Light had not reached the base of the crag when the cold, damp air chilled and roused me. Andie and I had spent the night coiled around one another, making love to keep the cold at bay.

As I started to sit up, I felt her hand slide down and grab me.

“Looks like someone is ready for more fun,” came her raspy sleep voice.

I answered laughingly, “Woman, you’re enough to wear down even a Dragselian.”

“That sounds a like a theory worth testing sometime.”

We both dressed quickly and started looking for something to refuel ourselves. The canopy provided us some protection. It was still dark and chilly—I doubted that our Infernian foe was back to tracking us just yet.

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Andie rummaged through plants, looking for edible fruits. She had braided her long honey locks and her face was set in determination as we both foraged.

Watching her in the gray of early morning, set about a mundane and tedious task, she was stunning. Not for any outward efforts, but because of who she was. She was strong and resilient, loyal and hardworking. In the face of such formidable foes, she had placed herself in the middle of this chaos, risked her life time after time to help us—exiled crash survivors to whom she owed no allegiance.

Beyond that, she had stayed true to herself and what she wanted. She hadn’t shied away from the connection that brought us together. Even now, knowing the level of its significance, she fearlessly embraced life.

I knew then, clearly and plainly, that I loved her. I finally allowed myself to acknowledge the emotion that had been growing with each moment that we had spent together.

What had initially felt like a bothersome and inconveniently timed attraction had exponentially grown into something completely undeniable. I needed to tell her.

Still, given how haphazard and impromptu all of this had been, she deserved something grander, more romantic than just those simple words. When all of this was over, I would take the time to court her properly, to demonstrate that the depth of my feelings went far beyond lust.

Gathering the small amount of edible fruit we had collected, we sat together to quickly eat while we discussed the situation.

“I think Jennifer is trying to EE me,” Andie said, closing her eyes.

“What is she saying?”

She put her hand to her forehead. “I can’t quite tell. I hear her voice, but it’s as if she is speaking through water. Everything is jumbled.”

“Do you see anything? Is there a visual message?” I asked. For a planet as remote and wild as Vaxivia, their EE tech was impressive. We had nothing like it on Dragselia and I was intrigued by the concept.

“No. There is no visual. EE visuals require closer range than audio messages. I’ll try to send her something, but she probably won’t get anything more than my voice.”

“That will suffice. As long as they know we live, my brothers will search for us.”

Andie jumped up quickly. “We should move. We might be able to get within range soon.”

We both raced into action, leaving the grove behind and winding farther upstream through the crag.

Suddenly, I heard something. I could barely pick it up at first, but breaking into a sprint, the further we raced, the more I could hear.

It was Zaruv, calling to us. His bellowing roar buoyed me, summoning the dragon in me to reunite with my brothers. Still, I knew the Infernian could be out there, waiting for just such a thing.

I slowed and brought Andie with me under an overhang. The light had made it about halfway down the walls of the crevice, so we were still shrouded in shadow.

“What is it?” she asked, catching her breath from the jog.

“My brother is calling to me. Do you hear it?”

She focused and strained to find the sound. “No, I don’t hear anything over the water and the birds, but I trust you.”

The simple statement brought a knot to my throat that I quickly swallowed.

“They must have come out searching for us. If I call back, it will most definitely alert Baluwama, as well as my brothers, to our location.”

“It could be a trap. Can Infernians mimic a Dragselian call?”

“To my knowledge, no. Even if they could mimic a generic call, I know the sound of my brother.”

Andie chewed at her bottom lip, “Let’s think this through then. It’s about 400 feet to the rim. There is no way we can climb that, so either we keep following the river to its source, which we have no idea what or where that is, or we fly out of here.”

“We must also consider that it may not be just him. We may be nearing the camp, which means the demons may have reconnected at this point. What we do have going for us, however, is their inferior speed and maneuverability. The demon who took you was fast, but I had already been hit by a dozen or more stun charges. Fully recuperated, as I am now, I’ll be faster and more agile than he.”

“But what if he is able to strike you again? I don’t have a weapon, and as you said, a handful of those charges could down you,” she said, looking concerned.

“I’ve faced far worse odds and circumstances.”

By the look on her face, she didn’t approve of my bravado, but it was, after all, true.

Furrowing her brow, she asked, “You’re his target, right?”

“So it would seem,” I agreed.

“He knows we are weaponless and there is only one way out—up. So he’s going to wait for us to make ourselves vulnerable and strike quickly, right? Well, what if we flip the script on him? He has to have heard your brother’s calls too. If you call out and we lie low instead of emerging into the open, as he is expecting, he’ll be drawn lower into the canyon.”

Recognizing the track of her thoughts, I admired her strategic instincts.

“Yes, it is unlikely, if it is just him, that he will attempt to take on all of us at once. If we don’t emerge right away, he’ll be forced to find us before my brothers arrive and his window of opportunity is gone. He wants us isolated, which is why he led us away from the others. That and the fact that you took the arm off the leader. Well done, by the way,” I added as a smug smile touched her mouth.

“I’d feel better if I knew it wouldn’t grow back, but if it caused him pain, then I’m happy.”

I pulled her close and kissed her. “You’re hard to resist when you’re being vicious.”

“Oh, I can be a lot more vicious than that,” she said playfully. “But there will be time for that later, dragon-man.” She straightened and surveyed the rim and canyon walls.

“Okay, so we situate ourselves someplace narrow, someplace closer to the floor where the temperatures are colder, and instead, we exploit his weaknesses.”

“Right, he won’t be able to cope with the cold as well. It may slow him down a little. Another thing—you should stay hidden when he comes. He doesn’t know you survived. He has only seen me so far. The less he knows, the better.”

She looked unhappy but didn’t question my logic. “I don’t love this plan. There are a lot of assumptions. As you said, what if he isn’t alone?”

“Well, Infernians grow a limb back at least as slowly as a Dragselian, so chances are the leader isn’t fully healed. I watched the other demon fly. He’s clumsy at best. Even if they’ve joined him, they’re less of a threat.”

“I would feel a lot better if I had a weapon and I could help you,” she grumbled.

I knew I would feel the same way. The idea of her going into battle while I watched, helpless, was gut-wrenching.

“I understand, but even if they do wound me, I’ll heal. We are taking a calculated risk, I know. Our alternative is to keep hiking, but the longer we go without real food, the less I’ll be able to put up a good fight if they track us. Right now, I’m at full strength, but we have no idea what the terrain will be like and whether we can continue foraging.”

She looked uneasy. “I know. I just don’t like sitting out during a fight.”

We walked along the canyon quickly, seeking the best setting for our strategy. I located a place for Andie to hide, behind several boulders that must have fallen during the storm. We were about to part when she grabbed my arm.

Reaching down at the core stone she still wore, she looked back up at me. “Shouldn’t you have this with you? I don’t want you weakening yourself because of me.”

Sliding my arms around her, I kissed her passionately on the lips, trying to imbue my kiss with all the emotion I felt but couldn’t yet express to her.

I pressed the stone back against her chest, “This is yours now, as I am.”