Chapter 8 #4
He growled something viciously, but I couldn’t make out his words.
They were completely unintelligible. I didn’t want to imagine the cause behind it even though I knew all too well.
But I didn’t need to understand the words to know he was ordering me to hang on.
He leapt one final time and stabbed my blade into the wall, a few inches above the tip of the chain.
I reached for it with one hand, and he did the same with another.
I could see the bones through the remnants of his charred muscles and tendons. Gavin shouldn’t be able to hold on, and yet there he was. No sooner did we grab the chain than Vahl shouted for everyone to pull. We flew up so fast that Gavin never got a chance to use his feet to help us ascend.
Tears ran down my face from the excruciating pain of my forearms wrapped around his chest scraping against the searing wall. But imagining how much more damage it was doing to him as his entire front was being burnt to a crisp devastated me.
Victorious shouts erupted all around us when they finally pulled us over the ledge.
I attempted to turn Gavin on to his back as he laid face down on the ground.
But Vahl yanked me off his back before drawing me into a bone-crushing hug.
I winced in pain but returned his embrace.
I could feel him resisting when I tried to pull away.
It lasted a brief instant, so short in fact that most people wouldn’t have noticed. But my mate needed urgent care.
When I turned around to look at him, a horrified gasp spilled out of me.
Barely accepting help from the others, Gavin pushed himself back up on his feet.
He was beyond unrecognizable. Bones lay exposed in various areas of his body, including his face, chest, arms, and legs.
Everywhere else was a mix of burnt skin and armor melted into his flesh.
His visor had shattered, displaying his ravaged face, including the empty socket where one eye had burst and shriveled.
You’d think someone had thrown acid at him.
Another sob rose in my throat at the amount of pain he had to be in.
And my fucking powers were still dormant.
I tried to reach for him, but he turned his back to me and resolutely marched in zombie-like steps towards the exit.
The passage through which Vahl and his team had entered had completely collapsed.
And the path down to the ship hangar was also blocked by heavy metal beams that toppled out of the shattered wall and broken ceiling after the explosions.
“Gavin!” I called out.
“We must get out! This place is about to blow!” he replied in a feral voice, or at least that was how I interpreted the beastly sounds that came out of him.
At a glance, it appeared that our teams had already started trying to cut through some of the metal beams, but it would take a while as we had not come equipped for this type of challenge. Rhadames, Lenora, and the Dervhen twins raced ahead and tried to lift them.
To my shock, Gavin walked up to the twisted metal, shoving my cousin and friends out of the way before grabbing the main beam supporting the clumps of rocks, cement, and other materials.
With a savage roar, he lifted the whole structure, creating a two-foot opening for us to crawl to the other side.
“GO!” Vahleryon shouted.
Lenora, Sylvius, and Reyes threw themselves on the ground and proceeded to crawl through the opening.
I gestured for the Dervhen twins to follow, but they both pushed Rhadames and me so that we would go next.
Despite my burning urge to argue, now wasn’t the time.
I cast a final glance at Gavin, my heart shattering before making my way to the other side.
My stomach rubbing against the hard surface with each movement felt like my skin was being scraped raw with glass paper.
I hadn’t realized how long a distance we had to cross. How the fuck was Gavin able to lift all that on his own? Beyond the horrendous state he was in, such weight would be impossible to lift by a single person, even a Braxian in Berserker mode.
As if in answer to my question, two large pairs of boots entered my line of sight, moments before the twisted metal above me rose almost a meter, allowing us to get on our hands and knees to get out. Only then did I notice two more Braxians on each side who had already been helping lift the debris.
The remaining two Braxians were using a laser ram to open the damaged ship hangar doors. It confused me why they would do this instead of us just running back to their ship—which I assumed they had docked on the other side.
A violent explosion rocked the base, knocking me off my feet. In the pit, the glowing ground fractured, shooting plasma infused boulders in every direction. My companions shouted, throwing themselves to the ground to avoid getting hit by the projectiles.
The Braxians lifting the debris roared as if under extreme strain. My blood turned to ice when I realized they’d nearly lost their grip on their heavy burden when the tremors hit. The Dervhens were still crawling their way to our side.
But it was Gavin that had me on the verge of losing my mind.
Although he didn’t seem to have been struck by any of the flying rocks, he let go of the twisted metal and fell to his knees.
Sitting on his haunches, arms slack, head bowed, I couldn’t tell whether he had died or merely lost consciousness.
“GAVIN!!” I screamed, instinctively running back towards him.
“ZHARA, NO!” Rhadames shouted, catching me before I could take more than a couple of steps, and dragging me towards the ship hangar doors.
I fought him only to stop once I saw Vahleryon grab Gavin’s wrist and drag him behind him as he pulled him under the rubble towards us.
Twice more, loud explosions rocked the dying base.
Both times, the Braxians roared with rage and determination, their huge muscles looking on the verge of bursting as they struggled to keep the structure from crushing my twin and my mate.
As soon as Vahl got within a couple of feet from our side, the Dervhen twins caught him by the wrist and yanked him forward, dragging both males to relative safety. I wanted to go to them, but Rhad drew me after him as he ran towards the ship hangar, whose doors now stood open.
“Everyone, this way!” Rhad shouted.
Even as I ran, I glanced over my shoulder at my beloved. The Braxians dropped the twisted metal with a booming sound that had the entire ground vibrating. One of them bent down and effortlessly picked up Gavin who remained unconscious.
I stumbled and nearly lost my footing. If not for my brother holding me up, I would have face planted. Forcing myself to look ahead, I ran towards the two Braxians who had opened the hangar. They were attempting to gain access to a medium-size ship left behind.
However, the moment we entered the hangar, the chokehold that had snuffed my psionic powers lifted.
“Our powers work here!” Rhadames shouted to the others. “Everyone, to me!”
Before I could tell him not to teleport me first, the familiar tingling followed by a falling sensation swept me away. Darkness surrounded me, then I found myself standing inside my father’s ship.
“Zhara!” Dad exclaimed, his shock reflected on every face.
Before I could make sense of him being here with Ghan and Venya, our companions started appearing in pairs as Rhadames teleported them out.
“We need your healer here at once,” I pleaded with my father, but he was already on the task.
I began healing my own injuries while waiting for Gavin to arrive.
In my current state, I risked botching my work on him if I was too distracted by my own pain.
The moment he had lost consciousness, his berserker aura had faded, and the burst of energy, strength, and pain dampening effect had vanished.
Only now was I able to truly appreciate the blessing his power had bestowed upon us.
At long last, a Braxian appeared with Gavin. Ignoring the collective gasp of horror from my father and his crew, I rushed to my mate’s side. When I reached for him, my knees nearly collapsed and sheer terror ripped my heart to shreds.
Gavin was dead, and his soul had been left behind.