“Grab his arms,” Rentir said, stooping to grab Thalen’s ankles.
Awkwardly, they rushed his limp figure over the uneven terrain and loaded him into the capacious storage area at the back of the transport. Ven leapt in after him, yanking the back door shut.
“This way,” Rentir urged.
When Sophia stumbled, he caught her by the elbow. Together, he and Cordelia boosted her up into the second row of seats in the transport.
“Hurry,” their driver said over his shoulder, his meaty tail slapping against the back of his seat.
Rentir all but tossed Cordelia into the hovercraft before leaping in behind her. The door slammed shut, and they hurtled up over the tree tops. The sudden silence of the cabin was eerie.Thalen’s labored breaths seemed amplified in the small space. Sophia curled in on herself, and Cordelia could virtually feel the guilt pouring off of her.
She reached out and found her hand on the bench, squeezing it reassuringly. Sophia turned it over, latching on hard as their eyes met.
“You’re safe now,” Cordelia murmured. “It’s over.”
Tears welled in Sophia’s eyes. She slid closer along the bench, rested her head on Cordelia’s shoulder, and let her eyes drift shut.
CHAPTER 31
A handfulof hybrids met them at the hangar with a stretcher, loading Thalen onto it quickly but carefully, save for a few gawking glances at the human females. He wished they’d had an emergency medical transport, but the only one on Yulaira had been stolen away to theGidalanwhen the overseers evacuated. Not that they had ever permitted the hybrids to use it, anyway. When a hybrid was so gravely injured that he could not reach the infirmary on his own, he was ‘retired’ from duty.
Thalen was battered and bloodied worse than anything Rentir had seen. Someone had beaten him half to death long before Sophia had nearly finished the job.
Ven was there at the medpod alongside him, still stewing with anger. “We’re going to talk, you and I,” he warned as they parted ways.
He’d take whatever verbal lashing Ven wanted to unleash on him, just as long as it wasn’t in front of Cordelia. The miners never missed an opportunity to bring up his failings. He would have that conversation with her… eventually, when the mere thought didn’t make him feel like tossing his rations.
Elten was still missing. No one had been able to comm the other male; it wasn’t even rolling over to voicemail. The callsjust didn’t connect. With the state Thalen was in… it was entirely possible Elten was dead.
Cordelia slid her hand down his arm, jarring him from his cynical thoughts as she tucked her fingers into his. She gave him an encouraging but not quite convincing smile as he gazed down at her.
“He’ll pull through,” she said.
Was he so transparent?
“This place is crazy,” Sophia said from a few steps away, turning in a slow circle as she took in the massive hangar. “We’re literally inside a mountain right now.”
Cordelia squeezed his hand before pulling away, and he felt her absence immediately. His fingers twitched as he fought the urge to reach for her.
“Come on, we’ll get you something to eat,” Cordelia said, slinging an arm around Sophia’s shoulders.
He followed her as she made her way confidently toward the recreation area, striding through the halls as though they belonged to her. He wanted them to belong to her, desperately.
He hadn’t given up hope of reaching her. Whatever made her retreat from his affections… it wouldn’t keep them apart. Not when he could see in her eyes that she wanted what he was offering her, at least in the moments before fear crept in and soured her to him. He just needed her to trust him enough to explain what frightened her, and then he would see to it that it could harm her no longer.
There was a chorus of female cries as the pair entered the space, and the humans they’d left behind crowded around, dragging Sophia from one pair of arms to another.
“You look like shit,” Nyx said, holding her out at arm’s length. Her nose wrinkled strangely. “You kinda smell like it, too.”
“It’s nice to see you, too,” Sophia replied dryly.
“We should see you to the medpod,” the demure one, Pandora, suggested. She had Sophia by the chin, turning her face one way and then the other. “You wouldn’t want to get an infection.”
“The Commander, too,” Sophia said, gently extricating herself. “She got hurt fighting a beefcake alien.”
Pandora turned to Cordelia with interest.
Nyx narrowed a glare at her Commander. “What the hell are you doing fighting? I’ve sparred with you, Commander. You can’t even punch without your wrist all wobbly.” Nyx demonstrated a pitiful, limp-wristed strike.
