“Enough.” Dex's tail wraps around her waist, not gentle. “We need to go.”
“Let me guess,” she says to me, ignoring him. “Someone you love needs money. Medical bills? Debt? They always have such good reasons for sending us through. And you thought thirty days, you could last thirty days and go home.” Her transformed eyes hold mine. “But your body tells different stories now, doesn't it? Needs things. Specific things. His things.”
“I said enough.” Dex pulls her away, but she calls back.
“The portal is a lie, little one. Even if you go through, you're never really free. The tonic makes sure of that.”
They disappear into the rocks, leaving silence behind.
“What did she mean?”
“Senna chose to stay three cycles ago. Regrets it. Takes it out on new females.” But Khor won't meet my eyes. “Not important. We need to move.”
We pack up as the sun sets. The temperature drops fast, and soon I'm shivering despite the exertion of walking. The landscape becomes more volcanic, black glass replacing red stone. The air smells like sulfur and something else. Something organic and wrong.
“We camp here.” He indicates a flat area protected on three sides. “Tomorrow we reach the crater.”
The sex that night is different. Urgent but not rough. Like he's trying to memorize me with his body. His breeding cock fills me while his pleasure cock wraps around my clit, that bioluminescent...no, those glowing patterns pulsing with his heartbeat.
“Take the bond,” he says while locked inside me. “Before we face the creatures. Let me mark you as mine.”
“Twenty-three days left.”
“Might not have twenty-three hours left. The creatures...”
“You said they might sleep through it.”
“Lied. They never sleep during mating season.” His teeth graze my throat. “If something happens to me, Vek will claim you before my body cools. Others will try. The bond would protect you.”
“Or trap me.”
“Everything is a trap. The bond at least is one you choose.”
MARA
DAY 8 - MORNING
They've been following us since dawn. Not trying to hide anymore, just maintaining distance. Vek leads, his green scales catching the early light. Two others flank him. The yellow male from yesterday and someone new, blue-black scales that shift like oil on water.
“More now.” Khor doesn't look back, but his spines twitch with each sound they make. “Young hunters grow brave in numbers.”
“Will they attack?”
“Not yet. Waiting for opportunity. For me to be distracted or weakened.” His tail sweeps the ground, erasing our tracks even though it's pointless. They can smell us. “Crater harvest provides both.”
The landscape changes abruptly. Red sand gives way to black glass, volcanic rock that looks melted and reformed a thousand times. Each step requires careful placement. The edges are sharp enough to slice through what's left of my boots. My feet will be bleeding soon.
Ahead, the horizon shows a column of smoke or steam rising straight up. No wind to disperse it. The crater. Still a day away, but its presence dominates everything.
“Stop.” Khor kneels beside a formation of yellow-white clusters growing from cracks in the volcanic glass. “Sulfur crystals. Beautiful and toxic.”
The crystals are perfect geometric shapes, almost architectural in their precision. They smell like rotten eggs mixed with something medicinal.
“Touch them and lose sight. Temporary if lucky. Permanent if not.” He uses his blade to indicate how they grow. “Powder from crushing them burns worse. Thrown in eyes, causes blindness and pain that makes victims claw their own faces.”
“Useful information.”
“Educational purpose only.” But his eyes track where my hands go as I pretend to adjust my pack. “Of course.”
