Zayne couldn't stop himself from smiling, seeing the Phaedra throwing the vase at his father again, watching Kira's words explode in the sky. “Yes.”
“Is it what you expected me to do with that drone?” Kira asked.
Zayne met her gaze because she didn't deserve the way he ignored her. Those eyes brimmed with defiance and kindness, and damn it, did that combination disarm him every time. “You're never what I expect.”
Her admiration from the night before danced against his skin. The way she looked at him pried him open. He did everything not to see it, but he could feel her burning. Breathed in her desire instead of air. And how the fuck did he ignore that? He waged his own war not to remember, not to look, not to think or feel. Not to want. One glance from her—one bursting with the forbidden—cut through every defense and awakened him with a roar, even if the look lasted a fraction of an instant.
It was a problem.
For so many years, Zayne grew accustomed to the shifting in the shadows and the flashes of blood. To the nightmares that crept into the day. He learned to steel himself and ignore it until it passed.
The same happened to him right now, only instead of death and horror, he felt lips and heat. Saw Kira's mouth open while he whispered against her tongue.Heard her breathy gasp. Bits and pieces of a puzzle he refused to put together, just like the gray fingers and red puddles.
Only nothing like them at all.
Last night, her message in the sky plunged him into the past, and the feel of her overcame his hands—the generous slope of her hips curving to her back, falling and falling into an endless dip. Her silky hair running between his fingers. The smoothness of her cheek along his thumb.
“I thought you'd be mad,” she said with her little rasp.
Her insistent stare tugged on him until he looked back at her. “This is your world. You're the expert.”
Vulnerability shown with the emerald of her eyes. “No matter all the awful things that come of this?”
“There's never only one shot in war. Open fire, and it'll come from all directions. Stand strong.”
“Okay.” She wet her lips with her tongue, looking nervous. The texture of it sliding along his—
“Fuck.” Zayne turned back toward the house and started walking.
A few stunned seconds of silence passed before Kira called after him. “Zayne?”
He gritted his teeth. “I need to do something.”
“Now?”
A growl rolled from his chest. “Yes.”
The footsteps stopped. “What did I say?”
“Nothing.” The word erupted from him. “I have shit to do.”
When she didn't follow after him, he almost turned back for her to promise she did nothing wrong, but he couldn't allow the current ripping him toward her to gain anything on him. He needed to run. To flee for their lives.
Why did Mom attack his willpower with impossible hopes when he already fought so hard not to fall apart?
CHAPTER 38
Zayne
The Territories
United Base, Caspador
833 P.C. [Post-Collapse]
Zayne hoped the plan to break into the United base and question Becka Rogers would fail on its own, but his brother was too good at this. It all went according to his infuriatingly impressive plan.
This wasn't an easy mission to sabotage.
