Page 23 of Fourth

“Come on, Riven. Breathe, damn you.”

Her voice cracked on the last word, raw and furious. But she didn’t stop. She couldn’t.

Her arms trembled with the effort, chest pounding with each breath she forced into him. The sun poured down hot against her back, sweat mixing with seawater and blood, the air vibrating with the pounding rhythm of her pulse. Her eyes burned, blurring with salt and something sharper. Panic edged closer, clawing at the back of her throat, but she shoved itdown.

She wasn’t going to lose him. Not after everything else. Not after the ship. Not after the bond flickering between them that she couldn’t name, couldn’t admit she’d experienced. Not after all of it. This wasn’t how it ended.

“Come on,” she whispered, voice breaking. “You don’t get to die. Not after everything. Not after dragging me off Earth. Not after making me feel—”

Her breath caught, words tangling behind her teeth. Feel what? Angry? Alive? That pull in her chest she hadn’t been able to name? The heat that stirred every time he got too close? It didn’t matter. She couldn’t lose him. Not now. Not with all thequestions she still didn’t have answers for. Not with everything between them unfinished.

Her hands pressed down again, hard enough that her own ribs ached in sympathy. Riv’En’s chest rose beneath her palms, but there was no answering movement. No cough. No breath. Just stillness.

“Please,” she rasped, her forehead dropping against his, skin to skin, salt and sun and blood all tangled between them. “Come back. Iswear to God, Riven...”

Her voice cracked. Atremor rolled through her, sharp and involuntary, her whole body shaking with it. Tears stung her eyes now, hot and blinding.Don’t die. Not here. Not like this. Not when she finally understood what he meant to her. Not when it tore at her chest—the acrid, hollow ache she hadn’t let herself admit until now. The thought pounded through her chest as hard as her pulse.

She pressed her forehead to his again, breath catching on a sob she refused to let loose. It all seemed too wretched, too hopeless, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t. If he died here, if she lost him now, she didn’t know what she’d do. And she hated herself for feeling it but he mattered. Her hands lifted again, fingers trembling, ready to start compressions all over, and then—

He jerked.

A single sharp movement. His body arched under her, chest heaving as water spluttered from his mouth in a violent, choking rush. His eyes snapped open, dark and wild, zeroed in on her with a clarity that hit like a punch.

Maya gasped, stumbling back a step, her hand flying to her mouth.

Riv’En coughed again, sucking in air like it hurt, like every breath was a fight, but he was breathing. He was alive.

Relief hit her so hard it made her knees buckle. Her breath caught in her throat, half a sob, half a laugh she couldn’t prevent. But even as that wave broke over her, another slid in underneath it—hot and sharp and unrelenting. Apulse that didn’t belong to logic or relief. It lived deeper than that. Bone-deep.

Run.

Before she even realized what she was doing, Maya’s body shifted, swiveling in one unsteady motion. Her pulse hammered. Not with fear. Not exactly. More like a compulsion that wrapped around her ribs and squeezed.

Get away. Move.Run.

Her skin flickered. Camouflage. It activated without thinking, her form blending in and out with the sunlit trees behind her, light bending around her body like she was caught in a heat shimmer.

Riv’En pushed up onto his elbows, still coughing, eyes snapping to her in that sharp, unblinking way of his. But she didn’t stop to look. Didn’t wait for him to say aword.

Her breath caught, her pulse screaming in her ears. And sheran.

The jungle loomed ahead, dark and green and thick with heat. She tore into it, feet pounding against damp earth, branches slapping her arms and legs. Her skin flickered again, fading in and out as instinct took over completely. Not just to flee. To hide. To pull away and make him chase. Make himfind.

Every step sounded too loud, every breath too sharp. And yet it recognized the rightness of it, the necessity. Her heartached with it, lungs burning not from the run but from something else. Something she didn’t have wordsfor.

Behind her, afaint rustle. Asound she shouldn’t have been able to hear over her own breath and pounding feet. But sheknew.

Riv’En was coming.

A wild, half-hysterical laugh slipped past her lips, unbidden. Her body moved faster. Her skin shimmered again, blending perfectly into the green shadows aroundher.

It wasn’t fear anymore. It wasn’t escape.

It was need.

Maya ran deeper into the jungle, breath sharp in her throat, skin shimmering in and out of visibility. Energy coiled tight behind her ribs, as if her whole body had shifted into overdrive. Every step became electric, each stride driven by something bigger than fear alone. Something she couldn’tname.

Behind her, branches rustled. Leaves shifted. Awhisper of motion so exact it wasn’t even sound—just pressure. Presence. She didn’t look back. She didn’t needto.

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