The fight goes out of me.

"Good night, Mina. I am pleased you are here." Sulen bobs in a slight curtsy, and the gesture catches me completely off-guard. Before I can tell her to stop, or ask her why the hell she did it, she scurries from the lodge.

Leaving me alone with Hyadum.

His brow is creased, his dangerous horns bracketing the expression, making him seem all the more ferocious.

"Come, coruscant. Let us return to Westshear."

"They will need me again," I tell him. I don't want to leave with him. I'm half-afraid of what Sulen said, that I'll be unable to resist whatever is already tugging me towards him. I don't want to lose my choice. I've already lost everything: my career, my sisters, my life on Earth. Tears threaten. "I can't just leave the wounded here."

The strangeness of the world, of Hyadum, of everything here, nursing is the same.

I know how to be a good nurse.

I know how to take care of people, no matter where I am. This is what I do.

"It may be what you do, Mina Kat, but you cannot do it if you collapse from exhaustion. I promise you, we will return to help them."

Shit. I must've said some of that out loud.

"No." I lift my chin. "I'm not going back with you. They may need me in the middle of the night."

Fire creeps into his eyes, his gently amused expression replaced by blatant irritation.

"Stubborn coruscant. Fine. Have it your way. We will sleep here, and then you can help tend to the injured as we move them into Westshear tomorrow." His odd brogue thickens with his apparent frustration.

"They will not be ready to be moved tomorrow, probably not this week, either." A yawn cracks my jaw, and I throw a hand over my mouth at the last minute. "Not unless you have ambulances or a med-evac chopper on standby. But horseback? No way."

He grunts, and I see a spark of agreement in his gaze as he takes in the dozens of sleeping, bandaged bodies.

"Their wounds could reopen, get infected…" I yawn again, and he nods.

"Come." It's a command more than a request, and I'm following Hyadum from the lodge before I register I've obeyed.

He takes me to a small cottage with three barebones rooms. I barely notice the small woodstove in the kitchen, the large copper basin sink, and rough-made furniture. The walls are white, dark beams crossing overhead, like the lodge. It's rustic and charming, and seems clean and well-taken care of, if not very small. I can't seem to stop yawning as he opens a door, ushering me inside a bedroom.

"I don't want to just take over someone's home."

"This is my home. For when I visit," he says gruffly. "And you are welcome in every home I keep."

My arms cross over my chest, and the truth looms in front of me, bigger than the massive bed dominating the space. Hyadum is in charge here. Sulen curtsied to me because she thinks we're a done deal, that I'm in charge now too. My throat goes dry.

"Where will you sleep?" I'm not about to share a bed with this dude I just met. No way, José.

"In the other bedroom." He leans closer, and my eyebrows creep up. "But if you find yourself scared, or lonely, you're more than welcome to join me, coruscant." A rough laugh tears out of him, and I swallow hard, imagining.

Imagining what it would feel like to press myself up against his hard body, to run my hands down the thick swell of muscles on his shoulders and arms.

Before I can regain my equilibrium, Hyadum shuts the door, leaving me alone with the bed and my wild imagination of what we could do on it.

My teeth grind, and I head for the bed, stripping off my filthy clothes and collapsing onto it.

I hate that Sulen is right. I hate that when I look at Hyadum, I want.

I don't hate it because he's irritating, though he is, but because I'm not sure where whatever force is driving us together ends and where my own desire begins.

Despite my tangled, angry thoughts, I'm asleep in a matter of moments.