An eggshell. Why did I collect an eggshell? A dead leaf. Clatterbeak skull. Bones from something I can’t even identify. Roots and twigs and, of course, rocks.
“Adam…” Jaime’s voice trembles as he holds up a flat piece of rock. I remember why I picked that one, at least. It was shiny, not like the other rocks. “This is metal, Adam. Part of a spaceship, if I had to guess. Where did you get it?” Continuing to rifle through the pile, he pulls out more shiny objects. “A scanner? Smashed to bits, fuck. No communication device, except…hmm. What’s this?” He plays with a small square rock which feels more important than anything else here. My first instinct is to snatch it from Jaime, but I suppress it. Jaime is my mate. Something tells me I’m supposed to share the shiny rocks with him. “Hmm. It doesn’t look broken, but what— Oh.”
When light suddenly fills the cave, I bark in alarm, knock the rock from Jaime’s hand, and wrap my arms around him to protect him from danger. Not that there seems to be any danger. Just the light.
“Shh,” Jaime makes a soothing sound. “It’s okay. I’m sorry, I had no idea it would still work. I’m sorry it scared you, but it’s not dangerous. It’s some kind of hologram, I think.”
Slowly, I release him from my arms, my chest tight while he picks up the glowing rock again. As he rights it in his palm, Irealize the light sprouting from it forms an image. It's slightly blurry, like my fog memories, but it shows two creatures like me. One has green scales like I do and the other one is dark blue. Both wear the second skins Jaime used to wear.They’re smiling, their arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders.
“Adam…” Jaime’s mouth is wide open as he looks between me and the light image. He points to the green creature. “I think that’s you. But who’s the other one?”
Looking at the other creature, a memory I’ve had before surges into my mind.
Four arms extended to me. “Rizven, calm down. You can fight this. Just calm down. The stasis pod—”
“No!” I yell, the fog surging violently. “No pod. No cure. No hope. Death. I-I want. Death” Words are hard to form, but I try, desperate urgency fueling my effort. I need him to understand. I need him to let me die.
“Rizven, I can’t just let you kill yourself. Please.”
The red fog tightens its grip on my mind. I advance, teeth bared in a vicious snarl.
The other one raises his hands. “It’s me, brother. It’s me.” Then there’s nothing, just the fog, and when it clears, blood coats my claws and the other one’s face. Others advance on me, but he shouts for them to stop. “Don’t hurt him!”
I toss them away and run, run, run. I run until I find a tiny cave with glowing lights, then jump in and touch them. The cave starts moving through impossible blackness punctuated by billions of fast-moving lights.
I’m getting away from the other creature. Away from his blood. But that blood is on my claws, on my skin. I will always carry it with me.
I touch the lights until a red circle appears. It fills me with both dread and peace, because I know that reaching it will end everything. No more fog. No more blood. Only death.
Chapter 22
Steven
Thealarmringingthroughthe shuttle snaps me out of my terrible thoughts. “What’s happening?”
“A solar flare.” My mate, Lyriana, is scowling at the screens I can’t read, touching the shuttle controls until the alarm stops. “This place is a fucking death trap.”
Ironically, my hope rises at her words. “That means Jaime could be here?”
“Maybe. If their ship got hit by a flare like we just did, it would have definitely knocked them off course. It would also explain why the distress call we received was so scrambled.”
It’s infuriating that despite all their advanced technology, aliens still can’t safely locate the source of a distress call. All we gleaned from the faint, damaged transmission was that Jaime’s ship was in trouble, but not what kind of trouble or where they were. Immediately, we went out looking for him.
The Supernova, with its stronger hyperdrive, is scouring the route we think Jaime’s ship took, in case they dropped out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere. Dart, the shuttle I’m on, along with another smaller ship belonging to our ally, is scanning the systems Jaime likely passed through, searching planets and moons for any sign of his ship.
I can’t believe I let him go alone. I should have gone with him. I should have—
“Steven.” Not taking her eyes off the screens, Lyri squeezes my hand. “It’s not your fault. We’ll find him.”
Yeah. We will. But what will we find? Most of the planets we checked were icy rocks with no atmosphere. No one could survive there, not even for a few minutes. And Jaime’s been missing for almost two weeks now. “Any signals here?”
“I’m a little busy trying to keep us from crashing,” Lyri replies angrily. “Besides, there’s too much interference to scan anything remotely. The solar activity in this system is— Wait, there’s something.”
My heart lifts, then sinks again as she shakes her head. “Not Jaime,” she says, “but there’s another ship here. They noticed we’re damaged and are offering help.”
“Just like that? Isn’t it a little suspicious?”
“Actually, according to the Universal Assistance Protocol, it would be illegal for them not to offer help. I’m going to accept. Our nav computer is scrambled, I’ll need to reset it and that will take time. We might as well talk to these guys. Perhaps they saw something.”
