Page 45 of Silver Slayer

"For as long as the Spirits allow me to walk beside you," I said softly, "your well-being will always matter more than my own. That is not a burden to me, Quin. It is the greatest honor of my life."

Her breath caught as she held my gaze. The faint echo of emotions that were not my own brushed against my spirit. Curiosity tempered by reluctance. Interest pressed quietly against the walls she had built around herself.

"We've already spent more time here than I intended,” Vala said. “Let's be underway while we still have daylight."

The spell between us shattered.

Quin looked away first and turned toward the skiff. I fell into step beside her as we walked around the vessel to where a boarding ramp had unfolded from beneath the hull, its metallic surface descending silently until it rested lightly upon the deck.

Warm light spilled through the open hatch, revealing an unexpectedly inviting interior. Four contoured seats werearranged in two rows facing forward, while softly illuminated control panels glowed from the front of the craft.

One by one we boarded the skiff. Tyrk secured the junction conduit assembly while Vala settled into the pilot's seat. Quin chose one of the rear seats, and I lowered myself beside her.Behind us, the boarding ramp folded smoothly into the hull, enclosing us within the warm glow of the interior.

The skiff hummed to life around us, its disruptor arrays engaging with a low, resonant vibration that traveled through the deck beneath my feet.

I looked across the cabin at Quin.

She met my gaze for only a heartbeat before the corner of her mouth lifted into a small, almost hesitant smile. It was not the radiant smile she had given me moments before, but it carried a warmth that eased the tightness inside my chest.

A faint impression brushed against my spirit. Curiosity. Cautious acceptance. Beneath both lingered a quiet uncertainty. The feelings were as fleeting as sunlight through leaves, impossible to hold, yet they stirred hope where I had promised myself there would be none.

I swallowed hard and turned toward the viewport before my feelings betrayed me further. My spirit had recognized its complement the moment our eyes first met. Now, despite everything standing between us, my heart was beginning to follow.

Vala's hands moved confidently across the illuminated controls. Without so much as a tremor, the skiff drifted through the gaping wound torn in the freighter's hull and out into the open air.

The twin suns hung low above the horizon, bathing the world in warm light. From above, Spore Valley possessed a haunting beauty that concealed the horrors waiting beneath its canopy. The luminous spore sacs shimmered like scattered gemstones among the dense vegetation, their gentle glow belying the deadly hallucinations they unleashed.

Beyond them, I recognized the narrow path Tyrk and I had carved through the choking undergrowth with swinging blades as we fought our way toward the freighter. Even from this height, memories of bursting spore sacs, grasping carnivorous plants, and the desperate race to outrun death tightened every muscle in my body.

The skiff skimmed effortlessly above the danger, gradually giving way to the dense forest. Towering trees swallowed the fading sunlight beneath their broad canopies, and familiar ribbons of mist drifted through the Huren-like wilderness that surrounded Vala's ship.

"There," Vala said, pointing ahead.

The skiff descended in a slow, controlled glide and settled gently onto the forest floor beside Vala's vessel. From this height, the battered hull looked less like a crippled wreck and more like a warrior stitched back together after battle, its fresh repairs standing out against the scarred metalloid plating.

One step closer to Valose.

One step closer to losing the female my spirit had already claimed.

Chapter Sixteen

QUIN

Brooke turned another magnetic coupling collar beneath the portable light, her blonde bob falling across one eye as she inspected the connector for hairline fractures before dropping it into the crate markedUSABLE."I can't wait until we leave this place. I hope the Nomadicans can get that conduit assembly installed soon."

I rotated the same connector between my fingers without really seeing it. "Uh-huh."

Brooke picked up another coupling collar and frowned at a tiny crack running along one edge. "Hey, Quin."

"Uh-huh."

She tossed the damaged connector into theSCRAPcrate and raised her voice. "Look at that parade of elephants marching across the command deck."

"Uh-huh."

Laughter erupted all around me. I blinked and looked up. "What?"

The crystalline lattice in my hand had a hairline fracture running through its center, barely visible unless you held it to the light, which I had not been doing. I’d been thinking about Vennox’s hands. The way his scales had deepened to that vivid blue when my fingers wrapped around him. The tremor in his grip when he’d held my wrist, as if he were afraid I might disappear.