Page 64 of Gravel and Grit

As if in answer to his prayer, a short, bubbling gasp came from her pale lips.

Relief, so intense it made him dizzy, spread through him, leaving him swaying on his feet for a moment. Gritting his teeth to fight back the weakness, he lunged forward.

Dropping to his knees, he bent over the Med-Pod and stared at Mira

unblinkingly from inches away, waiting, hoping. A frown twitched across her brow a second before her lashes fluttered open, revealing hazy, blue eyes—

eyes he didn’t think he would ever see again.

“Zaek,” she slurred, then coughed weakly.

“I am here, my heart. You are safe,” he choked out, closing those inches to press the softest of kisses to her lips.

It tasted of blood and tears, but he savored it. She lived. The madness retreated, just a little, at the taste of her. It lurked, though, waiting in the shadows, unconvinced this was real.

He stroked her hair, brushing it off her face so he could run the backs of his fingers along her cheeks, down her neck, over her chest to feel her heartbeat, then back up again. He tried and failed to slow his frantic touches, but he could not stop.

“She needs rest, General,” came the medical officers voice from the other side of the Med-Pod.

His answer was to bare his teeth and growl. The female narrowed yellow eyes at him but backed off with raised hands.

“Where… ” Mira started, but another cough kept her from finishing.

“We are on the rescue ship, my heart. We are safe. Rest now. I will not leave you,” he swore.

Forcing himself to say the words he knew she needed to hear was like tearing off his own arm. He wanted her to stay awake, to tell him again and again that she would not leave until he believed it, and the shattered, broken feeling in his chest went away. But, his needs did not matter. Only she mattered.

She relaxed, the frantic glaze leaving her eyes.

“Love you,” she breathed as her lashes fluttered closed again, in sleep now instead of unconsciousness.

Zaek did not move from his position kneeling beside her Med-Pod, hovering over her, wings tense and ready to envelop her at the first sign of danger.

He could feel the medical personnel’s eyes on him alongside those of the people who’d followed him to the Med-Bay. He could feel their shock. But he did not care.

Let them see him—their long-lost, fearsome General—brought to his knees for a tiny Earthian. Let them know she held his heart in her fragile hands.

E P I L O G U E

Zaek did not leave her side even once over the next five days, not to sleep or eat or discover what had happened on Duras during his time on Earth or how many of his brethren made it aboard.

None of those things mattered more than Mira.

People filtered in and out. Other than growling a warning, they went unacknowledged. He did not take his eyes from her to see who they were, his sole focus on counting her breaths, listening to the sound of her heart beating, no longer faint and weak but steady and strong.

Even after she woke and tried to prod him into leaving, just for a short while, to take care of himself, he refused. There was time enough for that later.

It took a long while to see her as she was, healing and quickly getting better, instead of the image seared into his mind of her lying limp in his arms, silent and covered in blood.

It took even longer for the anxiety eating at him to lessen, for the worry that at any moment he would blink and find that she was still dying, to begin to fade.

He fed her, cleansed her, and when she was stronger, ate and bathed with her. She did not chide him or complain about his hovering. He thought, perhaps, she needed the closeness as much as he did after what they went through.

Slowly, bit by bit, Zaek began to relax and trust that she was whole, now, to believe in his heart what his eyes told him. But, he would never forget the horror of almost losing her. And he would never let it happen again.

Mira could see it in him, a new darkness that didn’t leave, even after she was safe and the blood was washed away. But, Zaek knew she understood.

She, too, had a new shadow in her eyes.

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