Her gaze darted to Týr, and she found him frowning, too. “Do you feel that?”
He gave a slow nod and, bracing a hand on the dresser, he straightened.
“Let me help you to bed, and I’ll go see what it is.”
“No.” His jaw set in that intractable expression she knew too well, he dropped an arm around her shoulder. “The elevator.Now.”
Too worried to protest, she assisted him from the room. When they finally stepped into the elevator, he hit the first-floor button.
Her eyes widened as she stared at the number he’d pressed. “No…” She shook her head, her breathing escalating in a rush of terror. “Mom?”
Týr said nothing, his gaze hooded.
Oh, God, please, please let her be okay—let her be here!
The moment the door slid open, Kira darted out, then looked back as Týr slowly followed. His chest rose and fell as if the short trip had taken a lot of his energy. “Go. I’ll be there…in a few hours.”
She would have smiled if her heart weren’t close to cracking through her ribs. She nodded and ran to the left corridor and then to the first room there, opening the door.
Her mother lay on the bed. She appeared almost translucent. One could see the bedding through parts of her body.“Mom!”
Leaving the door open for Týr, Kira darted inside. She grasped her mother’s impossibly cold hands and fell to her knees. “No, no, you promised you wouldn’t leave without telling me.”
“I know, child…” Luceré’s voice wavered in a reedy whisper. “I tried, but I cannot hold on any longer. My time has come.”
“It’s the healing. It drained you, didn’t it?”
A wan smile hovered and disappeared. Luceré lifted her hand as if to touch Kira, but it fell back to the mattress. She grasped her mother’s frail fingers. “I am not as strong as I should be…I haven’t been for a while. It’s why I wasn’t able to heal your mate as fast as I should have. I’m so sorry about that, but I’m truly grateful that I got to watch you grow up and find love with a worthy male.”
“But you will regenerate and come back, right?” Kira tried to rub warmth into her mother’s icy hands.Please say yes.
“I cannot. I missed another merging.” Sadness etched Luceré’s ashy features. “I cannot linger much longer, my brethren will sense it and come for me. I can’t—Iwon’t—become another light trapped in isolation once they find out the truth. I choose to become one with the universe again. Of course, they will know once I cease to be, since my passing will tear at them—at least, I hope. Being weakened is probably the only thing they care about.”
No, no! Tears clogged her throat.
Echo rushed into the room and fell to her knees beside Kira, her face pale with fear.
Are you just gonna let her die?Týr telepathed to her.
Kira’s head snapped around. She found him near the entrance, leaning against the small table, breathing deeply.
I heard the conversation between you two while I was in a coma,he said.
Determination clawing through her, she jumped to her feet. “Echo, don’t let her leave this plane. Anchor her any way you can. I’ll be back.”
As Echo grasped Luceré’s hand, Kira ran to the door where Týr sagged heavily against a table, absently aware that he still wore no shirt. She touched his arm. “Please, sit down.”
“I’m fine.”
Dammit, torn between her mate who looked like he might keel over at any moment and her mother who was determined to die, Kira ran for the lift. She willed herself to their quarters, not sure if what she had planned would work. In a scatter of molecules, she disappeared and reformed in the dressing room. On the bureau, she found her jambiya. She unsheathed the deadly weapon and grasped the hilt with the embedded, fiery-looking, reddish-black stone.
With no idea how to do this, she shut her eyes. “Wrath, I need you…” She frowned, then said, “Father, please, I need you to come immediately.”
Nothing. Dammit. Dagger in hand, she grabbed her cell from the dressing table. Surely Riley would know how to reach Wrath. About to call him, a knock echoed. She hurried out and found Hedori in her doorway. “Kira, there’s a…manout front—”
“Thank you!” She willed herself to the foyer and appeared there in a flash. She threw open the door. Wrath turned from staring out across the snow-covered gardens. Though his immense power appeared tamped down, some of it slithered around her, an eerie, seeking sensation she was now familiar with. Or it could just be that she was his daughter and sensed him.
“What is it, Kira?” Wrath’s gaze flicked lightning-fast over her. “You are not hurt.”
