Chapter 70
Zion sat in a white armchair, listening to the hum of the machines as his blood flowed through an apheresis system into his partner’s body.
It was a type of transfusion where blood was drawn from the donor and rapidly processed by a machine, then delivered in a continuous, seamless stream to the recipient.
The moment she collapsed in his arms, the general rushed her to the surgical room Ambrose had prepared before the barrier even fell.
The doctors immediately began emergency surgery to stop the bleeding in her arm.
Kyller had lost so much blood she was at risk of hypovolemic shock, so Zion volunteered to be the initial donor while the team gathered more blood bags.
Thanks to their biological compatibility, the transfusion could be done directly without any red tape.
As he watched the liquid flow from his body to his partner, he could hear the doctors talking around him, but his mind kept drifting back to the irrational fear he’d felt hours before.
He couldn’t shake the images he’d glimpsed in his partner’s mind or the feelings that had consumed him during her fight with the carnicals.
He’d been like a man possessed. He’d never struck anything with as much force as he had that barrier surrounding the test, and during what felt like hours of agony, he’d felt powerless and frustrated.
A thousand times, he’d asked himself what the point was of having so much power if it was useless when the people he loved most were in danger.
He’d thought he was going to lose her after everything.
The pain that gripped him had been physical, threatening to crush his lungs.
Watching Kyller face the beasts had been agonizing.
But when the chimera entered the battle, Zion found himself in a vortex of despair that overwhelmed all rational thought.
He couldn’t explain how Kiara knew her partner needed help.
He couldn’t explain how she’d reached the test so quickly, let alone how she’d shattered the ancient barrier.
All he knew was that witnessing that moment had been like watching his entire life crumble while he stood helpless.
He still felt useless. He’d probably have nightmares about it for the rest of his days.
He cursed himself for being so fixated on the situation that he hadn’t even noticed the animal approaching the dome.
It was an unforgivable failure—one that could have put Kyller’s life in even greater danger if the chimera had meant her harm.
The doctors’ voices pulled him back to reality, forcing him to focus on the surgery.
That’s when he heard it: the carnicals’ saliva contained a poison that acted only on wound surfaces, blocking the feeric’s natural or elemental healing.
They had no choice but to debride all the contaminated skin so Selene could close the arm wound with her elemental power.
This proved complicated—Kyller was resistant to the gift.
Since the power managed to close her arm, the cut on her back had to be sutured instead.
Concern for his partner’s survival kept the general’s mind off the questions nagging at his subconscious.
He knew that news of her recovery would break the dam holding those questions back.
They were nearly finished with the surgery when the nurses arrived with the blood bags.
Selene told Zion he’d given enough and removed the equipment from his skin.
He stood, a little dizzy from the blood loss.
When they tried to escort him out, however, he planted his feet in front of the door.
“I’m not leaving until the surgery is over.”
Ambrose sighed without pausing in his meticulous work on Kyller’s body.
“Leave him in the corner. Partners are like stubborn mules, and Zion in particular drives me up the wall.”
He stayed there, restless as a caged animal, eyes fixed on the operating table.
“How is she?”
“Vital signs are good.” The elmedic glanced at him over his shoulder, expression serious. “Now we’re going to proceed with the debridement, but I need to focus, Zion. If you’re going to stay in the room, you can’t disturb me.”
Zion shut his mouth. As the surgery continued, he paced back and forth.
He clenched and unclenched his hands. He craned his neck to see what they were doing, and when he saw Ambrose discarding a strip of his partner’s skin, he started asking more questions.
The elmedic set down his instruments for a moment and stared at him.
“Zion, I swear I tried to let you stay close, but you’re interfering. We need to concentrate. So for Kyller’s sake, I’m asking you to leave. We’ve finished the debridement and now we’re just going to suture. You can calm down—she’s fine.”
The nurses escorted him out, and this time he didn’t argue.
But he remained planted in the hallway, right in front of the door.
