Page 40 of Primal Vow

"I'll be back soon," Taryn said. "This is an opportunity, in fact."

"An opportunity?"

"A break. A moment of rest for you."

"I'm not tired," Rhys protested.

Taryn's gaze was knowing. "I can hear your heart racing from here. Am I wrong?"

Rhys's mouth twisted. "You're never wrong, are you?"

Taryn's lips quirked up in a half-smile. "I did not say that." The teasing tone was a balm and a knife all at once. He tilted Rhys's chin upward, and kissed him. "Rest yourself. Sit, eat, drink. I will return soon."

"You better."

Taryn gave Rhys one of those small smiles. Rhys watched from the mouth of the cave as Taryn slipped through the alien greenery. He grew smaller and smaller, and then the jungle swallowed him up in moments, hiding his golden form in a tangle of green.

Alone in the gloom, Rhys sat down hard. He really was tired. They'd made double time trying to catch up after his little dip in the river. He wasn't cut out for all this hiking — so much damn walking! Who needed it?!

As he steadied his breathing, Rhys touched a hand to his chest.

All of that stuff that Taryn had said about how Borraq loved… It was a fairy tale. It was as unreal as any storybook.

But for just a few moments, walking through the jungle by Taryn's side, it had felt real.

It had felt possible.

Rhys shook his head, trying to clear away the heat and the weight of the thick air. He'd spent his whole life in artificial environments fed by filtered air, cool and thin. Every breath inside the jungle felt like he was trying to suck in soup, the air grossly hot.

There was a sound nearby, a gentle burbling. Rhys looked out of the mouth of the cave, peeking out at the world. A stream that they'd been following was close by, its clear waters running over smooth rocks.

Taryn had told him to drink, hadn't he? It wasn't far — even a colony boy like himself couldn't get lost.

Rhys slipped through the foliage, following the sound. His mouth was dry, the taste of sweat lingering at the back of his throat. He undid the cap of the waterskin that Taryn had given him, and dipped it into the water, enjoying the coolness of it against his skin even before he took a drink.

He gulped down mouthful after mouthful, the clean, crisp taste a balm for his tired body. He poured a little bit over his head and ran his hands through his hair. The shock of the cold water against his overheated skin sent a shiver of relief down his spine.

It was the most refreshing thing that Rhys had ever experienced. He shook himself like a dog.

A voice spoke. "Finally."

Rhys froze.

It was a human voice.

Lila.

The medic was standing upriver, a little worse for wear but still with her cool exterior intact. She narrowed her eyes at him, her eyes flicking quickly over Rhys's form. "We've been looking for a way to get to you," she said, as if Rhys had been missing. "Quick, come here. Let's move, fast."

Rhys's heart raced. He took a step back from her, the waterskin still clutched in his hand. "What? That doesn't make sense. You left me for dead!"

Lila cut him off, striding towards him. "We need to get away. Quick, before that brute comes back!"

Rhys backed away from her. "What?" he echoed, his mind racing. "I'm not—"

Lila didn't seem to care about his denial, though. She was already scanning the jungle around them. "This way. We're not far from here."

What? Rhys didn't know what to do. He'd been hunting down his traitorous former crewmates for days — and now one was trying to help him?

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