Chapter 9
“Mila!” Desperate hands shook me back to life. “Come, lass. We have to move!”
I coughed.
Coughed again, trying to clear the ringing from my ears and the scent of ozone from my nose. Teetering between conscious and not. Too weak to fight off the cold feasting on my essence, draining me until there was nothing left to take. Leaving me pliable.
Mundane.
I felt him then, as I lay face down in the shale with Alicia, trying to peel my lids apart. Felt him as if his hands were heavy and rough upon my skin. As if he were actuallyhere,and not leagues away.
The captain. Beyond shame, I tried to reach for that rare and dangerous ki before I was lost, just as I’d lost this private war between us.
Again.
With a twitch, he brushed my effort aside, denying me, though it wasn’t a harsh blow. No. My parasite had the gall to kiss my tattered edges from some great distance, soothing the hurt and the cold. Giving me just enough ki to endure this cruelty. And though he wasn’t present in body, I couldfeelhis touch. Could almost feel his calloused hand push my hair back, petting me, while his rich ki throbbed with the proof of my failure.
Victory.
Hisvictory.
I groaned, forcing my eyes open. Having narrowly missed incinerating us with plasma, the explosion had instead left a path of charred earth—a path that led straight and true to the Grandmother’s edge. Ribs crackling protest, skin rent from shoulder to opposite hip, I planted scarred, branded palm to earth sick with virgin Glaith. Trying to follow the path laid down before me. Trying to drag myself to safety where I could recover from whatever sickness was stuck to the back of my neck.
“That’s it, lass,” Alicia whispered, wrapping her hands about my damaged middle. Trying to help me deny this loss for what it was—complete and utter defeat. Eclipsing humiliation, for I was nothing but the most reckless, arrogant fool! “Just a little further, and we’ll get you back on your land. How’s that sound?”
Like paradise. Only the Grandmother could chase this terrible frost from my bones and mend skin—all I had to do was reach her.
“Goddess, what’ve they got around your neck?”
“Hurts,” I croaked. “Get it off.”
“I think it’s—”
“Ah, ah, ahh, I wouldn’t do that,” Jasper said, crunching shale signaling his approach. “She may be small, but she’s a powerful demoness. It’s only the mark of the serpent that keeps her docile.”
“Get back!” Alicia pulled me to my feet, taking the majority of my weight. Head lolling against her shoulder. “Not another step!”
Jasper shrugged. “But you haven’t gotten what you came for.” Grinning through layers of grime and soot, he lifted his hand—and let my pendant dangle from his forefinger. It was dirty, as if it had indeed been buried in the forest’s rich, dark earth. Unchanged for all these years in the captain’s possession. And if Jasper was fool enough to risk my touching it…
I lifted scarred right hand, lips parted on a soundless plea.
Kas bellowed in the distance, crashing through the underbrush. Alerted to the danger, no doubt, by my absence from her soul.
“The fuck?” the fool asked, grunting awake.
“Lass,run,” Alicia whispered, shoving me toward sanctuary. “I’ve got this.”
Run? Without the wild rush of ki pounding through my veins? I could scarcelybreathe!
Undeterred, Alicia bellowed. Throwing herself between me and the slavers, she charged toward them with madness glinting in her pretty green eyes.
Even injured and rattled by the explosion, she should have known she was outmatched. But I had infected her with my foolish fucking madness, stolen the rational part of her brilliant mind, and replaced it with seething rot.
Jasper caught her swinging fist, spun her, and passed her off to his fool partner—all before she’d finished screaming her misplaced rage.
“Quickly,” Jasper said, stuffing my pendant into his pocket. “We’ve got to move before the Menace has a chance to call her hellcat forth. Knock the Eloran out if you have to,” he added as Alicia snarled and struggled. “But don’t damage her face more than you have already. We’ll turn a decent profit off the pretty one. Fix her nose, if she’ll let you.”
“Get your hands off me, you sonofawhore—”
