Page 32 of Fallen from the Stars

Time crept on around her, unheeded, as she lay on the floor, clutching the only meaningful thing she owned. It was the only thing she had left of Malcolm. The only thing she had left of the one person who’d cared about her.

Tension drained from her body, and eventually sleep tugged at the edges of her consciousness.

“You know I love you, too, don’t you, Kane?” she asked quietly.

“I know. Get some rest, Theo. I’ll keep watch.”

Just before sleep claimed her, she felt a comforting hum pulse gently through her body; it was the closest Kane could come to physical touch.

Vasil stared at the pod. His chest and throat burned, and the air scorched his insides like fire when he sucked in a shuddering breath.

She’d recoiled from him and fled. It hadn’t been the sort of off-balance, uncertain reaction she’d had when he’d said he wanted her as his mate. This had been what Randall sometimes called agut reaction— an almost instinctual reflex. But she hadn’t stopped herself even after the point at which reason would’ve kicked in to tell her she’d overreacted.

He’d reached out to comfort Theo, and she’d withdrawn in disgust.

He rose from the ground, straightening his tentacles to lift his torso upright. His body felt oddly unstable, somehow too light and too heavy at once. Moving slowly, he dragged himself toward the pod, keeping his gaze fixed upon it. The droning of the ocean seemed far-off, though he was close enough to feel sea mist on the breeze.

Theo’s voice drifted to him, too low and too distorted by the faint echo created by the pod’s interior for Vasil to make out what she was saying. But he didn’t need to know her words to understand their raw anguish and sorrow in them.

He halted halfway between the fire and the pod, clenching his fists. The tips of his claws sank into his flesh, producing numerous points of stabbing pain, but that pain afforded him no clarity, no focus.

What was she thinking, what was she feeling? Was she disgusted by him, or did he only assume she was because of the undeniable differences in their anatomies? For a little while, he’d felt the connection between them like it was a physical bond; she had been open, had been vulnerable, and he’d somehow ruined it. Whether he’d said the wrong thing, had failed to say the right thing, or she’d realized suddenly who —what— he was,thiswas the outcome. This loneliness despite her nearness.

Conflicting urges raged inside him. He wanted to go and take Theo in his arms, to make her understand he was here with her,forher, that she was safe. He wanted to have strength enough to let her be, to give her the space she needed until she felt ready to speak to him. But he also wanted to break something, to roar at the sky, to collapse into the sand in despair or swim away from here, wanted to carry Theo anywhere in the universe she wished to go.

Rather than release control to any of those urges, he held himself in place, close enough to hear her voice, to pick up a hint of her scent on the wind, and yet separated by an impossible distance.

Pursue your desires.

The choice belongs to the female.

He could not reconcile those concepts with each other in those long moments of uncertainty. They seemed at once in conflict with each other and somehow irreversibly interwoven.

The pod went silent. Vasil’s chest constricted anew; a cold hand clamped over each of his hearts and squeezed. The sounds of wind and sea increased in prominence without her words to hold his focus. He counted the dull thumps of his heartbeats; three, nine, eighteen, faster and faster.

Theo’s voice floated to him, little more than a murmur, a ghostly whisper claimed by the wind. She spoke only a few words before falling silent again; he couldn’t make out any of them.

Vasil held his breath and listened.

Seconds passed, bleeding into minutes. The wind and sea sighed together, creating an airy, haunting song. Behind Vasil, the fire popped and crackled. Unseen creatures made their night calls from within the jungle’s rustling leaves.

But no sound emerged from the pod.

Soon, his body was too hot, his skin itchy, his breath ragged. He knew too little about this situation — aboutTheo— to put himself at ease without checking on her. He had to know for sure.

“Theo?” he called, dragging himself closer to the pod.

When she didn’t answer, he moved closer still, struggling to ignore his rapidly beating hearts. He called her name again; again, she made no answer.

She does not want me near her. I am the last person she wants to see.

Vasil thrust that thought aside. It didn’t matter what she thought of him, didn’t matter whether she wanted him close or not — her safety was his priority. He had risked himself to stay with her pod through the storm and again to rescue her from the snatcher. He would risk himself time and again to keep Theo safe.

He just needed toknow, even if it sparked more of her ire.

Without further internal debate, he climbed onto the pod. It swayed gently atop the sand as it accepted his weight.

“Theo?” he said as he raised his torso to look into the hatch opening.

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