Chapter 12
Kedar
Where was she?
Vessa had killed the horde leader, that he knew for certain. It seemed the Orcru would fight to their deaths even in an unwinnable situation, but killing the ogg was akin to cutting off their head. The others fled immediately.
Kedar wound his way through the snowbanks as that unnatural lightning flashed in the distance. Her tracks were easy to pick up, and he followed them. Until they ended.
Something within him told him he needed to find her. Time was running out. That unexplainable tether, that inner knowing, was all he had to guide him.
To ice.
Jagged slabs of it had broken and reformed. Her scent was here, evidence of a fight. An Orcru axe lay near where Vessa’s tracks ended.
And where a break in the ice had opened.
Kedar’s mind went void of all else. His singular focus was finding her.
There were many ways death could claim someone, even a warrior, but this couldn’t be how it ended for her.
Carefully placing his boots and balancing his weight, he made it to the spot without causing any new fissures to form.
Powering his plasma dirk, he cut into the thick freeze.
It became immediately apparent to him that the plasma would take too long to cut through. “Nevskol!”
She could already be dead with how long it had taken him. He should have been more aware. He needed to get in there, find her. He should have—
The axe.
Kedar grabbed it, brought it high over his head, and, with all his might, smashed it into the frozen surface. A single hit and the ice broke open again. He threw the bigger chunks of it away so they wouldn’t reseal the entry point. Then he plunged in.
It was an immediate shock to his system.
Overwhelming. His suit was only designed for ease of movement during fighting.
The light armored fabric was water resistant, repelling snow and ice, but the deathly cold water seeped in around its edges.
Xaal may run hot compared to a Seken, but this water was more frigid than anything he’d ever felt in his life.
His limbs prickled, his hearts beat faster.
Even if Vessa could have broken through the ice on her own, the likelihood of her surviving…
He turned in all directions, searching for any sign of her. This ocean was vast and ancient. Deep. He couldn’t see her, couldn’t find her. Had it already claimed her?
Where the fuck was she?
Time was already up. If he didn’t find her, didn’t bring her out…
But then the barest hint of heat caught his attention. A flutter of movement. A fading ember in suffocating black. Her heart.
His thermal vision barely picked her up. She’d drifted far from the entry and was already so cold. An unfamiliar sensation crept through him.
Kedar cut through the water as fast as he could.
Warnings flashed in his HUD. The extreme temperature put a strain on his body.
He ignored indicators about his hearts, nervous system, and his dwindling survivability rate.
He ignored the numbness in his limbs. All he could focus on was her.
Her struggling lungs. Her failing heart.
Each stroke of his brought him closer to her while she drew closer to death.
When he snatched her to him, she didn’t fight it. Couldn’t. With an arm wrapped around her midsection, he willed his body to move. To rise. The light from the exit was only a pinpoint in his vision.
His alarms flashed from orange to a dark red. Danger levels. Unable to fight off this kind of enemy, his body was shutting down. He swam on willpower alone. Promises he made so long ago rattled through his mind. Regrets and forgotten desires.
His hearts slowed.
Perhaps he should let it have them both—this watery grave. It would be fitting, somehow. He’d spent so long obsessed with finding her, with setting fate right. And when he finally did reach her, it was only to destroy them both.
This was what he did. It’s who he was.
Maybe it was always supposed to end like this. In a cold, honorless death. Incomplete.
That dark and frozen oblivion called to him. It would be so easy…
No.
He refused to let it have her.
And freedom was near.
Though he’d removed as many of the larger pieces as he could, the hole had still managed to freeze over—driven by some otherworldly force trying to entomb them.
But it only took him slamming into it with the top of his helmet to break it up.
Once he’d pushed Vessa through and onto solid ground, he climbed out himself.
Without hesitation, he tore his helmet off. The freezing air was warmer compared to the glacial ocean but still stung as it met his bare skin. Vessa. He crawled closer to her. She was so cold. So… lifeless. Her lips were blue, her skin gray. That glow that lived within her was gone.
She wasn’t breathing.
She couldn’t die. Not like this.
While gently lifting her chin with numb fingers, he tried to control his body’s shaking. He leaned in and fit his mouth over hers. His fangs were bothersome things, getting in the way, and he was afraid they would mar her skin, but as soon as he got a decent seal, he breathed into her.
Her chest rose. Relief flooded him.
With the second breath, her body twitched.
“Come on,” he rumbled as he placed his fist on the center of her chest and pressed down hard. Once. Twice. But there was no response.
With each try, Kedar grew more concerned. Had the death gods decided to take her for themselves? Was this the price he must pay?
“Vessa,” he growled, “don’t you fucking dare give in.” Because this wasn’t how it was supposed to end. This wasn’t how the greatest Seken warrior he’d ever met died.
On the tenth attempt, her body convulsed.
He turned her on her side just in time for her lungs to expel the water. A quick body scan showed that everything was functioning again. But barely. She was still dying.
Picking her up, he cradled her against his chest. Cold water dripped from him, landing on her cheek.
Her chest rose with shallow breaths. He’d never seen her like this.
Never seen her look as small and helpless as she did right then.
He didn’t like it. Couldn’t reason it. She’d always been loud and bold.
Fearless. He was more than two span taller than her, but she was the one who could move mountains.
Nevskol. He could even feel the death gods closing in.
But the only way they would get her was if he gave her to them himself.
He grabbed his helmet and rose with her. “Hold on, Ves. We’re going to get you warm,” he vowed.
Vessa’s eyes blinked open at his words, her gaze slowly focusing.
On his unmasked face.
“Kedar?” she rasped.
Something in the way she said his name made his hearts ache. As if she were happy it was him. Like she’d waited a lifetime to see his face. The past seven cycles were nothing. Only the thousands of moments they had shared before that fateful, shameful night.
“You came… for me.” She lifted her hand toward his face. It was a torturous eternity, a mere moment. Her fingertips brushed over the scar below his eye, her cold palm rested against his cheek.
“Vessa,” he rumbled as he stared into her half-lidded gaze.
There was no barrier, no lens. His face hadn’t been touched in so long, and never like this.
Like she had witnessed every wretched part of him and still claimed him.
Like she was the one who had earned the right to—his mate.
This was forbidden. He should have put his helmet on the moment he finished giving her breath.
He should put it on now. But honor and ancient law had no place here.
Not when she searched his gaze like it held everything she ever lost. Not here where the foggy puffs of their breath mixed in the space between them.
“Violet eyes with stars,” she mumbled, a hint of a smile on her lips. “Beautiful.”
Her hand fell away as her eyes fluttered shut again.
But her touch and voice lingered long after.