Page 85 of Cosmic Soul

So I’m looking a bit see-through.

Caleb. Caleb.Caleb. His name circled my mind as I stared at the blank screen. I couldn’t think; I couldn’t breathe; I couldn’t move.

The door to Command slid open, and an irked voice asked, “What was the great emergency? I was attempting to sleep for but a moment to gather my thoughts and I was interrupted.” Fynlincoxmin tightened the pink silky robe around him.

Commander Bimwoxcol replied, “The leader of the boobas, or perhaps just this ship, contacted us.”

His mouth fell open. “Seriously? Seriously?” He crowded closer to her. “Tell me everything. Better yet, did anyone think torecord it? Viable information can be learned from the slightest tic. Show me now.”

As Bimwoxcol pulled up the recorded feed and Fynlincoxmin babbled about how he should have never attempted to rest, Dontilvynsan curled his tail around mine and motioned for the rest of our brothers to follow as he led me out of Command. He moved to his office and everyone slid in behind me.

I was frozen against the wall, panting. Words swirled around me with little meaning. Monqilcolnen was saying something about the shields and our weapons, but I couldn’t focus.

All I heard was Caleb’s panicked cry. He didn’t want to leave me, any more than I desired to be apart from him, but the boobaas were going to take him away, and there was nothing I could do.

Perhaps Caleb would escape from Tatas’s clutch and slide out of the ship.

My head jerked up. “I need to see a monitor of the space surrounding the boobaas’s ship.”

Serlotmiden paused in the middle of his sentence, then asked, “What?”

“Do you think Caleb will get away?” Seth asked.

“He might. I need to see. Now.” I said, racing to Dontilvynsan’s desk and poking at his screen. He pushed me away and pulled up the exterior sensors with a few taps of his fingers. I studied his screen as images of the boobaas’s ship appeared before me. I didn’t see anything.

“Caleb,” I whispered. “Where are you?”

“I do not wish to sleep.”

Kalvoxrencol stood in front of me, arms crossed. All of my brothers had tried to pull me away from the monitors displaying the boobaas’s ship, but I refused to shift.

Caleb was somewhere within that vessel.

Dontilvynsan had tried to ping the boobaas multiple times, but they refused to respond. The Coalition’s support ships were still hours away. The boobaas might leave before the Coalition even arrived to assist if they finished repairing their ship.

Seth popped out from behind Kalvoxrencol and grabbed my wrist. He stared at me with his deep brown eyes, his odd, round pupils so like Caleb’s. “Come on, Fyn. You need to sleep, even if it’s for a few minutes. Caleb will find you.”

I twisted in his grasp and held his hand while my eyes flicked to Kalvoxrencol. I practically saw the stress in his shoulders and in the way his tail thrashed. Being as close as we were, sometimes the pain of one of us became the pain of both of us.

“I will rest.”

His shoulders relaxed, and he wound his tail around mine. “Thank you.”

I squeezed his tail before shaking Kalvoxrencol and Seth off. I left Command without a backward glance and went straight to the quarters I was staying in. Once inside, I sank to the couch to grab my screen and pulled up the sensor feeds. I might have abandoned Command, but I wasn’t going to stop searching for my mate. Sleep was impossible when I knew he was in danger, and they were foolish to believe otherwise.

My gaze never deviated from the shifting images as I scoured every frame for Caleb. He had to be somewhere. I couldn’t live with the alternative of the boobaas leaving with him. He was mine, and he belonged here with me. We belonged together.

A shiver went down my spine. The shared space had turned frightfully cold. Something must be wrong with theenvironmental controls. I let it go and studied the sensor images, determined to catch sight of my mate, somewhere.

When another tremor went up my spine, I paused, breath turning harsh. My head snapped up. Caleb stood in the middle of the room, shivering violently.

“Caleb,” I breathed, something relaxing deep within me. He didn’t react to my voice, though. I rushed toward him, brushing his spirit, and I yanked back, hissing. Caleb was so cold, he froze my very scales. I clenched my fingers into a tight fist in an attempt to warm them.

“Caleb,” I said again, and he stared blankly back. “Mate, please speak to me.” His body trembled. I tried to touch him, but the cold emanating from him was too extreme.

An idea formed in the back of my mind, and I shoved my hand into my pocket. “Kalvoxrencol,” I said into the glowing blue touchstone.

“Zoltilvoxfyn, what’s going on?” he asked moments later.

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