It was a stab at Declan and that pissed me off, but as tired as I was I couldn’t deny how amazing that sounded. “Good. My. Bones. Hurt.” I grunted out the words as I took one last run at the wall in front of me, leaping with every last bit of strength. I screamed with the effort of pulling myself up. As soon as my feet touched the ground, the air shifted around me.

It swirled faster and faster before abruptly stopping. The illusion broke in one small section, revealing a back hatch opening.

I ran to it, knowing that I’d already taken too long, even if he’d given up on the countdown.

A man was waiting just inside. His black hair was pulled back from his face in a low ponytail. He wasn’t dressed as most Aunare I saw on the news though. His slacks were a little too loose and his shirt a little too tight. But his jaw had the typical squareness of Aunare males. His skin was glowing, and the darker teal tattoos peeked out from the bottom of his rolled up sleeves.

He stood there, waiting for me, and I stumbled. He was too fierce. Too handsome. He didn’t have the thick muscle that Declan did, but he was more muscular than any Aunare I’d ever seen. And he was beautiful. I kept coming back to that. I just never looked at someone before and thought whoa. But this man took my breath away. I would give him everything, and that made him more dangerous to me than the mines of Apollyon and the surface of Abaddon combined.

“Hurry!” he yelled, waving me forward.

I jumped into the ship as it hovered two feet above the ground. I started to lose my balance and fall backward, but Lorne leaped forward and grabbed my arm, steadying me.

“Amihanna.”

That word again. It was just my name. It shouldn’t make me feel anything other than weird—because my name had been Maité for so long—but his voice saying it? It sent shivers through my body. My skin lit from within, and for the first time I didn’t try to stop it.

And then I looked into his eyes and froze.

They were my favorite color. A deep, dark aquamarine.

He gently pulled the earbud from my ear, threw it on the floor, then gripped my bicep, right where my tracker was and I could feel something in his hand pressing against my skin. “I’m sorry to do this now, but we need to get out of here.”

“Do what you need to do,” I said and meant it.

There was a flash of light and searing pain. I started to fall, but Lorne still held my arm.

“Damn it.” Lorne’s voice was threaded with worry. “Why aren’t you passing out?”