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RIV’EN MATERIALIZED on the ship’s transport pad, Maya in his arms, the remnants of his armor and clothing he’d gathered before transport at his feet. Her weight was light against his chest, her skin still warm, still alive, kissed by the sun. That was all that mattered.

The transport lights cut off, leaving only the soft glow of the corridor ahead. The ship’s systems hummed quietly around them, sealing off the world below as if it had never existed.

As the final shimmer of transport light dissolved, his grip on Maya tightened fractionally.

She didn’t stir. Her head rested against his shoulder, her breathing slow and even, lost in a sleep so complete she might have been a feather in his arms. He didn’t pause.

Didn’t need to. His focus tunneled down to one thing, getting her to the medical wing.

Not because she was hurt. Because she was his.

Because every yearning in his body demandedit.

But as he moved through the silent corridors, acolder edge slid under his skin.

It wasn’t just fatigue dragging at his muscles.

It was the certainty of a bond that could not be shrugged away.

Every step came slower, not just because of the effort it took to move, but because each one carried him closer to an end he could already see coming.

Dread settled low in his gut, coiled tight and quiet, as steady as his own pulse.

Aweight he couldn’t shake. His joints were stiff, each step slower than the one before.

The hum of the ship around him pressed in too loud, too sharp, and there was a faint pulsing ache in his temples that hadn’t been there before.

His breath came thicker, each inhale tasting metallic, like the air was turning against him.

And beneath it all was the unrelenting awareness that his body was changing in ways he couldn’t control.

By the time he laid Maya gently onto the med-bed, his breath was coming harder.

Slower. His vision narrowed at the edges.

Heat surged beneath his skin in sharp, rolling waves—not like exertion, not like adrenaline.

Afull-body flash that lit every nerve with burning pressure before it faded to a slow, smoldering throb.

His muscles locked tight for a beat, ribs aching from the sudden rush of heat that left sweat beading along his spine.

Final Flight. Aheat flash. It wasn’t just theory now. It was happening.

Riv’En didn’t waste time. He activated the scan array above the bed, setting it to monitor her vitals and protect her from his heat flash.

The flash hit like a storm breaking through his veins.

Heat flooded every nerve ending, adeep, rolling burn that radiated from his spine outward, locking his muscles and blanking out everything but the relentless pulse of it.

His vision blurred to white at the edges, breath trapped in his throat, skin too tight for hisbody.

It wasn’t just pain. It was finality. When it broke, his muscles trembled, every inch of restraint scraped clean.

For a breath, Riv’En didn’t move. Didn’t even breathe.

He expected darkness, expected collapse—but it didn’t come.

He was still standing. Still alive. The realization hit as sharply as the heat had.

He had survived this flash. But for how much longer?

Riv’En exhaled hard and stepped back, leaning weakly against the console, his breath laborious as Maya’s data scrolled past hiseyes.

Her pulse was strong. Her oxygen steady. Blood pressure perfect. Her Mating Flame still glowed faintly against her collarbone, steady as a beacon.

She was stable.

It should have calmedhim.

It didn’t.

Riv’En pushed off the console, stepping out of the med-bay and into the corridor beyond. The doors sealed behind him, leaving Maya in quiet isolation.

Only then did he press his hand to the wall panel, his fingers unsteady, the lingering echo of the heat flash still pulsing through his system.

He didn’t know if he would make it through another one.

Triggering a diagnostic scan on himself seemed almost pointless—but he needed to see.

Needed to know just how fast he was burningout.

The results appeared in a heartbeat.

Final Flight: Accelerated Progression. Bond Induced Complications Detected.

Riv’En’s first impulse was to override the scan and try again.

Part of him couldn’t believe it, couldn’t accept that the bond he’d fought so hard to complete was now the thing accelerating his own end.

But the confirmation sat there in clean, unavoidable data.

He sensed it everywhere now: the pulsing in his blood, the heat lingering beneath his skin.