That’s when the barrier of concern finally broke, and all his emotions and thoughts came flooding together.
His mind began spinning with other urgent problems. There were so many he could barely focus on any single one.
When he’d handed Kyller over to the surgeons, he’d requested that one of his most trusted soldiers deliver the device his partner had found inside the carnical to Takeshi—the leader of the Vinturian team.
He’d asked for a detailed analysis of the object, done in complete secrecy.
No other member could know, not even his immediate subordinate, who headed the Vinturian technology team.
Zion remembered the sensation of the ground opening beneath his feet when he’d seen the piece in Kyller’s hand.
He’d recognized the device the moment he saw it.
He remembered the boxes he’d found in the warehouse, the countless rounded lirduino plates he’d ordered delivered to his best friend’s laboratory.
When the barrier had been about to fall, he’d left Kaori and Cauê in charge of evacuating the survivors from the forests.
But now doubts circled his mind like vultures awaiting a disaster, and Zion questioned whether that had been a mistake.
At least it would give Takeshi time before Kaori returned.
He shook his head, silently begging to be wrong. He wanted desperately for there to be a logical explanation for that object. An explanation that didn’t involve his immediate subordinate.
His phone vibrated again. A new message from the technology team with an update.
In the final count, eight students had died, three were in critical condition, and the rest had been injured.
The teams were still extracting everyone from the forest, but the process was slow.
Zion knew he could speed up the search if he helped, but he would never abandon Kyller in the middle of surgery.
His partner instincts wouldn’t let him leave her vulnerable and alone in such a fragile state.
Serguei would tell him this was a weakness—that a general couldn’t let emotion guide him when everything was at stake in the forest. He felt like he was failing his students, but he couldn’t leave. He couldn’t leave her.
An hour passed before Selene came through the door and announced the surgery was over. Zion intercepted her in the hallway.
“What's going to happen with her arm?” he asked, feigning composure.
The elmedic removed her surgical garb and looked at him; the purple circles under her blue eyes betrayed her exhaustion.
“For now, all we can do is close the wound and give her body a chance to stabilize. Rehabilitation comes later.”
He sighed. He didn't know the full extent of Kyller's power, but she certainly wouldn't be able to regenerate an entire arm—no one in medical history had ever achieved such a feat. He shuddered thinking about all the difficulties his partner would face without it.
Selene cleared her throat to get his attention.
“Don't think about that now. The arm is just a detail that can be worked around.” The woman met the general's eyes, slightly uncomfortable with how close they stood. Then she added, “What matters now is that she survived and will be fine.”
With his heart in pieces, Zion nodded and left the hallway.
Δ
Hours later, Kyller was transferred to the recovery room on the top floor.
Zion had requested that room specifically because he knew she feared the basement, and it was as far away as possible.
He'd spent the intervening hours pacing back and forth in the hallway, answering countless phone calls while his boots beat an anxious rhythm.
When he finally got permission to visit her, he entered just in time to see the last doctor leaving the room.
He sat beside the bed, watching his partner with adoration, astonishment, and concern.
The scenes from the battle were still fresh in his memory, and he couldn't calm down.
He couldn't forget the sound of bones breaking; Kyller's screams when she was mutilated; Kiara's yelps as she charged into the battle to defend her and nearly died.
His hands clenched into fists, and he struggled to breathe.
He hadn't been able to act, had been left outside to watch the carnage, and it had nearly driven him insane.
He still couldn't believe they were both alive.
That's why he checked Kyller's heartbeat on the monitor every minute and kept glancing at his phone, waiting for any update about Kiara.
He needed to focus and be patient. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Once, then again, and a third time.
He remembered Kyller recognizing the voice in her head as part of a memory.
He mentally shook himself. He felt so stupid for not noticing this before.
She'd had déjà vu countless times, had reported hearing an insistent voice during dangerous situations, had felt like she'd seen things she'd never actually witnessed.
He rubbed his face once more and went back to pacing the room.