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We couldn’t scramble back fast enough, holding onto each other as the Zathki rushed back. We stared as the ship sank its belly into the crack, and I dragged Wesley into my arms and held him tight.
He had saved me. By some miracle, this human was a mage.
He’d used my gifts, but he did not yet know the cost.
CHAPTER25
WES
The asshole thought he could leave me? Leave me, like fucking everyone left me, on my own and aimless, back to drifting through life, with no goal and no friends and no one to give a damn if I just up and died one day.
I grabbed his arm and pulled, and when I did, heat flowed through me, almost like when we had sex. I’d known it was different with him than anyone else, but I certainly hadn’t thought... Well hell, I still didn’t know what was happening, let alone what my thoughts had to do with it.
We managed to scramble away from the crack in the ice, the Zathki helping to pull us even farther away when we got some distance, but were winded—a result of not only exertion, but pure terror.
Yes, yes, adrenaline is all the same, but is it really?
I almost lost him.
So I wrapped my arms around Jax and clung as I panted.
That didn’t stop me from looking over my arm, though, where only a moment earlier, there had been scales. Scales! Like a freaking suit of mail armor, but green, and fine, maybe more like a lizard, but who wants to compare himself to a lizard?
Holy crap.
“Congratulations,” Marex said, breaking the stunned silence that had filled the area after the ice had stopped groaning and the ship had come to a rest. “I understand it is considered a joyous day when a Thorzi warrior finds his mage.”
I turned to look at him, eyebrows raised. Mage? Jax had used the term before, but I hadn’t realized he meant it literally. Aliens had wizards? Space wizards? Did I get a laser sword, too?
He was talking about me, right? About the way I had touched Jax and just... known. Known that I could strengthen the armor on his body, make it hard enough to repel even the weight of the ship. That I could touch the spot on his chest and melt the ice into slush, giving him enough room to slide out before the ship fell into it.
Like it was something I was born to do, but simply hadn’t seen it there until I had needed it. Needed it so completely, to save Jax’s life.
But when I looked up to Jax, his face could have been set in stone.
Gone was the usual irreverent grin, the sparkling eyes, the smile lines around his mouth. He didn’t look at Marex, or at me, simply shook his head. “There are no mages. They died.”
Marex’s brows drew together and he started to open his mouth, but he snapped it shut again when Jax gave him a hard look. He merely inclined his head, smile gone, replaced with a more thoughtful expression. With concern.
There was something happening between them, but neither so much as glanced my way.
Like hell. I was some kind of space wizard. Me! They were damn well going to tell me about it, or I was going to have to learn how to choke people with my mind. That had to be a thing, right?
The new engineer approached us, inclining his head and shoulders to Marex, and then to us. “Forgive the intrusion, but perhaps our guests would prefer to watch the repair efforts from over here? Or from inside the tunnels, on a screen. We could set up a feed.”
Jax cocked his head in confusion, and Marex gave a soft smile. “You are concerned for their safety.”
The guy glanced back and forth between Jax and Marex, finally settling on Jax. “I do not wish to offend your warrior instincts, friend, but the surface of Zathkar is a dangerous place in ways that cannot be fought no matter the amount of skill or strength you possess.”
Everyone glanced over at the crack in the ice that had almost taken Jax from me mere moments ago.
Still, Jax frowned, rubbing his chest that must be bruised and looking around at the others, then back at the engineer. “Someone has to make the repairs. Someone will be in danger. How can I request that it be others instead of me?”
“That is entirely true,” Marex agreed with a nod, but then motioned to the engineer. “Thox is not trying to say that you should—or would—make such a request. Merely that while all losses of life are tragic, yours and Wesley’s are the lives that are most precious to us at this time.”
I tightened my arms around Jax as he stared at Marex in shock, mouth hanging open and eyes wide.
The Zathki were hanging a lot of hope on his connection to the court of Thorzan—but what other choice did they have?
