Chapter 64 #2
The glow in his eyes blazed, cold and unfocused. “That is not yours,” he said. He grabbed the blade, tearing it away from her.
If she showed even a hint of fear, she knew he would break. Maybe right here. Unsure of what else to do but to look up at the man who had been her savior and lover, she forced a smile onto her face. “I’m sorry,” she said, her cheeks hot and wet with tears. “But I didn’t want you to—”
Torren said something while still holding Xallix against the wall.
Airik stood over Nora, his neck and shoulder muscles rippling like a beast in wait. He was whispering something under his breath.
Cheranna. Cheranna. Cheranna.
“Airik!” Torren’s tone broke into a blistering command.
The next few minutes spun around Nora’s head. Airik left her, and both men pulled Xallix toward the back of the ship.
Still sitting outside the bathroom stall, she dropped her head against her knees, swallowing back tears. A warm, furry body pounced on her just as her sorrow peaked. “Lucky!” she cried, dropping her knees to give him room but keeping her head down to hide her face. “Are you all fixed up?”
He couldn’t be—he still had time left in the healing tube, but someone must have released him so he could be with her.
She hugged him tightly to her chest, hiding the bruises she knew would be forming on her chest and neck, hoping his weight and licks would quell the impending panic attack.
Hers always came slowly, giving dread a chance to dig in.
She heard Airik and Torren come back. Torren continued to the control deck, but Airik paused to toss a pouch of healing gel beside her.
They were all fucked—she didn’t need to be a pilot, an engineer, or a morazir to know it. She wondered if it might be her. Maybe bad luck clung to her, perhaps since the day she was born, inflicting misfortune on those she loved.
Now wasn’t the time for affection. She knew that. But even so, when Airik walked past her, too, her chest constricted, and she squeezed Lucky so hard that he yelped.
Airik took two steps away from her, then let out a desperate sound and spun back around on his heel. He rushed back, kneeling beside her. “Give me your hands,” he said.
Without looking up, she extended her palms. He applied cool healing gel to her palms, lingering long after the cuts were fully covered.
Nora waited for him to let her go and leave. “What happened to Xallix?” she asked.
Airik stopped rubbing circles in her palms. “He won’t touch you again.”
She swallowed. “Is he still alive?”
“…Yes.”
She let out a heavy sigh—relieved that, at the very least, Airik hadn’t killed him. “Will you…get in trouble? For what happened?”
“Look up, Nora,” Airik said.
Her mouth went dry. If Airik saw the marks on her neck, she didn’t know what he’d do.
He spoke the next words with a deadly calm. “Are you afraid of me?”
“No!” She lifted her head, holding Lucky against her chin.
Airik’s eyes locked on her covered throat. “If you’re not afraid, then show me what he’s done.”
“It’ll heal. It’s okay—”
He grabbed Lucky’s collar and pulled him out of her lap. With one swipe, he tore the top two buttons off her jumpsuit, revealing the reddening splotches on her chest and throat. Cold air stung as the raw, cut-up skin was exposed.
An ugly silence grew between them. Airik’s nose flared as he took her in. He looked down the hall, where Torren had taken Xallix.
The sensor’s blinking light above them paralyzed her, but it couldn’t suppress her need to reach him somehow. “Sweetheart, I’m—”
“Okay,” Airik finished for her, still looking down the hall. “I know. Always okay.” His jaw flexed, the muscled cords of his throat moving as he swallowed. “And you’re…sorry. I know that, too.”
There was just a breath of space between them before he suddenly stood, yanking her to her feet.
“I know you understood the words,” he said, his grip on her upper arm tight. “We are trapped—we can’t call for help. And others like Xallix will come. I don’t think I can keep you safe from them if they do.”
“That’s okay—Lucky is up, and he can guard me, too,” Nora grasped at anything that might help.
“Death hunts while its target waits.” He dragged her after him, shoving Lucky out of the way. “You are not safe with me. Not anymore.”
“That’s not true—you’ve always kept me safe.” She struggled to keep pace with him.
“No. He broke your skin. It will hurt so much more in the days to come, and there is nothing I can do for it but watch.” Airik glared.
“Death chases me. There’s no wall to save us like with the ocean.
No height I can take us to get away. If I keep you with me, it’s like putting the blade in your heart myself. ”
She looked up, realizing he’d brought her to the room they’d put her in the night before. “No,” she cried, clutching his waist. “Please, don’t lock me away from you—”
He broke her hold on him and thrust her inside, pushing Lucky after her. “Here is the only place you can wait.”
The lights didn’t come on, and she was thankful for that. Because she didn’t want to stare at the shadow of herself on the walls as she sank into panic and anxiety, weeping as her heart broke.