65. CHAPTER 65 #2
A haze of pain disoriented him. Shadows shifted in the corners of his eyes, convincing him whoever set this trap came for them now, but he only saw darkness when he looked. If not for Kira holding him close, he might have lost himself to the dead lurking in the trees.
But he only felt her.
Why did everything always have to fall apart?
For a moment, they were back on the window ledge when she'd fallen, and he'd caught her. The adrenaline coursed through him, and she clung to him with her hand against his chest.
Their eyes met, his ragged breath falling heavy over her face. He hated the terror weaving into her eyes.
Her gaze fell to where her hand smoothed over his bare chest, pressing into his scar.
Where their bodies melded together. Her skin against his felt so comforting.
It would feel incredible to lie in the grass together and let the earth take all this weight.
Nothing between them. Warmth against warmth.
His mind was drifting, detaching, and he needed to stay present.
“Ready?” she asked, eyes no longer on him. Voice shy.
He nodded.
Zayne steeled himself for the pain, but there was no preparing for something like this. Together, they both worked to get him to his feet, and his abdomen tore, like hands ripped his wound wide open.
He froze, bent over, Kira's arms shaking with the effort of holding him up.
“It's okay,” she said through tears.
He didn't want to scare her, but he couldn't keep himself from gasping as he stumbled his first step forward, fighting with all he had to rise up more. His weight nearly knocked Kira over. She stumbled with him.
“There,” she said. “That's it.”
Kira stopped to pull his pack onto her back and the cat's carrier over one shoulder. Then she picked up his jacket and helped him slip into it. While they walked, she fastened the buttons for him.
He was freezing.
“Thank you,” he managed.
“Can you take more pain medicine?”
“No…” He needed to stay awake. Something waited for them in this darkness.
“What do you think happened?”
“Sabotage… A game…”
They were not simply walking into a trap. They were in the middle of one, and their hunter toyed with them.
Zayne had to get her as close to Brock as possible.
Why hadn't the Phaedra already sent in troops to secure him? Why leave Graves in his path?
“We need a distraction,” she said.
Looking at her, all he could see was the blurry smears of blood covering her. It was the last thing he wanted to do to her—to cover her in blood again.
Their mission and hope bled out just like Zayne, in a fatal wound that abandoned them to linger until that last moment came. The Phaedra would have his fun, and then he'd destroy them.
There was no reason to believe they could escape this trap, but Zayne refused to surrender. Kira wouldn't either.
“Right now… We walk…” When Brock arrived at their rendezvous point and found them missing, he'd come looking. Eventually, Zayne wasn't going to be able to shoot his gun, or walk, or stay awake.
“If I used the uranium, maybe he wouldn't have shot you.”
“No, he might have fired while he still aimed at my heart… You did the right thing.”
“This all happened because I didn't notice the branch.”
“It gave me… the chance to shoot…”
He desperately searched for a single idea to escape whatever they walked into, but his mind was as empty as the starless sky. And it was only becoming harder to think.
Zayne might not need to change their plans. The Phaedra probably didn't know about the jet. What if Kira disappeared into the trees and ran to the van? Could he get her to do that?
Then again, she'd never killed anyone and had never shot a gun. At least if she stayed with him, he could shoot someone. Soon, he wouldn't manage that, though.
“What are you thinking?” Her voice strained against the burden of his weight. “Don't leave me out of the decisions.”
“Whether we should stay together…” His steps slowed as he struggled to force the words out. He couldn't get enough air. He wasn't sure where the bullet was inside him or what it had hit, but he wheezed for every breath.
“I'm not leaving you,” she said. “Don't waste your time thinking about it.”
“When I pass out…”
Shit. He swayed, unable to find solid ground.
Kira shouldered more of his weight, grunting. “This is what we're doing. We'll travel as far as we can together. If you lose consciousness, I'll run to Brock.”
A knife stabbed and twisted inside him with every heartbeat, slicing away at his body.
“Brock knows where to find us,” she said. “And I won't leave you as bait for the Phaedra.”
Too hard to talk. He squeezed her shoulder instead, fingertips feeling her, taking in the relief of her warmth and touch.
Mustering all his breath, he said, “I need you to live.” She must have understood the rest. Dying with him didn't help him.
If Kira did leave him and found Brock, then they shouldn't come back for him. They should drive out to the clearing, get on that jet, and not look back.
She gripped him tighter. “We're both going to live. We can't give up.”
He wouldn't give up. He wasn't. But Zayne didn't know how to stop death if it came for him, and he didn't want her succumbing to it because she refused to walk away.