Page 114 of Rebirth

And as the veins network higher and higher up the cylinder, I lose all semblance of control.

“HE’ROX!”

Darkness arrives as he suddenly opens his eyes, locking with mine instantly.

A sob mixes with a laugh in my throat, only to be replaced with a lump that stops me breathing as the network spreads so fast it almost conceals my view of him entirely.

I have no clue what they’re about to do, and I slap my palms against the tank again.

“He’rox, you have to get out of there. I don’t…I don’t know what’s happening.”

But even as I say this, the ba’clan pulse soothingly across my skin, as if to calm me. As if to say this alien entity is not a threat.

But nothing can stop the fear going through me. Not as I watch the veins network along the tank. Heading for the top as if intent on heading inside the tank itself.

Panic wells in my chest and I can hardly breathe.

I don’t know how to stop this. I don’t know how to stop it!

The ba’clan pulse again and I press my palms harder upon the glass, trying to calm my breaths and trust in the one thing that’s kept me alive thus far. The veins immediately slow their advance, fading back towards my hands, and my eyes widen.

I can control it?

I can control them?

The ba’clan’s memories flood my mind then. They show me how they purged the Gryken parasite from my cells, merging with it, creating something new. Something undefined.

And now they wish for He’rox. To be with him again.

I swallow hard, heart hammering an unsteady beat as the veins slowly fade back toward my hands, and when He’rox is fully revealed once more, his eyes are still on me. He hasn’t moved. Hasn’t sunk to the bottom of the tank to engage the controls so they release him. Not even his tentacles move.

He simply floats there, staring at me, and for the first time since waking up, I wonder if something else is wrong.

He was hurt. I remember that. But he’s healed now, as if nothing happened before. But is he alright? That I don’t know.

“He’rox, it’s me.” I smile at him as the veins slowly disappear and I blink away tears welling into my eyes. “It’s me. Sophie.”

The only indication he even hears me is the sudden flicking of his ears off the sides of his head.

A sob mixed in with a soft chuckle leaves my lips.

“Cute,” I whisper, and that’s when his tentacles move.

They wave at his back almost like four tails wagging as he floats closer to me.

Dark eyes move over me as if in disbelief, because my He’rox, the He’rox that I know, reveals nothing on his face. And in that manner, he reveals nothing now.

“Sophie?” His voice sounds in my mind and I blink a few times. Still flat, devoid of emotion, but undoubtedly his voice in my head. “How are you alive?”

My chest heaves as the last of the veins disappear behind my palms as if they were never spreading across the tank. As if they don’t exist.

My palms look undisturbed as I turn them to face me.

“You saved me,” I whisper.

His gaze meets mine as one of his hands comes up against the interior of the tank, pressing directly against my face if the tank wasn’t between us.

“You did it. You saved my life.”

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