Page 55 of Kryxis

Kryxis

He watched her from his place far above. Watched her pick up the glass tank then press it against her. She called his name, wanting him to come to her.

He wanted to. The urge to leap down and obey was strong.

But he couldn’t. Not yet.

The armored ones were everywhere now, and he was wary of being attacked, still recovering from the attack with the insects. There were marks on his skin where those that survived the fire had bitten and scratched him, and they still itched.

But he wanted her to know, needed her to know, he was near. Early on, he almost considered the risk of being shot by their weapons just to take her and bring her back to the den. It felt emptier there now without her.

But he knew taking her away from the others might upset her, so instead he brought her another gift. Her eyes lit up again for a second, and that made him feel warmer than the sunlight against his skin.

She liked his little gifts. And she had called for him in the tunnels. He remembered that before the fire overtook him.

Twice in a matter of hours, he’d been consumed by fire because of her. And he’d do it again.

What was something like that called?

He’d never cared this much for anyone or anything ever. Yet, he felt so far away from her, so out of reach. He had to have impressed her in the tunnels, right? He had shined himself up and put on clothes. Clothes which had gotten burned in the fire, losing the shiny things he had worn.

It wasn’t a problem. He had others. But he was still uncertain about what she’d thought of him then. The only indication was her face turning red, and she had a hard time speaking. Like she was nervous again. Which was disappointing.

But she had smiled. And he’d learned that was a good thing.

Even so, dread slipped into his hearts. With the second ship, he understood they were going to leave soon. She was going to leave soon.

And for the first time that he could remember, fear gripped him.

He didn’t want to be alone, to go back and stare at his lifeless den. He’d trade in his whole collection if meant making a new one with her.

He watched Dani disappear back into the ship before he slowly slipped away. Time was running out, and he needed to act before it was too late.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Dani

The day was waning, light fading already. It had started to rain, leaving her stuck inside the ship. She sat in the control room, leaning over a screen, typing in several commands. Morse and the other men had finally restored the power less than an hour ago, much sooner than anticipated. Now she was working to get the system rebooted. Once they were sure everything ran smoothly, they would start preparing for departure.

Not having to transfer everything over to the other ship was a relief at least. The response team agreed to stay until they were ready. And good thing they did because with the rain came new problems. The tunnels were beginning to flood, and so the things lurking within were starting to pop up to the surface. More than a few times, she heard shots fired, and when she glanced up to the window, she saw the men moving in pairs around the circumference of the ships. Her garometer came to life a few times and she’d get new readings. Her heart would flutter every time she heard the crackling, then sink whenever she checked and saw it was lower than fifteen.

She knew he was out there somewhere in the rain, watching. He had to be.

Her eyes drifted away from the screen and up to the window, looking out across the broken buildings. Anxiety pulled at her seeing the men aiming their guns and searching the perimeter. Kryxis had been good at not getting caught. But she was starting to suspect he was hiding because of the many armed men now staked outside. Too many even for him to risk wanting to be caught in a firefight.

She tapped her fingers on the console and sighed. She couldn’t leave this place without seeing him again. She couldn’t…

She stopped tapping and clenched her hand into a fist. After everything she knew, what she knew about him, the idea of Kryxis returning to the tunnels, returning to his den alone—it didn’t sit right with her.

She needed to talk to him, even if she wasn’t sure what she would say at first. She also needed to have a meeting with the crew. She’d be surprised if Myrell hadn’t told them some things about what happened with her and the vrisha. But they didn’t know everything.

The system was restarting for the last time. Soon they would be powering up the engines. She left the console and headed back downstairs.

As she got down to the locker room, she ran into Myrell coming through the door to the outside.

“Rain doesn’t look to be letting up, but it’s not getting worse at least,” she said after slipping off her helmet and shaking her graying hair out of her face. “Also, found this out by a bench.” She took something out of her pocket and handed it to her.

It was the cat figurine from Kryxis’ collection. Her name was etched on the pink scarf. On the back it said,kass.The vrisha word for come.

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