“She’s losing too much,” Voltar snarls.
“We’re stabilizing—move back, sir!”
But he doesn’t.
He holds my hand, giant fingers wrapped around mine like armor. His head’s bowed low, his breath uneven. He’s not crying—not Voltar. But I feel the tremble in him, the tremor of helplessness.
“Don’t you dare give up,” he whispers, low and guttural. “You’re not allowed. You don’t get to leave me now.”
I try to squeeze his hand.
Maybe I do.
Maybe I imagine it.
Then the dark comes down like a curtain.
And I fall through it.
CHAPTER 18
VOLTAR
She’s pale—too pale.
The medpod hums with sterile efficiency, blue light dancing over her skin, painting her like glass. Tubes run from her arm to a nutrient drip. A monitor pulses above her head, charting her every breath like it’s something fragile. Like she might shatter if it blinks too fast.
I sit. I don’t move.
Haven’t in hours.
They tried to get me to leave. A nurse. Then Lazarus. Then someone higher up with a badge and a rank who clearly didn’t understand what it meant to love someone like her.
I growled. Bared teeth. Nobody's tried since.
The chair creaks under me, too small for my frame, but I don't care. My knees are drawn up, elbows resting on them, one hand clenched tight into the other. My armor still smells like smoke and blood and ozone. Hers. Tugun’s. Mine.
The rage won’t leave. It sits just behind my eyes, twitching. Ready to tear through anyone who speaks too loud.
But when I look at her... it quiets. Just a little.
Sable.
My flame-haired fighter. My foul-mouthed stylist with nerves of titanium and a kiss that ruins me.
She sleeps with her mouth slightly parted, a frown etched between her brows like she’s still fighting whatever hell her body’s dragging her through. She’d hate that I’m watching her like this—weak, exposed.
But she’s never been weak.
Not once.
And gods help the next person who says otherwise.
The door hisses open behind me.
“Voltar,” Lazarus says, voice low. Careful. “She’s stable. The nanites and regeneration matrix will have her on her feet by tomorrow. You, on the other hand, look like shit. You need rest.”
I don’t even look at him. “I said I’m not leaving.”
