Chapter 16
Kedar
Kedar was a wild animal caught in a trap.
He tried to fight the pull of the magnets. Used his entire body, drew from the deep wells of his strength. When that didn’t work, he slammed his free fist into the ice. Over and over again. His knuckles cracked. Bled.
Shattered. Broke.
He didn’t care.
If he had his weapons on him, he would cut off his own hand to go after her.
He shouldn’t have locked in her. The bond that could be formed with knotting was too dangerous.
He thought he had descended into madness before, but it was nothing compared to how he felt now.
Every cell in his body yearned to be with her.
Kedar would pull up this whole cave, destroy entire systems to get to her.
Was there anything else but her? Had there ever been?
The vision had been so clear.
Find Vessa and kill her.
Find her and kill.
Find her.
He laughed, and the sound echoed off the boundaries of his prison. How had he made himself believe he could hurt her? How had he tricked himself into believing that he was anything but wholly and utterly consumed by her. Obsessed with her. Fucking in love with her?
When he decided to bring Nikel to justice that night, he’d lost her even before the trap was sprung. That loss was so blood-damned heavy. But this? He would never recover from this.
Nevskol honor, or the need for clan. He didn’t even have a soul without Vessa. He was a broken Xaal. And every miserable and jagged piece of him belonged to her.
Time passed in a blood-washed blur. Within the display of his helmet, he watched the signal for the plasma dirk move farther and farther away. She was running with little to no rest. The distance between them grew.
She was going to make it to her ship. That untraceable vessel.
And once she did, he’d never see her again.
The blood-stained ice taunted him as he returned to his task.