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In the distance, I heard the whine of Hammond’s search vehicles starting up. The high-pitched mechanical sound carried clearly through the night air, setting my teeth on edge.

“That tracker in your shoulder,” I said, the sound of pursuit bringing urgency. “We need to remove it now, before they get close enough for a precise fix on our location.”

Ravik nodded grimly. His fingers moved to his shoulder where Hammond’s doctor had implanted the device. “I can feel it shifting when I move. Just beneath the surface.”

I eased him against a tree trunk for support and examined the area. Even in the dim light, my markings reacted to the foreign technology, a slight tingling where my fingertips passed over it.

“I can almost see it through my markings,” I said. “Like it has an energy signature.”

I retrieved the metal bracket I’d worked loose from our cell, its edge now sharp enough for what we needed. Ravik didn’t flinch as I made a quick incision, though I felt his pain flash briefly through our bond.

The tracker was small but distinctly non-Arenix in its design—all angles and metallic sheen against the organic matter of his body. I removed it carefully, applying healing sap from a nearby plant my markings had identified as antiseptic.

“Hammond already knows where the Eastern Settlement is located,” Ravik said, his clever mind working despite the fever. “Leave it intact. We can create a false trail.”

I nodded, understanding his strategy. “I’ll attach it to one of those smaller six-legged creatures we passed earlier. Send them following shadows while we find shelter.”

We had perhaps an hour before Hammond’s search parties reached our position—just enough time to find shelter, to prepare what defenses we could.

To keep Ravik alive.

RAVIK

Fire consumed my back, each step sending fresh waves of agony through nerves already raw with damage. The taste of copper filled my mouth—I’d bitten through my lip rather than cry out.

Warriors did not show weakness, even in extremis. This had been drilled into me since childhood, the Shadow Canyon way.

Stoicism in all things, especially suffering.

Yet here I was, leaning on a human woman half my size, her smaller frame somehow supporting my weight as we staggered through Arenix’s unforgiving wilderness. Zara’s determination flowed through our bond, a steady current of strength when my own faltered.

The silver markings beneath her skin transferred energy to my golden lifelines where our bodies pressed together.

My senses, usually sharp enough to detect a Vexlin at fifty paces, had dulled to barely functional. The forest around us registered as blurry impressions: the vibration of unstable ground ahead, the distant whisper of a geothermal vent releasing sulfurous gases, the faint trace of predator musk from a Trelleth that had passed through hours earlier.

Enough to guide us away from immediate dangers, but little more.

Fever distorted reality, making the twin moons overhead appear to swim in and out of focus. The red moon seemed to pulse in rhythm with my pain, while the silver one matched Zara’s movements.

Likely hallucination, but strangely beautiful nonetheless.

“The ground ahead,” I managed, the words scraping my dry throat. “Unstable. Five paces left.”

Through diminished senses, I could feel the subtle vibrations of a sinkhole-prone area, likely connected to the underground water systems that riddled this region.

Zara adjusted our course without question, guiding us around the danger my damaged senses had detected. Her own sight remained impaired from the neural interface, yet between us, we formed one functional navigator.

The irony wasn’t lost on me—human and Nyxari, each broken, somehow whole together.

“There’s a depression ahead,” she said, her awareness clearly sensing what her compromised vision couldn’t. “Might offer shelter.”

The bond carried her exhaustion to me, though she tried to hide it. Supporting my weight for over an hour had taken its toll.

Guilt mingled with gratitude, a complex emotion I lacked the strength to untangle.

More stumbling steps. My tail hung limp, dragging through fallen leaves and tangling in undergrowth.

The appendage that usually provided balance, communication, and defensive capabilities now served only as a useless weight. I’d lost too much blood.