Across the clearing, Rythar removes his helmet and studies me like he's not sure what the Stone just chained to his name. I don't see victory in his eyes. Only the look of a commander bracing for what comes next.
It's the first time I've seen what the visor hid. A heavy brow, drawn low. His gaze doesn't wander. It locks, and it decides. I can feel him memorizing me.
Same male. But everything's different now.
Seven feet of menace and control. Shoulders wide enough to carry a planet. Skin the color of sun-warmed copper, stretched over corded muscle. Old scars cross whatever the armor leaves bare. His hair's tied back with leather, dark as the jungle behind him, but the gold threading his braids flashes every time the wind hits.
A cord hangs at his throat, strung with something’s fangs. His armor breathes when he does, shifting with his body like it's bonded to him. He's a mix of primitive animal and expensive technology. His hands are steady. Precise, for someone so large. He could take down any other male in the clearing with his barehands. His eyes ignite as they meet mine. Ember-gold, ringed in red, and when his pupils widen, the red spreads like fire. The force of them hits low, pinning me in place.
And I feel a heat I never invited. The pull toward him isn’t subtle anymore. The Stone reached inside me and twisted something deep and instinctive. Something logic can’t touch.
My fight is draining away, but I curl my fingers tight. I can’t look away from Rythar, but I refuse to move to him.
No.
I survived New Terra. I survived the crash.
But surviving him will be something else entirely.
CHAPTER 9
MATCHED
ELENA – THE GREEN REACH
Rythar is moving now,with measured steps. He’s less than a meter away when he stops, bends forward, and inhales deeply through his nose.
I feel the drag of his attention like he’s run his fingers over my skin. My body reacts before my mind can catch up. Every hair stands on end, heat pooling low in my belly.
I try to hate him for this. I try to hate myself. But the Stone has me in its grip. It’s not finished with me. I try to pull my hand back, but it’s stuck to the Stone. A pressure crawls under my skin, coiling inward.
Rythar’s eyes burn, the red spreading through the gold. It isn’t only lust, exactly, though there’s plenty of that. It’s something possessive. Territorial.
The Stone stirs in my head, a voice sliding between my thoughts, patient and watchful.
If you will not forget, then you are the spark.
Rythar surges forward, arm wrapping around my waist, hauling me into him. The sudden movement steals my breath. His grip is unyielding, one massive hand flat against my lower back, holding me upright as my knees threaten to give.
My body goes still. The Stone has my muscles, even if it doesn’t have my agreement.
He doesn’t speak. He shifts his stance, squaring his shoulders into command posture.
I stare at my left hand.
The skin around my ring finger is warm. Then hot.
Pain pulses twice before blooming into a thin circle of faint light. It burns like something alive, waking up under my skin.
My grandmother’s gold band, the one I brought with me from New Terra, the last piece of Old Earth I owned, is gone.
Nothing is left but the circle of light.
Rythar stills completely. His breath catches against my cheek, a sharp intake he doesn’t quite manage to hide. His gaze drops to my hand. A muscle jumps in his jaw, and he lets his breath out slow through his nose, like he’s clamping down on something.
The Stone is in my mind.
This is a gift,it whispers.
