I blinked. Was I? “I…I didn’t realize.”

  “I know. You were too busy venturing out into a lightning storm the likes of which we’ve never seen to get Mace water. Thank you for that, but no more. Come on.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know if we should move him.”

  Since he’d pointed out the fever, I became really full cognizant of it. Everything ached, and shivers left my limbs trembling. Yeah, I had fever. I winced. People died of fevers all the time; would that be it for me? Crew picked Mace up, sort of dragging him off my lap and out of the cave before he came back in for me. Crew did the same for me, and once I was finally back out in the sunshine, I saw Ransom and Gunnar nearby. Mace lay over Ransom’s shoulder, still unconscious from the look of him.

  Once we exited the cave, Crew adjusted me so I was gently cradled in his arms like a child, with my head against his shoulder. I would have complained about the treatment, but the fine trembling quaked through my body, sapping my energy reserves.

  “Let’s go back home. All will be well.”

  I shook my head. Well wasn’t a word I usually applied to my life. Pain? Much more apt. “I have no idea why I’m sick.”

  “The water,” Gunnar looked over to the river. “It’s not really fit for human drinking. Mace will be fine, as his digestive system can handle it. Yours can’t. Right now, you’re just uncomfortable. Later, you’re going to feel like hell, but you’ll be okay. We boil most of our drinking water.”

  I groaned. Just my luck. I risked my neck to get him the water, yet I made myself sick in the process. “We need to get the apples. He wanted to make pies.”

  “They burned up.” Gunnar touched my leg, drawing my attention. I furrowed my brow. Yes, he was right. I saw it, and I remembered them burning now that he’d mentioned it. Fuck. I’d forgotten. “Thank you for trying to save his life. I can’t believe this happened. We need to get out of here before it happens again. If it happens again. We don’t know why it happened the first time.”

  Mace groaned and Gunnar grinned at him. “Yes, you’re in pain. You got fucking hit by lightning, Mace. I mean…who has that happen?”

  I shook my head. “There was a man on the hill. I don’t know if he was real or if I was hallucinating. Lightning struck all around him. He just stood there staring at me, and then he was gone.” I could still see him, in my mind, so I searched their faces to see if they understood.

  They all stared at me blankly. Finally, Ransom spoke. “I’ll come back after we get Mace and Raven home. I’ll see if I can track anyone, or if they left behind any footprints or other evidence. What in the hell is going on?”

  “I’m sorry.” I buried my face into Crew’s shoulder, inhaling the clean scent of him and whatever soap he used. If I could have crawled inside of him to hide from everything, I would have. “I brought all the bad luck with me.”

  His hand on my back was a comforting feeling, especially when he began to rotate it in big, soothing circles. “You saved JoHanna. You told us what happened with Amias, and you tried to help Mace when you should have hidden in the cave. I think you’re rather the opposite of bad luck, Raven. Close your eyes. All will be well.”

  I knew then why men followed Crew. My heart thumped twice in my chest as I looked up at his eyelashes, dotted with moisture from the still- misting rain. I would have done whatever he asked if he spoke to me like that. I closed my eyes, exhaling on a sigh.

  I woke up when the bed dipped. Opening my eyes hurt, but I was glad to see Mace crawling in next to me. I’d puked most of the night, until my body felt weak from heaving. It was over though, I thought. Hoped. Really hoped. Puking was just the worst. My fever seemed to have abated, too, leaving me feeling weak and beat up.

  And I probably smell like hell.

  But Mace put his arms around me and drew me against him as if he didn’t notice my scent. He gave me a quick squeeze, and I relaxed into his warmth and touch.

  “Your skin was singed, ” I said through my thick, raw throat, rubbing my nose against his neck. “So glad you look better.”

  He pressed my head against his chest. “Go back to sleep. We’re both still recovering. We’re just going to do it together because…well, just because.”

  I closed my eyes. “Okay.” I didn’t have the energy to debate it, anyway.

