Epilogue

EPILOGUE

KATARINA

T he machine's grind grows louder and louder until I can barely hear myself think over the noise. It rattles, smokes, and shakes as it struggles to draw the huge bucket up from the crashing waves below.

"Shut it down!" Dan yells.

"What?" I yell back, unsure if I heard him right.

A knock and another rattle. Dan gesticulates wildly as he runs down the pipeline towards me and the machine. I glance over the edge and the bucket is almost up. A couple more minutes and it will be here then I can shut it down.

"Now!" Dan yells.

I look over my shoulder trying to hear him but between the crashing waves below and the grinding rattling of the machine, it's impossible. One of the Zmaj bounds past Dan. He leaps through the air, wings spreading, and glides closer. A looming shadow blocks out the sky.

The bucket is so close. Another moment, two at the most. I put my hand on the lever to shut the machine down. It's rattling so hard that it makes my arm go numb a second after I grab it. The bucket sloshes, rattles, and comes to the top. I pull on the lever and at the same moment, the machine seems to lurch, jerking me forward.

Suddenly the ground is gone and I'm falling.

I don't scream. There's no air in my lungs to make a sound. My body twists, my vision going from reddish sky to blue water topped with white waves rushing closer. My heart hammers in my chest and I'm not sure if it will explode before I hit, or after.

Just my luck. One stupid misstep and smashed on the rocks below.

I've always heard that your life flashes before your eyes right before you die. If that's true for others, it's not happening for me. All I can see is how pointless all this was. I should have died when the ship came down like so many others.

The wind burns my skin as it rushes past. The first hint of saltwater spray hits my cheeks. I try to prepare myself, knowing this is it. Wishing that maybe my life would have meant something more. I don't know what, but I kind of always thought I'd leave something behind. Some kind of mark that says ‘hey, I was here'.

Something cool wraps around my body. This must be the embrace of death. I'm dead, or about to be, but it also seems like I'm slowing. I open my eyes and see two huge arms encircling my chest.

"I have you," a deep voice says.

The water is rushing in, but it's not coming straight in any longer, I'm skimming along the surface.

"Wha?"

I squirm, then think better of it. The water skims past, the tops of the waves slapping against me as they pass below, and then a beach comes into view. The angle changes, rising, and then we touch down on the beach, carried forward as he runs off the momentum of his flight.

I'm standing on my own two feet, very much not dead, and very confused. I blink several times, trying to catch my thoughts up to what has happened. I turn a circle on the pure white sands and then I'm facing my savior.

He's a towering seven feet tall with dusky scales, and thick horns that curve off his temples and back over his long, reddish hair. His jaw is so sharp, so straight you could not have sculpted it more perfectly. His wings are spread wide casting a shadow over both of us.

His arms, each like the trunks of a good-sized tree, are crossed over his chest. He watches me with warm, brown eyes that make my knees weak. An easy smile on his face as he takes me in. My mouth is dry and my heart tripping all over itself between the near-death experience and the sight of my captor. My body is in a confusion between attraction and gratitude to not be dead.

"Okay?" he asks.

"Uh… yeah…"

I pat myself down trying to see if everything is okay or not because I'm honestly not sure.

"Good," he says, then strides past me to look up at the cliff wall. "Long climb."

I move to his side and strain my neck looking up. It must be a hundred feet or more of ragged cliff face. The tide comes in and out, and when they rise, I've seen them reach halfway up the face.

"Climb? I don't think I can make that," I say.

"I have you," he says. He rolls his neck and shoulders. "Climb on."

I stare at him in disbelief.

"You're going to climb that? With me? On your back?"

He frowns and shrugs.

"Better idea?"

I blink several times then my feet are soaked by an incoming wave. The tide is already rising so staying here is not an option.

"No," I say.

"Good, go," he says, motioning towards his back.

Seeing no other choice, I make a little jump up and wrap my arms around his neck. He helps me up until my legs are locked on his waist and then he begins climbing. This is the most insane, crazy thing that has happened to me since the ship crashed.

That said, the smell of him fills my head, and that creates all kinds of other thoughts. I don't know this Zmaj, but I am grateful for him. I'd be dead without him for sure. And now I want to know more about him. Who is he? Does he have a mate? Does he want one?

"Thank you," I whisper partway up the cliff.

"Treasure," he says.

My heart skips a beat, and my mouth is instantly dry. I don't think there is a surviving human who doesn't know what that means. When one of these large aliens says that to you it's a claim. You're their ‘one'.

Am I ready to be his one? I don't even know this guy. He saved me, great, but that's nothing to build a relationship on. At least not the only thing. There has to be more to it than just that, right?

One thing is for sure. He's laying his claim. Now it's up to me, what am I going to do about it?