Page 152 of Sky’s Edge

I focused on him. “Don’t you have any advice? I mean, don’t they train you to keep your shit together when stuff like this happens?”

“Since demonic fury makes us excellent killing machines…no.”

“Fuck!” I shouted, jumped up and started pacing again. I whirled on him and accused, “How are you calm? I know he’s like a brother to you.”

Instantly, faster than I’d ever seen it happen with any demon, his eyes glowed red.

“He shared,” he said with deceptive quiet. “I’ve known for years what he lived through. What they put him through. I was with him when he learned his mother had died. I was at his side, marveling at his patience, as he pushed his case through the courts to claim what was his since birth. In other words, I have practice keeping a tight rein on wanting to stream a hole through that bitch’s forehead.”

I huffed.

But it made me feel better to know that Tanyn had told his friend about his life, his trials and tribulations, that he had someone loyal like Nayden.

I threw myself in a seat again and stated, “It really sucks you don’t like me, because I like you.”

“You’re growing on me,” he muttered with a lip twitch.

That made me feel better too.

“Controlled breathing,” he said.

“What?”

“Deep breaths in. Hold. Deep breaths out. Ten seconds in. Ten seconds hold. Ten seconds exhale. Ten times. Do it.”

I did it.

I felt calmer after doing it.

So I said, “Thanks.”

He got up and headed toward the cockpit, replying, “Don’t mention it.”

He wasn’t there long before he came back out, resumed his seat and said, “Twenty minutes until landing.”

I nodded, turned and stared at the window to watch the lights in the far distance of Abyssinia get closer.

That twenty minutes felt like two, at the same time it felt like two hours, before we were hovering our landing over the bay behind Berg Castle.

Tanyn and Hurley were there, like always, but as I watched him the entire time we landed, I saw impassive Tanyn was back, and this didn’t give me happy thoughts.

I had to fight back the urge to shove Nayden out of my way so I could get out of that jet first, and to Tanyn.

I bested this.

But that didn’t mean I didn’t race, yes, on heels, to my male.

I grabbed the sides of his neck when I got to him, lifted on my toes, touched my lips to his, rocked back and asked, “Zyr and Manny?”

“They’re here,” he answered, voice tight.

Thank gods.

“And Manny is fine,” he went on.

I tensed, because that was only one half of what was left of his whole family.

“But their escape craft came under heavy fire. The armor partially failed. They took a blast that caught Zyra. She’s in a medi-pod now.”