  Time must have passed, because the next time I woke up, I found myself in his arms but starving. I tried to sit up and a strong hand stopped me. Mace obviously didn’t want me to move. “I’m hungry,” I complained.

  He nodded. “Ransom is bringing us food. They didn’t care so much about me being hungry, but they are worried about you.” He smirked. “Gentle food, Ransom. Like toast. Other than that? How are you feeling, Raven?”

  “Confused about what happened to us.”

  Mace played with a lock of my hair. “Something made the lightning go crazy. It struck us like it was looking for us. Gunnar says you were right, you saw someone where you thought you saw them. I think Ransom intended to do the tracking, but Gunnar is actually a better tracker. He picked up traces and is searching for him , but I have no idea if he was related to what happened to us, or how he could be related to a lightning strike. I mean, we’ve been here a long time, yet in all those years of living alongside the upper-level electrical issues, we’ve never had lightning behave in such a strange way. It kept striking between here and where we were, so they couldn’t get to us. Then it just stopped. I’m…not sure what to make of it. Crew is working with some others to try to figure it out. Then, you apparently drank some bad water.”

  “The same water that feeds the trees, so could you explain how that works? Do the apples make you sick?”

  He shook his head. “The apple seeds that I planted are special. They naturally filter out the bad water. I guess you could call them enhanced apple trees. By the way, we have so many apples now. The guys picked something like three dozen of them, because you mentioned the ones that burned.”

  Looked like we would be making a lot of pies.

  “Hey.” He knocked my foot with his own, and I glanced at him again. “You should have stayed in the cave. You shouldn’t have gone into the lightning like that. You don’t ever have to save me, Raven.”

  I shook my head then blew out a breath. “I really thought you needed water. I thought it would help your condition, so I needed to get it as quickly as possible. Obviously, if I’d known the water was tainted, I wouldn’t have done it. I’m very sorry about that.”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t get sick from it, at least not that I can remember. If I got sick, I was out cold when it happened. We don’t tend to get sick, though, so it’s likely I didn’t. In any case…thank you, but please don’t ever do something like that again. You’re so fragile. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “It was going to strike me. I saw it. You pushed me out of the way. I’d have been burned up, like the apples we picked.”

  He made a face, concern knitting his brows. “I threw you hard. Did I hurt you?”

  “It hurt, yeah, but that doesn’t really matter. I would have been much worse off. Dead. Fried. Cooked like a holiday fowl. ” I hated the thought. “And it’s amazing you weren’t killed. That’s some pretty tough skin you have there.” I scooted closer. “Thank you for saving my life, Mace . You may not be fragile, but you’re important. Lightning can’t kill you, but I bet there are things that can.” Before I could overthink it, I kissed him lightly on the lips. I almost never kissed, but I intended it as a gift of gratitude. It wasn’t what men wanted from me, so I had little reason to ever bestow such tokens, but right then, he seemed to warrant the thank you. “It was such a good day before it…almost blew up.”

  “You make me want to be…” His gruff voice trailed off. “Ransom is here.”

  The door flew open, and Ransom strode through it holding a tray covered in food. “Toast. Butter. Tea. Eggs, because you haven’t had protein in a bit.”

  I sat up, stretching. “Thank you. Long night. So glad that it’s over. So I wasn’t crazy? The man was real?”

  “Very real. Gunnar found footprints but no other traces. They’re good, whoever they are, at hiding themselves, but he will be found. I assure you of that.” Ransom set the tray down over my lap and then grinned. “People have been dropping off things downstairs for you, Raven. I’m not sure what to do with all of it. I didn’t want to come traipsing in here while you weren’t feeling well with a bunch of stuff, but now that you’re up, I’ll bring it.”

  He ran a hand through his hair, like he wanted it out of his eyes.

  “I could cut that for you? Your hair, if it’s bothering you. That is something I actually know how to do,” I explained, pointing at his head.

  He grinned, which made Ransom look a lot younger than normal. “I’d love that. Thanks.”

