But I have a lot to learn yet. I must get stronger. Must learn more. Must become worthy of such an incredible person.

“If you’ll excuse me,” he said then.

“It’s been a long day. You probably want to rest.”

That wasn’t it. Until today, he had been content to coast, to bask in the sweetness of their pretend life. But that illusion had been shuttered, and if they weren’t to be sliced to pieces on the wreckage, he had to remember.

Where have I been? What have I done?

Helix would answer those questions, even if they destroyed him.

After Helix retired, a single thought circled in Qalu’s head.

I could lose everything.

It wasn’t that she intended to go back on her word or abandon him. Those two things, she could never willingly do. But the stark reality stared her in the face—how high the risk had become. In the beginning, she’d had a small sense of breaking the rules. Not notifying the scientific coalition about what she’d done. Now, the ATA and a bounty hunter were involved, greatly imperiling their liberty and security.

She let out a breath as Aevi scampered up and snuggled against her, trusting that Qalu would welcome her. With trembling hands, she stroked Aevi’s head, crooning to her softly, because the little one sensed her mood and was trembling slightly, a mournful whirr rumbling in her throat.

“It’s bad,” she said. “Very bad. Do we have to go now? Should we go?”

“That…is an excellent question.”

“Why do they hunt Helix? Because he’s different? Different is special. You told me that after the others wouldn’t come near me.”

That hadn’t been one of her shining moments. After saving Aevi, she’d tried to help her meet a clutch of Pherzuls to improve her socialization, but they’d screeched and fled, treating her like a dangerous stranger, not one of their own. If anyone would understand how Helix felt right now, it was probably Aevi.

“That’s true, but sometimes people fear what they don’t understand.”

Aevi rubbed against her. “Are we going now? But where? Where?”

I have no idea.

This situation was rapidly getting too big for her to manage, but she had no clue what to do. Any contacts she had in the scientific community would report her infraction straightaway, and that course led to the ATA at her domicile with the bounty hunter taking Helix away. Her mothers would likely respond the same way, as she feared they wouldn’t consider him a real person. They would see him as one of Qalu’s strange experiments, and while they might regret causing her pain via his removal, they would see it as beneficial in the long run, forcing her to conform to more ‘normal’ patterns. Find companionship along the usual roads instead of wandering rare and extraordinary paths.