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He clutched his stomach tighter, expecting to feel a spear piercing him, expecting to hear his mate’s cry of despair. The images rose in his mind once more.
Everything came rushing back at once. The pain in his body, the agony in her eyes… Hertearsas she’d–
Ezul’s head snapped up, eyes narrowing on the healer. “Where is my mate?” he snarled, pushing himself up from the healing pod.
“Please calm–”
“Where is she?” he bellowed, standing shakily to his feet. “Cordelia!”
The healer jumped at the confused rage in Ezul’s voice, turning and fleeing from the room. Leaving him alone.
Alone…
Cordelia wasgone.
The room closed in on him, his legs threatening to buckle. His world was collapsing in on itself, and there was nothing he could do except welcome its destruction.
Ezul ripped off the cords stuck to his bare chest, yelling for Cordelia again, hoping he was mistaken, that he’d hear the beautiful lilt of her voice calling to him. See her smile. Feel the warmth of her body against his.
He had to be wrong, had to be misinterpreting that moment in the woods.
Frantic, and ignoring his too-shallow breaths, he snatched up a pair of leathers that had been folded neatly on a desk nearby.
The room was so bright, hurting Ezul’s eyes, and he snarled as he dressed quickly.
Jakkar stepped quietly into the room before Ezul could leave, holding up his hands to stop his son from storming past.
“I have to find Cordelia,” Ezul snapped, though his breath caught on the words, almost as if his lungs had stopped functioning properly. “I have to find my Runa.” Tears pricked at his vision but he blinked furiously, willing them away.
Jakkar’s expression softened, his own eyes shining with a similar sorrow. Ezul could barely breathe, watching his father’s expression like it was a death sentence.
“You were severely injured, Ezul. You nearly died. I have waited weeks to see you well again, and your wounds have only just healed.”
Nothing about him was healed. There was a giant chasm in his chest, expanding with every breath, with every memory that returned.
“I am fine,” Ezul snapped, though more images assailed him, flashing through his mind. His Cordelia in tears, sobbing his name, her face filled with terror, her eyes…so full of anguish as she’d activated that key.
Ezul clutched his chest, allowing his father to guide him back to his bed, his legs finally giving out as he landed on the mattress. He felt broken. And he didn’t know what to do.
“She’s truly gone, isn’t she?” He sounded as lost as he felt, staring hollowly at his father while he waited for an answer he didn’t wish to hear.
“Vermile forced her back to Earth three weeks ago,” Jakkar confirmed softly.
Ezul shook his head, refusing to acknowledge the truth he felt in his very soul.
“No, that cannot be. She is pregnant with my child. She would not go. She is my mate,” Ezul said in disbelief, his voice breaking. “She would not leave me.”
“I fear she was not given a choice in the matter,” his father stated, the pain evident in his own voice. “She made a sacrifice in the hopes of keeping you alive. It was noble–”
“I do not want her to be noble! I want her to be here!” Ezul’s body shook as he stood, staring wildly around the room. He ran a hand down his face. He had to fix this! It couldn’t be true. “I cannot breathe,” he whispered, his throat closing up with each failed inhale until he was gasping for air.
Jakkar shouted for a healer and two males stepped into the room, Kylok following closely behind.
“We will have to sedate him,” one healer informed Jakkar.
The room was spinning, everything was spinning. As a male stepped forward, needle in hand, Ezul shoved him away, stumbling forward. He needed to go! He had to find her. She couldn’t be back on Earth; she’d been unhappy there. Alone. And now she was carrying theirchild–
Ezul didn’t see his father approach from behind, panic and despair holding him tightly in its grip.
