Page 31 of Aria's Ascension

“That’s… awesome, but I don’t under—”

He turned to stare down at her, his eyes swirling slowly and a small smile tipping his lips. “He has no scent.”

Aria stared at him agape for a long second as hope loosened the vice around her chest, but doubts filtered in before she could draw in a relieved breath.

“But, how? What are the chances Kix has that ability? And not just the insane healing, but the scent thing, too?”

He shrugged. “Perhaps Zhrovni knows of the vi’itus, or perhaps there is an animal with similar cleverness on this world… ” He trailed off, and his gaze went distant before the skin over his brows rose sharply. “I remember, about ten seasons ago, I was on a trade quest to the valley clan. They were in disarray, panicked and preparing for war because they believed a neighboring clan stole some of their herd. They asked me to help track them. I looked for two sun risings, but there was no trail. Because of that, we believed the gods had taken them as offering. But, what if it was not the gods? What if Zhrovni stole them as he stole us?”

As much as Aria wanted to believe that, the odds that the same person who’d stolen them had also stolen some random herd animals ten years ago and proceeded to transplant that animal’s very unique ability into her mate seemed beyond far-fetched. And, yet, the odds that two separate species, from two separate worlds, would have the same apparent gift were even more so.

“But why give that ability to only Kix?”

“How do you know Zhrovni did not give it to all his warriors? If he thinks of us as a herd, like the valley clan with the vi’itus, would he not do what he could to keep us alive? I imagine it takes great resources to… grow another body for us. Better that he takes measures to try and prevent that.”

He made a good point, but worry and fear were making it hard to believe they were that lucky.

He must have seen the skepticism on her face because he murmured, “The world looks unconquerably vast until you walk it and find it was not so huge as you feared.”

“Yeah, small world. Small universe, too, apparently.”

“Mmm, just so.”

Reaching for her shoulders, he gently pulled her harness off, sliding it down her arms and letting all the bits and bobs she taken off the guards’ bodies fall to the moss-covered ground. Next, he guided her to sit back so he could pull her thigh harnesses off. When she was stripped of weapons, he removed his own.

“Come,rwyn’ la, let us bathe away the battle. Your tiny mate will live. My stones say it is so. Lingering by his side and neglecting your needs will not help him to heal faster,” he coaxed gently as he stood.

Before she could decline, not wanting to leave Kix lying alone, and also not quite ready to find out what new horrors were living in the water, he plucked her up off the ground with no warning then started for the riverside.

“You and the snatching!” she chastised on a gasp.

Tirox snorted and swung her up so he was carrying her like a princess. “You like my snatching, or you would have broken my snout by now.”

Aria opened her mouth to refute that. Not that part about her liking it, because she did. But that she’d punch him in the nose if she didn’t.

After a pause, she closed it again and pursed her lips. He wasn’t actually wrong, as much as she’d like to argue otherwise.

Mate or not, she would’ve definitely made her feelings known if he did something she didn’t like. And he was right, it would likely have been in the form of violence, if only because that was her first instinct, here even more so than back on Earth. She just didn’t much care for what that said about her as a person.

More than one relationship had ended because of her temper or her unwillingness to put up with her boyfriends’ ‘macho men’ bullshit. No matter how promisingly it started, they inevitably began to feel threatened by her career or how independent she was or that she could kick most of their asses. It was like they all hit a point where they needed to show how much stronger and bigger than her they were.

Was that going to happen with Tirox and Kix? If it did, could she find a way to deal with it?

She didn’t want to lose them. Some time in the last however long since she’d awoken, she reached the point where she couldn’t imagine life without them. She couldn’t imagine not seeing Tirox’s beautiful, golden eyes swirl so hypnotically, his half-mischievous, half-seductive smile on a face that looked entirely too harsh and dangerous to hold such happiness. She couldn’t imagine not being there to see Kix let go of his carefully constructed veneer of control, to see him open up and trust that she wouldn’t run if he let her experience some of the darkness he was hiding. As strange as it had been at first, she couldn’t imagine not feeling the waves of emotion she got from him.

Aria frowned. Was that what had sparked this feeling of anxiety, the absence of Kix’s emotions? Was she really that far gone that she spiraled into fretfulness and self-doubt after five minutes of not having him in her head like background music?

She never understood when women in movies made dramatic proclamations that they’d die without their lover. Had, in fact, rolled her eyes and changed the channel as soon as that happened. Sure, she wanted love as much as the next person, but not the ‘I’ll die without you’ kind. She’d always thought herself too smart, too rational for that kind of idiocy and thought women who attached their self-worth to men as pitiable. Weak. And, yet, there she was, knowing with gut-wrenching surety that it would break her to lose them.

Tirox reclaimed her attention when he hitched her higher and rubbed his cheek across her hair. He’d come to a stop by the river but hadn’t set her down and didn’t appear to be in any rush to do so. Straightening, he caught her eyes, a questioning frown creasing the skin between his horns.

“You are distressed. About the glowing one? I would tell you honestly if there was cause to worry, but I feel his spirit firmly attached to his body—”

She shook her head. “No, I know you wouldn’t lie to me. It’s not that. I—It’s just… I’m not… soft. I never have been. I’m stubborn, and I don’t back down just to make other people feel better about themselves. I’ve never been one for mushy shit, and I’ve got a temper.”

His lids went hooded and his eyes swirled a little faster. “Mmm, yes, you are quite fierce, my beauty.”

“I’m serious, Tirox. What happens when you get sick of that and decide you want a mate who’s sweet and loving and gentle? What happens when you and Kix realize I’m none of those things?”

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