Reo turned away from her and leaned his hands on a supply crate. He bowed his head in dismay, and already, she wanted his charm back. "I wish there was something more I could do," he said.

"Reo, you are doing everything you can."

She moved to stand beside him and laid a hand over his, as if to claim some of the weight of his pain. She gave his fingers a light squeeze. "All we can do now is to keep fighting. A wise warrior once told me that 'we're in this together now.' You should remember that advice."

"Wise, huh?" he said. The tip of his lips quirked. "Is he good-looking, too?"

That wicked smile of his—why was it all of a sudden so intoxicating?

"I think he already knows the answer to that," she replied, mirroring his smirk. "Though, he looks every bit exhausted right now, and I want him to rest."

Snaking an arm around her waist, he pulled her body flush against his. He pressed his lips to her brow in a kiss that was short and sweet. "He'll be alright."

His breath and the hair on his face tickled her skin, and she wanted nothing but to sink into his embrace. It was strange and yet visceral to feel this close to him. No one had ever shown her such open affection like he did, and it woke something warm and glowing inside her. But it also made her concern for him that much more dire.

"I am serious," she said. "How do you intend to defend this base if you can hardly stand? Do you have a private room?"

His head jerked back an inch so that he could see her face. He cocked an eyebrow. She realized a moment too late the wrong words she'd asked.

"Yes, very private," he murmured. "Thick walls and a door made out of steel. It also has this thing called a lock. The bed's a little small, but I think we can make it work."

A wave of heat crossed her skin, and she gave into the compulsion to smack his arm. "By the gods, Reo! I meant to ask if you had somewhere to sleep in peace?"

He saw the color rising up her neck and smiled. "I do. Would you like to see?"

The blush deepened.

They were both aware of how far they'd been willing to take things outside on the grass. The prospect of experiencing that again sent an ache through her.

But reality snapped its leash, forcing her to return to the present. She drew her hand from his, inadvertently glancing over her shoulder at the door. She imagined some poor soul stumbling across both the moon and sun warriors dallying in a closet.

What a sight that would be.

"We should at least get out of here," she said meekly.

He loosened his hold for her to move, and the door slid aside to grant her exit. Out in the open, her hands made the unconscious motion of straightening her clothes for the sake of decency. Reo followed after her, nonchalant. Thankfully, there was not a soul in sight to witness them emerge together from the tiny enclosure.

Reo started down the tunnel without a word, his hands in his pockets as if he were out for a stroll. He offered her a boyish smile.

"The councilwoman did order us to rest, right?" he said.

Failing to quell her blush for the hundredth time, she said nothing and fell into stride with him, just as activity appeared around them. Several celestials strode past, nodding greetings and wearing mildly suspicious expressions.

Maeyune watched them as they strode by. Out of politeness, their eyes fell away from hers. Was there something in the air that broadcasted the emotions between her and Reo?

Oblivious to her embarrassment, Reo said, "Sorry, what was it you were saying before?"

She pushed back through her thoughts, ignoring the curious glances. "Before you took it upon yourself to steal a kiss from me?" she muttered quietly.

He smiled. "You took it back, though. And a couple more after that, if I'm remembering correctly."

She cleared her throat, demanding her heart to return to its rightful place. "When you found me, did you see any wolves?"

He frowned. "Yes. I thought they attacked you."

"No, not attack," she said. "I think they were protecting me. I think...I think they were my friends."

"Your friends?"

"Aerylis, Trix, and Benny."

"Wait, what?"

Reo stopped and pulled her to the side of the tunnel, allowing those behind them to walk past.

"I know it may sound implausible, but they were there," she said. "I saw them with my own eyes. At first, I believed them to be hallucinations from exhaustion, or even a desperation to see them again, but--"

"I believe you."

She stopped, then rewound his words. "You do?"

He nodded, and she noted the gravity in the movement.

"You saw them?"

"No," he said. "But I saw someone else."

He lifted his gaze and glanced around the tunnel at the faces that passed them, as if at any moment he would see the visions again.

"When I found you, it wasn't by accident," he said. "I saw Kyra and Dodge in the forest. I thought I was losing my mind. But if it weren't for them, I never would've been able to find you."

The information gave her a flash of consternation. "Do you think it's Vaius trying to speak to us?" she asked.

"Vaius?" His eyebrows rose. "Well, that makes so much more sense now."

"Did your friends say anything to you?" she pressed.

"No, did yours?"

"Yes. Trix said that they were waiting for me." Maeyune remembered the shapes of her friends standing in the shadows, remembered Trix's enthusiasm as he'd shouted through the rainstorm. She echoed the words. "Come join us."

Reo's brows formed a deep crease.

"What do you think it means?" she said when he didn't respond.

"Do you want my honest opinion?"

"Of course."

"We know that Vaius is taking energy from whatever it can to stay alive," he said. "But I don't think it's enough. I think... What if Vaius actually needs a real life force from someone?"

He watched her face slowly change as she considered his words.

"You mean a sacrifice?" she uttered.

"Makes sense if it's one of us, right?" His eyes hardened. "Your friends were protecting you. Kyra and Dodge made sure I found you. If Vaius was using them to get to you, then--"

He didn't finish--couldn't finish. But she'd heard enough to understand.

"You think it's me?" Maeyune said. "That I'm the one who must join with Vaius?"

