Page 29 of Silver Slayer

"Agreed."

"I'm coming, too," Quin declared, her voice immediately capturing my attention. She stood with the other females, shoulders set and chin lifted in stubborn determination.

A surge of instinct swept over me, every cell screaming to keep her safe. "No," I snapped, the word harsher than intended. "The journey will be too dangerous. There is no telling what predators await us." My gaze locked on hers. "You are safer here aboard the ship."

The females cast silent glances at each other, an entire conversation playing out in the flicker of their eyes. But Quin didn't flinch. She squared her shoulders, chin rising like a challenge, stubbornness radiating off her in waves.

"Excuse me? I've spent every waking moment since we crashed learning how this planet tries to kill us," she said, her voice steady even as a flush crept up her cheeks. "I'm the only one who knows the bio-analyzer inside out. I know which plants bite back, which trails are traps, and exactly when the predators hunt." Her eyes found mine, steady and fierce. "Spore Valley is filled with spore-producing flora. Disturb the wrong patch, and you're hallucinating monsters while the real ones eat you. I'm going."

Heat spread beneath my scales. Silver rippled across my forearms before deepening into vivid bands of blue that climbed toward my elbows, broadcasting my agitation for everyone to see. I clenched my hands into fists, fighting for control as theprotective instincts consuming me warred with the undeniable truth in her words.

"She's right." The voice came from Erin, the tallest of the human females, her short-cropped coils framing a face that radiated the calm of someone who had learned to keep their head when everyone else lost theirs. She fixed me with a look that brooked no argument. "If it weren't for Quin and her list of everything that wants us dead, none of us would've survived this long."

I wanted to argue. Every instinct I possessed demanded it. But Tyrk's words from the dark hurs before came back to me,As a human, she may not have the same visceral reaction toward you as a Valosian female would.

He was right. A Valosian female would feel the call of her spirit to mine. But Quin was human. Her spirit may be the complement to mine, but she has no instinct to recognize the call of her spirit to mine. She would have to find her way to me through an entirely different path, without the certainty that had already undone me the moment I laid eyes on her.

I will let her choose me,I had said those words to Tyrk and meant them. And I would wait for her. However long it took.

"Fine," I ground out. "But I'm not letting you out of my sight."

For the briefest moment, her expression softened. Surprise flickered across her features, followed by what looked suspiciously like relief before she quickly masked it. The corners of her mouth curved upward, not quite a smile but close enough to send a rush of satisfaction through me.

"Whatever floats your boat," she replied, her voice carrying that stubborn confidence I was starting to crave.

I had no idea what a boat had to do with any of this, but the meaning beneath her words was clear enough. She'd agreed. More importantly, she had accepted my condition without argument. It was a small thing, perhaps insignificant by human standards, but it felt like a victory, nonetheless. Quin trusted me enough to accept my protection, and for a male who feared he might never be worthy of his spirit mate, that was enough to kindle a fragile spark of hope.

"I'll go, too," Tyrk said. "You'll need specialized tools to get the conduit out in one piece."

"Four's the right number," Vala nodded. "Quick enough to stay ahead of trouble, strong enough to push back if we have to."

Tyrk was already moving before the words were out, dropping to one knee beside his worn pack and flipping back the top flap. He worked through the contents with practiced efficiency, checking gear and stowing tools with the methodical calm of a male who'd done this a hundreth times. He pulled out several small flat discs that fit in the palm of a hand and held each one up to the viewport. In the pale suns-rise light filtering through the viewport, the discs caught a faint luminescence and threw it back, and the quality of the glow made my chest tighten unexpectedly.

Solaris rocks.

The thought surfaced before I could stop it. On Valose, the phosphorescent stone cast that same steady bluish glow through the dark hurs. I had spent only a handful of suns-rises after my rescue, barely long enough to remember what home smelled like before I ventured back out among the stars. The light lasted only a second, but the deep longing for Valose cloaked me in a grief I hadn't given myself permission to feel.

Tyrk tucked the light discs into the pack and closed the flap. The moment passed as he swung the pack across his broad body in one fluid motion, the straps crossing his chest as it settled against his back.

We gathered at the hatch where Vala’s molten gaze landed on Quin. "Before we go," he said, "I want to hear from our resident expert. What do we need to know about Spore Valley?"

"Most of the danger comes from the plants," Quin began. "Watch for the waist-high ones with translucent sacs hanging beneath their leaves. They look harmless, but those sacs are filled with hallucinogenic spores. Disturb them, and they'll burst with a fine mist that makes you see and hear things that aren't there.

"The spores aren't the actual attack," she continued. "The carnivorous species seem to have evolved alongside them. Once the spores are released, nearby predator plants become active, almost as if they're responding to a signal. Their root networks are interconnected beneath the valley floor. I recorded spikes in activity spreading from one cluster to another after a spore release when Lila accidentally bumped a spore plant on our first trip through."

Quin's gaze found Lila briefly before she pressed on. "The hallucinations disorient prey while the carnivorous plants track movement through the root web and strike. By the time you realize the monster you're fighting isn't real, the thing trying to eat you is already closing in."

"We move single file through the narrow passes. No brushing the vegetation," Vala said, his gaze sweeping over each of us to ensure the warning had landed before he pressed his palm against the control panel that opened the hatch with a hiss. "And once we're inside the valley, keep moving."

I immediately took up position beside Quin. Close enough to reach her in an instant, far enough away that she would not feel crowded. The delicate scent that was uniquely hers drifted across the space between us, stirring my spirit and setting my ancillary heart into a steady, familiar rhythm. Every instinct urged me closer, but I forced myself to respect the boundaries she had drawn.

Quin glanced up at me, and for a moment, the stubborn determination in her eyes softened. "I'll be careful," she promised.

Her simple words settled over me like armor, reaching into the place where shame had taken root and loosening something there. Quin had every reason to reject my protection, to insist she wanted nothing from a male still haunted by his own captivity. While she had endured her abduction and emerged stronger, I still fought battles no one else could see. Each step she took toward trusting me felt like proof that perhaps I was not as broken as I feared. I dipped my chin, not confident my voice would stay even, and fell into step beside her.

The journey to the crashed freighter took us through terrain that grew increasingly hostile with each step, the forest giving way to dense alien vegetation that pressed in from all sides, forcing us into single file along narrow trails barely wide enough for my shoulders.

Spore Valley was even more unsettling up close. Everywhere I looked, translucent sacs swayed beneath leaves the size of shields, pulsing with a soft bioluminescence in hues I had no names for, casting strange shadows across the ground. The light shifted as we moved, the sacs seeming to track our passage with an awareness that made my spine tingle.