Chapter 53
?rim
?rim awoke completely submerged in a seeding pool.
He had only a fragmented memory of what had happened.
The Aviarist. The pulsar gun. Cassie. Where was Cassie?
He struggled to the surface, the density of his body keeping him stuck beneath the seeding solution.
There was a reason teosians almost never submerged completely.
Once he’d broken the surface, he tried to assess what had happened.
His energy core seemed to be working at full capacity, but his outer carapace was still brittle, as if it hadn’t had enough time to properly harden.
Fluid splashed over the sides of the tank as he heaved himself out onto the floor.
The dual suns shone brightly into the room, and he couldn’t see anything without his eyestones.
He held his hands out to make sure he wasn’t going to run into anything as he moved around the perimeter of the tank.
Cassie. He’d saved her. Hadn’t he? The blast had gone straight through him.
Dread mounted as the possibilities struck him.
She might have harmed herself. It might have been irreversible this time.
Cassie. How long had he left her? Was she still alive?
He had to know where she was. He had to know she was safe.
No doubt he was in the clinic. If he could just make it to the door without falling, he could call for help.
Panic started to ripple through him. He gripped his wrist nodes hard as his energy core pulsed erratically. He paused for a moment to take stock of his body. He’d shattered. The last thing he remembered was Cassie’s eyes on him. His outer shell was thin in some places. Unevenly thick in others.
The pieces hadn’t quite reformed the way they were before.
The nodes on the back of his neck were dull and uneven, not the impressive crest he’d had before.
His wrist nodes were in a slightly different location.
But the node over his chest was harder, heavier than he was accustomed to.
The unwieldiness of this familiar yet unfamiliar body threw him further off balance as he tried to feel his way around.
Heat and light blazed in through the window. What time of year was it? They were due to start flooding season soon. How many days had he been incapacitated? He gripped the side of the tank tighter, moving with caution, seeking a safer, darker space where he could see properly.
?rim took another step around the perimeter of the tank and then tripped over something soft on the ground.
The thing made a muffled groan and untucked itself from the curl it had been in at the foot of the tank.
He got down on his hands and knees, not sure who or what was there.
?rim’s core flared with frantic anticipation as he crouched down beside the figure and placed a hand on its hair.
Cassie’s hair was always soft, clean, and cared for. This creature had a thick sheen of grease covering her scalp. Her breathing was unsteady, and she whimpered in her sleep. This was different from the nightmares that woke her up sweating.
Beneath the obvious self-neglect, she was still alive.
Still his aoseria. The pulse of his core steadied as he took her in.
?rim wasn’t sure if he wanted to wake her.
He warred with the instinct to take her into his arms, but the not knowing, the sense of longing won out in the end as he scooped her up off the floor.
Her weight had diminished since the last time he held her.
His fingers skated over sharp bones instead of soft lines.
“What have you done to yourself, my aoseria? How long have you been like this?” He murmured his questions into her unwashed hair.