Page 99

Not waiting for his retort, I keep going, “Telex militia barely manage to retain half their scouts on the Runway. Truck or not, it’s unlikely we’ll make it, and even if we do, Ivory Hill stands between that and Briar Peak. We’d be shot on sight—”

“I don’t care!” Ryx throws his arms out. “I need to find Salem—the others—my family, Saren! They are mine! My whole fucking purpose in this world! I won’t let whatever this is,” he gestures between us, “interfere with that.”

I flinch at his words.

“Fucking hell, don’t look at me like that,” he growls.

“Like what? Like I care? Like it hurts that this,” I wave my finger at the bed, “meant more to me than it did to you?”

“I never said that.”

“You heavily implied it,” I snap. “Salem this, your family that—”

My words die on my tongue as he surges forward and seals his hand around my throat.

“Make no fucking mistake, Saren. I meant every word. While I don’t have a single clue what I’m doing, the fact remains. You. Are. Mine. And if I have to throw you over my shoulder, kicking and screaming, I will. My mission will be completed, and I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

The blush is instant.

His eyes follow the motion of my tongue as I wet my lips.

Leaning down, he blatantly scents me and murmurs, “I can’t give this up, not even for you.”

“Okay,” I whisper.

“The Telex regime has to come to an end, baby. We’ve both felt the power of its fist. And I need you to be by my side.”

“Do you really think you can stop them?” It’s a genuine question, and thankfully, he takes it as such.

Dragging his thumb up and over my chin to tug at my bottom lip, he sighs heavily before meeting my eyes. “I have to try.”

***

We sit by the fire and rehydrate with our remaining water while Ryx explains his mission. It’s more than I ever anticipated. If the council ever knew, there’d be an all-out war.

“The resistance is everywhere. Salem’s group is just one of many. We try to keep our numbers small to avoid detection, but the network has a pulse stronger than ever. This has been years in the making—hell, generations, even.

Salem was the first to truly understand our race—to discover what we are. And it’s because of him that Nina and Kaya are pure.”

“Pure?” I scoot closer, addicted to the way his mastery is starting to accept mine.

“Telex refuse to call us by our true name. Novamon. We’ve never been just a negator of telepathy; we are its direct counter. My people were born to create balance. I didn’t believe it for a long time, but I’m starting to.”

My eyes widen in shock. “I read something about that—in one of Patryn’s forbidden books. The first seer was born at the same time as an Other. It was during our horrible argument when I found out. I had no idea what it meant.”

Ryx’s lips quirk in an almost smile. “This part I’m sure wasn’t in your books.” He takes my hand and flips it palm up. He hovers his palm directly over it and waits for our masteries to rebound, but it never happens. “Telex and Novamon have a symbiotic relationship when they reach sexual maturity. Bonded.”

What?

What?

“That one felt like a myth to me as well, because how could that be real?” he goes on, oblivious to my inner panic. “Nina would go on and on about it, but I chalked it up to being a fairy tale. A world where the two could become whole. My people have been nearly wiped off the face of the planet. The genocide is ever-ongoing. And like I told Salem, no Telex would ever willingly fuck one of us, let alone tie together our life forces.”

“Stop,” I rasp, jerking my hand away and shuffling to my knees. “Patryn left me a note—a letter. He said I needed to find you and find your bonded.”

“Your guardian?” His dark eyebrows furrow.

“Yes. He was yours too. He would take you away once or twice a week. He never told me why, and neither did you.”