His answer is a growl—low and primal—before his mouth crashes onto mine.
The kiss is hard; desperate and claiming.His hands grip me like he’s shackling his fingers to mine.And maybe he is.
7
Chapter 7
Theceriumshardhumslike a living thing, its glow a purple pulse of energy, washing Kael’s face in shadows.Now back in my suit in anticipation of returning to Mars, my pulse hammers as we stand outside the base.On this side, without the cave to block the wind, it blows steadily, sending smaller stones and dirt swirling around my ankles.
Kael clamps his ancient lifecord around his wrist, the metal locking with a sharp click.“Once we touch the cerium, it should open the wormhole.”
“Right, as long as we make sure they’re exposed to the sun.”It’s what the words meant when I first found mine, that revealing the bracelet to light transcends the wearer.I mirror Kael by clamping my proto-lifecord on my wrist.“Ready?”My voice is barely a whisper.
His black eyes flick to mine, dark and unyielding.“Touch it.Together?”
I nod.
Our gloved hands brush against each other as we lay our lifecords on the shard.
Light detonates.
The air splits with a sound like cracking stone, and a rift of light blossoms before us; a swirling vortex of silver and violet, its edges crackling with energy.The wormhole stabilizes for a breath, then shudders, shrinking inward like a dying star.
Kael moves first.His hand slams against my shoulder, shoving me toward the rift.“Go!”
I stumble, my boots skidding on the rough ground.“What about you?”
His voice is iron.“It will not hold for two bodies, only one.”
“No.”I lunge backward, my fingers locking around his wrist in a death grip.“You’re coming with me, damn you.”
He snarls, the muscles of his face taut.“Ellie—”
“Don’t youdare.”My breath is ragged with the terror clawing at my chest.“You th-think I’m leaving you here?After everything?”
For a heartbeat, the fury in his eyes wanes.Something softer bleeds through, something that steals the air from my lungs.
“You are right,” he says, his voice low, raw.“I need to give humans—and you—a chance.It is not fair to judge your race for what XVU did to me.And I owe my people…I owe them hope.”
The wormhole convulses with arcs of light lashing the walls.A small chunk of ceiling crashes behind us.
Kael grips my hand hard enough to bruise.“If I do not make it…” His voice breaks.“I want you to know you make me feel real and alive.No human or Volderen hasevermade me feel as you do.”
Something inside me shatters.I grab him by his horns and drag his mouth to mine, kissing his lips hard, giving little nips an drawing blood.Copper floods my tongue where our teeth collide, the taste of meta mixes with the bitter residue of adrenaline.
Salt and rust—his blood or mine, I can't tell—cuts through the acrid chemical burn clinging to both our lips.
The kiss carries desperation, a bitter poison of metal laced with the sour-electric charge of the dying wormhole.
The rift screams, collapsing faster.I tear my lips from his.“Fight, damn you.For your people.For your planet.Forme.”
His eyes, those dark, angry, soul-searching eyes, give way to light, to hope, to resolve, and together, hand locked in hand, we dive into the thin shard of light.
The light swallows me.
For a heartbeat, there’s no sound, no gravity, no breath.
The world detonates into chaos.
