But the membrane won’t open for her.

Not with the Scrit disabled.

She’s thrashing around, desperate to reach it as the Scrit flips, her cheeks puffed out as if she cannot breathe.

Because she doesn’t know that she can.

The ba’clan have sealed her entire being. Even her face and head are covered as well as her nostrils.

They will breathe for her.

But she does not know this.

A new sense of urgency fills me immediately and I activate the energy core in my hand as I slam my fist against the Scrit’s inner core.

The membrane wobbles for a moment as it absorbs the attack, before it weakens.

It’s enough for me to do the rest of the work.

I slice through it with one swing of my arm, my hackles moving through the weakened material.

Water gushes out and unto me as I dive within the machine, my focus on Adee’ra.

She’s still trying to get to the vent but she’s not going anywhere.

The Gryken.

It’s got one of its filthy tentacles on her.

The rage that fills me as I shoot forward, slicing the leg in two as I grasp Adee’ra, is rage that I have been harboring for many moons.

My arms close around my female and relief floods through me.

But all is not over yet.

As soon as my arms close around her, Adee’ra panics.

She kicks and struggles, her limbs flailing as she tries to get away from me and it is only when I spin her around and bring her toward my chest that she stops.

Her body stiffens as our eyes meet and then she relaxes against me.

But she is still trying to hold her breath and I can see the effect it is having on her.

As I hold her there, she begins struggling again, her eyes going wide.

Air.

She needs to breathe.

It is strange seeing those brown pools under the dark protection of the ba’clan and I suddenly realize how strange I must have looked to her from the start.

I spin, ready to take her upward when the entire chamber shakes.

The water shivers around us before it suddenly stills.

We’ve taken the Scrit down.

Gripping Adeer’a to my chest, I propel myself upward, back to the spot I just weakened.

It has already sealed again. It resealed the moment I slipped through it and the hackles on my arm extend toward the spot I weakened.

That’s when her body heaves against me.

Her lungs make one final attempt to pull in air, and I sense the moment she realizes she just took her first breath underwater.

Her blood organ hammers against mine as her chest heaves.

I want to share in this moment with her, this revelation, her new experience, but I cannot.

I focus on the job at hand.

Her life…the fate of her planet…depend on it.

As I slice the membrane open once more, I surge upward.

Someone grabs my arm and pulls us through.

Fi’rox.

I click at him, urgency filling my voice.

“Do you have the container?”

He clicks the affirmative as he slips through the hole I just made and into the Scrit.

I know he only has a few seconds remaining but my entire focus is back on Adee’ra.

She is limp in my arms.

Again.

But this time, I am not nearly as calm as on the first occasion.

This time, everything within me is screaming.

I jump from the Scrit, launching myself into the air and I land on my feet.

There is dust around us, kicked up by the fallen machine, but I trudge forward.

There is a soft patch of dead grass nearby and I rest Adee’ra on it, leaning over her as my symbiotes vacate my head and face.

“Adee’ra.”

As I touch her face, her ba’clan retract as if they sense I need them to.

She coughs, her gaze meeting mine as her ba’clan move away.

Her eyes are wide, her chest still heaving.

“Adee’ra?”

She is in shock.

“Fer’ro. The Gryken…it was—”

Something is building within me that makes my ba’clan writhe and I pull her to me.

It is a heat. An all-consuming heat that is pulling me to this female.

“You took a big risk.” Even as I speak, I am aware of the darkness surrounding us.

A new phenomenon again. One I do not care to observe or wonder about.

But Adee’ra notices. “What’s happening?”

She looks around us then down at herself.

The ba’clan are leaving her body as they are mine.

Surrounding us.

Creating a cocoon…melding together.

Two separate colonies, merging as one once more.

“You are safe now.” I look down into the gaze of this being who is turning my world on edge.

Her pale skin…

Her small body…

Her weakness…and her strength.

“Adee’ra…”

She stares at me as she pulls her gaze away from the swirling ba’clan around us, and I sense when her beating blood organ slows down from its erratic pace.

Deep brown eyes.

I see an image of myself in them. My own reflection.

A Vullan that has almost been ripped inside out.

Adee’ra…

A female I didn’t know I wanted…but one I know I need.

Never again will I let her out of my sight.

Chapter Thirty-Two

ADIRA

I’m alive.

As the ba’clan swirl around us, covering us, protecting us, I realize something.

In this new world where I am the prey, where my life could be snuffed out at any moment…I am vulnerable.

It’s one thing living life like you have time.

That’s how I used to live before.

But now…

Now I’ve brushed fingers with death too many times.

I know what it is now to really be alive.

And I appreciate it.

I appreciate him.

The symbiotes aren’t swirling around us to protect me only.

They’re protecting him too.

I can see that as I look up at this strange alien before me.

He is…different from the others.

It’s as if I can feel him. Feel his heart beating.

Feel our lives becoming intertwined.

Despite what the Vullan can do, despite the sacrifice I just made, these aliens are offering an even bigger sacrifice.

They are here to save a world that is not their own.

My world.

My home.

I wrap my arms around Fer’ro’s neck and look into those fiery eyes.

“You came after me,” I whisper.

He shouldn’t have.

That was stupid.

But would I have done the same for him?

Yes.

Yes, I would have.

“You were stupid.” His words make me choke on an unexpected chuckle. “Tell me hyu’mankind is not all like you. You could have gotten yourself killed.”

“If it gave you a chance to save my planet, I would do it again.”

Fer’ro’s fangs bare before me but no fear spikes in my spine.

He is angry…at me?

No.

He is being nothing but gentle.

I am cradled in his arms on top of this soft patch of grass.

He is not angry at me.

I sense he is angry at someone else.

Himself.

“Did we do it?” I try to rise but Fer’ro holds me down. “Did we catch it?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?” I ache to think that all I just did could have been in vain.

“We caught it, Adee’ra. Otherwise, I would sense fighting right now.” He glances around us. “It is…calm out there.”

“And the other humans?” I glance around us.

I cannot see anything outside of this wall the ba’clan are creating.

“Rescued.” He pauses. “The ones that were alive that is.”

My gaze falls.

Of course.

I couldn’t have expected them all to survive that fall.

“What about the female…the woman that was in the water…”

Fer’ro simply looks at me, his gaze doesn’t wane.

“Right.” I gulp hard.

He doesn’t need to say it.

She is probably dead.

I gulp as I look away from him.

Death.

So much death around me.

I won’t ever escape it, will I?