All three of their scents, all mixed up together.Allwrong.
But then why did it feel so right?
No.
Ravik shoved the thought away so hard it made his brain ache.Theywere going to die here if he couldn’t fucking get his head in the game!
“Signal is active,”Sevsaid suddenly.
Cassie sucked in a breath.
“Does that mean theMotherShipcan hear us?”she asked hopefully.
“It means the tower is broadcasting our beacon,”Sevsaid.“WhethertheMotherShipreceives it depends on atmospheric interference, distance, and whether my earlier long pulse reached?—”
“Sev,”Ravikbarked.
His friend glanced up.
“Maybe.Maybethey can hear us.”
“That’s all you had to say,”Cassiepointed out.
And then anotherInfectedreached the far side of the platform.Thenanother, and another.Anda fucking-nother.
Ravik pushedCassietowardSeverin.
“Behind him,” he ordered.
“Ravik—”
“Now.”
This time she listened.
Good.
Ravik stepped to the center of the platform, shock blade raised, while the tower swayed under the weight of the creatures climbing below.Hecould hear more of them coming up the struts, hear their claws scraping metal from all directions.Therewere too many, even for him.EvenwithSev’spistol andCassie’sbaton and theGoddessherself watching, there were too fucking many.
But the signal was broadcasting—that was something, at least.
He glanced once atSevand saw the same knowledge in his eyes—they might not make it.Afterall the narrow escapes they’d had together, this might be the last one—their final conflict.
The one they didn’t survive.
Sev lifted his pistol and came to stand beside him anyway, the two of them shieldingCassie, who was at their back.
Ravik wanted to tell him to get away.Wantedto tell him he was still furious, still disgusted, still not ready to think about the bite or the memories or the way their shafts had felt pressed together inCassie’smouth.
But instead, what came out was the old battlefield line.
“No one gets left behind.”
Sev’s gaze flicked to his and for a moment, all the anger and shame and broken things between them hung there in the air.
ThenSevnodded once.
“No one gets left behind.”
