He still looks like he can bench press a tiger without sweating.

My lips are so dry, I have to lick them again, and the way he is looking at me makes my cheeks blaze.

“You are naked now, aren’t you?”

“Naked?”

“Yeah, you don’t wear clothes.” I grip what’s left of mine. The dress is ripped in several places, the threads hardly hanging on.

It’s not a great example of clothes at all.

“There is no need to wear garments. Underneath the ba’clan, all Vullan are bare.”

“Vullan,” I whisper, my gaze moving down him again. His people are called the Vullan.

They are magnificent.

He is magnificent.

I have to blink to get out of the trance I’ve fallen in.

I’d told him to remove the suit so I could relate to him better.

But seeing his true form isn’t helping with that.

He’s something carved by the gods themselves.

Something forbidden.

I clear my throat in an effort to clear my thoughts.

I don’t know where my head’s going but the thoughts are clearly inappropriate.

“Okay, talk to me now. If you’re not going to harm Mina, what are you going to do to her if I take you to her?”

His ears twitch. “We will extract the Gryken.”

I blink at him. “Can you do that? Without harming Mina, can you do that?”

“Our med bay will have to learn about your species before the operation, but that should not take too long. You appear similar enough to the Vullan.”

“Med bay?”

He glances to the dark sky.

“Our ship waits. As we speak, my brethren are returning to it.”

Ship?

I look up into the sky as well, but I can’t see anything.

I’d thought their ship had sunk or something, but now that I think about it, that’s a stupid thought.

I hadn’t seen them bringing up anything except the machine from the water. Surely, they’d have tried to retrieve their vessel too, if that was the case.

“You have a med bay,” I whisper, hope making my heart beat fast again.

But Fer’ro doesn’t reply.

He doesn’t get the chance to.

There is a sharp high-pitched sound, one that makes me jump and almost immediately, Fer’ro’s suit slips over his entire form.

I realize in the next second that one of the others is nearby—has been nearby the entire time!—and I hadn’t realized, but before I can even ask what the hell is happening, Fer’ro grips me.

Chapter Eighteen

ADIRA

My legs are wrapped around his waist, my arms around his neck as he runs.

He’s moving so fast, the darkness itself is a blur.

“What’s happening?! What’s wrong?”

He clicks in response and I want to tell him I don’t understand, but that’s when the darkness moves to my left and I realize he’s not clicking at me.

I only get a glimpse of burgundy-eyes as we move through the trees and when I look to the other side, I get the sense someone else is running with us as well.

I have no idea where we’re going but they’re not slowing down.

If anything, they are starting to go faster.

Not human.

Definitely not human.

No human can move this fast.

Fuck, I don’t even think a cheetah can.

We break through a clearing, one of the areas the machine had trampled, and cool night air presses against my face.

That’s when I see it.

It’s only a glimpse as we dash across the clearing, but nothing could have prepared me for the sight.

A machine.

Off in the distance is a machine, the orb reflecting the starlight.

My heart stops beating.

It was just a glimpse, but I know it is heading this way.

They always head toward water.

Shit!

I grip Fer’ro tighter. Now I know why they are running.

It had only been a matter of time before we faced another machine, but I’d hoped we’d had more time.

More than a few days at least.

And then I hear it.

That sickening sound that makes the air vibrate. The one I’ve learned the machine does before it is going to attack.

I don’t realize how tight I’m gripping on to Fer’ro until I feel his suit move against my fingers.

My face is buried against it and I can feel it against my skin.

And even though I now know it’s sentient, it doesn’t scare me half as much as that orb does.

The night is so silent, I hear the distant thump as one of its metal legs slams into the ground and the trees splitting and falling beneath its weight.

It’s going to catch us. I’m terrified that it will.

No matter where you hide, it’s like it can sense you.

I thought we had more time!

Fer’ro is suddenly slowing down and I grip him tighter.

“Mina,” I say. “We have to go get Mina and Sam.”

“Done,” he replies and his words don’t connect till I hear Sam’s voice.

“Adira? Is that you?” Sam sounds hesitant, scared, and as Fer’ro puts me down, I realize that he and the others have run directly to where Sam was hiding with Mina.

So I was right.

He’d known how to find them even without me telling him.

Why had he asked me anyway?

I scramble away from him and through the little group of bushes I left Sam and Mina behind.

“It’s me,” I whisper. “And we’ve got company.”

“I heard it,” Sam’s voice shudders and when I part the bushes, I see the utter terror in her eyes. It shines through even the darkness around us.

She’s referring to the machine and even as understanding passes between us in that second, we hear another distant thump.

Trees split and fall.

It is far away. We might have a chance.

I hope we do.

I do not feel strong or capable.

As a matter of fact, my insides are jelly and my legs are rubber.

Still, I try to keep my voice level as my gaze slips to Mina.

“They’re here too,” I whisper. “Fer’ro and two others.”

Fuck. Mina looks even worse than when I’d left her not long before.

“She’s unconscious,” Sam whispers and I nod.

We can survive this.

We’ll be fine.

I try to believe in those words as I somehow sense Fer’ro behind me.

I don’t know how, but when I turn and look up, there he is and behind him is the burgundy-eyed one and San’ten.

San’ten.

“What’s he doing here?” My voice quivers a little as I glance from San’ten to Fer’ro.

Fer’ro clicks something at him and San’ten steps forward. His gaze is not on me…it is on Mina.

“I will not harm the female,” he says, but even as he speaks, the darkness spikes around him a little as his suit reacts. He growls in his throat and his suit flattens again. “I give you my oath.”

I gulp as I glance back at Fer’ro. He’s the only one I trust, but there’s no time for deliberation on this.

There’s another distant thump and I know the orb is one step closer to our location.

If it finds us…I know we are dead.

Fer’ro is clicking again…but it sounds different.

Lower.

Deeper.

He’s not looking at us either. His gaze is focused somewhere in the darkness ahead.

Burgundy Eyes replies and so does San’ten.

What follows is a sharp series of clicks and Fer’ro’s lips pull back as his gaze suddenly shoots to me.

His anger isn’t directed at me though, somehow I can sense that, but whatever they are talking about obviously has all their emotions rising.

Fer’ro ends the conversation with a sharp click and I’m left glancing from one to the other.

I have no idea what’s about to happen now.

“Ga’Var will take the tiny one,” he finally says.

“Who?”

“They are all tiny,” Burgundy Eyes says, but he moves toward Sam.

“Oh, you’re talking about m—me?” There’s a tremor in Sam’s voice and we hear another distant thump that makes her shiver beside me. “My name is Sam.”

Ga’Var doesn’t respond. He simply reaches down and grasps her. Sam stifles a yelp as she’s lifted as if she weighs nothing.