Then she kissed him hard. His mouth moved against hers hesitantly, but mostly he let hertake.Swiping her tongue through his parted lips, she allowed herself to taste him. To know him in this way. He tasted like every hope she’d ever had.
And every bitter regret.
“Vessa,” he groaned.
“I’m so sorry,” she breathed against his mouth.
The maglock cuff locked around his wrist.
Kedar grabbed for her, but she was already stepping out of his reach, and his fingertips merely brushed over her suit.
He was jerked backward toward the rear of the cavern, where she had fit the other cuff into its icy wall. Out of sight. It’d been easy to do with the fire-hold gel while he was hunting. He fought against the powerful pull, every muscle straining—a god withstanding the force of a thousand suns. He took an impossible step forward. And then another.
But even he, the strongest Xaal she’d ever met, couldn’t win against the pull of the magnets.
He roared her name as he lost the battle, his boots scraping over stone as the force dragged him into the shadows. The metallicthunkof the cuff meeting the thick ice echoed through the cavern. In the dark, his visor blazed crimson. She could hear him panting. Could feel the betrayal between them like a tether, pulling on her bones. On her very soul.
“I’ll amplify the signal and release you when I fly overhead,” she said, her voice cracking.
“I’ll never stop, Vessa,” he growled. “This is what I’ve become.”
Swiping hot tears away and sniffing, she forced herself to focus. She emptied the pack he’d brought and filled it only with the stuff she would be taking with her. Two stasis boxes with meat, two hydration packs, and the warming blanket. Then she collected her weaponry. Her sword and hair pin were still stained with his blood, but she couldn’t waste the time it would take to clean them. When her hand wrapped around the plasma dirk he had gifted her, she knew, even after everything, she couldn’t leave it behind.
On the threshold of the cavern, she looked out into the harsh winter world beyond. It upset her that there were no wild winds or lightning storms now. The world should be in chaos with her, but instead, it was all sparkling snow and towers of ice and stone.
It would all be over the moment she left. She’d survived for seven years alone. This changed nothing. It couldn’t.
“Goodbye, Kedar.”
He punched the ice hard, and she winced. “Don’t do this.”
His voice was so raw, so full of a pain that spoke to her own, she almost turned around. Almost went to him.
Instead, she put her shoulders back and stepped out.
Chapter 16
Kedar
Kedar was a wild animal caught in a trap.
He tried to fight the pull of the magnets. Used his entire body, drew from the deep wells of his strength. When that didn’t work, he slammed his free fist into the ice. Over and over again. His knuckles cracked. Bled.
Shattered. Broke.
He didn’t care.
If he had his weapons on him, he would cut off his own hand to go after her.
He shouldn’t havelockedin her. The bond that could be formed with knotting was too dangerous. He thought he had descended into madness before, but it was nothing compared to how he felt now. Every cell in his body yearned to be with her. Kedar would pull up this whole cave, destroy entire systems to get to her. Was there anything else but her? Had there ever been?
The vision had been so clear.
Find Vessa and kill her.
Find her and kill.
Find her.
