He takes a drag, his chest rising, and we fall into a rhythm—one breath for me, one for him—as we trudge onward.
Our faces hover inches apart when we trade the mask, our breaths mingling in the cold.
“Come back to Mars with me,” I whisper.“I’ll show you we’re not all the same.”
His eyes, black and burning, lock onto mine.“Do not waste oxygen talking.”
My lips curve despite the ache in my lungs.“Then maybe you should shut me up with a kiss.”
Why?Why did I say that?It’s true, though.I can’t stand the thought of him just giving up and dying out here, alone and forgotten.
His jaw clenches.For a heartbeat, I think hewillkiss me.His gaze drops to my mouth.
Heat flares in my bones; a fire racing through my stomach to my core, creating a yearning ache only he can soothe.
But then he exhales sharply, shoving the mask toward me.“Keep moving,” he growls.“We will go directly to the shelter entrance.It is a shorter walk than the main entrance.”
I do.Barely.
The shelter to the base greets us like a shining beacon as we shoulder our way inside, heaving large breaths of blessed oxygen.
As the door shuts, I hang my suit on a wall.My head feels less foggy.
Several cracks in the ceiling spider across, but it’s still intact.
Kael uses his pen scanner and nods.“It will hold for now.”
The ionospec lights above flicker, and the temperature feels much cooler against my bare skin.I don’t remember it being this cold when we left.
Frost creeps along the walls as Kael wrestles with the holographic computer, grumbling about rebooting the backup generator located at in the other area of the old base.“The quakes must have damaged the system.I am reading lower oxygen farther back.Right now, this room is the only section of base receiving a continuous flow of air.”
“We need to replicate what triggered the lifecord so we can get out of here,” I say, my teeth chattering.The bracelet gleams faintly from my jumpsuit’s pocket, mocking me with its silence.
Kael’s gaze slices to me.“Ideas?”
“Just one.”I grab an old Volderen helmet since my suit needs to recharge and head for the sealed doors leading to the other section.
“Ellie, stay—” His voice is a warning, but I’m already gone.
Cerium.I think that’s the missing link in opening the wormhole.It was there in the soil on Mars, but I was too consumed with getting the lifecord to put it together.
The helmet’s visor fogs over with every hard exhale, vision fragmenting between frost blooms and the jagged blue-white glare of emergency lights.
Frost webs over the corridor walls, catching pale, flickering light as the crystalline shard pulses like an exposed nerve in the dim.
The overlaying O2 feed shows the oxygen level in this area of the base at below recommended levels for humans or Volderens.
My head spins at the reduced air.With a final push, I slam my hand on the mineral and spin around, pushing my feet to move even though they feel like two balloons.
At the edge of blackout, everything narrows to the raw geometry of the corridor and the sharp, refracted gleam of the crystal in my hand.
At the door, Kael beckons at me.Only three feet away.I can make it.
Kael lunges through the opening and grabs my upper arms, hauling me against him with a force that rattles my bones, and slams his hand on the button to close the doors behind me.
“You are too reckless,” he snarls, his breath hot against my ear.
I manage a grin, dizzy and defiant.“You l-l-like it.”
