Chapter 14
She might’ve screamed forever, but the shockwave of the detonation smacked Lishelle back against the castle wall, knocking the air out of her lungs. Stone dust drifted down around her like improbable snowflakes in the sultry jungle.
From her view on high, the geometric lines of the old garden were clear but softened by the encroaching foliage, ripped asunder now by the blast. AndTynan lay splayed and still across the silvery trickle of water, the tawny skin of his bare chest streaked with blood and livid burns.
Her breath returned on an inward choking wail. He looked…
No. She wasn’t following that line of thought. She’d always been good at ignoring whatever got in her way. And right now, the distance between them was a curse.
Like the inner courtyard ramp, the gardenwall had a sloping walkway down to the ground, and she raced along it, bounding through the lower gravity. The ramp ducked into the keep at one point, and she lost sight of Tynan before another turn brought her bursting out through an archway into the garden.
For a moment, the thick tangle of vines tried to stop her, as if it didn’t want her to see—
With a furious oath, she ripped through thetendrils, raining torn yellow petals down on her head, and lunged into the yard. “Tynan!”
She splashed across the network of irrigation canals, passing the crumpled Radek without a glance. She had eyes only for her lord…
He was so still, his dark eyes closed, the perfect semi-circle of long, black lashes fanned on the concussion-bruised skin under his eyes. At least he wasn’t still bleeding.
Her steps wavered, because she knew that wasn’t good. Sometimes life hurt, and wounds bled, but on the other side…
She dropped to her knees in the remains of the flood she’d unleashed. The chilly water was already warming in the jungle sunlight, its soft burble meant to charm garden ramblers, but it meant nothing to her.
“Tynan,” she whispered as she reached out one hand to his cheek.
He didn’tstir, not at her muted call, not at her touch.
Her fingertips drifted lower, falteringly, to the point of his jaw where the powerful thud of his heartbeat…
Should’ve been.
She pressed harder, holding her own breath, as if she could stop her heart long enough to feel his.
A third time, louder, she said, “Tynan?”
Her only answer was the whispered solace of the water and a breath of air rufflingthe shredded leaves above, like a million little hands coming together in prayer.
A disconsolate cry ripped wordlessly from her throat, and she centered her palms over his chest, pumping down hard, as if she couldbehis heartbeat.
But her hands slicked with his still blood, and all she could think of was the story of the heedless young warlord and the hundred yearning maidens who’d prayed forhis heart to be ripped out. As now he’d ripped out hers.
Never stopping her compressions, she tipped her head back and screamed a denial at the alien sky and whoever was up there.
The sky howled back at her, as if it heard her pain and answered it a hundredfold. A powerful blast of air shoved the tangle of hair back from her eyes, and she found herself staring up uncomprehendingly at a hugedisk of silver and gold…
The underbelly of a spaceship.
No,nothing and no onewas taking her away from him. She stayed crouched over him, her hands framed over the gaping wound in his chest, holding him together, holding him to her, being his heartbeat while the universe collapsed around her.
She kept hammering at his chest even as Nor and Trixie appeared in the open hatch of the Azthronoscruiser and jumped smoothly to the ground before the ship landed. The bounty hunter Idrin and a small crew in the tactical black of Azthronos security emerged behind them and fanned out through the garden.
Trixie and two of the crew were at Lishelle’s side in an instant, and one of the Thorkons produced an emergency kit.
“Shel, let us take over,” Trixie cajoled.
Lishelle curled over him possessively.“I have him,” she insisted. But she shifted to one side to make room for the medic who attached electrodes while the other ran a scanner across Tynan’s body.
Not body, notjustthat, she chanted to herself. He’d become more than just a body to her; he was heart and soul too, her heart and soul…
