She stilled.Her sword.It had to be long gone now, drifting somewhere beneath the ice. Who knew how deep that water went? And she wouldn’t survive another round in that deadlyocean. Her blade was lost forever. One of the last reminders of home. Of who she used to be. Gone.
“Fucking Pits,” she hissed. Her eyes stung. She never cried, but this loss was almost unbearable.
Kedar shifted beneath her, his arm extending, leaving her own unprotected from the cold. “It went through to the hilt,” he said as he brought said hilt into her line of vision.
Vessa gasped. “How? It wasgone. Beneath the ice.”
He shrugged beneath her. “So were you.”
Was he unwilling to say the truth of it? Kedar couldn’t have saved herandretrieved her sword. Not in the same dive. That meant he’d gone into that freezing water more than once.
For her.
Warmth bloomed in her chest. It couldn’t be helped. This was far more meaningful to her than even her life. “Why? You would have had to dive deep, why go through so much trouble for it?”
For her?
“The only way I care to fight a Seken is with her raze sword in hand,” he said. “This is the way of it. Unless you prefer to use the plasma dirk again?”
“No,” she murmured. “I will use my blade this time.”
Silence settled over them like fresh snow. Was he thinking of when they fought? She’d been a mad woman, crazed. Fighting with the plasma dirk he’d given her meant she had to stay in his strike range. It was close and violent combat. Intimate. By the time it’d ended, she had broken ribs, a cracked collarbone, and had lost a life-threatening amount of blood. Kedar fared worse.
There was nothing to say and so much to say all at once. It was twisted,sick, to feel anything other than hatred for him. Regardless of their shared past. Regardless of whether he retrieved her blade from the depths of a freezing ocean.
“I was at twenty-nine kills, by the way,” he said, “but the rest of the hordedidrun off once you killed the ogg. Therefore, his death should count for more.”
“Victory is mine,” Vessa whispered as she tightened her hold around her sword’s hilt.
“The reigning kill count queen,” he murmured.
Vessa hated this. The moment felt so right, but it was alie. She needed to return to her life, be finished with him. Taking stock of her condition, she reasoned that beyond a bruised hip, sore chest and throat, and tight muscles, she would mend well enough.
She’d take his warmth. Rest.
Then, tomorrow, she would give him exactly what he wanted.
Chapter 14
Vessa
When she woke up, she was blissfully warm. Comfortable.
And wrapped in Kedar’s arms.
His chest rose and fell with slow breaths as he slept. One hand was tangled in her hair, his hot palm resting against her neck, and the other was gripping a handful of her bare ass.
“Kedar,” she said, but he was awake before she even finished his name.
She knew the exact moment he realized where he was touching her. He stiffened beneath her, his hearts picking up a drumming rhythm. Slowly, he removed his hands from her.
“I fell asleep.” His deep, slumber-filled voice rolled through her. He seemed surprised by the fact.
“Yes, and your hands wandered.”
Free from the weight of his arms, Vessa sat up, carefully wrapping the blanket around herself as she did. When she stood and stepped over him, she didn’t look at his bare chest with its scars and definition.
“You should get dressed and go feed your spider friends or whatever it is you do, so I can dress,” she tossed over her shoulder.
