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I dash between the eggs, my eyes feeling like they’re on stalks as I attempt to keep clear of Veseli. I presume the evil professor has raised the alarm and they’re looking for me, although it does seem like there’s no rush to locate my position.

I scratch absently at my neck. There’s a raised bump which wasn’t there before…it’s similar to the one behind my ear where the nano-translator was installed. I feel instantly nauseous, like I did when I found the nano-translator. My head spins and I fall back against the nearest egg.

What is it? What have the Veseli put in my body?

When it dawns on me, I find myself dry-retching. They have put some sort of tracker in me. It’s the reason no one is chasing me down.

They know exactly where I am. And they can come to me any time they want. I can imagine the evil professor enjoying watching my movements as I’ve attempted to dodge the cockroaches. I am the mouse in the maze.

He’s watching what I do to determine when they bother to come find me. In the meantime…I am free range.

Terror settles in my stomach, forming a lid over disgust and horror. I know what I need to do, but I know I’m not strong enough to do it, even if it is possible.

But it means finding my friends is pointless. If they’re not fitted with trackers, mine will lead the evil professor and the Veseli straight to us.

Escape is useless.

I need another plan. One which doesn’t involve getting away from the Veseli but which involves getting help.

I’m under no illusion I can do any of this on my own. Whatever differences Darax and I have, I want us to work them out properly.

It means I somehow need to contact the Sarkarnii. Despite the fact the evil professor has some sort of perverted interest in our mating, and in the Sarkarnii in general, if there’s one group of creatures which are likely to be able to stomp…or burn…Veseli, it’s going to be the big dragon guys.

It’s the reason they started hiring themselves out. Space muscle.

Although why they didn’t deal with the Veseli before is a bit of a mystery, but then cockroaches do tend to scuttle into dark places.

I need to find some sort of communications array or device. While the strange egg room might seem like an underground nest, the tech I saw inside the evil professor’s lair means they are sophisticated enough to have what I want.

At least until I can find a way to get this tracker out of me.

I check my surroundings. They’re free of cockroaches, and I make a run for what appears to be the edge of the vast hangar I’m in. When I reach it, I’m surprised to find it’s metal.

Metal which I can feel has a chill to it. A familiar chill.

I thought we were still on Vorostor.

I am wrong. We’re in space. The last time I felt the cool radiating from metal in this way was when Rosalie and I were stuck on the pirate space ship, living in the conduits.

My heart hits my boots. How long have we been here? Where are they taking us? How am I going to find the Sarkarnii when I don’t even know where I am?

Can I have lost Darax so soon?

The disgust I feel at myself for pushing him away, for not allowing him to be what he is, for wanting something different, for expecting something more human, rises within me.

He didn’t tell me about his brother, not to keep a secret but because Deus was so damaged, and so far from help, Darax didn’t know what to do. He probably didn’t even think he was doing the right thing himself.

And I blamed him for it, for not telling me something straight away before he knew me.

His rut and our relationship are not the same thing. But our failure to extract one from another means we are where we are.

In my case, on a ship full of cockroach aliens with a tracker in my neck. In Darax’s case?

If it’s true what he says about his mutation and his rut, he could be turning into his brother at this very moment.

I can’t unsee the pain in Deus’s eyes when he looked at me, or rather through me.

It wasn’t the pain of betrayal. It was the pain of loss.

Whether he truly believed Darax was responsible for his mate’s death, I really don’t know.

What I do know is when she died, he lost more than just her. He lost his brother…and his sanity.

My stomach dips, a sob rising in my throat, one I have to hold back, hard. I can’t risk making a sound, regardless of whether the Veseli know where I am or not.

I have to get a message to Darax, and I have to find Deus. They need to be together, as much as I need to see Darax.

Because if I don’t make it back to him, I have a very clear idea of what will happen.

And one insane Sarkarnii is enough.