Chapter 22 #2
I shuddered, and my expression must have said it all.
He peered out from my arms at the churned-up ice and snow below.
In the pale light of his eyes, I could finally see it.
Either the floor had risen, or I’d dropped down further during the quake.
It was only a twenty-foot drop into the snow.
The tunnel leveled off and opened into a horizontal passage that led toward my ship on my left.
The wall of the shaft down on my right had split and broken, and chunks of it had fallen like sheets and pillars across the bottom.
There was no sign of Levant or the savage Naga that had fallen into the pit with us.
“Oh, crap,” Auby said. But on the heels of that very concise but accurate remark came the faint sound of a moan.
We both leaned forward, searching for the source, hoping to hear it again.
“I’m going down,” Auby announced when it remained dreadfully silent for long seconds.
He unhooked his hooves with a click and tumbled from my arms before I could register the change.
I screamed, but he plunged into a thick drift of snow like he’d planned it and lifted his head, and thus his lights, back out to show me he was fine.
“I’ll find him,” he said, and he vanished into the snow.
It plunged me back into darkness, but I could see a hint of light coming through the snow below me.
I’d also seen enough of how the ice had fallen before Auby had jumped.
Even in the dark, I decided it was worth the risk to jump myself.
I pulled the knife from its sheath and began cutting at the rope.
It frayed slowly because it was thick and strong, but then it abruptly snapped, and I fell.
Gasping for air, I dragged myself out of the snow and quickly ran my hands over my body to check that I was in one piece.
Sore, mostly from falling over the ledge and getting caught by the winch’s harness, nothing life-threatening.
Nothing that would stop me from doing what needed to be done.
When I slipped the knife back into the sheath on my belt, I discovered the light source Levant had given me had been hanging there all along.
I’d forgotten I had it in my panic, and I swore in fury that I hadn’t managed to keep my cool.
I was trained to do well under stress, damn it.
You couldn’t train for dealing with the fear of losing a loved one, though, could you?
“Found him!” Auby announced. I flicked my light in the direction of his voice. I discovered that he’d surfaced from the snow beside a particularly large piece of ice. It was over a dozen feet long and at least three wide. The size of a felled tree, and probably just as heavy and impossible to move.
I waded my way through the snow and helped Auby clear as much of it as I could from around Levant’s upper body.
He was breathing, but out cold, and definitely pinned beneath that massive chunk.
“Wake up!” I begged him. “You’ve got to wake up, Levant.
” I didn’t think it would help, but when I touched his face, I saw the faintest glimmer of his sigils light up beneath his chin.
His mating marks still responded to my presence, and that gave me a spark of hope that he’d make it.
He blinked, a golden glimmer in the dark.
“Felicia?” he asked. The rage from before was gone, and I saw my Shaman again, my sweetheart, with all the kindness he carried.
The male I’d fallen in love with because he was just too sweet not to, who needed me to make sure he got what he needed before he gave too much of himself away.
“I’m here! You’re pinned, love. Auby and I will get you out.
” Auby chirped and helpfully continued digging at the snow packed all around him.
Then the ground shook, an aftershock, or the precursor to the next massive tremble.
It wouldn’t stop until I’d put an end to the Future’s failing FTL drive once and for all.
Now that I knew Levant was alive, I didn’t want either of us to die, but I was pretty sure self-destruct was my only option.
“Your ship, Felicia,” he moaned. “You must go to it now. Leave me.” I shook my head, even though I feared that he was right.
We couldn’t possibly survive another quake; it would collapse the tunnel to the ship, and then I’d never be able to stop this.
“This is your only chance to go home,” he murmured. “You must take it.”
I blinked, stared at his handsome face, certain I’d heard him wrong. “Wait, you want me to leave?” I said, so confused, with a stirring of hurt in my chest. It wasn’t fully blooming, because I was certain I was misunderstanding him somehow.
Levant shook his head, a moan escaping his chest. “I don’t want you to leave, but I am pinned, and you want to go home.
I would never stand in the way of your dreams, sweet mate.
” Holly Hannah, this guy… I was crying, and the tears froze on my lashes.
I didn’t care. How could he say that? He’d dreamed of a human mate, gotten himself exiled because of that fervent desire.
Did he not take anything for himself, demand his own needs be met?
He was too selfless, too sweet. No, I could never leave.
I had to be here to protect that massive heart of his.
“I’m not leaving you,” I said to him. “You have a home too, Levant, and it matters just as much as mine. More. Because yours still exists; mine is just a memory. We’re staying, you big lunk.
I love you, and your dreams are as important as mine.
Got that?” He nodded slowly, a smile curling at his mouth.
I pressed a kiss to it, and then another, because I hadn’t told him yet that these were probably our last moments together anyway.