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?? CHAPTER 30 ??
Macie
I cry when he squeezes through the crack. He grabs the hard edges as he somehow miraculously condenses into his normal size.
I try to hold my sob in - I cover my mouth, but it splutters out anyway. He wraps his arms around me and I cry against his chest, overcome with relief and with love.
Desperation drove the idea. He’d grown to save me from the giant ape. It made sense to think he could do the opposite if it involved saving me, too. And I do need saving. I didn’t want to be in that cave without him. I couldn’t have gone on, couldn’t have left him in the storm. Because I spoke the truth. I love him. Against all the odds in the universe, I’ve found and fallen for this warrior alien who’d been sentenced to death.
We aren’t safe yet, though. I realize it only as water rises around my ankles.
“The mushrooms!” I shout, yanking out of Ryle’s embrace. If they expand before we pass through, we’ll be trapped on the outside!
He lifts me and runs. I don’t know where he finds the strength. Perhaps this is the mating bond, too, giving him strength and speed when he needs it to protect me.
We reach the mushroom cave just ahead of the rising water. One of them, right at the entrance, expands with a loud poof. Then another behind it, and a third. I squeeze my eyes shut as Ryle leaps.
He lands hard. My teeth clack together as the air is driven from his lungs in a pained whoosh. He jumps again, then takes off running. The poof of the mushrooms chase us through the cave, and I squeeze my eyes shut. We won’t be trapped here, we won’t! I scream when he jumps again.
He lands hard and stops, panting. I peel my eyes open. I look up into his dark eyes. “We made it.”
“We made it.”
“You saved me.”
“You saved everyone.” He kisses me softly. The right size. Himself again.
I kiss him back with promises upon my lips, muttering, “I’m yours. I promise. Always.”
“My mate,” he murmurs back.
Clapping echoes up the tunnel from amongst the scaffolds in the archive cavern. I laugh, and Ryle lowers me to my feet. We turn and find his four crewmates with Faith and Arjun.
“We weren’t sure you were going to make it,” Arjun says. “Glad you got inside.”
“We knew you would find a way,” the green one says with a wide grin. Styt? I really need to learn all of their names. He and Ryle clasp wrists. His grin is strained - all four of them are - and I realize they weren’t quite sure. They were worried about their leader.
Well, so was I. It was a gamble that could have killed us both. The thought makes me a little dizzy. I really need to sit down.
I squeeze Faith’s shoulder. “Come, see our temporary home.”
“Very temporary, I hope,” she says, then takes a deep breath. “Lead the way.”
?????
Our new home cave erupts in cheers and applause when we enter. Everyone has spread out and claimed their own nooks and corners, but they emerge now, surprisingly joyous for people who have barely escaped death and are now trapped underground.
Stella steps forward with her tablet, gathering Faith and Ryle and I around her. “In case there were any doubts left,” she says. She holds her screen out for us to see.
It’s streaming video of the outside camera feeds from the ship. All screens show pouring rain. But from the topmost camera, not very far in the distance, a dark funnel dances through the forest. It wreaks destruction, throwing enormous trees high into the air. “You were right,” Stella says.
I offer a weak grin and turn away. I should feel vindicated. All I wanted was to be useful. I’ve fulfilled a purpose, I’ve helped, I’ve earned my place here. But all I feel is relief. A relief so deep it drains me. We’re all together. We made it.
And Ryle is with me.
His crewmate escorts us to a nook that they saved for us - for both of us, together. They knew. They knew before I did that this strange bond is true.
The space is small, cave-like, but it’s positioned around a corner. Add a curtain and it’s its own little world.
