Page 147 of The Bonds of Indigo

My smile cuts short the moment he whips toward the girl and lunges at her. A wild, burning anger explodes through the bond between us.

“No, Kayn!”

Before his strike can land, she’s gone—vanished in a swirl of dust and flecks of black, leaving no trace she’d ever stood there except in my memory.

“Hey, hey!” I rush the few steps to him, grabbing his arm and forcing him to face me. His pupils are blown wide, his entire body so rigid I’m afraid he’ll shatter if I’m not careful.

His shoulders rise and fall as he drags in air he doesn’t even need, and though he looks lost in his fury, he doesn’t lash out at me.

“I’m right here.”

I’m not going to pretend this isn’t justified; he watched me get ripped through the gates of the Beyond by a Grimhorn. His fear and rage are understandable. Swinging at Azahara? I understand the impulse.

A presence forms behind me, and Kayn’s gaze snaps over my shoulder.

“I’m friendly, I swear,” the redhead says softly.

I grip his arms, guiding his hands up until they’re cupping my face. “Kayn… I’m okay. She’s not the reason I was taken. She saved me.”

He blinks rapidly. Then slowly, his gaze drops from Azahara to me, and I watch him come back to himself. His hardened expression melts into pure relief. And by Vendra herself, my heart does too.

Especially when he whispers in a shaky voice, “I’ve never been so terrified, Amarah.” He leans in, arms wrapping around my neck as he pulls me tight against his chest. “I thought I’d lost you. Fucking Beyond…” Only now do I realize he’s trembling. His fingers slide into my hair, and he buries his face in the curve of my shoulder, holding me like he’s afraid I’ll vanish again.

“You’re okay… you’re okay,” he chants. “I don’t know what I’d have done…”

I wrap my arms around his waist and hold him just as tightly. The care pouring off him is overwhelming. I swear I could cry from it.

I nuzzle my face against his collarbone, smiling. “Thanks to Azahara, here. She completely obliterated the Grimhorn.”

He exhales shakily and lifts his head from my shoulder. I glance up at him and see his eyes fixed over my shoulder on the girl.

“You?” he asks.

He loosens his hold enough for me to turn, and I see her simply smiling. She doesn’t react to the obvious disrespect Kayn—and, in a way, I—showed her. She can’t be taller than five and a half feet, and she looks so gentle. The kind of person I’d imagine curling up with on a couch to watch a movie. Not someone who vaporized a Grimhorn without even touching it.

“Me,” she says. “It’s nice to meet you…”

“Kayn.”

A flicker of hurt pulls between her brows. “Lovely name.”

Jealousy shouldn’t flare in me, but stupidly, it does.

“I had a friend with the same name. I haven’t heard it in… what feels like hundreds of years.”

Great. Now I feel like an absolute ass for the jealousy. It dissolves into a warm churn of guilt in my chest.

Kayn wraps an arm around my neck, keeping my back flush against his front.

“You look no older than twenty-five,” he says. “Did you just say hundreds?”

She nods. “I’m not human.”

That’s the second time she’s used that word. Human.

“Anyway,” she continues, “would you mind telling me what year it is where you’re from, and your planet’s name?”

“3126,” I answer. “Earth.”