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"You got anything in that trusty toolbelt to help?"
He couldn’t see me smile behind the curtain of his hair. "I carry a lot on me, but unfortunately, not a demagnetizer. There might be one on the ship."
"Sounds like the Wanderstar Fleet keeps a treasure trove of helpful goodies."
I met his gaze. "Why are you being sarcastic? We only want to help."
"Your military sounds like it wants to be the savior of the cosmos, but it couldn’t stop the Quareks before they expanded to attack other planets."
He wasn’t wrong. After what he’d been through, the last thing I planned to do was debate his opinion. "I’m new to this solar system. I don’t know why the Quareks couldn’t be stopped earlier. Humans got involved when they came to Earth. We’re all doing something about the war now."
His skeptical glance told me what he didn’t say. "I need to return to my people."
"I’ll get you to Racopia. I promise." I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do it, or even what the location coordinates of his planet were. "First, this collar. What if I pull it one way and you pull it another? The two of us should be strong enough to resist a magnetic pull."
"You are bound and determined to do this." I felt his chest move against mine when he breathed in and exhaled. "I’ll humor you."
I spoke of magnets, yet I was being drawn to the different things about him. His unique and alien appearance, his wings, the gruff sound of his voice. There were many sensations and emotions he made me feel. We just met today. Yet if I were going by my dreams, I've seen him for over twelve months.
How could he manifest from my dreams? Was my work stress so bad I thought I saw him somewhere else? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.
"Harper." He waved his hand in front of my face. "Are we going to get this collar off, or are you going to stare at me like you’ve never seen a Javorian before?"
I watched his lips while he talked. His body comprised of hard lines of muscle. His lips appeared soft. "I haven’t seen a winged Javorian before, it that means anything."
He smoothed the side of my makeshift mask. If it weren’t there, he would’ve touched my cheek. "I don’t think you were admiring my wings."
Not just his wings. I kept the thought to myself while noticing how my body responded, feeling warm and tingly while he held me. "They’re interesting." I switched topics before I could become more awkward. "Let’s do this." I took hold of his collar with my thumb and index finger. " You grab the other side. When I count to three, pull in the opposite direction. One, two...three."
I felt the force of the magnetized collar struggle against the two opposing forces we applied. For a small device, it was hard to open. My fingers cramped. The knuckles of Varus’s hand turned lighter grey as he managed to pull his side back. The space widened between both pieces of the collar.
"That’s it." I felt the magnet’s pull lessen as I yanked the piece I held away from him. The collar opened with a snap. I flung it away in a pile of leaves under a nearby tree. "We did it."
A snarl reached my ears. Varus dropped me to the ground. He covered his mouth before I could look fully into his face.
"Varus, what’s wrong?"
He kept his arm over his face. The skin of his arm made a swift change from gray to light red. The air around him took on heat waves that writhed and shifted. Once I learned what was happening, I scrambled backwards.
He dashed forward. My stomach somersaulted in a panic. It looked like he was coming at me. The heat coming off him made the air feel like an oven. At the last moment, he veered right and drove his hand into the leaf pile. I watched as the dead leaves burned and crumbled around his fingers. He dug through the ashes until he was reunited with the metal collar. He slung it around his neck. My panic turned to exasperation once I heard the magnet click into place.
"Why would you do that?" I hopped to my feet.
The furnace effect he produced dissolved from the air. It returned to its cool, muggy atmosphere. "The collar stays on." He refused to look at me when he spoke.
"You wanted to take it off five seconds ago."
"I still want to take it off, but I can’t."
"Why?"
"Because I can’t control my body’s thermogenics anymore." His words were a mixture of speech and growl.
I heard his angst and pain. "What can I do to help?"
"Nothing." He blew past me, wings kicking up a breeze to counter the lingering heat he carried with him. "I need to feed."
I took a final look at the pile of ashes that were once leaves and noticed his feet left a blackened, smoldering trail on the ground. The trail stopped at the spot where he put his collar on again.