  “Please help him.” Mace said dramatically. “The last time he did it himself, it looked like he currently served in a war he was barely surviving.” Mace threw a pillow at him, and Ransom grinned, unrepentant.

  “I’ll go get the stuff,” he said as he turned to leave. I stopped him by reaching out to grab his arm. Under my hands, his muscles were huge. I could never forget how big these guys were. It was easy to disregard, because of how gently they treated me, but I remembered what hands like theirs were capable of doing. I shuddered, thinking of the pain.

  Focusing on the conversation at hand, I asked, “What stuff? What are people dropping off, and maybe more importantly, why?”

  Ransom widened his eyes. “Oh, sorry. Thought you knew why. You saved that little girl and then you almost died with our weird weather. I think they just want to do things for you. Some of it is a little off. I mean, as Super Soldiers, we don’t know exactly how to give that sort of gift. I wouldn’t, anyway.”

  Mace laughed, throwing his head into the pillow before he groaned. “You’d probably bring the girl a bomb. A small one, a bomb for ladies, one she could carry in her back pocket and throw if she needed.”

  “Don’t act like you’re so much better. ” Ransom rolled his eyes. “You’d brew her poison.”

  He shook his head, which looked funny with his nose in the pillow. “I would make her a pie and it wouldn’t be poisoned.”

  I took a bite of my toast. It really was just what my poor stomach wanted after being so terribly abused the night before. I ate slowly—less was going to be more, that was for sure. “So, I have weapons downstairs? I…I wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to use them.”

  “Some people seem to have brought you things like pillows and decorations. There’s a lot of general stuff, and if you don’t want the weapons, I’ll store them for you someplace else. Behind the bar, maybe? You can get to them there, if you want.”

  His words reminded me of what I’d forgotten—all of the noise downstairs the night before. I hardly noticed it, because I was so out of it, but they must have had customers while I was upstairs getting sick. Someone had sat with me, despite that, though.

  “Last night is a blur. How many people were down there? I mean…you’re all enhanc…Super Soldiers.” I corrected myself. “That couldn’t have been nice to listen to, so I’m sorry.”

  Mace lifted his head. “Are you actually apologizing for nearly poisoning yourself while you tried to save me?” He put his hand on my leg. “Knock that off. If they didn’t like it, they could leave. Besides, most of us have gotten pretty good at ignoring whatever we don’t want to see.”

  “Did you sit with me?” I asked Ransom. I was pretty sure it had been him. “Sorry if I was…really out of it.”

  He shrugged, his gaze seeming to be on Mace’s hand on my leg. “I was glad to be there for you.” A second later, he came over and sat down on the bed, scooting over to lie down on my other side. “Maybe we can wait to bring up the stuff? Mace can help me in a few minutes, when he’s feeling better. Or he can go get it himself, since I’m pretty sure he feels better already.”

  There were definitely undercurrents in the conversation, but I couldn’t follow any of them, and I wasn’t sure I’d want to anyway. Not when my toast and eggs were so delicious. I tucked into the meal with gusto. In between bites, I asked, “Do you think the man on the hill had something to do with the lightning?”

  Mace glared at Ransom. “Aren’t you due for the US machine? Isn’t today your day?”

  “I traded with Brenson from down the street. Isn’t today your day, too?” He lifted his eyebrows. “Since you’re so worried about my calendar.”

  With a smirk, Mace leaned on his elbow. “Obviously I’m in no condition for it. Raven, to answer your question, I’m sure there’s lots of tech we don’t know anything about. Our old bosses were always inventing things; however, this would be the first time we encountered something with the ability to control weather. If it isn’t some new, unknown tech, then how could someone control the lightning? That’s impossible. So, it’s either something we need to find about or a very strange coincidence that a man poisoned a child then you saw a stranger while you were trapped in a cave, afraid. I don’t know which, as yet.”

  Ransom yawned. “I’m actually tired.”

  I finished my breakfast, then Mace picked up the tray one-handed to set it on the floor on his side of the bed. He put his head back where it was, next to mine. “Tired, too. But you see, I’ve actually been through an ordeal while you’re just lazy.”

