“That doesn’t mean you should just let him get away with this.”
“I’m not letting him get away with anything.” Alina moved to her chair, sinking into it before her legs could give out. “I’m leaving, Cass. As soon as I can arrange transport. I can’t stay here anymore—it’s not safe for me, and it’s not safe for…”
She caught herself, but Cass nodded in understanding.
“For Rhyx.”
“For Rhyx,” Alina agreed quietly. “If Martin finds him, if GenCon gets their hands on him…” She couldn’t finish the sentence. The images that rose in her mind—Rhyx strapped to an examination table, Rhyx dissected for research, Rhyx turned into a weapon or a curiosity or a corporate asset—made her physically sick.
Cass crossed the lab and pulled up a chair beside her, settling into it with the easy grace of someone who’d spent years navigating Mars’s variable gravity.
“Then we make sure they don’t find him.” Her voice was steady, certain. “Zach has contacts in the cyborg network. People who specialize in moving sensitive cargo off-world without drawing attention. If you need to disappear, they can help.”
“Cass, I can’t ask you to?—”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering.” Cass reached out and covered Alina’s hand with her own. “You’re my friend, Alina. One of the only real friends I’ve made on this dust ball. Do you really think I’m going to stand by and watch Martin and his GenCon cronies destroy your life?”
Alina felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes.
“I don’t even know where I’m going. What I’m going to do. I had a career here, Cass. A purpose. And now…”
“Now you have something better.” Cass squeezed her hand. “You have someone who loves you. Someone worth fighting for. That’s more than most people ever get.”
Someone who loves me.
Rhyx. Golden and impossible and hers.
The fear didn’t vanish—it was still there, coiled in her chest, whispering about all the things that could go wrong. But beneath it, something else stirred. Something that felt like determination.
I won’t let them take him. Whatever it costs, whatever I have to sacrifice—I won’t let them have him.
“I need to file a complaint,” Alina said slowly.
Cass blinked. “What?”
“You’re right. About Martin.” Alina straightened in her chair, her jaw setting with new resolve. “Not because I think it’ll stop him—we both know it won’t. But because there needs to be a record. A paper trail. Something that documents what he’s been doing, so that when this all comes out?—”
“When it comes out?”
“It will. Eventually.” Alina met Cass’s eyes. “Whatever’s happening on Mars—whatever Rhyx is, whatever those caverns represent—it’s too big to stay hidden forever. And when it does come out, I want there to be evidence that Martin and GenCon were pursuing it through intimidation and harassment. I want the truth on record, even if no one believes it now.”
Cass studied her for a long moment, then nodded slowly.
“All right. We’ll go to the administrative office tomorrow morning. I’ll come with you—make sure they actually file the paperwork instead of losing it in the system.”
“Thank you.”
“And Alina?” Cass stood, but she kept hold of Alina’s hand for a moment longer. “Whatever happens next—you’re not alone. You know that, right? Zach and I, Jeb and Mattie—we’re all in this together now. You don’t have to figure everything out by yourself.”
The words loosened something in Alina’s chest that she hadn’t even realized was tight.
Not alone.
She thought of Rhyx, somewhere out in the Martian wilderness, waiting for her. Thought of the way he’d held her in the darkness of the cavern, his arms strong and certain around her. Thought of his voice, rough with emotion, telling her that she was his mate.
I’m coming back, she promised silently. Whatever it takes, I’m coming back to you.
But first, she had work to do.
