Page 30 of Fourth

Elaros.

He didn’t type the coordinates right away. He stared at the blank screen, the planet’s name silent in his mind. His mother’shome world. Aplace he’d only visited once as a youngling. Aplace he’d longed to visit again. But then his time had runout.

The strength of it settled in his chest, more oppressive than the heat flash. Elaros wasn’t just some fallback point. He’d carried it quietly as part of his bloodline, but a place he’d never embraced. His mother had lived on Vetta with his father, raising him there until the day Riv’En’s hair turned white and his eyes went amethyst. The day he was taken by the Intergalactic Warriors.

It had been an honor. Aduty. And she had let him go because there had been no choice. Returning to Elaros now meant stepping back into a part of himself he’d locked away—not because it was shameful, but because it was distant. Forgotten. Familiar in ways he hadn’t thought about in years. And if Elaros couldn’t save Maya, then no place in the galaxy could. Butnow?

Now he had no choice.

Earth wasn’t safe for Maya. Not after the bond. Not with Final Flight accelerating faster than he’d anticipated. And Maya… He’d seen the shift in her too, the flicker of the Mating Flame, the way her body pulsed in rhythm with his. It wasn’t just him burning out. It was both of them changing. And Earth wasn’t built to handlethat.

But what terrified him more than any of it was the one possibility he couldn’t ignore. If Final Flight took him out—if his body locked down for good—what would happen to her? She was bonded to him now. Their connection wasn’t just skin-deep. It ran through every cell in her body. And if his heart stopped, if his systems shut down completely, could she survive that break? Or would the bond pull her under aswell?

Riv’En’s hands tightened on the console until metal creaked beneath his fingers. He should never have touched her. Never should have claimed her. The clarity of it hit him now, sharp as a blade pressed against skin. But in the moment, it hadn’t been clarity at all. It had been heat. Compulsion. That wild, unavoidable force that had overridden everything else: training, logic, command.

There had been no preventing it. No pulling back. And now, standing here with the consequence of Final Flight pressing down on his chest, he saw it for exactly what it was. He had bound them both to a path with no way off. The bond had been inevitable, yes, but he had made it real. Completed it.Vexxedher until it wasn’t just impulse anymore. Until it was permanent. He’d lost control because there was no controlling it, no stopping once it had started. And now they both had to face the consequences of choices he’d made when he should have walkedaway.

Riv’En clenched his jaw hard enough his teeth ached. That was the risk. The price. And he didn’t know if there was a way around it. The thought hollowed him out, colder than space outside the hull. He pressed his fists against the console, head bowed, the reality of it settling in his chest like death. Leaving her behind wasn’t just about her safety. It was about making sure she survived what he might not. And that knowledge carved deeper than the heat flash ever could.

Taking a breath that scraped raw through his chest, he keyed in the coordinates, locking in the route. As navigation systems came online, vibrating under his feet, asteady thrum that sounded too loud against the silence in his head, he watched the path plot itself across the nav-screen, every light flickering into place. There was no turning back now. Elaros was set. And so was the clock counting down what little time he hadleft.

Without pausing, Riv’En keyed into the comms system, opening a secured channel to Third and Anya. His fingers hovered for a beat over the console before he pressed send. The message wasn’tlong.

“Riv’En. Heading to Elaros. Maya recovered, but my Final Flight is accelerating. If I fall before arrival, she will need extraction. Request meeting at Elaros to take her if necessary.”Ifnecessary? The words echoed back in his mind, sharper than any weapon he’d ever wielded. If. It wasn’t if. It waswhen.

The words came thicker than the steady throb dragging beneath his skin. He knew they would understand that if he did not survive the trip, it would fall to them to protect her. That if he died, she might die with him. That this was not just a request. It was the last thing he could do to make sure she wasn’t left alone in the void he would leave behind.

He sent the message and closed the channel. Now all that was left was waiting.

His reflection flickered in the navigation screen, dark eyes that no longer glowed violet, long black hair falling loose around a face clearly inhuman. He studied the faded metallic sheen of his skin, as if the man he remembered had already disappeared. Beneath the surface, the signs were unmistakable: awarrior in Final Flight. One heartbeat from shutting down forgood.

He stayed there in silence, watching the stars realign around them, every breath scraping a little harder through his chest. And through it all, one thought kept circling back, louder than the engines, sharper than the ache in his ribs: Maya. Her name. Her scent. The quiet, steady reassurance of her presence connecting him through the bond. He wasn’t just holding on for himself. He was holding on forher.

Because he wasn’t just flying to Elaros for himself.

He was flying there to leave Maya somewhere safe before he couldn’t anymore.

Maya’s voice broke through the silence, soft and uncertain. “Riv’En?”

His hands froze on the console.

He didn’t turn immediately. He couldn’t. He sat there in the pilot’s seat, eyes fixed on the navigation screen, using that single focus to hold himself steady. The stars ahead of them stretched in pale, shifting lines. Earth was no longer in view. Not just physically but as a choice, as a future. If he looked at her now, he might waver. And there was no room forthat.

A breath scraped through his lungs. Cautious. Steady. Or close enough.

He heard her footsteps come closer before he sensed her presence. Quiet. Careful. Like she already knew something wasn’t right.

“Why isn’t Earth in the window?”

Her voice was a breath away, laced with confusion and something sharper beneath it. Worry, yes, but also something more layered. He could hear it in her tone now that she was so near, the edge of panic restrained by stubborn containment, the first thread of understanding that whatever was happening wasn’t temporary or small. It wasn’t about location. It was aboutthem.

Riv’En closed his eyes for a brief second, locking down the storm in his chest before he spoke. It wasn’t just emotion. It was physical, atight knot under his ribs, heat building beneath his skin until his blood ran hotter than it should.

His hands ached with the effort to keep still, knuckles whitening against the console. His breath came thicker, dragging at his lungs. It wasn’t just about finding the words. It was about tempering the urge to turn toward her too soon. To take her hands. To pull her in and hold her there because it would be easier than saying it out loud. But he couldn’t afford easy. Notnow.

“We left,” he said finally. His voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. Rougher. Harder.

Silence stretched, oppressive and tight. She stopped just behind him, the heat of her presence brushing up against the back of his neck like a live wire. Every part of his body registered her now—the subtle hitch in her breath, the faint, restless shift as she stood there, not quite touching coming close. The bond pulsed faintly between them, quiet and steady, areminder that she wasn’t just standing there confused. She was waiting for an answer he wasn’t ready togive.

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