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D ante is correct—the stench of our old enemies is everywhere.

“I don’t understand. Dalox killed the last of them. We were sure they’d been routed from this sector of space,” I growl under my breath as we follow a trail through the vegetation.

“We must have missed some,” Dante says. “It won’t happen again.”

His claws click over the belt of pulsar grenades he’s wearing.

If I don’t lose a limb, he will. I feel like it’s guaranteed at this point. Not that Dante will care. He’ll just grow it back, the nevver. Of all of us affected in different ways by the wormhole radiation, he got regenerative powers.

Of course he did.

That is how fate works.

And fate has yet to best me. I will find my Kerra, and I will kill the rest of the Vseli who dared to think they could challenge a Sarkarnii warlord for his mate.

As for Deus, he will pay for his crimes this time.

“Over there.” Dante swerves in front of me.

The air is filled with the scent of pulsar fire, not so recent. I increase my pace, my wings shifting even though in this dense forest they are worse than useless.

Out of the tree line, a rocky slope leads to a large cave.

“This is where Deus took his mate?” I query.

Dante nods.

I suck in the air around me before releasing a cloud of smoke. There is a hint, a tiny hint of Kerra. I shove Dante to one side as I thump my way up the slope in two paces to reach the entrance of the cave.

It is impressive, somewhat reminiscent of our home planet, now long lost. I can see why Deus would want to be here. But I’m not interested.

All I want is my mate. To bury myself in her body, to hold her in my arms.

To never be separated.

To give her my bite and let her claim me.

To offer her my hoard and to dance for her.

The cave is empty.

I roar at the rocks which surround me, hunting for where she was, some clue as to what happened to her, something, anything which will bring Kerra back to me.

Without her, I will go mad. I am already halfway there.

On a ledge near the back, her scent is strongest. I throw myself at it, attempting to cut out everything else and just have her.

“Darax.” Dante stands over a dark patch on the ground nearby.

I snarl at him, not wanting to be disturbed.

“You need to look at this,” he says, and for once, his face a grim mask.

As I approach, he takes a step back. The rocks sticking up from the cave floor are scorched, and there is a whiff of accelerant, sharp and unpleasant because it is not my own.

There is also a wet patch. I drop down to inspect it, touching it with my fingertips. Cold, slimy, when I inspect them, it becomes clear what Dante has found.

Sarkarnii blood.

“Deus?” I lift my head and look around.

“He’s not here, Darax. If he was still alive, they would have taken him. You know what the Veseli do with Sarkarnii.”

I know. So does Dante. The wormhole might have been our first nightmare, but it wasn’t our last.

I snarl out loud.

“The Veseli will pay for this.” I straighten up. “I will burn them and their nevving nests to the ground, and then I’ll keep on burning.”

Dante snorts out smoke. I’m speaking his language, and he’s always done anything which results in the greatest destruction.

“Not before I have my mate and my brother returned,” I add as a warning.

“If Deus can survive a direct hit by a pulsar cannon, then he’s going to survive anything the Veseli throw at him.” Dante shrugs. “Your mate is another matter. The females seem unusually small. Are they fragile? Do they squeak when you mate them?”

He has an element of hunger in his eyes which I want to beat from him. Dante’s never mated, as far as I know. Not because he hasn’t had the opportunity, but because he wouldn’t know what to do with a female if she offered him everything.

Dante does explosions, not mating.

“My mating does not concern you. But the females are fragile, and you should not use your grenades near them. Or any weapon for that matter,” I add as I watch him calculate other options, concentration writ large on his face. “And if you do so near my mate, I will chew off your wings. Slowly.”

Dante huffs out a lungful of smoke with a grin.

I can’t trust him. I can’t trust any of the warlords, and I’m stuck with the loosest pulsar cannon of the lot.

“What are the chances they’re still in this sector?” he asks.

“Zero. If Deus was what they came for, or my mate, then they will have taken them both off world. They know we’d struggle against a brief incursion, but fighting us directly on our own soil and sand, they would lose.”

“So, they have ships?”

“They have ships, and this is going to be a trap.” I glance at Dante. “You’ve assisted me enough. Go back to your sector and check in with the warlords. Make sure everything is secure and they cannot gain access to Vorostor again.”

Dante’s tail twitches in annoyance. “And what are you going to do?”

It might already be too late. The scents in this place are already aging out, decaying and dissipating. But my sanity is slipping slowly away. If I don’t find Kerra soon, I will be useless to her.

Already, it might be too late. After all, I watched my brother succumb to the end of his mind. I know where this is going.

I know what I risk becoming.

Without Kerra, I am lost.