“I’ll break her ribs if I go much harder.”
“Better a broken rib than dead,” she says in a deadpan tone.
I push my whole body's weight onto her chest. With a violent cough, water pours from her lips. The queen’s body seizes as she chokes on the saltwater that leaves her body.
I pull her into a sitting position and pound my fist on her back several times. Her cough is rough and sounds painful, but she’s alive!
A fi’len worker hands me a blanket, and I wrap her in it, rubbing my hands up and down her arms as I try my best to warm her against my own body.
“Opal!” Ke’ain shouts as he drops from the pod bay door of his tactical cruiser. I’ve never seen him move so quickly as he sweeps Opal’s body from my arms into his own.
“Medics!” He waves over a crew of healthcare workers.
I pull the shaking human beauty back into my arms.
“Are you all right?” I ask.
“All right is subjective,” she says, “but I’m not dead. My name is Jessy.” She pushes her forehead into my side and wraps her arms around me.
“I’m Gra’eth.”
“Gray Seth?” she asks.
“Yes, my given name is Gray Seth,” I say, although I feel my sarcasm is lost on this one.
“Thanks, Seth—for, you know, not letting me drown.”
“Thank you for helping me save the queen,” I whisper back.
“No shit? So Opal wasn’t lying. Makes me feel a lot better about crashing the bus.”
“I’m sorry, you what?”
CHAPTER14
?WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, KEANU??
?KE’AIN
Opal’s so cold.Her blue lips are slowly regaining their color, but her freezing and bruised body is a shock to my system.
Seeing Gra’eth hovering over her lifeless body made the bile rise in my throat.
Three medics surround us, each referring to their data pads for human vitals as they check her over. Her tiny shivering hand snakes under my arm and she nuzzles her face into my chest.
“The other women,” she rasps, “make sure they try and save the other women.”
Opal pulls her head up, looking over my shoulder. When I turn my head, I see several fi'len men trying to clear the lungs of the other passengers on the bus. There are soldiers, food vendors, medics, and fi’len of every class helping these poor humans from what would have surely been a watery grave.
Even sarcastic and cold Gra’eth is cradling a pale red-haired human in his arms.
“They’re trying, Opal.” I hand her wrist to the medic beside me, and he pushes a syringe of medicine into her vein.
“Ouch, Ke’ain!” she gets out between coughs.
“No shots, I know, but this will help warm you up, Opal.”
“The driver is dead, but what about the others who came for me…oh god, Al’frind?” Her face switches from annoyance to pain.
