Page 116 of Rebirth

Stiffening, my breath catches in my nose as I pull away and turn, eyes wide as they land on whatever threat is at my back.

Mina’s wide eyes stare back at me. At us. Her own ba’clan form spikes all along her arms, one particularly dangerous one pointed forward, ready to slice the tentacles if they come too close.

“Sophie?” she calls.

But her expression holds no joy. Only shock.

“You’re alive,” she whispers, swallowing hard. “Are you…are you still Sophie or something else?”

As if recognizing she is no threat, the tentacles lower, sinking into my back in a way that should creep me out, except it feels completely natural.

“I’m me.” I think.

Tears well in Mina’s eyes, and she promptly shakes her head.

“I want to congratulate you. Shit, I want to hug you and cry and toast and celebrate but…”

A pit falls in my gut because I just know that whatever she’s about to say, it isn’t anything good.

“But…I came here as a last resort. To try and wake He’rox because we have to stop them.”

“Them?”

“The soldiers…they’re going to kill the Corrupted. With you and He’rox gone, the general didn’t want to take any chances. They’re preparing to fire as we speak…”

Something tells me there’s more…

“And?”

“And there’s another group heading this way. Bigger than the last one. They’ve got vehicles. Weapons.” She releases a breath. “They have anti-Vullan flags…we don’t think they’re corrupted, but one thing is clear. They’re coming to destroy the base.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

SOPHIE

Mina’s words send shards of ice through my veins.

Without another moment’s delay, He’rox and I race from the lab, through the halls of the ship toward the lift. My senses feel sharper than ever before, acute enough that I can pick up the sounds of activity below even from within the ship.

I want to ask him about it. Ask him if he can hear the sounds too or if I’m the only one experiencing them, but now is not the time.

I’m scared, terrified even, that this new me has more power than ever before. I feel stronger, faster, more invincible than I have ever felt in my life. As if I could grasp time itself and make it bend to my will.

I glance at He’rox moving in tune beside me.

Is this how the Vullan feel all the time? Holding such indescribable power at the edges of their fingertips?

They could be gods here on Earth…and yet they came to save us. To rebuild with us. To live alongside us.

I feel them too. Like a constant pull there on the ground and even within the ship.

“I can feel them,” I whisper, and Mina’s eyes dart to me. She looks away then, focusing on the path ahead of us.

“My brothers…” He’rox says and I nod.

“It’s the effect of the ba’clan.”

“And I can feel something else, too.”

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