Chapter 3

For three days, the sky belonged to the Retvalin.

They did not descend upon Earth in the way frightened governments had predicted when the first warnings spread across the planet. There were no burning cities, no weapons aimed at human capitals, and no alien soldiers marching through streets. Most of the Retvalin never entered the atmosphere at all. They gathered beyond it, enormous living forms drifting against the darkness of space until satellite images made Earth appear surrounded by a second, uneven ring.

There were hundreds of them.

Celine Vale stood before the observation wall of the Helix Institute and…