“Put it on,” she said. “Seriously, put it on.”

Cade didn’t have time to argue, and spun, allowing her to put his arms through it.

“If you get shot down,” she said. “You use this, okay?”

Cade stared at her, confused.

“It’s a parachute. I took it from the pilot in the plane.”

She smiled at him and kissed him deeply. “I know you’re short of time, but … I love you?”

Cade felt his stomach twist as he looked down at her. Despite the battle, the exhaustion, the dirt, sweat, ichor, and blood, she had never looked more beautiful to him. He kissed her and time seemed to slow. He savored every second her soft lips were pressed against his before she pushed him away.

“I lov—” Cade began.

“Tell me when you get back,” Amber said, looking down. “Go on now. Go.”

Cade took one last second to hug his two friends close. Then he was on the ship and running for the chair.

He sat down and put on his helmet, swiveling it until he heard it lock into place. He grabbed the Gray figurine from the console and pressed the right eye three times. Then he closed his eyes as the ship’s back door sealed shut. The world seemed to throb … and he shot into the sky.

Cade woke up. His stomach lurched, and the bones of the Gray alien clattered around the room. As did everything else, including the backpack, Abaddon’s remote, and the figurine, having fallen from his awkwardly gloved hand as the g-force rammed back his head, arms, and legs.

When Song had programmed the autopilot instructions, he must have not accounted for Cade’s humanity. Maybe Grays could withstand faster speeds. Or maybe he just wanted Cade to get there really fast. Either way, Cade had passed out.

As it was, Cade could already see the blue of the sky turning into black as they pierced the atmosphere, and he wished he could take another look at the planet he had come from. Instead, as the seconds ticked by, a shape began to form, red in the moonlight.

The pantheon’s ship.

It was every bit as impressive as Cade had imagined. A giant, metal lump of machinery, all spires, antennae, and protrusions. It seemed to approach slowly, yet Cade knew it was simply the sheer size of the thing that made it seem that way.

It expanded endlessly in his vision, virtually a small moon in its own right. Cade wondered what possible need there could be for something of such size when only twenty-one passengers—the entire pantheon—lived within.

Was it the machines that powered their teleportation technology? A factory for Codexes? Or perhaps, a massive, complex system of life support, keeping the immortal beings alive forever.

Regardless, he soon found the pressure lift from him and experienced a strange feeling of weightlessness. They had left the atmosphere, air hissing out from the hole in the Gray ship’s windscreen.

Still they flew, closer and closer to the enormous ship. Soon, it was all Cade could see. The seconds ticked by, and Cade only knew that the pantheon’s power was still down by the fact he was still alive. There was no way of knowing how long he had.