Page 87 of Rebirth

Memories rush back. The Corrupted. The little girl, Asha. When she’d tried to help me and the searing pain that came straight afterward. He’rox carrying me through the forest. Giving me his ba’clan. Saving my life. Again.

We must have made it to Unity. And I am in his lab.

I focus on calming myself. To think rationally.

If I’m here, it means He’rox put me here. And if I can make sense of all this, that means I’m not a mindless husk. I’m still me. Somehow.

Spinning slowly in the fluid, I look around, my gaze snapping to the Gryken across the room.

Part of me wants to stay, to let the warm liquid soothe my injuries and my fractured mind. But another part needs to break free, to see He’rox again and understand what happened between us in those final moments in the forest.

I ball my hands into fists and summon what little strength I have left. Pushing with everything I’ve got, I fight through the thick liquid, heading to the top. Bracing against the walls of the tank, I slowly force the lid open. Liquid spills out as the seal breaks and cool air rushes in.

I tumble out of the tank, landing on the floor in a coughing, sputtering heap as pain shoots through my bones from the distance of the fall. As consciousness threatens to slip away again, a familiar pair of dark eyes appears above me.

“He’rox,” I manage, reaching a hand toward him.

He takes my hand gently in his, and I know in that moment that I will always crave his calming touch.

He’rox clutches my hand softly, as if I am something precious and fragile. His dark gaze bores into me, filled with sorrow, guilt, and a hint of hope.

“Forgive me,” he whispers. “I had to save you.”

Forgive him?

I try to speak, but all that comes out is a hoarse croak. My throat is raw from the regen liquid.

Asha!

“She is safe. Confined in her quarters. But safe.”

He’rox gently scoops me up in his arms, moving me away from the spilled liquid on the floor. My vision blurs as he carries me, the trauma and blood loss finally catching up to me.

How am I…how am I alive?

Turning my hands, I blink at my skin. I’m…me. There’s no ba’clan covering me as I thought. No dark veins threading through my skin. But even as I think this, there’s a comforting pulse all along my spine. I blink, looking up at He’rox as the wall opens before us and he takes me from the room with the regen tanks. Cool air brushes over my skin and I shiver against the sudden cold.

Almost immediately, a wave moves all across me like a warm embrace. Almost like watching white ink run over my skin, He’rox’s ba’clan flood over me, warding away the chill.

“They’re still here,” I whisper.

“Enough to heal your wounds and keep the darkness at bay,” He’rox says softly as he sets me down on a floating table. The warmth from his “gift” spreads through my body, chasing away the pain and cold and I stare at my skin in disbelief.

“How is this possible?” I whisper.

He’s quiet for a moment, as he walks over to a section of the wall and activates a light matrix. A three-dimensional image of myself pops up, with He’rox moving through the scan right down to the nervous system. “It means we are forever bound, in a way I could not have foreseen. But not unwillingly.” He meets my eyes. “I would not undo what I have done.”

I swallow again, for the first time noticing him properly.

Without his ba’clan, it is surprising that he looks…naked. The ridges along his body are more pronounced. His muscles. His strength. Every dip and angle of his is more defined.

White from head to toe, with completely black eyes, he is even more remarkable than before.

“Your eyes,” I whisper.

I meet He’rox’s gaze, but something has changed. The calmness is gone, replaced by a storm I do not recognize.

He turns to face me fully, and I see a struggle raging within him. From the way he stands rigid. From the way he’d put distance between us.

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