Page 55 of Tharn's Hunt
And something else. Something warm and sweet and sharp all at once. Something that makes my dra-kir pound harder, faster.
Beautiful.
The thought drifts through the mindspace, tinged with wonder.
I see more images of myself—carrying her across the sand, fighting the shadowmaw, tending her wounds with gentle hands.Each memory pulses with that same warmth, growing stronger with each one.
—safe with him.
—never looked at anyone this way before.
—want him to?—
The last thought cuts off abruptly, leaving behind an impression of desire so powerful it steals my breath. It is not a hunter's desire for prey, or a warrior's desire for victory.
It is something else entirely. Something I have glimpsed only in the way Rok looks at Jus-teen.
The realization rocks me to my core.
Before I can process this revelation, the mindspace shifts again, darkening at the edges. Jah-kee's presence grows fainter, more difficult to sense.
She is slipping away.
"No!" I project into the mindspace, reaching for her with everything I have. "Live, Jah-kee!"
It is weak, but I feel her stir, drawn by my voice even in her delirium.
“Tharn?”
Her mental voice is faint, confused, but she knows me. Recognizes me across the barrier of unconsciousness.
"I am here," I project, pouring reassurance, strength, determination into the words. "I will not let you go."
“So tired.”
“Hurts.”
“Sorry.”
Each thought comes more faintly than the last, her presence in the mindspace flickering like a dying flame.
"No," I project again, more forcefully. "You will fight. You will live."
I push my will into the mindspace, wrapping it around her fading presence like a physical shield. I pour every ounce ofstrength I possess into the connection between us, willing her to take it, to use it, to hold on.
In the physical world, I run faster, my muscles screaming in protest. All my focus is on Jah-kee. On her burning body in my arms, on her fading presence in the mindspace.
I will not lose her. Not now. Not when I have only just begun to understand what she means to me.
Solmarks bleed into solmarks, the landscape changing gradually as we approach the foothills leading to our destination. The mindspace flickers erratically, sometimes clear enough that I can feel Jah-kee's strange dreams, sometimes so faint I fear I've lost her completely.
By the time Ain begins her descent toward the horizon, my legs are numb, my lungs burning with each breath. But I do not slow. Cannot slow. The foothills rise before us, familiar territory at last. We are close. So close.
And then, as I crest a ridge overlooking a small valley, I see them.
Two figures in the distance, one tall and golden like myself, the other small like Jah-kee. They move together across the valley floor, apparently searching for something.
Searching for us.
