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I quickly located and hacked into the system containing the controls to the hangar bay, and with barely a thought I overrode the station’s coding and implemented my own. A beep sounded in the physical world that let me know that I had succeeded, the sound echoing through the ship to signal the opening of the hangar bay’s doors.

I felt the ship’s vibrations as it picked up speed, and I knew that despite the enemy’s inevitable attempts to chase us we had managed to escape. At least for now.

‘Artemis?’

The deep, sensual, familiar voice had me spinning around so fast I was sure I would have given myself whiplash if not for the nanites. ‘Bromm!’

I rushed forward, eager to reach him. Despite the extended width of this particular line of the web, he still seemed unsteady as he sat in the middle, arms spread wide to catch me. I launched myself onto his lap, tackling him in a hug that I fought hard not to squeeze him through.

He buried his nose in my hair as his beard stroked my cheeks and his arms wrapped around my thinner frame. He had no such qualms over squeezing me and it didn’t pass my notice that he was stronger than before. His hug left me breathless.

I couldn’t stop the full body sobs as they tore through me, my tears immediately soaking through the collar of his shirt. ‘I th-thought I l-lost you,’ I cried.

His hands stroked through my hair, tangling in the strands before he wound them into his fist to pull me back. He didn’t let go. Instead, his eyes bore into mine with an intensity that scared me. There was fear behind them, and confusion.

‘Artemis, what happened?’

My bottom lip quivered at the memory of him suddenly dropping, the way he changed from perfectly healthy to barely livelier than a corpse in the blink of an eye something I never wanted to relive. ‘You collapsed. You stopped breathing.’

I forced the words out, though they were so reluctant to leave my throat that they were spoken as barely more than a whisper. Even saying them at all dredged up the most intense sensation of devastating desperation and terror.

I encased his face in my hands and pierced him with my most penetrating glare. ‘You can’t leave me, Bromm. Losing you is not an option. You’re not allowed to die.’

His hands rose to cover mine, but he didn’t pull them away. Instead, he pushed them even tighter against his head to the point that I was afraid I would hurt him.

‘I’m not going anywhere any time soon, my love,’ he attempted to assure me, but his next statement undid any progress that comment could have created. ‘But I don’t understand what happened.’

I hesitated before asking my next question. I needed to know the answer, but I didn’t want to. ‘What do you remember?’

‘I told you I was going to look away while you fixed the door. Then I felt woozy and woke up here. It was just like what happened every other time I’ve ended up here, except this time I can’t seem to leave no matter how hard I try. I can’t wake up.’

‘Henrik had to resuscitate you. I think you might be in a coma right now, Bromm. You’re in the infirmary on the ship,’ I informed him. I wanted to be gentle with the news in case he reacted badly, but there really was no good way to say it.

Surprisingly, his eyes lit up. ‘Did we get away?’

My brows dipped low at the way he brushed off his current condition, but decided it was better to let him process the way he needed to and not push it. ‘We’re in the middle of leaving Nova Station. That’s why I’m in here. The doors wouldn’t open and I needed to override the coding.’

‘So we’re not in the clear,’ he surmised.

‘I doubt we’ll ever be in the clear, Bromm, but at least for now we’re safe,’ I told him, the good news overshadowed by our bleak future. Hopefully, we would win this fight and we would be free to live our lives.

‘Can you call my parents for me?’ he asked, the sudden switch in topic momentarily stunning me. I blinked.

‘What?’

‘I’m unconscious, and I’m stuck here. We’re on the run from the greatest threat the Intergalactic Union has faced since long before our time, and I can’t call them myself. Would you call them for me? Please?’

Even the thought of needing to call his parents on his behalf had panic flaring up inside me. He wasn’t that far gone. He wasn’t lost to me.

My nostrils flared, irrational anger burning me up from inside and I huffed indignantly. ‘You can damn well call them yourself when you wake up,’ I snapped.

His own temperament refused to rise to meet mine, instead staying calm and soothing as he smiled at me a little sadly. The only thing that stopped me from losing my head was the determination and love shining through in his eyes.

‘I will,’ he began, but I could hear the ‘but’coming. ‘But in the meantime I would really appreciate it if you just checked in with them for me. I just… I want to know they’re okay, and I want them to know that I’m okay too. It would give me some peace of mind.’

I sighed, shoulders slumping as the fight was expelled from me alongside the breath in my lungs. I leaned against him, ensuring my entire front side was pressed up against his, needing the connection.

‘I’ll call them, but I don’t know when I’ll have the chance,’ I conceded.