Page 30 of Aria's Ascension

Tirox led them deeper inside then stopped. She lost her grip when he leaned forward. A grunt and a soft scuff told her he’d laid Kix on the ground.

“Stay with him. I will find light.”

Aria nodded wordlessly, knowing he could see her, and cautiously lowered herself to her knees. Dropping the gun, she stretched out her arms, groping for Kix’s body. Finding him, she scooted up until she was kneeling next to his chest.

After checking his pulse again and finding it still beating steadily, she felt down to his side. Gently probing over his ribs, she checked for broken bones. His skeletal structure was different than hers, but she couldn’t feel anything to suggest a fracture or crack.

Moving up to his head, she ran her fingers over his skull. Maybe he’d cracked it when he was thrown backward and that was why he hadn’t woken up? But, no. Other than a knot on the back of his head, nothing felt broken there, either. She had no way of knowing what kind of internal damage he’d suffered, and neither did she know how to check for internal bleeding.

Squeezing her eyes shut, her shoulders slumped and her head fell forward. Anger at herself and worry for him hit her like a physical blow. Her chin wobbled threateningly and her throat tightened, but she grit her teeth.

Tenderly laying his head back on the ground, she stroked her fingers over his forehead, down the straight bridge of his nose, then traced the shape of his lips.

“Please, wake up,” she whispered, her voice rough with unshed tears.

His breathing stayed even, and he didn’t so much as twitch. Shaking her head sharply, she released a shuddering sigh.

“This is my fault. I should’ve gotten us out of here when I had the chance.”

Soft pinkish-purple light emanated from behind her, startling her out of her pity party, but it also served to remind her she had more than one mate to worry about. She felt even worse when she realized she hadn’t thought to check Tirox for wounds.

Glancing over her shoulder for him, she spotted the source of the illumination first. A troop of strange-looking mushrooms was growing on either side of a fifteen-foot-wide river running through the center of the cave. The river itself appeared from under the far back wall, about forty feet away, and disappeared under an arched opening in the wall ahead of and to the right of her.

Almost the entire floor on the other side of the gently flowing, crystal clear, turquoise water was covered in more of the glowing, pink mushrooms, providing enough light for her to see most of the surprisingly large cave. Tipping her head back, she tried to judge how tall it was.

She couldn’t make out the ceiling, but the mushrooms illuminated the stalactites suspended above. They covered the entirety of the roof and hung down ominously, like the crooked teeth of some massive beast just waiting to snap shut on some unlucky bastard foolish enough to stand beneath them.

The rest of the cave was more of what she’d expected: uneven floor made of stone worn mostly smooth by water, rough, craggy walls rising sharply into the darkness above, and patches of fluffy, dark orange moss here and there.

She didn’t see any of the secondary shafts Tirox had been worried about, and other than some alien aquatic life that occasionally splashed to the surface of the river, they were the only living things there.

While she greatly appreciated the apparent lack of bugs and creepy crawlies, it did make her wonder what about this place made them keep their distance. Maybe the mushrooms here were of the carnivorous persuasion like the treeshrooms above.

The air smelled earthy, heavy with minerals and humidity from the river, but fresh, so hopefully whatever kept the skitters away wasn’t fumes or pollutants of some kind. Hell, for all she knew, there was an amphibious animal that preyed on anything occupying this cave until the bugs learned their lesson and stayed away.

Eyeing the river suspiciously, she resolved to keep her weapons close at hand until she was convinced that nothing was going to crawl out of the water and try to nibble on them while they slept.

This was their home for who knew how long until they either found a way out, Skaa found a way in, or, if he’d lived, Zhrovni came down to wipe their memories or kill them as he’d threatened.

Chapter 18

Having deemed the cave reasonably safe, Aria focused on Tirox who’d just finished his own inspection and was making his way back to her.

Scanning him from horns to flat feet, she searched for any wounds. There was an abundance of blood caked to his thick arms, chest, and even some dried splatters on his legs and face, but she couldn’t see that any of it was actually his.

Raising her gaze back to his face, she smiled a little to see he was doing the same and checking her over for injuries. His jaw clenched as he lingered on the blood she could feel coating the side of her face, but the skin over her brow had already knit back together and the feeling had come back to her arm.

After apparently assuring himself she was okay, his eyes dropped to Kix. She followed his gaze and the smile curling her lips died. Coming to a stop at her side, he lowered himself to a sitting position.

“Do you think he’ll wake up?”

She stared at Kix instead of Tirox as she asked the question. She needed reassurance, and she wouldn’t be able to lie to herself if she saw the truth on his face if he answered ‘yes’ but thought ‘no’.

“Hmm. There is an animal on Ru’akna, thevi’itus,” he began, his voice soft and deep, soothing. “One of the valley clans keeps herds of them for food and beasts of burden. I have only hunted them during times of great hunger as they are not challenging prey and, therefore, offer no honor upon my victory. They are not clever or dangerous, but they prove their superiority in a different way.”

Aria wanted to interrupt and ask what the hell any of that had to do with whether or not he thought Kix would wake up, but he kept going before she could.

“They can survive almost any wound. When injured, their bodies absorb the scent of the land around them, making them nearly undetectable, and they hide so cunningly even the most skilled predator or hunter cannot find them. There, they fall into a deep, healing sleep. Even a perfect shot to the heart will not fell them so long as they can limp away and hole up.”

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