“Crezlith!” Anger tears through my body.
Aera’s in his quarters. She’s still alive.But the look on his face, of sick satisfaction, makes me fear what he’s planning to do to her.
Seconds later, Crezlith passes my cell again.
“What have you done to her?”
He grins. “Just going to take a little power for myself.”
Panic flares in my core. “Don’t touch her!”
He turns around and holds his hands out to the sides like he can’t help himself, and he’s begging me to do something about it.
Hetnick and the other Solcrue security guards watch our confrontation and laugh from the other end of the room.
I want out. He is going to hurt Aera in the worst way.
Fury builds in me until I feel the fire lick off my skin. Stars rise to the surface, filling my chamber with heat.
My focus switches to this roiling heat and the energy that builds inside. The air in my cell turns into a tornado of white-hot fire. I can’t see Hetnick or the others. And I don’t care. Eon may be a stealthy shadow. I am his opposite.
I am heat and light and burning rage.
My cell shatters. Bullets raze the air around me and melt before they reach me. Walls scorch. The floor melts beneath my feet. Hetnick and the others turn and run.
I don’t know where the power is coming from, only that I have never felt so focused before. Crezlith is going to hurt my female, my beacon, my purpose. Xiphos or not, no one can be allowed to hurt her.
Anyone who comes into my vicinity vaporizes. Someone pulls out an ice gun and shoots me before I can duck. It coats me, sizzles, and smokes into nothingness.
I straighten, glare at them, and watch them turn and run.
I track Aera’s scent to the officers’ quarters, follow it to a private room, and find an empty cell.
Where is she?
Drips of blood lead out of the room and toward a hangar. I follow the trail around bend and find a fire extinguisher swinging at my head. Blocking it, I rip it out of the Solcrue’s hands, then sling it hard at him. It knocks him into the hallway with aclang.
“Evo!” A hand muffles Aera’s cry.
I wheel around and see Crezlith dragging Aera up the ramp of a shiny, angular fighter, lined with guns.
I run after them. The ramp begins to close up, and I fling myself over the edge and slide inside just as it closes. The vessel leaves the bay for the stars.
When I stand up, I find Crezlith pointing a gun at Aera’s beautiful head. I lift my hands slowly. “I didn’t think you meant you were going to take her like this.”
Crezlith eyes a nearby escape pod. “Why did you say what you did, Aera? About us being incapable of reproducing ourselves? Why did you say it?”
She’s in tears and rigid with fear. “Because...that’s how things...add up. Don’t you think?”
He inhales a deep breath against her ear as he clutches her back to his chest, using her as a human shield. “Do you think humans can save us?”
Aera looks at me. “In what way?”
“Can humanity save our species?”
She grumbles something about giving him ideas.
“Will it or not?” he demands with a shake of her body.
