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Then the world exploded into light.

Silver and gold erupted between us, markings and lifelines blazing like supernovas. Energy coursed through my body, electric and overwhelming, racing from my lips down my spine and out to my fingertips.

The cell disappeared, replaced by cascading visions—a towering canyon of obsidian stone, a night sky filled with twin moons, underground chambers lined with crystals that sang with power. Emotions flooded me that weren’t mine—shock, outrage, fear, and something deeper I couldn’t name.

A sense of duty so powerful it felt like physical weight. Ancient words I didn’t understand but somehow recognized.

The connection was overwhelming, intimate in a way that went beyond physical. For a moment, I wasn’t just myself anymore—I was us, boundaries blurred, perception expanded.

Ravik jerked away as if burned, slamming back against the wall with enough force to shake the cell. His eyes were wide, his chest heaving.

His lifelines blazed gold, no longer flickering but steady and bright. His tail lashed wildly against the floor.

I fell backward onto the cold stone, gasping, my entire body tingling with aftershocks. My markings were still glowing, but softly now, pulsing with what felt almost like satisfaction.

The silver patterns had changed, reorganized into formations that echoed the shape of his lifelines. “What...what was that?” I managed, when I could speak again.

My lips still burned from the contact, and my head spun with fragments of alien memories and sensations. Ravik stared at me in horrified realization.

His lips formed words I couldn’t understand, his voice carrying harmonics no human could produce. But a single concept transmitted clearly through our new connection.

Prophecy.

The implications hit me with the force of a physical blow. Whatever had just happened between us, it wasn’t just about two prisoners seeking escape.

It was something ancient, something his people had feared—perhaps with good reason.

And I had just initiated it with nothing more than desperate impulse and a kiss.

RAVIK

THE PROPHECY. IT IS YOU.

The words had escaped me without thought, though I knew the human female could not understand them. Yet something in her expression suggested she had grasped the essence, if not the specific meaning. The bond forming between us transmitted concepts, emotions, impressions—a primitive form of communication that transcended our language barrier.

The cold weight of realization settled into my core. My clan had warned of this moment for generations. The marked outsider would come. The connection would form. The ancient powers would awaken.

And I had failed to prevent it.

I pressed myself against the wall, creating as much distance between us as the small cell would allow. My lifelines still burned with the aftereffects of the connection, golden patterns under my skin pulsing with renewed energy.

The pain from the human leader’s experiments had diminished significantly, replaced by a different discomfort—the persistent awareness of her, her silver markings, her presence in my consciousness where no outsider should ever reach.

Across the cell, she had retreated as well, her gray eyes wide with shock and something else—fascination? Curiosity? Hermind was already analyzing what had happened, I could sense it through our unwanted bond.

She spoke, the human words meaningless to me, yet carrying an unmistakable tone of question. Her fingers traced the new patterns in her markings—patterns that mirrored my own lifeline configurations with disturbing accuracy.

The guardian sigil—a complex spiral surrounded by protective barriers—was clearly visible on her inner wrist, exactly where mine resided beneath my blue skin. The sacred pattern that marked my status within the Shadow Canyon clan now adorned the human female’s arm.

Such a transfer should be impossible. The sigil was earned through decades of training, of dedication to clan protection. It was not something that could be copied or stolen.

Yet there it was, silver rather than gold, but unmistakably the same design.

I averted my eyes, focusing instead on the cell’s stone floor. I needed to center myself, to regain control. The convergence—for that is what had happened between us—had created pathways I had not anticipated.

Not just the transference of patterns, but of knowledge, of impression, of shared awareness. I had glimpsed fragments of her memories—the arrival of her kind to Arenix in their great metal vessel, the emergence of her markings, her confrontations with the human leader, her escape and recapture.

And she had seen into me as well—my childhood in the shadow of the canyon walls, my training as a guardian, my sacred oath to protect the ancient secrets from precisely the threat she represented.