Brock. Faithful, kind Brock.
Had Zayne even been away at war last year when he sent Brock to her? Maybe he'd been close, watching like tonight, while they escaped. Or like at Dr. Cooper's when Zayne dropped her in Brock's arms after she nearly drowned, letting her think he'd never been there. That he ordered the torture himself.
Weeks of fury bloomed into years of longing and devastated her so much that her voice sounded as broken as the man Zayne brutalized. “Please.”
Even with the tears blurring his form, she saw him more clearly than she ever had. The scars and the hardness and secrets.
His head lowered, sharp shoulders looser than normal.
The hands that didn't hesitate to take life clasped his helmet and paused for a moment before pulling it free.
Finally, Kira looked into the eyes of the masked man who saved her, with nothing hiding her from him. Darkness shadowed the glacier blue eyes that met hers with such reticence. Zayne Riven wore her stranger's uniform and didn't avert his stare.
“Thank you,” she said.
For everything. For that night, for this one. For not hiding any longer. Her mind spun, imagining how he felt these last few weeks, especially when Dr. Cooper entrapped them.
Should Kira have seen it before?
“It's not safe to answer all the questions you have.” He said it so gently she didn't recognize his voice. “I don't know if Dr. Cooper will interrogate you again.”
“It's okay. I understand now.” A smile worked onto her face even as a tear fell into the corner of her mouth. “I have to go back, don't I?”
His nostrils flared, and he held her gaze even though she sensed him wanting to look away. “Yes. We can't get you out tonight. Not anymore.”
“You tried.” Kira shifted her stare to Brock. “You both tried, and that's too much to ask for.”
“It's not.” There was that gruff voice she knew so well. Zayne frowned. “I never should have allowed this to happen.”
She took a step closer, and he shifted one back, but she didn't react to the distance, only kept her voice soft. “You told me not to put any hope in you.”
“That's because this is the one place where I'm not sure I can protect you.”
The words melted her heart, knowing he always planned to put her above the Phaedra's orders. Her mind turned through their conversation from three years ago. “You plan to keep fighting from the inside.”
He'd never looked so conflicted as he did now. “When I become High General, I'll have the power to destroy his regime.”
“It's killing you to serve him while you wait for the day you can put an end to this.” All that pain she felt inside of him now had a name. Something she understood. “Promise me you'll try to take care of yourself.”
“Don't worry about me.” Exacerbation tinged his words. “Think about yourself. If the Phaedra orders me to hurtyou—”
“You have no choice but to do it. Defy him, and this is over. Everything you've spent your life fighting for. That's why you worked so hard to convince me I can't trust you. So I wouldn't see the good in you and think it'll help me. You haven't accepted what failing meant, have you?”
So much shame shadowed his eyes, darkening his face more than the night as he looked down.
Kira reached for him, needing him to let her close one time so she could say this. When he didn't move, she settled her hand against the long scar on his chest. His muscles tensed but he didn't back away. He honored her, let her close for this moment.
Tilting her head to see his downturned face, she spoke. “Fight this war, Zayne Riven. I don't need you to save me. It's my war too.”
That boy in the tank grew up into a man who learned how to destroy the Phaedra.
Incredible.
“Kira.” Pain etched itself into his voice and face. Desperate eyes found hers. “What happened at Dr. Cooper's is a taste. I'm not leaving you here. I just need to find another way.”
“Shh… Let's go.” Her nails scratched into his skin. “In this moment, I'm safe. Leave tomorrow for tomorrow.” Drifting toward Brock, she clasped his hand on her way past. “Thank you. Be safe.”
He squeezed hers. “This isn't over.”