"I'm not going to let that happen."

"Reo, if there's any way we can—"

"No," he said resolutely. "There has to be another way."

A sacrifice.

To contribute her life to the planet—was that what Vaius was trying to tell her?

Maeyune glanced down at her hands--her mortal hands. Her powers would never return, and it was something she had only recently admitted to herself. The moon was gone, but she still carried Shivra's life force. She could still make a difference.

"Maeyune." Reo took her face in his hands, forcing her to meet his eyes again. "I know exactly what you're thinking right now, and no, it is not the answer. It can't be."

His voice trembled.

"But it's the only one that makes sense," she said.

Sacrifice herself? Was it really as straightforward as that? Give her life to the planet so that it could live another week or two? Dying could prolong the war until mankind found a way to defeat the invaders. Could she do it?

She was surprised at how calm she felt. Before her lay her possible fate, and it became clearer to her the more she questioned it.

But why did it not frighten her?

"Reo." She gently removed his hands from her face, then cupped his in her palm, the same way he always held hers with affection. "Our souls are borrowed. Perhaps Vaius is telling me that it's time I returned mine."

Pain and fear rippled across his face. "How can you still think like that? You're alive. You're here. With me. I won't let you. What if we're wrong? What if you die, and it was all for nothing?"

He grasped her hands with his and held them, fearing that if he let go, she would vanish.

"Back at the village when you fell into that river," he said, "I had this moment when everything went dark. For a long time, I couldn't think straight. I almost got myself killed, because I forgot how to move. I thought I would never see you again. But when I found you--" He took a shaky breath. "When I found you, it was like I could breathe again. It wasn't until then when I realized how scared I was to lose you. I don't want to lose you. You mean so much more than you think."

The world had grown very still as she listened.

"Everything I said before is true," he continued. "I'm in love with you. With all that's happened, I've been thinking about everything that's important to me, and right now, that's you. You're all I care about. Is that selfish of me? Is it wrong to only want to stay here and be with you?"

She was shaking her head before she realized it.

That was pure terror she saw in his eyes. Her words had scared him, had hurt him. She tightened her grip on his fingers.

"We will find a way through this," she whispered. "Together."

For the first time in what felt like a long time, she heard strength in her voice. Reo's expression was grim, but through it, she glimpsed sadness. She leaned up on her toes to take his mouth in hers, to assure him that she was real, and she was still there.

She heard gasps and hushed whispers around them. But she didn't care anymore. Everyone could stare and gossip among themselves. The world was ending, and if there was anything that life had shown her to cherish, it was this.

A small shape collided into the side of her leg, and it forced them to separate.

Surprised, they glanced down and found a little girl no older than three clinging to Maeyune's pant leg. With tiny fingers, the girl swept aside shoulder-cropped, black hair to reveal large, brown eyes. She beamed up at Maeyune with a shy smile.

Maeyune experienced a sudden flashback to a time when her aunt had cropped her hair like that. Emna was always better with a soup spoon than with scissors.

"Sai-shiay nu!" the little girl blurted in greeting, her Suolani clear and precise and directed toward an elder.

Maeyune smiled. "Sai-shin," she replied.

She lifted her gaze and searched among the people who continued to watch them from a distance. When she didn't see any adults frantically chasing after their child, she knelt in front of her and asked in Suolani, "Where are your parents, little one?"

The girl turned and pointed further down the tunnel. Maeyune saw a woman in a long robe standing off to the side, positioned near a fork in the passageway.

People walked past her, not once acknowledging her. The woman would have appeared like any other ordinary person—if it weren't for the emerald glow drifting around her body. Maeyune could see the rock wall behind her—through her.

And there was also the fact that Maeyune found her all too familiar.

Maeyune's heart lodged in her throat, and she sprung to her feet.

"Reo, do you see that woman?"

Reo looked. "See who? The one in the robe? The one who's--" He stopped for a second, his eyes widening. "--glowing green?"

She turned to him, relief awash on her face. "You can see her, too."

"Do you know her?"

Maeyune nodded and smiled. "She's my mother."

"Your--" A shadow crossed his face. "Maeyune--"

"Pai Linn!"

A woman rounded the corner of an intersecting tunnel, her face wild with relief and exasperation. She darted over to where the small girl stood, seizing her young daughter by the shoulders.

"I am sorry, Shivra incarnate," the woman spoke in Suolani. "She is always wandering off on her own. I hope she has caused you no trouble."

Maeyune shook her head, but her eyes shifted back to her mother, who had already turned and was nearly out of sight. "It is no trouble at all," she replied, distracted.

The little girl hardly seemed to mind her mother's scolding. Maeyune caught her joyful smile before starting down the tunnel.

Reo siezed her wrist and drew her to a stop. "You don't know where she's leading you."

Maeyune laid her hand over his. "Vaius is living energy," she said softly. "It knows neither good nor evil. It only wants to stay alive, and it needs our help. You can feel the planet more than I can. Do you truly believe that the planet's soul is capable of deception?"

He hesitated.

"Do you trust me?" she said.

In his eyes, she saw the question pierce through his mind. He spoke quickly and in earnest, "With my life."

She smiled, warm and heartfelt. "Then trust me now."

The muscles in his jaw clenched, but he nodded. He followed after her, maintaining close proximity as they chased the vision of Ayla Ereni.