The stranger ripped her back and caught her against himself, arm locking around her waist. They both grunted, falling against the building.
And she held onto him tighter than she knew she could.
CHAPTER 33
Zayne
The Capital
Kallum, Ciondo
833 P.C. [Post-Collapse]
Burning ate deeper into Zayne's muscles with each pull-up, and he relished the quiet spreading over his mind from the strain of his workout. The ache in his leg hardly registered these days. Such relief to return to his normal morning routine. To fall back into this silence when he needed it. Though battered ribs replaced that previous distraction, it wasn't enough to slow him down.
“Babe. Did you hear me?”
He clenched his teeth, trying to maintain his focus and not allow the world to rip him back to all that awaited him. “What?”
Mellie flinched at the word. He didn't mean to sound snappy. “Sorry. I was just saying bye and that I'll see you at your mom's.”
Pity ripped away that perfect trance, and Zayne dropped to the ground. “Have a good day, Mel.”
She smiled brightly, but her look lingered on him. “I love you.”
Grabbing the towel from the dresser, he wiped his face and leaned down to kiss her. “Love you too.”
“It's good to see you back to normal in the morning, even if it would be nice to sleep in together every once in a while.”
Sleeping in required sleeping, not staring at the ceiling, waiting for Mellie to wake so he could work out without rousing her. Soon, he'd start running at night again, and he'd manage a few good nights of sleep.
Zayne looked back up at the pull-up bar while Mellie walked out the front door.
Damn it.
The break was too long, and now Kira was here, swirling around the edges of his thoughts, working her way closer to the center of his mind.
The United tried to kill her.
His fist trembled with the drive to punch the wall, so he dropped to the ground and drowned it out with pushups. Even once his leg and ribs clawed for his attention, Zayne kept seeing that soldier draw his gun. Seeing Kira hit the ground.
At the time, he didn't know whether she'd been shot or not. She only survived because Brock caught the attack in time and pushed her out of the way.
Zayne beat his forearm into the ground hard enough to shake the room and splinter pain through his bones.
Those fucking idiots.
The United hadn't even sent their own soldiers. They contracted with sources in Ciondo to kill her once they'd traveled far enough from the Riven Estate. Zayne rushed the mission and missed the betrayal like an amateur.
He wanted to slam his arm into the ground again, but fracturing a bone only hindered him from protecting Kira. He slid a hand behind his back and doubled his usual set of one-handed pushups, desperate to find his way back to the quiet.
By the time Zayne's alarm sounded, and he could no longer escape the day, pain and exhaustion twisted through his body.
The ride to the base didn't offer adequate distraction, nor did the debriefing with his father, brother, and a handful of high-ranking officials. Nothing, not even the bloody end of the war, erased the look in Kira's eyes from his mind. Not the look when he pulled his mask off, but before that, when she already saw through him, insisting he stop hiding from her.
When had she recognized him?
Was it when he held her on the rough ground, covering her while he emptied his clip into their enemies? That closeness sparked it. Must have.
