Chapter 69
CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE
AIRIK
“Are you leaving?” Nora asked. She stood by the door, clutching Lucky’s tail to her chest. In the poorly fitting red youth outfit, she suddenly seemed entirely out of place and too fragile to exist.
“My suit—it’s gone, too.” Torren stepped between Airik and her.
“I’ll terminate him myself for this.” He glanced back at Nora, then sighed.
“We’ve both made mistakes, but not yet one that can’t earn forgiveness.
You must come with me. If it isn’t you who retrieves the blade, it will record the discrepancy in handling. ”
Airik didn’t respond to either Torren or Nora. He focused on his breathing, ignoring the increasing pressure in his chest. Torren left to get dressed and then went down the ramp.
The moment they were alone, Nora came to him. “He took your sword. You said a morazir without his sword is as good as dead.”
“I’ve lost my sword before…and I survived.”
“I’ll come with you.” She ran to the ramp. “Lucky can help, and I swear I’ll stay out of the way—”
Airik iced himself, then caught her braid. She pulled forward with astonishing strength. He had to let go before she tore out her own hair.
“Look at me, cheranna. Please.”
Nora’s head whipped to look down the ramp, where Torren would have been.
“I don’t care if he hears,” he finally admitted—both to her and himself.
“You know,” she said, not turning to him.
“Just like you said you can’t lose me—I can’t lose you, either.
” She looked around the room, deliberately avoiding him, as if all the reasons not to leave her were just out of sight.
“You said death hunts while waiting. And now you’re going to make me wait for you? ”
When she finally turned to him, her eyes had welled with tears, as if she was seeing something beyond time itself. A future she didn’t want to be part of.
Sharp pain radiated from Airik’s chest. But he swallowed and said, “Death will not hunt you if you’re alone. Without me.” He pulled a charged gun from the weapons storage for her, hoping she wouldn’t need it. The same kind he’d shown her how to use before.
Nora’s eyes widened as he set it on the bench for her.
“I keep telling you I don’t know how to use a fucking gun!
” She rushed back to him, hooking her fingers into his belt loops.
“Please don’t leave me here. Or send me to a room—like a fucking child.
I can listen. I can stay out of the way. Just…let me come with you.”
Airik lifted her chin, unwilling to let her wilt before him so quickly.
He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to take her here, banishing the loneliness that threatened her.
He wanted to set the drozekar and all of Ed’un ablaze, letting the rest of the universe burn so he could be left alone with her. And yet…
He would not be blinded like his father, who had wanted everything at once. To break oaths and defy the Veynari. To demand love in a world that saw it as an affront to progress. Airik only wanted Nora—he would abide by the rest if it meant he could have her.
And that meant he needed his sword.
“You won’t need to use the gun, but my heart will be lighter if you have it.
No one can open this door but us.” He pointed to the ramp.
“You will wait here and be safe. If you come with me, even if you stay far away, my focus, as I have said before, will only ever be on you alone. I cannot be distracted.”
“You said you wouldn’t tell me no,” she said, pulling him closer. “And that a morazir who lost his sword is either dead or about to be. Did you lie to me?”
He grit his teeth at her cutting accusation. Knowing her words were desperate stones meant to break his resolve did nothing to ease the shock of hearing her doubt. “I didn’t lose my sword—it was stolen from me. Because I was with you—”
Nora flinched back.
His stomach knotted as her expression shifted to shame. Her hands fell away from his waist, like veins tearing from his body as she stepped away.
He had made a fatal mistake.
“I did not say it well.” He caught her. “It wasn’t your fault. Nothing bad is ever your fault.”
He lifted her so her head was above his—a guiding star in his sky. With one hand, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the silver chain. The cross pendant swung back and forth.
“What is that?” Tears filled Nora’s eyes. “Is that…Joe’s necklace?”
“Yes. I fixed it, cheranna. Like I will fix everything for us.”
“I already told you I don’t believe in that kind of thing.” Her eyes widened in realization, and she tried to kick free of his arms. “I don’t want it—why are you giving it to me just to go get your sword?”
Resisting her, Airik released one end of the chain, and the pendant fell into the pocket of his trousers. He slipped the chain into her breast pocket, gently caressing it with the backs of his fingers.
Unwilling to fight her, he kissed her. Possessed her. Until there was no Ed’un, no reapers, no kudra, and no rest of the world. Just a man and a woman so enraptured with each other that the stars, moons, and all matter could collapse into nothingness and still the two of them would endure.
Nora let out a moan, then finally opened to him, letting him take as much as he could. Her mouth was hot and sweet, and nothing could keep him from tasting it again.
“I will come back to you,” he said against her lips. “Everything will be okay.”
When he set her down, she brushed a hand over her pocket with the chain and sighed. After giving him a look she must’ve learned from Lucky to make him suffer, she went back to her designated chair. He stayed where he was, watching her hair swing as she flipped it over her shoulder.
“This doesn’t make me feel any better, but…thank you for fixing it,” she said with a faint smile on her face. “When you come back, you’ll fix everything else, right?”
Airik nodded, rubbing his lip to make the sensation of their kiss last.
“Okay, then I’ll wait. I’m probably going to have to wait for you a lot in the future.” Nora patted her thighs. Lucky jumped onto the bench beside her and wiggled into her lap. “Better get used to it now.”
Before he could be tempted to do otherwise, he went down the ramp, spotting Torren at the far edge of the street, fixated on the ion trail marking the reaper craft’s descent.
Before he closed the ramp, Airik called to Nora. “Demon eyes.”
When she looked up, he said to her, “I love you more than the words I have.”
She gave him a full smile. Lucky made a small bark, making what Airik swore was a nod.
“Close and arm the locks,” Airik told the drozekar.
The ramp ascended, then drew back, melding back into the drozekar’s body. An armored door rolled down from the top of the hatch, sealing the ship and locking Lucky and Nora inside.