Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131364 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 657(@200wpm)___ 525(@250wpm)___ 438(@300wpm)
“No, that last waking knocked her out. You have at least two hours.”
Adam made a call.
• • •
Sophia didn’t argue with him. “Yes, take her to your Canyon,” she said, her eyes hollow. “To the place where she found happiness.”
Max offered to fly him, having become a fully qualified pilot after joining Nikita’s team, but Adam saw the worry in his gaze. “No,” he said quietly to the other man when Sophia went to say good-bye to Eleri. “The commercial pilot I used last time should be landing at the hospital within the next ten minutes. You don’t want to leave Sophia and you shouldn’t. She’s too pregnant and under too much stress.”
If the Js had an alpha, it was Sophia Russo, and she was bleeding inwardly at the pain of her people. “You’ll need to tell her about Bram, too.” He laid out the facts in a quick summary.
Max muttered a harsh expletive. “I wish I could protect her from this.”
Understanding the other man far too well, Adam said, “Saffron and Yúzé, they’re the other part of their quartet.” The other part of Eleri’s family.
“We’ll locate them,” Max promised before Adam could ask. “Make sure they get warning of Eleri and Bram’s status.”
Having done what he could for the two Js he’d never met but who were important to Eleri, Adam walked into the room after Sophia drew back, then just picked Eleri up in his arms. “Faster than a gurney,” he told Sophia. “And she’s so light…too light.”
Face pinched, Sophia nodded and came over to tuck the blanket neatly around Eleri so it wouldn’t trail on the floor as Adam carried her cradled against his chest.
I love how your chest feels against my chest. The heat and weight of you on me.
Words she’d spoken to him after they’d shared intimate skin privileges the night she’d spent in his bed, her fingers tracing the lines of his tattoo with tender grace. He’d told her about the meaning behind the tattoo, felt her breath on his skin. “That’s so beautiful, Adam. You wear memory in your skin.”
Later, she’d said, “All I feel with you…it’s more than I could’ve ever dreamed.”
Just wait, he wanted to tell her today. Just wait until the next time we’re together, now that your numbness is gone.
He walked out to the image of Sophia pressing her lips together as she fought not to cry, her body leaning into Max’s as the other man tucked her close to his side. He knew that despite their own pain, the couple would do what was necessary to protect the remaining two members of the small family Eleri had called her own.
And Adam…Adam was going to throw the dice one final time before he let his wild bird fly free.
The jet-chopper was ready and waiting, and he made sure Eleri was securely strapped into the seat in the back next to him before he made another call. “Dahlia, listen,” he said when his wing-second answered.
• • •
Bram woke to the sense of his mind buzzing, the pressure atop it a boulder. If he was going to get to the desert, it had to be now. But— “Is there anything else?” he asked Saoirse, who was yet in the room with him, must’ve waited for him to regain consciousness.
Face drawn, the scientist shook her head. “No, that’s it. We’re out of options.”
It was a knife through his gut, but his guilt at his failure was mingled with a sense of peace. He’d done all he could, could let go now.
“Then tell Dahlia I’m ready.” He could hear her nearby, her voice urgent as she had a conversation. He waited for her to walk in, tell him that Eleri was gone, one more J life snuffed out in an endless line of candles no one had ever bothered to cup their hands around, protect.
But when she walked inside, her face was ablaze. “We need to get him to the cave system below the Canyon,” she said to Naia. “I need one of your hover wheelchairs.”
“I can walk,” Bram said, though he wasn’t too sure. It wasn’t that he’d lost his strength but that parts of his brain had started to malfunction. His fingers were spasming every so often, and he could feel his thigh tensing up even as he stood.
Dahlia hovered nearby, as if she’d catch him.
But Bram got upright without a problem, and when she thrust a bottle of nutrients at him, he drank it. “Why are we going to these caves? Do you park the vehicles there?”
“Adam said he’d meet us there with Eleri,” was her nonanswer, but then she touched his cheek with her hand. “The stars are like diamonds outside. An endless sky.”
He hadn’t even known night had fallen, but to die under the banner of the open sky and be able to say good-bye to Eleri? It was a better outcome than he’d expected. “Good, that’s good.” Drink finished, he left the bottle on his abandoned seat, then began to walk with Dahlia at his side.