And beneath all of it, Maya’s presence tethered through the bond, her pulse echoing in his head.

This wasn’t just about his body burning out.

It was about how deeply she was tied into that burnnow.

His hair, what had once been pure silver, was near-black now. His skin held a duller sheen. His eyes were blacker than ever instead of the brilliant amethyst they’d oncebeen.

None of it surprised him. But seeing it confirmed sent a fresh burn through his chest, sharper than any heat flash.

Knowing something and facing it were two different things.

It wasn’t just data scrolling across a screen anymore.

It was the shape of his end, laid out in clean, sterile lines.

And standing there, with the echo of Maya’s Mating Flame still burning in the back of his mind, It hit like impact from a fall he couldn’tslow.

He was running out oftime.

He moved to the bridge and sat in the pilot’s seat, every step an effort.

His body felt denser, the lingering aftermath of the heat flash making each breath a conscious act.

When he finally lowered himself into the chair, his muscles locked tight for a beat, and his vision wavered at the edges.

But his fingers steadied on the navigation panel despite it, moving with ingrained care even as the erratic pulse hammering beneath his skin, out of sync with the ship’s quiet hum aroundhim.

Elaros.

He didn’t type the coordinates right away. He stared at the blank screen, the planet’s name silent in his mind. His mother’s home world. Aplace he’d only visited once as a youngling. Aplace he’d longed to visit again. But then his time had runout.

The strength of it settled in his chest, more oppressive than the heat flash.

Elaros wasn’t just some fallback point. He’d carried it quietly as part of his bloodline, but a place he’d never embraced.

His mother had lived on Vetta with his father, raising him there until the day Riv’En’s hair turned white and his eyes went amethyst. The day he was taken by the Intergalactic Warriors.

It had been an honor. Aduty. And she had let him go because there had been no choice.

Returning to Elaros now meant stepping back into a part of himself he’d locked away—not because it was shameful, but because it was distant.

Forgotten. Familiar in ways he hadn’t thought about in years.

And if Elaros couldn’t save Maya, then no place in the galaxy could. Butnow?

Now he had no choice.

Earth wasn’t safe for Maya. Not after the bond.

Not with Final Flight accelerating faster than he’d anticipated.

And Maya… He’d seen the shift in her too, the flicker of the Mating Flame, the way her body pulsed in rhythm with his.

It wasn’t just him burning out. It was both of them changing. And Earth wasn’t built to handlethat.

But what terrified him more than any of it was the one possibility he couldn’t ignore.

If Final Flight took him out—if his body locked down for good—what would happen to her?

She was bonded to him now. Their connection wasn’t just skin-deep.

It ran through every cell in her body. And if his heart stopped, if his systems shut down completely, could she survive that break?

Or would the bond pull her under aswell?

Riv’En’s hands tightened on the console until metal creaked beneath his fingers.

He should never have touched her. Never should have claimed her.

The clarity of it hit him now, sharp as a blade pressed against skin.

But in the moment, it hadn’t been clarity at all.

It had been heat. Compulsion. That wild, unavoidable force that had overridden everything else: training, logic, command.

There had been no preventing it. No pulling back.

And now, standing here with the consequence of Final Flight pressing down on his chest, he saw it for exactly what it was.

He had bound them both to a path with no way off.

The bond had been inevitable, yes, but he had made it real.

Completed it. Vexxed her until it wasn’t just impulse anymore.

Until it was permanent. He’d lost control because there was no controlling it, no stopping once it had started.

And now they both had to face the consequences of choices he’d made when he should have walkedaway.

Riv’En clenched his jaw hard enough his teeth ached.

That was the risk. The price. And he didn’t know if there was a way around it.

The thought hollowed him out, colder than space outside the hull.

He pressed his fists against the console, head bowed, the reality of it settling in his chest like death.

Leaving her behind wasn’t just about her safety.

It was about making sure she survived what he might not.

And that knowledge carved deeper than the heat flash ever could.