"Safe," I said, feeling their presence through the bond, that constant awareness I'd developed. "I'm hurt but the pregnancy is fine. He struck bone, sparing the child."
"You climbed up here with cracked ribs to see if I was alive."
"Had to see it was over." I leaned against him carefully, mindful of both our injuries. "Had to know you were alive and it was finished."
"We need to verify Vhel is actually dead. Need to see the body and make sure he's not somehow surviving down there." He was studying me, calculating. "But you're injured. The descent?—"
"I can do it. Just slower than usual."
"Hallie—"
"We need to be sure," I interrupted, meeting his eyes. "If he survived the fall somehow and we don't check, he could come back when we're vulnerable. I can handle the climb."
He hesitated. But he nodded.
The descent took forty-five minutes instead of the usual thirty.
Every movement sent agony lancing through my flank in waves. I had to stop multiple times just to breathe through it, to let the sharp agony subside enough that I could continue. Drav stayed close the entire descent, ready to catch me if I fell, ready to fly me down if it became too much.
We found Vhel at the bottom.
The fall had killed him—no question about it. Body broken in multiple places, wings shattered beyond any possibility of survival. No doubt. No chance he was somehow alive down here in the darkness.
"That's both of them," I said, looking at the body without satisfaction. "Kethar's entire alliance. Dead."
"Yes." Drav stared at Vhel's broken form. "Young. Strong. Would have been a good mate for someone if timing had been different, if he'd had more seasons before the sickness took him."
"But he attacked us instead."
"Because he was desperate. Because this system kills males who can't find mates fast enough, kills them slowly and painfully." Drav turned away from the body. "I was lucky. You came through the portal when I still had time left. One more season and I would have been them—attacking bonded pairs, trying to steal what I couldn't earn, dying desperate and alone."
He sounded hollowed out by loss. Not for Kethar or Vhel specifically, but for all the males this brutal system killed. For the mathematics that said only bonded pairs survived while everyone else died slowly.
"We should go back up," I said, because the chasm was cold and dark and oppressive in ways that made my skin crawl. And because my ribs were intensifying.
"Agreed."
The climb back up was brutal for both of us.
Drav's wing was torn again—the same membrane that had been damaged in previous fights, refusing to heal properly because he kept having to use it. He could barely fly, had to rest multiple times during the ascent where normally he'd just soar up effortlessly.
I had to stop every few minutes because the fire in my side was constant now, sharp and intensifying with each movement. Each breath came shallow because deep breaths sent fire through my side.
We reached The Eyrie as the sun reached its peak position, both of us collapsing in the main chamber immediately. Too exhausted to move further. Too injured to do anything but rest.
Drav recovered first, as he always did. Moved to check me over properly now that we were safe.
"Let me see." His hands were gentle on my side and I still winced beneath his touch spreading across my ribs. "Deep tissue damage. Definitely cracked. Maybe broken cleanly."
"Can you tell if there's internal bleeding?"
He pressed carefully, feeling for signs I wouldn't recognize myself. "I don't think so. But we need to be careful. If the bone fragments shift wrong, they could puncture something vital."
"So no heavy activity for a while."
"No heavy activity," he confirmed. Then his palms slid down to cup the swell of my stomach. "And we need to monitor the eggs closely. Make sure Vhel's strike didn't cause any problems we can't see yet."
"I can feel them. They're fine."
