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“Rin?” She doesn’t hear me and I cringe as I place my hand on her, hoping she doesn’t hit me.

"Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts," she says.

I let go of her, my smile slipping, and focus on the rock again. "I understand,” I say, voice tight with my social anxiety. “I don't mean to pull you from it."

"No, don't be sorry. I finally have an actual human being to talk to and I should take advantage of that,” she responds.

Did anyone else in the pods survive? Are we the only ones? "Am I the first human you’ve come across?" When she nods I let out an involuntary moan.

The woman with the purple hair was nice. It would be terrible if she died after trying to protect me. "So you haven't seen Ree?"

Rin gives me a sidelong glance, still frowning, but she doesn't respond. She just shakes her head, as if trying to shake off the strangeness of it all. I'm about to say something more when the ground beneath us rumbles. A deep, ominous vibration that makes my heart skip a beat.

Before I can react, the earth gives way beneath us, crumbling into a yawning sinkhole. The world lurches violently, and I let out a startled cry as the ground disappears from under my feet. Rin yells something, but the sound is swallowed by the rush of air as I fall.

I’m too scared to get angry when her hands clasp tight to mine, stopping my fall. Then her grip is slipping and I’m yelling out her name.

I can tell from her face that she won’t be able to hold me for long. She looks past me, then speaks. "I can't see anything. It's all dark."

I’m about to reply when the ground shifts again and she loses her hold on me.

I scream out a yelp as I fall, then make painful contact with the ground.

The impact knocks the wind out of me. I land hard on my back, the breath forced from my lungs in a painful gasp. Dust and grit fill my mouth and nose, making me sputter and cough as I try to sit up. Everything aches. My head, my ribs—hell, even my teeth hurt from the jarring fall.

I blink through the haze, trying to get my bearings, when something massive looms over me. My heart stutters in my chest as a huge, multi-tusked creature with bioluminescent skin reaches down and grabs me. Its skin glows with an eerie, pale light, casting strange shadows on the cavern walls. I let out a panicked squeal, the sound loud enough to make the creature wince, but it doesn’t let go. Instead, it pulls me closer, pressing me to its broad chest with an almost possessive grip.

"Let me go!" I gasp, anger surging, struggling against its hold, but my efforts are laughably ineffective. My fists pound against its chest, but it barely seems to notice. My face is pressed against its cold, hard skin, muffling my cries, and I can feel its deep, rumbling breaths vibrating through me.

Mixed in with my anger is arousal, which only serves to whip me up into a fury.

"Olivia!" Rin's voice cuts through the chaos, distant but frantic. I try to twist around, to call out to her, but the creature's grip is unyielding.

I’m sure she’s convinced I just broke my neck, so I try to reassure her.

"I'm okay," I say back, though my voice is muffled by the creature's chest. "I'm… sort of okay," I add, struggling to breathe through the tightness of its hold.

Oddly enough, the pressure is calming me down, which is the exact opposite of what I would normally feel and at odds with how freaked out I am.

What if she jumps down if I scream for help? She’d get hurt, or worse.

I wriggle to get my face in a better position to yell. “Nasrin, I’m okay. There’s… someone else here.”

“Please give my friend back, please,” Nasrin calls and my heart leaps.

Only a five percent chance she hates me, I correct myself, my mind whirling.

I feel my mind trying to slide into the stuttering, skipping thoughts from when the bugs held me captive, but resist.

The creature lets out a series of low hisses and chitters, its body vibrating with the sound. At first, the noise is just a meaningless jumble of high-pitched sounds, but then the patterns start to shift, and I can almost hear words forming in my mind. The translation is slower this time as if my brain is still catching up to the creature's strange language.

Or maybe I’m just slow in general.

"This one… belongs to you?" the creature hisses, its voice a strange mix of high-pitched clicks and deep, resonant growls.

"Zha is part of my hoard now,” the creature announces. “Go away."

Hoard? Anger flares even higher in me at its words, and I manage to pull my face away from its chest just enough to speak. "Fuck no!" I snap, my voice shaky but defiant. "I'm no one's but my own."