Page 6 of Aria's Ascension

Before Tirox could land the first blow, Kix held up a shaky hand and pointed at the data display.

Tirox growled and shot him an irritated look. Kix could feel his usually unshakable patience fraying and knew he was too worried about Aria to bother with niceties or appreciate direction. Kix understood and quickly told him the code to open the tube.

He would’ve fallen to the floor when the supports withdrew and the front of the tube disappeared if Tirox hadn’t caught him. Without pausing to let Kix get his feet under him, Tirox hauled him up with an arm around his back and half drug him to the door.

“Make it open, bright one, or I will tear it down.”

Swaying slightly, Kix braced a hand against the door and blinked hard, sifting through the thoughts he’d picked up from the Gaelli, searching for the correct code. The door was biometrically locked, but, thankfully, there was a datapad in case something went wrong with the biometrics.

He got the code wrong the first time. A warning popped up, telling him he had one more try before they were locked in and alarms sounded. Sucking in a deep breath, he pushed past the pain and exhaustion. Tapping on the unfamiliar symbols a second time, he was rewarded when the door slid open with a soft hiss.

Pushing off, he stumbled into the hall and turned left with Tirox on his heels. Kix could feel his aessa and let their bond guide him to another door not twenty lengths down the hall.

Entering the code again, they stepped inside, letting the door hiss closed behind them, but both jerked to a stop after no more than two steps. Kix’s hearts turned to ice in his chest as his gaze landed on Aria, limp and stripped bare in the stasis tube.

He knew she was unharmed, but it didn’t matter. Finding her unconscious, vulnerable, felt like someone had gutted him.

He’d never seen Aria helpless. She was so fierce, so fearless. Brave, protective, formidable. Her soul was usually so bright, the brightest he’d ever felt. It drew him in like aqalijato flame. It was no wonder he obsessed over her, no wonder she filled his thoughts, his hearts, until he knew he could never be whole again, not after having bathed in that brightness.

Seeing her like this, defenseless and her soul’s shine muted, was more than he could bear.

Something in him snapped. He already knew he would kill or die for her, but even in the bloodiest tournaments he’d tried to hold on to his civility. From the moment he’d begun to awaken, he’d tried to reclaim his empathy toward his fellow beings.

But, seeing his aessa—the one whose song matched his own—helpless, any sense of mercy he’d held burned to ash.

In that moment, he knew without doubt or remorse, he would watch worlds burn to protect her, to spare her even a moment of pain.

Kix felt his fangs descend, felt his claws sting as they lengthened, and his bioluminescence flash in a threat display as savage instincts slithered through his mind. He needed to take his mate to deep, dark waters. Once she was safe, he would track down his prey, hunt it from below where it wouldn’t see his strike coming, and color the water with its blood.

Baring his fangs, Kix lunged forward, fear and fury for the one who’d done this to her vying for supremacy. Tirox, stunned into initial stillness with him, reacted to his movement and matched his steps, a murderous growl rumbling from his chest.

Despite the aggression pumping through them both, after Kix input the code to open the tube, they caught her limp body between them tenderly, holding her with the utmost care. A blade clattered to the floor, but they ignored it, focused on their mate. They whispered to her, calling her name, trying to coax her out of the world being projected into her mind.

A long minute passed while Aria remained unresponsive. Uneasiness prickled the skin on the back of his neck.

He eyed the sensors affixed to her head then darted a look around, sifting through the thoughts he’d picked up from the workers, searching for some way to safely remove them. No matter how hard he searched, there was nothing telling him how to retract the probes, not after the tube had already been opened.

He’d made a terrible mistake, let fear overpower logic, and acted without caution.

On his world, Kix prided himself on his ability to solve even the most complex problems with cool-headed rationality. But, that was with weapons systems, integrating his people’s technology with that of visiting species, and the occasional mediation between his company and off-world traders. He was not accustomed to being emotionally invested.

He did not know how to cope with the knowledge that, without Aria, he would lose himself.

Kix had closed himself off sols ago, knowing his chances of Harmonizing to a female were remote. Even if he did Harmonize, the likelihood she would complete the bond after theMajahaceremony where they delved into each other’s minds was so small as to be laughable.

Kix knew himself. He controlled it ruthlessly, but he knew he was prone to obsession and knew he harbored darkness inside him. Among his people, that made him a risk. No Caljaan female wanted a mate who might regress to their Azii instincts.

So, instead of allowing himself to foolishly hope he’d find a female to accept him, all of him, he’d locked away his needs and focused on his career. He obsessed over his work and controlled the darkness with the help ofhalai, a fighting style known for demanding perfect precision and discipline.

Aria changed all that. She held her own darkness and hadn’t shied away from him or shown any wariness to the obsession he knew he hadn’t been able to hide. She made him feel things he’d never felt.

She made him better, whole, but losing her would destroy him.

In turn, he knew he would destroy everything and everyone around him. He didn’t think he’d be able to stop himself.

Pulling the sensors off without knowing what that would do was beyond risky, but no other solutions came to him. He worried the longer he left them attached the more dangerous it was for her.

Closing his eyes for a moment, he steadied his breathing. When his hands were no longer shaking, he carefully removed the sensors from her head one at a time, his hearts stuttering in his chest at the droplets of blood that ran into her hair from where the needles had pierced her soft skin.

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