CHAPTER 43
YIRI
I droppedout of the vessel before the pilot gave the all clear. I know the depth of my own damned lagoon. I could wait around for them to fuss about altitudes and safety, or I could get to myAneahbefore something happened to her. No choice to be made.
Qhev’in’s halting bark cut through the air as I dropped. I didn’t even feel it. No force in the universe could stop me now. I hit the water with a splash and started swimming with everything I had, cekets parting for me, racing alongside me as I pushed through the lapping waves. I caught a glimpse of the deck as I fought the water, a trickle of relief seeping in at the sight of Xokat stumbling from Qhev’in’s bark. I dove under again, spearing through waves made choppier by the descent of the vessel behind me. When I resurfaced, I looked up again only to stop dead in the water as myAneah, my gorgeous fucking wife… shoved Xokat off the deck. Off the deck and into the ceket infested lagoon.
My friends took their prey. They knew what to do. Part of me howled with fury that I didn’t get to make him hurt for the fear and pain he’d caused us. The rest of me roared with pride that Cora took that into her own hands. Xokat’s screams filled the airas his blood mixed with the blue water of the lagoon, the red, frothy foam obscuring the worst of the attack from view.
I started swimming again, my moment of shock and awe giving way to my need to hold Cora in my armsnow.
“Yiri!” Her cry cut through Xokat’s pathetic dying wails. “Oh, god!Becareful,baby!”
I chuffed a laugh, water spraying before I dove again, kicking hard and pushing with all my strength as my arms cut through the now churning water.Baby. Never thought my chest would fill with so much pride at being calledbaby.MyAneahworried about me, but I was safe enough. I’d have to swim into the thick of the frenzy to be in any real danger. I bypassed it and grabbed the edge of the deck right where Cora stood, hauling myself up. Before I could get my feet under me, she leapt with a sob, throwing her arms around my neck and her legs around my middle. I groaned with relief, catching her to me and stumbling only a step before I held us both safe and strong.
“Aneah.”
“I’m sorry about the mercenary,” she said, hugging me close. “It was a shock, I guess, but you saved me, and I froze you out.” She kissed my neck and then my face, the salt of her tears mixing with the saltwater on my skin. I was wet through and soaking her pink dress, but the damned thing was ruined already.Fuck!The snarl in my throat couldn’t be stopped.What did he do to her?But she kept apologizing between her peppered kisses. “I get it, though. I swear I do! Sometimes you have to kill a guy. As long as you don’t go on some kind of senseless killing spree, I’ll assume you have a good reason. I’ll know you’re doing what you need to do.”
“Aneah.”
“I won’t freeze you out again. I was going to tell you at the party. You were going to come outside, and I was going to tell you then, but then everything happened so fast, and Xokatwanted to sell me. And then he left me alone with that guy, and I had to kill him. SoI get it. Sometimes you have to. And it’s soquick. The knife goes in soeasy. It’s not hard, but itishard. And at the same time itisn’t, you know what I mean?”
“Fuck,” I choked out, holding her head in my two hands and making her look at me with those beautiful eyes. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”Her makeup, usually perfect, was smudged to shit, coming off under the pads of my thumbs as I held her gaze. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “I’m-I’m okay. I’m scared. Or I was. But you’re here. AndI flew the cruiser!All by myself. God only knows where I was, but I found Covara, and then I kept going. They did something to the navs, but I found your spot and the cekets made like a circle?” She held up a finger, looping it around in the air. “In the water. I was worried I might land on top of one of them, but they were likeright here, Mom!And I set it down in the circle and didn’t crash at all.”
“Such a good girl,” I said with a watery chuckle.
“And I dragged the guy out here and dumped him,” she rattled on. “We need a new bed, by the way. He died on it. I took his shoes off? Because that seemed better for the cekets. I didn’t get Xokat’s shoes. Will they be okay? Should I have stripped them down? I didn’t want to. I hope that’s?—”
“Cora,” I said, bumping my forehead to hers. “Stop. You did everything perfectly.Youare perfect.”
“The cekets?—”
“They can eat anything,” I said. “If they don’t like it, they drop it. Forget about the cekets.Are you alright?”
“Yes.”
“You’re not hurt?” I needed to look at every inch of her and be sure, but I couldn’t bring myself to put her down. Not yet. “What did they do to you?”
“Drugged me.” She made a scrunched face. “It was some nasty shit, too. I thought all your drugs were top tier here. I had a headache like you wouldn’t believe. It’s a little better now. I ate some zibe fruit before I found the patches and put some on Xokat. He was flying after I woke up.”
“There was another male?”
“In’vion,” she said, the scrunch deepening. “Don’t freak out, because I haven’t had time to freak out about it yet, andhe’s dead, Yiri.”
“I won’t freak out,” I promised.
“He tried to kill me,” she said, her voice smaller and quieter than before. “In our bed.”
Every muscle in my body went taught with barely restrained wrath.
“Your phase blade was under your pillow.”
I swore, squeezing my eyes so tight I saw shapes on the insides of my lids. “Cora....”
“It was easy,” she said, her voice still too small. “You know? He was a person, and I know I should feel bad about killing him, but I don’t.”
