Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
AIRIK
Airik’s eyes shot open, each nerve in his body pulled tight with the instinct that danger had found them.
The smell of infection clouded the early morning air.
Heavy footsteps pounded around them, the ground vibrating with each step.
He patted the ground for his sword, his pulse racing as he looked down.
An enormous margorok sniffed at Nora’s feet, saliva pouring from its mouth.
Its male member was fully extended, nearly touching the ground, already dripping with seed.
Its breathing was uneven, and its patchy skin was taut over its bones.
Starving, diseased, and rutting. An omnivorous creature that preferred vegetation but could trample any predator beneath its trunk-like legs for a meal, if it pleased.
His gun was too far, on the other side of Nora.
Airik’s hand closed on his blade.
The margorok thrust its nose in the air, hunting for something. Its eye oozed pus—it must’ve found them by smell, drawn by Nora’s unmistakable female scent.
Moving silently, Airik reset his sword’s gravity code, reducing its pull.
Even without his suit to counteract the force, relying only on his own strength, the margorok’s body might be pulled onto him—a risk he had to take.
A rutting margorok would not be stopped, even as it died.
It would flatten them in fury before collapsing itself.
Tightening his sword grip, Airik raised his blade.
A shrill yap sounded from the doorway.
The margorok made a rumbling grunt but remained where it stood.
Lucky barked louder from the doorway.
Stupid, brave creature. The ooshi was trying to lure the beast back out to itself.
A finger brushed against his knee.
He heard Nora’s breathy voice beside him. “What’s wrong?”
“Quiet,” he said in a harsh whisper. Torn between them and Lucky’s panicked barks, the margorok’s head swung back and forth, searching for a mate and then a meal.
Nora smiled, pushing the hair out of her still half-closed eyes. “Why are you whispering?”
She spoke too loudly. The margorok turned back.
“Keep your eyes on me, and come behind.” Airik raised his blade again. “It’s okay. Everything will be okay.”
Out of the corner of his eye, like a slow-moving crash, Nora opened her eyes fully, then turned her head.
“Do not look—”
Her scream pierced every cell of his body.
Instantly, the beast’s instincts triggered a trampling frenzy. It reared, preparing to mount, raising a paw that would crush Nora flat to the ground.
With no more time to think, Airik dragged her shrieking body behind him. He heard the thud of her body against the wall, then brought down his blade on the margorok’s neck.
Its head separated from its body in a single swipe. Blood spurted out of its severed neck. Drawn to the sword’s gravity, heavy and reeking, it coated Airik in a thick layer, blurring his vision and filling his mouth.
He grabbed his gun, then dropped his blade, coughing.
“Nora,” he gasped. Why wasn’t she making a sound? Had he been too late? Had the margorok hit her before he pulled her away?
A buzzing sensation needled over his skin as he turned.
He found her, eyes wide and shaking, back against the wall. His beautiful human was covered in blood from head to toe, but thank every force, divine and natural, she was still alive.
His throat closed—had he been so relieved? Did she already mean so much to him?
“Come.” His legs were folding beneath him, out of his control. He tried to reach for her, but his arm would not obey him.
Nora stared, her mouth fallen open.
“Okay. Safe.” He heard scratching and whimpering behind him—that damned ooshi. “Come to me,” he said to her. “Please.” He had to hold her—to know she wasn’t just a vision of what he’d wanted most.
He tried again to call her, but breath felt trapped in his lungs. He gripped his throat to release whatever choked him. Blood dripped from his lashes and nose. The metallic tang of it overcame all his senses, except for the sight of Nora before him.
Even here, you cannot escape it, a voice that was not his own hissed in his brain. She sees you shrouded in the blood you shed, surrounded by the death you bring.
Despair burst in his chest as his body sank to the ground.
With a sense of amazement, Airik realized that he was dying.
He had lived through countless battles, so many that sometimes he hadn’t known when one ended and another began.
He had weathered forging, a triumph despite everything that he had been.
He had survived the Lemides with only his body’s instincts to save him.
Of all the thousands of weapons that had once been pointed at him and the enemies who had targeted him, a sick animal that had come too close to his human would be his end.
And all he could feel was guilt. Not for everything he’d done in his life, but for having brought this terribly fragile woman far into a wilderness she had no hope of surviving.
“Airik?” Nora crawled to him.
His muscles slackened further, relieved to see her move. Whatever this was that was closing his throat and locking his muscles didn’t affect her. A final mercy not to watch her die.
“The…ship.” He eyed the gun, hoping she’d understand he wanted her to take it.
Though it was over a day’s walk for her, maybe with the ooshi she’d make it.
“Lucky…” He called the wretched creature’s name, but the command died with his breath.
With his last bit of strength, he gripped his throat, hoping to force the final words to Lucky out. “Leave.”
His vision hazed.
She leaned over him, cupping his face and shaking it. “I’m not going to leave you!” Then she was gone again. He felt her press one hand over his chest, the other patting him down all over his torso.
Glorious. A gift he didn’t deserve. To feel her. At least he’d have this at the very end.
“Are you hurt? I can’t find any wounds.” Her face came back into his waning vision. How desperately he wanted to give her a smile.
“Airik?” Big globes of tears slid down her cheeks, smearing the blood.
Don’t cry, pretty little human. Not worth the tears.
She shook him hard, filling him with a bizarre sense of joy that she had the strength to move him at all. “I…I don’t know what’s wrong. What can I do?”
A rock dug into his spine, but he could not say that it hurt. He wanted her gone. To leave. Her only chance now was to go back and hope help would arrive soon.
His lungs were useless. So was his heart. His chest felt too tight, and none of his organs could move to force life back into him. Everything dimmed, but as it did, the smell of iilas berries—an impossibility here, so far from what had once been a semblance of home—struck hard.
The last thing he saw was fearful brown eyes, so beautiful that they made him want to weep.