Sheba pressed her palm to the hull as the boarding door closed, then stepped back and stood alongside Idan’s silent, looming frame.
The engines spooled with a wounded howl, and moments later, the corvette lifted and clawed its way into the sky.
When it vanished into the clouds, Sheba turned with a weary sigh to Idan.
‘‘Where to next?’
‘Home,’ he muttered.
She took a deep inhale and nodded. ‘Sawa.’
After saying goodbye to Matteo and a group of local villagers ready to take the rest of the survivors to safety, the pair packed Sheba’s tent up.
Just as she slid the last of her things into a bag, Sheba’s knees buckled beneath her.
Idan caught her as she fell.
His hand came away wet.
The through-and-through laser burn on her shoulder was bleeding under the torn fabric tourniquet.
‘Fokk,’ he rasped. ‘I need to fix this.’
He pressed his palm to the wound and let his potency flow.
Gold light threaded through muscle and vessel, sealing ruptures, knitting flesh with exacting care.
She gasped and arched her back as scorching heat flooded her body, pain lancing then disappearing and loosening its grip.
‘Whatjujudo you possess?’ she muttered.
‘The kind that won’t allow you to bleed out on my watch,’ he growled, his timbre rough with certainty.
When the glow from his touch faded, she settled against him.
Her eyes flicked over the scene, at the senseless desolation and destruction of what she and her colleagues had all worked so hard to build.
Her chin trembled as her gaze locked with his.
‘Please, take me away from here.’
He strapped her bags to his back, lifted her into his arms, and turned toward the mountains.
Just as the sun broke over the hills, he raced away, carrying her through smoke and ruin into the rising light.
9
Gods with Subrosas
Sheba jerked upright, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.
The sudden movement sent a flare of pain through her, and she lay back down with care on what appeared to be blankets made of soft fur.
Wincing at the ache in her body, her mind got hit with shards of memories of her and Idan’s flight from the valley.
She remembered the high mountain passes, the biting wind that threatened to scour the skin from her flesh, and the desperate panic she tried so damn hard to stave off.
Most vividly, she recalled the moment it ended: Idan reaching out, the silent intensity in his gaze, and the single, effortless tap of his finger against her forehead.
