Page 21 of I Dated a Retired Hero

She snorted and held out her wrist. He tried to connect, and she acknowledged it. Then, she brought up her display and sent her suit feeds.

He nodded and said, “I look good from this angle.”

He looked good from any angle. He was a prince from the fairy tales. Dark hair and pretty eyes. The wide shoulders were nice, the waist looked like he had his own dance training, and his trousers didn’t show her what his butt or legs looked like. The boots were nice.

She nodded and looked at the canister. “Right. You get back. I am going to take this apart carefully.”

He nodded and stepped back.

Litha looked at the canister, tilted her head, then crouched, and began to use her plasma to cut a gap in the side of the metal as she struggled to split it in half.

She cut centimetre after centimetre until she got to the top. The hole she had burned was an inch wide, and she sat back as she tried to peer into the darkness within.

When the fingers shot out and curled against the smouldering edge, she screamed, “There’s someone in there!”

“Can you get them out?”

“I need water. Lots of it.”

Petrov started talking into his com and said, “They are coming. There are water actives in the trucks.”

She looked at the fingers as both hands tried to shove the metal apart. “Can you go get them? And a healer. We need someone good with burns.”

He nodded and disappeared in a green swirl.

Litha put her fingers over the ones clawing at the inside of the vessel. She spoke Erradian and Aksallan and Common, saying, “It will be fine; we are getting you out. We don’t want to hurt you, so we are getting help. I don’t want to burn you.”

His fingers didn’t stop grasping at hers, so she tried one last thing. “Warrior, you have survived this long. Let us get you free. The world is bright, and you will be in the open air soon.”

He stilled. She looked into the darkness, and suddenly, she saw a bronzed cheek pressing against the seam. A black eye full of stars was staring at her.

The voice was hoarse and slow. “I. Will. Be. Free?” The words were Erradian.

“You will be free.”

Men in work clothing were brought to her, and she looked at them. “Water or healing?”

Both men raised their hands. “Water.”

“Can you do a spray?”

“We can.”

She looked the person in the eye. “We’ve got this, but the water will enter the container. I have cut it to the ground, so the water will drain out. You will get wet; you will not drown. We are getting you out.”

She looked at the guys. “Spray as I cut.”

They nodded, and she noticed that one had a tanker on their back. Water was water as long as it lasted.

She cut along the base, getting soaked in the cooling spray. She cut up on the opposite side, hopped on the top, and kept talking to the inhabitant, who was still alive after ten years covered with radiation in an open field. Whatever was inside was tough, and the Uraddans hadn’t wanted it.

Litha finished the last cut, and the metal rang. She sat on the canister, put her heels in the seam, and pushed. The metal fell away and clanged heavily to the ground, and Petrov gasped. “Midnight!”

Litha looked down, and there was a tall but very thin male looking up at her. She floated to the ground and looked at him, keeping her gaze on his head. He was extremely naked.

She smiled. “So, you have been around here for a while?”

The midnight eyes looked at her, and he stepped out of the container, grabbing her in a hug. “Thank you, miss. Thank you for coming for me.”

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