Scorpio

Chapter XVI

Arctic dust.

A robe of frost.

Sequins of ice, drifting onto my shoulders and melting.

Shivers and snow.

Snow.

I opened my eyes. Everything was quiet. The world had come to a complete stop, and the landscape was flattened even more than before. Not even the bushes stood up. It was like a sculptor had taken a titan-sized razor edge and scraped clean the entire face of the world.

A light dusting of snow settled over the desert, lazily and with gentle touches. The white crystals caught the pale moonlight and mirrored the glacial blue sky.

The arm around me loosened. Muffled footsteps sloughed through the snow. I whirled around and around. Chill continued to float down noiselessly. I tried to take a step forward. Pain erupted in my left leg, and I gasped. My breath fogged in a hot puff.

"It's time to check on your leg," Xanexa said behind me.

I eased myself down to seated on a pillow of snow. "What happened?" I asked. "Why is it snowing?"

Xe crouched beside me. "An early winter in the Mohave. Pull up the hem. Let's see how bad it is."

I slowly rolled up my pant leg, stiff with dried blood. Trying not to touch the bullet wound, I slid the fabric over my knee. "Winter? It was just spring."

"Nuclear winter," xe clarified. "But you'll be fine."

"Nuclear?" My head buzzed—from exhaustion, shock, blood loss, and the crash that comes after an adrenaline high.

"The energy of two stars," xe said, turning my leg so xe could see the gory mess in the back.

I winced. Cold and wet crept up my spine from my seat on the frost-covered ground.

Xe frowned and held my leg down while reaching up with xyr other hand to retrieve the titanium scorpion tucked around xyr ear. "Hold still. This will not feel pleasant," xe told me.

Xe brought the pinchers of the scorpion close to my open flesh. I turned away and took a deep breath. Bracing, I dug my hands into the cold snow and sand.

Metal slipped into my wound. Agony screamed in rage. Mutilated flesh and blood squished around. I saw flashing orbs of black and white behind my eyelids, fireflies blinking in dire warning. I instinctively tried to kick my leg away, but a freezing, burning hand pinned it down to the ground. The pinchers searched my wound for several seconds. I almost fainted from the pain.

At last, the silver beast retreated with a bullet clutched in its claws, glistening with blood. Xe flicked the bullet away. It landed at a distance, staining the snow.

I was doubled over and heaving for air, taking rapid, sweat-soaked breaths—trying to wash out the sting from my memory.

"Need to cauterize the wound before infection sets in," xe said, face full of sadness and pain. "I'm sorry, Ari, but it needs to be done."

I gritted my teeth and nodded.

Xe hovered both hands over my wound, palms down. Xyr brows furrowed. "On the count of three—two—"

I had been expecting xyr to say one, but xe quickly clapped both palms against my gaping leg, and I felt the same frozen fire that I had come to get used to, but a thousand times more intense, like someone was simultaneously burning my skin with a blowtorch and trapping it in a slab of dry ice. I screamed and cried and buckled, but xe leaned xyr weight into my leg and kept the procedure in place. My skin hissed under the burn. Perspiration poured down my neck and back, and I squeezed the top of my knee as if with a vice.