"You're hurt."
I followed her gaze down to my own stomach and charred flesh, the edges of the wound blackened. I hadn't felt it during the fight, but now that I was looking at it, and now that my body registered what had happened, pain arrowed through me, spreading from the wound like fire through dry grass.
Jasmine's face started to blur, as the ship tilted sideways, and my knees buckled.
I heard her scream my name as if from a great distance and felt strong hands catching me before I hit the deck. Then there was Venik's voice ordering the pilot to get us back to the warbird.
Darkness was pulling me under, but the last thing I registered was Jasmine's face above mine, her eyes wide with terror and fresh tears glistening her cheeks.
I'd survived years of war, countless battles, and impossible odds, only to fall protecting the one person who'd given me a reason to survive.
Chapter 41
Jasmine
Iran after the two rows of Vandar warriors as they carried Wrexxon off the raiding ship, their bodies creating a human gurney as they ran in perfect step through the massive vessel. I tried to keep up, as they navigated the narrow, suspended bridges and open corridors with the Raas lying unconscious on their outstretched arms. I tried to stay close, but they were so much faster than I was, and they took stairs three at a time and leapt across gaps that made my stomach lurch.
My sisters were behind me somewhere, probably just as lost and overwhelmed as I was, but I couldn't think about them right now. I couldn't focus on anything except the warlord being rushed toward the med bay and the burning sensation scorching my chest.
“Tvekme!” I used one hand to scratch mercilessly at the skin below my collarbone, the heat prickling as if flames licked beneath my flesh.
As the raiders carrying Wrexxon took another turn, my hand slipped from where I’d been touching Wrexxon’s boot, and I fell behind. I raked my fingernails across my searing chest andtold myself I didn't want to slow them down and that the most important thing was getting him help, not me being there to witness it. But the truth was, I was terrified. Terrified and now in pain.
I stopped in the middle of a swaying suspended bridge that stretched across the open cylindrical heart of the warbird, nothing but mesh beneath my feet and a dizzying drop below. Warriors rushed past me on both sides, flowing around me like water around a stone, but I couldn’t move aside. I couldn’t go forward and follow Wrexxon to the med bay, and I couldn’t flee back toward the hangar bay.
I was stuck, overwhelmed, and utterly lost. I couldn't imagine what would happen if the Raas died. Was the universe cruel enough to give me someone who made me feel completely alive only to rip him away?
Then I realized how absolutely insane that sounded. I'd known him for days. Less than a week. You couldn't fall in love with someone in less than a week, could you? But standing there on that swaying bridge, one hand gripping the railing so hard my knuckles went white and the other scraping at my burning skin, I couldn't deny the truth anymore.
I loved him. It was impossible and irrational, but it was true. I loved him. Not just because he was gorgeous, though he was, and not only because he made my body come alive in ways I'd never experienced, though he did that too.
I realized for the first time that I loved him because he was brave, because he was true to his word in ways most people never managed, because he'd risked everything to rescue rebels he'd never met, and because he was willing to sacrifice himself to protect me and my sisters. I loved him because beneath allthat fearsome reputation and controlled violence, he was good and kind and capable of tenderness I'd never expected from a warlord.
A sob hitched in my chest as I realized I might never get to tell him any of that. I might never get the chance to say that I didn't regret becoming his war bride or that if I had to do it all over again, I would walk onto his warbird again. I would choose him. I would choose us.
Then I caught my head in my hands and let the tears fall, Deep, wrenching sobs shook my body as I let all the regret and fear wash over me. Then arms surrounded me. My sisters. Kaya on one side, and Brielle on the other, wrapping me in a hug that required no words.
I let myself sink into their embrace, and for the first time in years, I let myself be comforted instead of being the one doing the comforting.
“It's going to be all right," Kaya whispered, stroking my back the way our mother used to when we were small. The flirty, silly girl I’d left behind had seemingly matured overnight, even her voice was more serious and calming.
"He's strong," Brielle added. "Someone that strong doesn't die from one blast."
I wanted to believe them. I needed to believe them.
I nodded, sniffling, trying to pull myself together. Finally, I pulled back, wiping my eyes with the heels of my hands. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't?—"
"Don't," Kaya interrupted firmly. "Don't apologize for having feelings You’re only human.”
I laughed between tears, gesturing around us at the alien warship. "Not sure being human is a selling point here.”
Brielle tipped her head to take in the sheer impossible scale of the warbird. "This is where you’ve been?”
“With all these Vandar?” Kaya asked, watching raiders stride past with wide eyes. Her question trailed off, and she stepped back to look at me, taking in my leather pants and fur jacket. Then her eyes grew even larger. “What’s happened to your chest?”
I glanced down to the exposed flesh above my cleavage, which was red from my scratching and also etched with dark swirls that matched the ones on Wrexxon’s chest. I almost swooned on the spot. I had Vandar mating marks. “Tvekkinghell.”
“What are those?” Brielle gaped at me. “Did they brand you?”
