Page 46 of Fallen from the Stars

“Yeah, this won’t be themostagonizing pain of your life. Probably,” Kane added.

Vasil frowned, keeping his focus on Theo.

She sighed. “Please, don’t listen to him. This will feel weird, but it doesn’t really hurt. Trust me?”

Vasil nodded.

She pressed down the trigger, and a soft blue glow appeared over his skin just above the wound. A more solid-looking beam of light formed at the center, and within moments it was accompanied by several smaller beams that spun and twirled around it. His arm thrummed, and there was a hint of cold, but no pain.

The silence between them was filled by the drumming of raindrops atop the pod. Having the beach and thrashing sea in his peripheral vision was of great comfort, but he didn’t let his eyes drift from Theo. His earlier fear — hisanxiety— seemed even more foolish now.

“I did not have problems with small spaces before,” he said without meaning to.

Her eyes flicked up to meet his briefly. Her brow knitted. “It’s something new?”

“I was tortured by hunters a little more than two years ago.”

Theo flinched, lifting the device away from his arm. “What?”

“They held me in a small cell on a boat, arms and tentacles bound, with my neck anchored to the wall. For three days they beat myself and my companions and denied us water.” Just the mention of it made images flash through his mind, but he did his best to cast them aside. It was the past; heneededto move on.

Theo’s grip tightened on the device. “When you say hunters…you’re talking about…humans?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because they viewed my kind as monsters to be eliminated for their safety. And because their leader thought we had taken his son.”

She turned his arm to situate the device over the next wound, depressing the trigger again. “Did you?”

“Yes,” he replied as the cold, thrumming sensation returned. “We saved his life after he was betrayed by his own, but we could not allow him the chance to reveal our home.”

“How…did you get free?”

“A human released us when the ship caught fire.”

“And since then, you haven’t been able to stand enclosed spaces?” she asked, moving to the final wound.

“I have been all right in familiar places,” he replied, “but even the home the humans built for me was difficult to adjust to. I left the windows open for weeks, even in rainstorms, before it stopped bothering me.”

“Because you felt trapped.”

Vasil nodded, dropping his gaze to the floor. “It makes me feel…weak.”

Theo turned off the device and set it aside. Placing her fingers back on his arm, she lightly ran them over the now-healed wounds. His skin tingled beneath her touch, warmth spreading over its surface.

“I know the feeling,” she said quietly, “but you’re not weak, Vasil. If anything, that experience has made you stronger.”

His gaze shifted to her fingers. “I do notfeelstronger for it. I have been battered and wounded more times than I can count. Why should those few days affect me so much when all the rest do not?”

Her fingers slowed for a moment. “Because that was the one time you couldn’t fight back. But no matter how helpless you might have felt, you remained strong.” She placed a hand on the center of his chest. “In here. You wouldn’t be here right now if that wasn’t true.”

For the second time since he’d entered the pod, it was difficult to breathe, but it wasn’t anxiety now. The tenderness of her touch was overwhelming, amplified by her understanding. Though her circumstances had been different, she knew how he felt.

“Your heartbeat is so…different,” she said, staring at his chest.

“Kraken have three hearts.” And Vasil felt like all three of his were beating for Theo alone.

---