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I'm scrambling, slipping, panicking, covered in cake as I try to reach him. The fact that his attacker is still attached to him is one I'll deal with when I get to?—
Tesq stomps forward and grabs the alien by the neck, squeezing until I hear a pop. The brain of the other monster erupts from its head like a piece of popcorn and flies across the room. For two distracted seconds, I watch it before I'm on my hands and knees, crawling toward Chase. Toward Em. Toward both of them.
I stretch my hand out in front of me, soft snowflakes streaming from my palm to pack around his wound.
Beside me, Tesq stomps off with a roar to face another threat.
In front of me, Chase pants, gasping.
Fuck. Oh fuck. How bad is it?
I crawl closer, reaching for him, when suddenly, my shoulder's wrenched from behind. I'm picked up and tossed over a shoulder with a thump that knocks the wind from my lungs a second time. I can't cry out, can't speak, can't make a single noise, as I'm carried out of the room by some unknown foe.
37
ALIANA
“Let go of me, asshole!”I struggle futilely to escape the monster, but it’s no use. Beating on his back has zero effect. He’s so much stronger than me that I feel like a rag doll in comparison.
And, not for the first time since we entered the Empire State Building, I feel fear. True, genuine terror that siphons the oxygen straight from my lungs. I can’t reach for my final jewel, and when I shove ice magic at him, my power fizzles ineffectively against his spine.
He chuckles but doesn’t stop moving. Instead, his entire body turns crystal clear, and his footsteps start to clink. The cold radiating from him chills the air, and I realize that he’s turned himself to ice—my powers are useless against him.
What the fuck am I supposed to do?
When I was a member of the human resistance, I didn’t give a lot of thought to my mortality. It was a given that I would die at some point in my line of work. It’d be a miracle if I made it to forty. I can’t say I ever really feared death. It waslifethat scaredme—the horrible possibilities of what would become of me if I were to get captured.
But that was before I met my mates.
Before I realized what it meant to love someone and be loved in return.
Before I knew what it felt like to be a part of a team.
And right now, it’s notmylife I’m worried about. No, I could give less than a damn about that. Sure, I don’t want to die, and I’ll fight with everything I have to survive, but my impending demise isn’t what freezes my joints in place and sends chills down my spine.
I can still see Chase’s handsome face etched in agony as he falls to the ground, bleeding profusely from the wound in his stomach.
Oh god.
Chase…
Em…
What were those idiots thinking? How dare they throw themselves in front of me? How dare they sacrifice themselves for me? How fucking dare they? They can’t die! Don’t they know what that’ll do to me?
A startling revelation settles in my gut like a lead weight.
I forgive them.
I forgive the Empty Man for trying to kill me when he misguidedly believed that doing so would save my existence.
I forgive Chase for being an arrogant asshole who put my life above everyone else’s in the resistance.
And more than any of that, I care for them.
Maybe even love them.
And I’ll never be able to tell them.
