49. CHAPTER 49
Zayne
The Before-Times
Three Years Ago
The Capital
Kallum, Ciondo
830 P.C. [Post-Collapse]
Cool wind ripped at Zayne's jacket as he gripped Kira on the edge of the building.
Though he'd caught Kira when she fell, it had been a heart-stopping second.
Now she buried her face against his neck, hands clutching his shoulders.
Body pressed so tightly against his that he felt her heart pounding.
She trembled.
“You're okay,” he said, one hand holding the back of her head, his other arm securely around her waist. “I have you. You're safe.”
She nodded.
“You did well tonight. It's almost over. We just need to get to the ground.”
Kira pulled her head back enough to look at her hands on his shoulders, and her gaze climbed up his body to meet his eyes, bashful curiosity flickering in her look. The glimmer of want dropped a weight in his gut, like they both dangled from the ledge.
Zayne had never been shy or oblivious. Kira felt something—whatever it was. Noticing that peeled away the veil between them, the one helping him ignore how nicely she fit in his arms.
Desire looked incredible on her, parting her petite, shapely lips, making her eyes soft and inviting. How would she look getting what she wanted? How would she sound?
That question churned in his center and loosened his chest.
A strand of her dusky hair tickled the sliver of skin at his neck where her hands pulled on his collar.
Her legs were tangled with his, the inside of her thick thigh hugging him.
He felt her all over his body. Felt her melting into him.
And he meant to ignore it, would immediately if she didn't want it, but she seemed seconds away from asking him to do something about it once they were free of this building.
And if she did?
Why not? They'd never see each other again. Never get too close.
The moon was just bright enough for him to make out the faint freckles on her nose and cheeks. Bright green eyes searched his goggles, unable to break through the defense. Moonlight and shadows played across her like a painting.
Kira was beautiful.
Beautiful and full of contradictions. So many contradictions. Both wanting and shy. Fierce and fragile. Brave and easily frightened. Why did all those contradictions make it so hard to look away? Like he needed to stare until he put her pieces together.
It was the first time he hadn't missed Nadia since she left. The first and only few seconds of reprieve. The cold realization washed over him.
That was why not. He didn't know Kira, but she seemed like someone he might have trouble forgetting about.
Dangerous. Nevermind.
“Are you ready?” he asked, hoping she didn't give voice to what had her looking at him like that. Hoping his disguise hid that it infected him too.
A single nod. She bit her lip, and her gaze shifted away.
Zayne lowered himself to the next ledge, anchored his knee against the window, and reached for her. She closed her eyes before she slid a leg over. Stretching, he grasped her foot and then her ankle when she started to lower.
He held her legs tight as she continued down until he could reach her waist and pull her to him. “Got you.”
That millisecond before her feet made contact with the surface ripped a gasp from her.
Zayne had her though. He pushed her back against the window, his body pinning her.
All night they climbed together, this close, blocking out the feel of their bodies against one another.
All night, until she'd looked at him like that.
Now the arms around his neck felt different. Very different.
“One more ledge. Then we'll be close enough to use the ropes to lower you.”
Kira breathed hard, heaving against his chest. Every time he cut her off from his mind, that look on her face slammed her right back into him. He didn't really breathe until he pried himself away from her and dropped to the next windowsill.
Almost done. He reached for her, and they repeated it all one more time. Held each other one more time.
“You don't need to do anything now except let go and trust that I have you,” he said.
Her eyes drifted to where their bodies met, and she nodded.
Zayne withdrew the long rope from his side pocket and tethered it to Kira's harness. Shifting, he carefully turned her to slip her off the ledge.
“You can do this.” He wrapped the rope tightly around his waist and then his arm.
“Thank you,” she said, shaking again.
He leaned back hard against the window, holding tight to the rope as he began to lower her.
“This is horrible,” Kira said.
“Everything is fine.”
Hand over hand, he released the rope less than a foot each time, going slow and checking his hold.
Minutes crawled by, and his entire body burned with the strain, but he just pushed himself back against the window harder, grunting.
His arms were shaking now, but he maintained the same pace and careful control.
Until the weight vanished. What if she'd fallen? He searched the darkness until he saw her standing on the ground, looking up at him.
The deepest sigh he ever remembered unleashing relaxed every strained muscle in his body, and he sank back against the window. Then, Zayne dropped the rope and scaled the rest of the building, not wanting to leave her alone longer than necessary.
By the time his boots landed on the ground, he felt faint from exhaustion, but so full of relief.
“We did it,” Kira said, grabbing him in a hug. A pause, and then she stumbled back.
He smiled beneath the mask. “Let's get you away from here.”
A grin. “No more climbing.”
“No more climbing.”
After spending hours so close to one another, she felt far away just walking by his side. They stuck to the shadows and kept their pace quick until they escaped the office buildings. Now Kira led him.
“I still have time,” she said.
“For what?”
She opened her pack, pulled on thick gloves, and placed one capsule of uranium on the ground. “Watch.”
Nothing happened. But she kept staring, so Zayne did too, curious about what had a civilian running around the manufacturing district with uranium.
By the five-minute mark, he thought she was delusional. “How long do we watch?”
“It'll be any second.”
Any second turned into several more minutes, but her enthusiasm didn't dim.
Something moved in the shadows. He reached for his gun. A tiny black drone flew for them.
What the hell?
Zayne aimed his weapon.
Kira held her hands out to him. “Don't shoot my baby!”
“Your baby?”
The drone flew down to the capsule, extended a short black arm, and pulled the uranium into itself.
“Put the gun away,” she said. “You're making me nervous.”
He lowered it to his side, stunned when the drone flew off.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Making magic.” She crouched, hands covering her mouth. “Three… Two… One…” Her voice was quiet with wonder.
Red erupted by the Phaedra's tower, and Zayne nearly ripped his gun back up on instinct. Instead, he holstered it and staggered forward a step as PXI swirled through the air in lines and curves, until the red streaks began to look like words.
HE LIES
Now Zayne crouched too, unable to breathe or stand.
SEIZE YOUR LIFE
The red words set the sky on fire. And Kira sat before it, one woman, one civilian, without a team or a single weapon, staring at the worst national security threat to ever come so close to the Phaedra's tower.
“Holy fucking shit,” Zayne said.
Kira belted an infectious laugh, erupting with joy and defiance and victory. “Holy fucking shit,” she shouted back at the night. “It worked.”
She didn't take her eyes off the PXI, but Zayne stared at her now, more shocked than he'd ever been in his life.
No one stole the Phaedra's PXI. No one touched his tower.
No one defied him for the entire capital to see.
No one except Kira Fucking Stiles.