The payload of hidden explosives that blew up just as he was leaping off the deck of the boat to escape Santino’s trap.
And now this.
The light.
The power.
“Sia?”He opened his eyes and blinked in the darkness of a dank stone cave.
She sat beside him on a small bed of sand, her knees bent, her face resting on her folded arms. She’d been weeping. Tears streaked her beautiful face as she lifted her head and looked over at him.
“Trygg.” His name was a breathless whisper, filled with relief. And regret.
“Where are we?” His voice was groggy with misuse and the likely gallons of salt water he’d ingested after the detonation had thrown him into the sea for God knew how long.
And then he realized what Sia’s presence beside him actually meant.
“You came after me?” It sounded like an accusation and she flinched. “Sia, what the fuck were you thinking?”
She shook her head. “Lazaro said he lost contact with you. Someone had to warn you that Santino’s boat was a trap. Someone had to try to reach you in time—”
“Not you, damn it!” He choked on the words, his lungs still waterlogged and raw. “You’re the last person I’d want to risk something as reckless as that.”
“I was the only one who could,” she replied. “The crystal took me to the boat’s location, but I was too late. It exploded just as I got there.”
He stared at this Atlantean female—this woman who was as brave as any warrior he’d ever known—and felt his chest swell with pride. And with gratitude.
A host of tender emotions swamped him, all of them centered on Sia.
He glanced at her folded hands and frowned. Her wrists were empty. “You lost your crystal.”
She shrugged. “It fell off somewhere in the water when I was bringing you here.”
“I’ll help you find it,” he offered lamely. “I’ll see to it that you get another one. If that’s what you want.”
“That’s not what I want, Trygg.” Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. She swiped at them, turning her face away from him.
He rose up, taking a moment to assess what had to be catastrophic injuries from the explosion and his crash into the sea. But he saw no marks on his body at all. He felt no aches from broken bones or bruises.
He’d never felt stronger or more powerful in his life.
And his face… Christ, even that felt different now. The familiar tug of his scar each time he moved his lips or blinked his eye was gone.
He reached up to feel for the jagged line, but it was no longer there.
His face was healed.
It only took him an instant to understand why. “You gave me your blood.”
“I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I didn’t know what else to do. You were injured so badly when I found you in the water and I—”
“Why did you do it?” A curse blasted out of him as the full realization of what she had done sank into his brain. He took her quivering chin on the tips of his fingers and drew her gaze back to his. “Why did you come after me, Sia?”
“Because I love you.”
All his breath left him in an astonished gust. “You shouldn’t. You should save your love for a man who’s more deserving. Someone gentler. Someone cleaner. These hands are stained with blood, Sia. They always will be. They’re not the kind of hands that should be touching you.”
“I don’t want anyone else. I choose you.” She squared her shoulders, some of the haughty, regal Atlantean pushing past the selfless, tender woman he also knew her to be. “I’ve chosen, Trygg. There is only you.”
