“Vay,” he rasped.
She pointed to herself. “Isobel.”
His eye shields flashed red, and he sniffed audibly. She wanted to say something else, something that could comfort them both, but she found there were no words to do so. Instead, they stared at each other—each an extension of Ved.
And that would have to be enough.
Suddenly, a roar split the humid air. It was a war cry—a primal threat and a violent promise. Isobel turned to look at the gathered Xaal. They shifted on their feet and rolled their shoulders back as if they knew what force was coming for them.
Kravis’s eye shields burned red, and he tried to straighten his spine. He rasped something, the sound thick and guttural.
A knowing settled in the chambers of Isobel’s heart.
Ved was here. He’d come for them.
Chapter 36
Isobel
The night deepened around them, but hope flared through her as bright as any burning star.
The only lights now were the lime-colored illumination from a moon obscured at her current angle and the dancing flames at the center of the islet. Through the fog, Isobel could make out the edge of the water in all directions, but the Xaal stared across the lake like they could see much further.
They were waiting.
Breathlessly, she searched the darkness for any sign of him.
Despite the uncomfortable position they’d tied him in, Kravis, too, peered up from his kneeling spot. He ignored the thick cord that dug into his throat as he did.
She knew when Ved arrived because a palpable ripple ran through the Xaal gathered in front of her. And something pulled at her, a familiar magnetism, like she’d suddenly entered a planet’s orbit again.
Then two glowing eye shields appeared, rising from the dark depths, piercing through the fog. The swamp poured off his armorwith each step he took to shore. His presence was otherworldly—a death god stalking forward.
Ved.
This was not the space sailor who had danced with her under the moon between the hedges. Who had met her in the rain, called her a lethal weapon, and touched her.
This was the focused hunter. The deadly warrior. This was Ved Qon Cleave.
A rolling growl full of deep clicks came from him. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up at the pure terror the sound evoked. He threw something down, and it bounced and rolled until the Qon of Clan Rax stopped it with his foot.
Isobel recognized it as a Xaal helmet. The Qon kicked it aside, unbothered by his lost man.
Ved said something, his voice harsher than she had ever heard it.
The leader replied, splaying his hands.
She needed to know what was being said. Isobel didn’t want to take her eyes off Ved or leave Kravis, but she glanced at Andrix standing nearby and watching the exchange. He stood far apart from the other Xaal as if he didn’t want to be seen as part of their clan.
When she glanced back to Kravis, he was wholly focused on his bruvya. She approached Andrix slowly, not wanting to draw attention to herself. “What is going on? What are they saying?” she whispered as she came to his side.
Andrix didn’t answer her right away, but when he did, he seemed unbothered. “Ved Qon Cleave has accepted the blood challenge. They will fight to the death. To the victor goes the clans.” The other Xaal gathered were saying something now, and Ved responded to each in kind with a single word.
She hadn’t prepared herself for what it would be like to see him standing there, to see him threatened. Everything depended on this single moment. His life, hers, and Kravis’s. It made her want to fight, to take his hand and wrench him away from this dreadful place where only ruin could be found. Something frenetic surged through her.
“I won’t allow it,” she said, making to march forward.
Kravis growled something, and Andrix swung his arm out, stopping her advance. “If you try to stop it, you will either die in the process or distract him. The best thing you can do for him is witness him.”
