“I've got you,” Kira said, holding onto him. He was too heavy for her arms to make a difference, but her touch felt peaceful.
Soon, he struggled to his knees.
“Take a break.” Kira slid beneath his arm and shouldered some of his weight.
Fuck…
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 herin blood again.
