Page 12 of HaL

“For being you … I was in a panic when I walked in, but once again, you knew what to say to calm me and my beast down.”

“You have always been a good male, HaL. You just never learned how to trust easily.”

Troza pauses beside the bed, her expression softening as she looks from Dawn to me.

“You got her here in time. That matters. More than you know.”

She draws in a slow breath, glancing toward the monitors before continuing.

“I am not going to lie to you. There may be complications, especially with that rattle I hear in her lungs. We need to watch her very closely over the next few hours. Her condition is serious, and there are still a lot of things that could go wrong.”

She rests a reassuring hand against my shoulder. My gaze returns to the female lying motionless beneath the coverings.

“And I promise you this … I will not stop until I know I have done everything within my power to save her. So, whatever happens next, do not start blaming yourself. She is here. She is being treated. And as long as she fights, so will we.”

“I never dreamed there was anyone out there for me, Troza. Now that she is here, I am not sure how to proceed. Unlike our kind, hers does not feel the mate bond, and I am lost on how to move ahead.”

“The Lord of Light put her in your path for a reason, HaL. You will fumble along until you find your way. I have never seen you fail at anything you put your mind to. And it is not like you cannot receive counsel from your brothers who have experienced this as well.”

“Did you ever have a mate, Troza? It is something I have thought about many times but never asked.”

She stops just for a tic, but there is no mistaking the instant stillness that overcomes her form before she answers me. “The fates had a different path for me, one I have never regretted. One rising I will share my decision with you but not this one.”

I let it go, but for the first time in my life, I feel like she is hiding something from me.

CHAPTER 4

HAL

The last two risings have passed one slow tic at a time. I have been sitting here by her side, watching the machine help her breathe since her lungs filled with fluid. I have witnessed the bruises fade and rubbed ointment into her hands and feet, helping them heal properly. And as much as I want her to regain consciousness, I am terrified of how she will react when she does.

My comm unit pings.

I reach over and hit the button, only to see Father’s face appear above the screen.

“How is the patient this rising?”

“The same. Troza tells me this is normal and that the medically induced sleep is helping her body heal, but the silence worries me. I think if she would twitch a finger or something, I would feel better; the stillness seems unnatural.”

“SCOUT went over her vitals earlier. He said that she is healing and that he believes she will awaken soon. If he had not assured me of this, I would have sent one of the ships with a healing chamber to you, but you would have had to move her and flown her out to meet the ship, and sometimes that causes more harm than good.”

“Tell him I appreciate his concern, but Father, how did those Korgons get her … were there any others besides Dawn taken?”

“No. Dawn was the only one they got.”

He pauses, jaw tightening as the memory clearly plays through his mind again.

“She was out with KyT and Vedece, gathering herbs in the Timbers. Nothing unusual. The humans had already been warned about the risks, and we had gone over emergency procedures with everyone more times than I can count. If something went wrong, they knew exactly what they were supposed to do.”

He exhales slowly, his aggravation showing plainly.

“But no one anticipated this. As you know, when the asteroid moved into position, it sent Ethra into a deep freeze, interfering with communications and blocking the monitoring signals long enough to create a blind spot. The moment the signals dropped, they must have taken advantage of our blind spot and infiltrated. We were so focused on determining what was happening planetside, we didn’t realize what the Korgons were doing.”

Father’s expression hardens.

“They found the gap in our defenses and took full advantage of it, infiltrating the area without triggering the usual alarms. KyT was the first to realize something was wrong, but by the time he saw them, they were already on top of Dawn. He barely had time to shout a warning. Dawn never even had a chance to react.

MeK, BuK, and KyT managed to push the Korgons back and force them into a retreat, but the damage had already been done. The Korgons had Dawn. ANDI immediately reached out for help. Thankfully, SiN and Destiny were close enough to respond. They got there as quickly as they could, but rescuing Dawn wasn’t as simple as boarding the Korgon ship and bringing her home. We had to figure out how they had transported her, where they were holding her and, most importantly—how to get her off that ship without them killing her in the process.”