If the Phaedra didn't know about any of this, then they might be able to escape with Luke incapacitated. “Is he okay?”
“I don't know. He was alive when I left.” Nadia placed a scalpel to Zayne's side where Kira couldn't see. “We have to call for help. Zayne needs surgery now if there's any hope of saving him.”
“Call the Phaedra?”
Nadia withdrew a needle and tube. “He won't survive the jet ride. The Phaedra won't let him die.”
Kira doubled over and caught herself before she threw up. After all this, Nadia wanted to turn Zayne in?
“I heard you say you love him.” Nadia glanced up. “If that's true, then you do exactly what I say. Run as fast as you can in the direction I came. Get the hell out of here.”
“I'm not leaving him. The Phaedra will torture him.”
“Then take this scalpel and kill him. Either we do that, or the Phaedra saves his life.”
Kira stared at Nadia and the steadiness of her hands. “What you're doing, can it save him?
“His lung collapsed,” Nadia said. “It'll keep him alive for now. We need to call for help. So leave.”
“What about you?”
She focused, quiet as she worked. Suddenly, Zayne gasped, his chest rising. Whatever she did worked.
Lowering her head, Nadia closed her eyes for several seconds, breathing hard. Then she lifted a bag of blood from a small pack. “I owe him this. I'll have at least two Rivens trying to protect me. I might survive.” Fierce eyes, steady voice. Nadia held her stare with all the authority the Riven's wielded, only she lacked the powerful name to back her up. “You know what you owe him. Don't let what he sacrificed be for nothing. I've broken him before. You don't want to be the one to break him now.”
Luke knelt, eyes closed, arms limp at his side. “Let my brother go. He'll just suffer.”
“You do not want to talk to me right now.” Nadia lifted the bag of blood high in the air while it ran down the tube into Zayne's arm.
“He got Mom killed, and he'll do the same to the girls.”
“You're delusional. Adelle died fighting a war you're too much of a coward to understand. Don't use your daughters as an excuse.”
“They're the reason for everything. I'm begging you to save yourself.”
Their voices faded while Kira watched Zayne, while her heart crumbled away to dust inside her body, because she knew what she needed to do when she'd rather die alongside him.
Kneeling one more time, Kira took his face in her hands and pressed her forehead to his. Cold emanated from his pale skin. Her fingers trembled against him. Breath quietly escaped from him in nearly inaudible moans.
“I'm coming back for you,” she said. “I know you'll be here waiting. I believe in you.” Eyes lifting to Nadia, Kira nodded. “Try to run. It might kill Zayne if he wakes up to find you in captivity.”
Tears lined Nadia's eyes. Kira didn't know anything about her except that Zayne had loved her, and she had broken his heart, but he didn't fall for someone easily. Kira witnessed enough to see what might have drawn him to her.
“If you don't make it out, I'll come back for you, too,” Kira said. “You can do this.”
Nadia's brows pinched, surprise filling her eyes. “You can too.”
She didn't think so. It wasn't possible to walk away. But Zayne needed her, and she'd do anything for him, even leave him behind in the Phaedra's prison, broken and dying, while she gathered an army for him.
Hands running through his hair, Kira kissed his cheek again.
She tore her own heart in half when she rose to her feet. Looking at Zayne one more time, she saw past his pale skin and the blood darkening his blond hair to the man she'd spent her captivity dancing with—pushing and pulling on each other, hiding and peeking, fighting and loving. No matter what he thought of himself, he was the most selfless person she'd ever met. And she'd love him until the day she died. That certainty took root so deeply within her.
His only hope of escape was Kira now, and he hadn't flinched from any amount of suffering to save her. So she had to do this.
Spirit left bleeding out with Zayne, Kira ran for Brock. Ran with blind faith and hope that there was an escape from this place, that she could come back for him, that there was anything waiting for them except for death.
With each heart beat, her heart begged her to yield and return to him. It was the worst thing she could do, leaving him with the Phaedra. But Kira didn't let herself stop.
