It wasn’t a voice that called her. There were no words telling her what she needed to do, just an unspoken command that Kira felt in her soul.
To finish quickly because she was needed elsewhere.
There was a gasp from those around them.
“Soul bound,” someone whispered.
Jin continued to distill the essence of the seed into pure ki, threading Kira’s and his soul’s breath in with it before slamming it into Devon’s wound.
Jin dropped.
Kira caught him, placing him next to Devon’s head before giving him a pat. “Good job.”
“Did it work?” Jin asked in a groggy voice, too weak to fire his anti-gravs.
Kira concentrated. Where before Devon’s life force had been fading, it was now growing stronger.
“I think so.”
He’d live. A silver lining in all this.
“I’m glad,” Jin said, sounding exhausted.
Jin used his soul’s breath only rarely. This was the third time in all their years. One of the reasons for that was the cost that came with wielding it.
Kira could already feel his mind fading from hers as he started to slide into his version of a coma.
“You know this was a distraction, right?” he told her.
He was unconscious before she could answer.
“It had occurred to me,” she said anyway.
Devon twitched as he came to wakefulness. His eyelids cracked.
“You’re awake,” Kira said when his gaze shifted to hers.
Devon reached up to touch the wound, knocking Jin’s lu-ong in the process. The lu-ong chirped before slithering toward Jin’s main body.
“He saved you,” Kira said.
“I remember.” Devon’s gaze lifted to Kira’s. “He’s my brother, isn’t he?”
Kira didn’t answer, tapping him on the cheek instead. “I have something to do. Watch over him for me.”
Devon’s nod was weak.
Kira rose. Sometime in the aftermath of the battle, Baran and the other oshota had gotten the barrier down. Too late to be of any help to those below.
At least they could assist with first aid, Kira conceded as she turned toward the tunnel that would take her to the sanctum and beyond.
For a second it occurred to her to wait. A thought she dismissed almost instantly.
Finn was unconscious. Raider immobile.
Terrel also wasn’t an issue at the moment, surrounded as he was by the emperor’s very angry looking oshota.
Dealing with him could wait. The summons couldn’t. This next part she’d have to do alone.
