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A muscle in his jaw twitched, and I caught the slightest movement from his tail—a quick, sharp flick against the floor. The appendage was powerful-looking, covered in the same blue skin as the rest of him, tapering to a point.

I’d noticed how he kept it unnaturally still most of the time, like he was consciously controlling its movements. “They’re trying to find a way in, aren’t they? Into the ruins.”

“Into whatever you were guarding.”

His golden eyes fixed on me again, intensity burning in them despite his weakened state. The scent of something like sun-warmed stones emanated from him, stronger as he leaned forward slightly.

He studied me carefully, then made a series of gestures—pointing to himself, then to the walls, mimicking standing guard, then pointing to the ruins. A guardian. That’s what he was trying to tell me.

The air between us seemed to change, a subtle shift like atmospheric pressure before a storm. I felt it in my markings—a stronger pull, drawing me toward him.

The silver patterns brightened slightly, sending waves of warmth up my arms that settled across my shoulders. Ravik shifted, pressing his back harder against the wall as if trying to create more distance.

The movement caused a ripple effect through his lifelines, and pain flashed across his face. The golden patterns beneath his skin flickered erratically, like a failing power system.

Something inside me couldn’t bear it. Maybe it was simple human compassion.

Maybe it was the strange connection I felt growing between us. Either way, watching him suffer while I sat helpless made something snap.

“I need to help you,” I said, the words coming before I’d fully formed the thought.

He shook his head emphatically, palm extended in warning.

“These markings—they’re good for something. I can feel it.” And I could—a certainty rising from some place I didn’tunderstand, a knowledge that hadn’t been there moments before.

“Stay back,” he signaled with his hand, but his voice lacked conviction as another wave of pain visibly coursed through him. His lifelines sputtered, dimming alarmingly in places.

I didn’t listen. I moved toward him, driven by impulse and the increasingly insistent pull from my markings.

Hammond would be back tomorrow. They’d take Ravik for more “tests.”

They’d break him, use whatever they learned to access the ruins, and accelerate whatever damage they were already doing to this planet.

I needed him functional. I needed information.

I needed an ally. At least, that’s what I told myself as I knelt before him, close enough to feel the heat radiating from his skin, to smell that strange scent of sun-warmed stone and something else, something alien but not unpleasant.

His expression was a mixture of warning and confusion, his body rigid. His tail had gone completely still, pressed flat against the floor.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, watching my markings reach toward him of their own accord, the silver light stretching across the diminishing space between us like searching tendrils. “But something needs to happen between us if we’re going to get out of here.”

His eyes widened slightly, the gold irises now ringed with an inner circle of deeper amber. He tilted his head questioningly, then gestured to the door and mimed walking.

Escape? He was asking if I sought escape.

“Of course I do. Don’t you?”

For a moment, indecision warred on his face—suspicion battling with something like desperate hope. Then pain won outas his lifelines sputtered again, and he doubled over with a hiss that sounded more feline than human.

“Damn it,” I muttered, frustration boiling over. My markings were practically screaming now, filling the cell with silver radiance.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, but I have to do something.”

Maybe it was desperation. Maybe it was some deep instinct awakened by the increasingly frantic response of my markings.

Whatever the reason, I didn’t stop to question the impulse that drove me forward, closing the final distance between us. “What the hell,” I whispered, and pressed my lips to his. “Push me away, you’re strong enough.”

For one heartbeat, nothing happened except the strange, alien sensation of his mouth against mine—warmer than I expected, with a texture different from human skin, slightly firmer, smoother. His breath caught, hot against my face.