Page 61 of When Eden Falls

I woke to a sharp prod in my side. A rumble reverberated from beneath me and my eyes suddenly opened.

Yuska stood over me, her usual curt calmness replaced with vex. “This…” she snarled, pointing at me. Pointing at…Rooke. I was tucked in beside him, my head on his chest. His arm was around my shoulder, his body keeping me warm. “…is unacceptable!” She looked so angry. Her glower turned to Rooke. “You need to leave. Immediately!”

Rooke held up his hands. “We were only sleeping.”

“It’s unacceptable,” she said again. “You know the rules. You are exploiting them. Havav has had the good grace to trust you, and this is how you treat his generosity!”

We both sat up, Rooke more graciously than I did. The world spun creating a brief moment of delirium. Where were we? It was dawn. We were on the balcony.

Rooke stood, still holding his hands up in the air, as if he was concerned Yuska would attack him at any moment. She pointed to the door. “Out! Now!”

“I’m going, I’m going.” He glanced back at me before he made for the door. It was obvious he was reluctant to leave, especially after our conversation last night. To be honest, I didn’t want him to go.

Still feeling the effects of fatigue, I struggled to my feet, ambling through the archway just in time to see Yuska closing the main door behind Rooke. She gave me a pointed look before she started puffing up the cushions of the chair Dybgo had slept on.He was nowhere to be seen. I frowned at the concept. Wouldn’t he have woken and found me and Rooke laying together? Wouldn’t he have found great pleasure in demanding our removal from each other’s arms? It seemed odd he had left Yuska to the task.

“Where did Dybgo go?”

Yuska punched a cushion firmly. I could have sworn the gesture was aimed at me. “He was needed elsewhere.” She turned and scowled at me from under her fair eyebrows. She made me feel wretched, like a child being caught and scorned by an esteemed teacher.

“Yuska, we didn’t do anything, I swear. Last night we were talking outside and must’ve fallen asleep.”

“On top of each other.”

“We weren’t….”

Yuska tutted and walked towards the bedroom.

“It’s the truth. Yuska, please. Rooke and I are good friends. He’s like a brother…”

She turned abruptly and spat her words at me. “You know as well as I do that is a blatant lie.” I frowned, bemused by her harsh tone. She tsked and shook her head. “You think I can’t tell? Your scent gives it away. It changes when he’s around.” My breath caught. How was that possible? “You’re attracted to him. You want him. Your mating scent is off the charts.”

Yuska’s expression pinned me in place. I felt breathless. If Yuska could smell it, so could they all. I didn’t know what to say. She might as well have stripped me naked and scorned me for being in love with a man I had known half my life. What was wrong in that?

A whisper formed on my lips. “He doesn’t know…and I’d prefer it if it stays that way.”

“If he doesn’t know, then he’s more of a fool than I first took him for.” Her flat nose scrunched up in disgust. “I find your human males reproachable. They don’t deserve you. None of them do.”

I swallowed down her comment, watching as she stalked into the bedroom. Why was she so angry?

After resting for the next few days, my mind felt less fogged, and the exhaustion began to dissipate. The spots on my skin began to scab over, some disappeared completely. Thankfully, those left on my face were few and far between. Several on my stomach continued to itch and ache but Yuska assured me they would heal.

Apart from the remnants of scabs on their arms and legs, Cora and Zamya were back to full health. Both fashioned dark circles around their eyes, but they seemed sprightly and, thankfully, far less argumentative.

I’d had no further communication from Rooke. The radio signal was still compromised, and he hadn’t visited since the morning Yuska threw him out. I was certain Yuska had seen to it to end his prolonged visits. She still seemed angry with me.

Rooke’s warning still echoed around my mind, but neither Cora, Zamya, nor myself had been requested to join Havav since the illness, since we were deemed no longer infectious. However, Havav’s rules changed once again in our favour. Cora requested free reign of the library to pass the time, and Havav sent word of his approval, although limiting the number of visits to three times a week. He also extended the privilege to me and Zamya. Per standard rule, it was reiterated that a chaperon needed to escort us.

On the day I felt strong enough to leave the apartment, I accepted Cora’s invitation to join her. Surprisingly, I felt a pang of disappointment when I found it wasn’t Dybgo waiting for us outside our room. Another blue caped male, called Xandrak escorted us to the library instead. He was just as tall with a far icier demeanour than Dybgo. His armour was made of a rustic-red metal rather than the eye-catching gold, and the air about him lacked the grace and elegance I’d grown used to. Even his blonde hair was coarser, less managed.

The library was ridiculously large. Other than the thousands of books displayed in stacked shelves cut into metres upon metres of stone, it was empty. The walkways in between were narrow and dark, lit by the unusual blue lanterns.

Xandrak kept to himself, monitoring the main entrance forthe duration, while Cora scoured the stone racks for more material of interest. I glanced about, trying to find something with the semblance of an Akquarian Atlas, attempting to find some useful information regarding where that damn satellite signal was transmitting from. But everything was pre-Akquarian. I resorted to reading about the enormous interstellar ships the humans designed for use during the mass exodus. The book was decaying and the pages falling apart. It baffled me who the author was and when it had been written.

Cora’s delicate footsteps came up behind me. I turned and found her staring at a small, withered looking book in her hands. The frown on her face was full of intrigue, but there was no sign of the usual excitement resonating from her.

Looking at me, she placed the open book on the window ledge I was using as a table. “I think you should see this.”

She tapped the left page. The upper half was full of a strange, foreign, handwritten text. The other, was filled with a faded colour illustration of what I could only perceive as a pointed star with a dark centre, set against a complex and colourful nebula, forming into the shape of a swirl.