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The sun is starting to drop in the sky, tinting the landscape outside in a golden wash. I rush through getting ready, because I know we planned on getting back before the sun set to avoid driving the speeder in the dark. Now that I’m done with the bathroom, I can send Mak in to do his own freshening up.
I hesitate when I catch sight of him through the window fooling around in the meadow with three kaia—the only domesticated ones Tevi deemed well-trained enough to accompany her here.
We’re not so low on time that he can’t relax for a moment, I think to myself. I’ll let him fool around a while longer.
“He seems to be enjoying himself,” Tevi comments.
“Yes,” I agree. “I’m glad to see him so carefree. He always looks calm, but I know he’s been stressed about landing on the surface. It’s too bad Nisina couldn’t come with us.”
“I’m sure she would’ve liked it out here. But it’s a risk to have an unmated female so close to the wild group. If the males scented her, they might venture out to investigate, and it could cause trouble.”
“These three are safe out here?” I ask, gesturing to the one tugging on Mak’s pantlegs with a wagging tail. “How can you be sure?”
“The wild kaia see the four of us as a family pack with this building as our den. So long as we stay in our territory, they won’t bother us. We are bonded, so there’s no confusion. That brown one is my bondmate. The big white was bonded to my mate, may his ashes return… And the small white is mate bonded to my kaia, Granna. The only potential trouble would be if a female kaia from the wild somehow bonded to the other, but they don’t usually roam far enough from the group to find themselves here.”
“I see.” Mak looks so happy that I don’t want to interrupt him to let him know the bathroom is free.
“Do you think you’ll want a kaia pup of your own one day?” Tevi asks. “They’ve been known to bond with Ka’lakkori of the past even if they’re not warriors. Mak’s great grandfather was not a warrior, and he mated the Ka’lakka Mattina, but he bonded with a kaia all the same.”
“Maybe,” I say, watching Mak lope around with Tevi’s small pack. “But it feels like Nisi is mine, so it might feel strange. It felt like she was bonded to me already, even before I had Mak’s kali in my body.”
I offer the information more as an open question about how it all works, even if it feels like an intimate detail.
“It might feel that way, but the connection between you and Nisi is nothing compared to a direct bond,” she explains. “The way she reacts around you is an extension of her connection with her master. Her actions and instincts are affected by his desires and emotions.”
“I’ll consider a kaia of my own in the future,” I tell her. “Maybe when I have time to focus on that, after we settle in here.”
My brain is running circles around that tidbit of information. The way Nisina has adored me from the moment we met, the way she follows me, comforts me, stands at attention when I feel the slightest discomfort… All of that is merely an extension of Mak? Of course, Nisi is her own being with her own wants and needs. But I can’t shake the twist of guilt I feel for how deeply Mak must care for me. It’s in everything he does. And what can I give him in return?
“I wanted to thank you for today,” I add to Tevi. “It was a wonderful experience. I’m sure we’ll be back to visit you and the wild kaia again.”
“Did you get any inspiration for your own mate-bonding ceremony? I might be a boring old nerd, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
I’ve had very little to do with my own wedding planning, funnily enough. But it will be approaching soon now that I can run around the surface of Kar’Kal to my heart’s desire.
“Inspiration? From the kaia?” I laugh. “I’m not sure any chase could rival what we saw today.”
“It was beautiful. I took a quick scan through the results from your image-capture. I think you did a fine job of it, especially for someone new to the technology.”
My chest warms at that compliment.
“Thank you,” I say as I head out the door to flag Mak down. Golden light beams down on his blue curls as he looks up to see me. As soon as our eyes meet, he’s grinning.
I know that not every day on Kar’Kal will be as special as this one, but the future feels bright right now. No matter what’s in store for us, I’ll find ways to be there for him in the days to come. Because I want this life with everything I have, more than I could’ve imagined. And he’s the one that made it possible.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
FRANKIE
As I grow closer to Mak, the trips we take on Kar’Kal start to feel like mini vacations. When we return from them, I feel refreshed, and when I know we’re leaving for a new location, I leap out of bed with energy like my old self again.
There are other matters Mak is forced to handle in between trips, like council meetings, military check-ins, and reviewing messages from his sworn that are out in the field. We find a rhythm, spending domestic stretches of time on the Revenge where we meet at dinnertime after a workday apart. Then, when it’s time for a new trip, we bask in having the entire day together.
This planet is both comfortingly similar to Earth and simultaneously full of strange and beautiful sights I’ve never seen before. Like my home planet, the continents of Kar’Kal and the various locations within them differ greatly in their geography, temperature, and wildlife.
We’ve visited the black-leafed rainforests where the waterfalls carry bioluminescent eels that make them glow blue at night. The silvery grasslands are populated with megafauna that will probably give me nightmares every time I remember I’m occupying the same planet as them. Mak assured me that most of them mind their own business, and that domesticated versions of those species have sustained large populations on Kar’Kal in the past. And of course, everywhere we go we encounter kali, the magma of the planet’s core with mysterious properties that link all the native living creatures.
There are moments during our travels that shock us too. The constant reminders of the Deadhead genocide can knock the wind right out of us. Laughter can turn to silence in the space of a heartbeat when we come upon some eerie proof of what happened. Whether it’s bodies that dropped where they stood, or signs of the violent volcanic reaction that quickly followed the attack.