  “Okay, I feel like I’m missing something here.” I looked back and forth between them. “Or are you both just being mean?”

  Ransom shut his eyes and snuggled down next to me. “We’re just poking at each other. He’s my brother, and I’d die for him. He knows that, but I’ve got to give him a hard time, too. It’s just the way things work.”

  That made no sense to me, but I supposed I didn’t have to fully understand the intricacies of their relationship. I’d have years to process and dissect their behaviors and the strange things I saw while on their planet later, so perhaps it didn’t matter if I lived in the moment. The room became quiet, other than the rhythmic sound of their breaths. They’d both fallen asleep, or at least they lay relaxed next to me with their eyes closed. I wondered what triggered their fussing at each other.

  Should I move? Should I extract myself from their embrace to leave them, so I could move around? Would that wake them?

  Crew appeared, leaning in the doorway. He observed us, his long lashes framing his lovely eyes while they rested on me before he finally entered the room. When he did, he set something down in front of the bed. It looked like a big, decorative chair, similar to the ones that Clarke had in rooms where I did my work for him.

  He winked at me before he sat down in the chair. Well, if we were going to sit in silence, at least I wasn’t doing it alone.

  7

  THE MAN FROM THE MOUNTAINS

  Eventually, I had to move, my bladder making it urgent rather than optional. It was convenient that Crew and I were sharing silent time together, because he reached out his hand and lifted me from the bed. He only used one arm, thereby not disturbing either of his friends—really, they were probably more like brothers—from where they slept. I tried, and likely mostly failed, to pretend I wasn’t impressed with his strength. As quietly as I could, after a grateful nod to Crew, I dove into the bathroom and turned on the water. It was probably fruitless to have bothered so much with being quiet, I thought, as the sound of the water in the sink practically blasted the room with sound—or so it seemed to my hyper alert senses.

  I thought about it, and I realized I didn’t envy them that particular superpower. As a regular human, I could tune things out when I slept, but they didn’t have that luxury.

  All of it had been so strange. Being there, trapped on their planet, was starting to feel like a refuge—even after puking and nearly being struck by lightning. I couldn’t let it become that for me, though, since I had to go back. The more I allowed myself to get used to their way of living, the harder it would be for me to leave when the time came.

  But, oh, how I enjoyed the attention they gave me. They seemed to light up when I was there, and I was enjoying each of them so much. In some ways, being with them reminded me of being with my brother and Amias, but they never made me shiver just by smiling at me. Then there was the uniqueness of the place—the many things that made their world so different from the one I’d always known . Instead of thinking of the geography, though, as the warm water rushed over my body, my mind strayed back to how handsome they all were.

  I rubbed the soap in long strokes up and down my body and closed my eyes, remembering the cockeyed smile with its little dimple, the dark eyelashes fringing gorgeous eyes, and the way their skin felt against my own. I didn’t enjoy looking at people usually, not in a sexual way, although some told me a few of my clients were attractive. I gave up caring what men looked like the day I lost my virginity to a man three times my age with bad breath and cruel hands. Did it matter what a man looked like if they all wanted the same things, actions I could perform from rote memory at this point? I didn’t think about anyone sexually, male or female, and I certainly never cared about the shape of their hands before.

  Maybe it was this place, these guys, or perhaps grief simply made me lose my mind, but I had to admit they were each really gorgeous. Brutal in the way all Super Soldiers, as they’d put it, were.

  But gorgeous too.

  If I had a kinder life and a real chance at happiness, I wondered if I’d be able to truly enjoy that aspect of them. To take pleasure in how they looked, and how they looked at me.

  Not that any of my considerations mattered, as they were wildly unlikely to be interested in me in a sexual manner. After all, they went into some machine and it turned it off for them. My breath caught in my throat. I’d been curious about it, but maybe I should ask them to use it. That would be great, in fact, as I could make myself stop thinking about them in inappropriate ways entirely, thereby evening out the playing field.