Page 31 of Fractured Souls

Actually, he was rather cute. How was it possible for a male to be dangerous and intimidating and cute, all at the same time?

“Hey,” he rumbled. “You’re at the edge of the abyss right now. I know what it’s like. You might not believe me when I say it, but it’s not so bad, Alexis Carter.”

She flexed her blue hand again. Fixed.

She folded her arms across her chest, rubbing her upper arms. She was intact. Whole. Strong. Well, not yet, but she would be.

She felt the seamless, slightly-warm floor beneath her bare feet. She saw the blue glow from Zharek’s monitors, saw the dark ceiling curving overhead, saw Nythian’s spectacular expression, and marveled at the unearthliness of it all.

At that moment, everything came together. Being here, amongst darkness, catching glimpses of untold power…

“Hey,” he said again, his brow creasing.

“Hey,” she replied softly.

“You’re with us now.”

He was right.

Maybe this was exactly where she needed to be right now.

Seven

Nythian sat outside Alexis’s quarters, listening to the rhythmic sounds of her breathing.

At last, after much tossing and turning, she was finally asleep. Even after Zharek’s assistant, Mareth, had come to her quarters and given her a light dose of neurosedative, she’d remained awake for some time. She’d been up and down, pacing across the floor, going back and forth between the sanitation chamber and her bed. Even from behind the thick walls, he sensed her pent-up tension.

At one point, he’d thought about going in there and comforting her, but he’d already overstepped his boundaries. If he was going to be responsible for training her—Goddess knew she was a mess; she needed structure and discipline—he had to keep a certain distance.

He would be doing her a disservice otherwise. He couldn’t go soft on her. She needed to be mentally strong to deal with the Tharian. According to the boss, a mission on Tharos was a very real possibility, depending on how things played out.

The Kordolian Empire had left a lot of big, smoking clusterfucks in its wake, and Tharos was one of them.

A planet full of restless, angry spirits. His skin crawled at the very thought of it, but if Anuk was so important to the future of the Tharian race, then Alexis would have to go to Tharos.

That meant he would go too.

She was his mission now.

To think that not long ago, he’d been in the boss’s office, trying to find excuses to get out of this particular job.

But Nythian wasn’t indifferent to her anymore. He’d quickly come to realize that beneath Alexis’s vulnerable and oh-so human exterior, there was a brave, intelligent soul. The fact that she was a revenant didn’t bother him. When he was close to her, she felt very, very much alive.

The sound of her heartbeat… fast, slow, steady, strong… No matter what her mood, its rhythm was addictive.

He could hear it now through the Qualum walls—thudthud, thudthud, thudthud—the sound of her fragile human heart contracting and relaxing, accelerating as she shifted in her pod.

She was awake again.

“Goddamn it,” she cursed, and he heard her bare feet drop to the floor. She paced around, her steps quick and deliberate. Her breathing quickened. “Hey, Nythian, I know you can hear me out there. I think we… uh, I have a problem.”

He was on his feet in a flash, barreling through the Qualum-fiber doors as they unravelled, coming to a halt right in front of her.

He looked down.

Stared into her brilliant tawny brown eyes.

Saw her panic, tightly restrained behind a carefully composed face.

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