Chapter 25

Sucking in his first lungful of breath had never been so difficult. The frigid air froze all the way down. For a moment, he could not recall why he was so cold as life leeched back into him and his memories aligned themselves with his new body. The picture of his mate lying on the cavern floor burst into his mind. Her form stiffening like a board as his life snuffed out crashed into him. Damn and damn again.

“Nickie,” he yelled.

“I’m here,” she said from a short distance away, her voice small, frightened.

Scrambling to as much of a sitting position as his short chain would allow, he faced her. “Are you well, my Nickie?” he asked, unable to keep the worry from his words. She did not look hurt, but not all injuries were visible. He of all people could attest to that.

She nodded, her bottom lip trembling and tears trickling down her cheeks.

More than anything, he wanted to hold her. To reassure her and erase the fear lingering in her eyes. He needed to obliterate the hurt he had cast upon her heart, but he could not. There was no time. The moment the enemy realized their mistake, they would be back, and they would collar her. They would torture her, if for no other reason than to add to his misery. As much as he wanted her with him always, he would not sentence her to his hell.

“You must leave here. Go now before it is too late.”

Nickie huffed a breath, sending a white puff of air into the frigid cavern, and shook her head. “You don’t get it, do you? We’re a team. At least, we’re supposed to be.”

He considered using harsh words to make her leave, but they would not come to his lips. He had already hurt her more than he ever should have.

“Please, my Nickie. I can survive any physical pain they unleash upon my body. I can endure. But my soul would shatter into a million pieces if they harmed you again even one time. Please leave this horrible place,” he begged. She could not suffer his fate. He refused to allow it.

“We’re supposed to stay together. Stay strong,” she said, the hurt in her voice deeper than before. “Remember? Hazel told us that. No, wait… You decided that wasn’t a good idea, so obviously, you don’t. Lucky for you, I’m here to remind you.”

A flash of her anger burst into his mind, stealing his breath. Not because he did not deserve it—he did—but because it was there at all. As much as he wanted to deepen their connection—as desperate as he was for their mind touch—he had to make her see reason. “They will be back. As soon as they know that you live, they will return. You will be chained with me for eternity. If you go now, you can get help. Go find Jasmine. Perhaps, in time, you will find me, and I will be freed once more, but do not stay and be captured.”

“I’m not leaving you here, so forget about it,” she said, her biting tone unwavering as she got to her feet and took a deep breath. “How the hell are we going to get that collar off now?”

“We cannot. There is no one to aid you. There is nothing to be done. Please, go.”

Nickie came to him and crouched down so that she was at his eye level. Fire sparked in her gaze. “Say it one more time, and I swear I will make you ride in the back of the truck to wherever we’re going next,” she hissed.

The emptiness of her threat flooded him, and along with it, her love. She was angry and hurt, but also determined. He struggled to keep his lips from tipping up. Had she any idea how beautiful she was with fury flashing in her eyes? “All right, my Nickie. If I cannot convince you to go, what shall we do?”

Nickie examined his collar and sighed. “It’s the same as before. Can you fit your fingers in two of the holes? It’s a tight squeeze, but if you can get the two latches, I can get the other two.”

Although he had tried many times to do that in his previous captivity, for her, he tried once more. Try as he might, the thickness of his fingers would not fit the small openings. The only reasonable thing to do would be to go and return with help. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t even start,” she snapped into his mind. “We’re both getting out of here. The answer is in our bond. It has to be. If the magic was effective against it, we wouldn’t be able to have this conversation.”

Zenon stilled. “You’re right. My contact with Zandar had been only moments before you freed me. Your presence was the key to unleashing my phoenix.” It was the only thing that made sense. The absolute silence he’d existed in had never been broken until she’d been close.

Excitement, both hers and his, bubbled to the surface.

“So, what do we do?” she asked.

Searching deep inside himself, he reached for his beast. The flicker of fiery energy at the depths of his soul sparked but would not rise. “I must connect with my phoenix. If I can get it to the forefront, I will be able to break the collar.”

Nickie looked at him for a second, then a small smile, one he would swear he had not seen in too many lifetimes, broadened. Before he could guess at what she would do, she cupped his cheeks and kissed him.

At the gentle touch of her lips, the spark flared brighter. Rather than coax it out, Nickie filled him with everything soft and wonderful within her. Every ounce of love she held in her heart for him, she poured through their bond, bolstering the connection from her soul to his. “Come back to me, mate. Let’s get out of this place so we can be together,” she said.

The phoenix, sluggish and drowsy, rose to greet her. The struggle to surge burned like fire in his gut, but little by little, power flowed into him. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. Needing the physical contact as their souls rejoiced.

Not ready to break the spell, he groaned when she pulled away. She smiled against his lips with a sigh. “We really do have to go, so if you’re ready to get rid of that thing, I’m all for it.”

***

Zenon’s phoenix marks brightened along his arms and his stomach, and her skin tingled along with his. If she were to look inside her jacket—one she wasn’t taking off for anything because it was cold as hell—she was sure her own paler ones would be glowing.

Without breaking her gaze, he reached for the collar, slipping his fingers beneath the ice-cold metal. With a grunt and a hard tug, the hinge on the left side snapped under the strain. Once broken, the right fell apart, useless. The air around them expanded, then, as though the energy surrounding them was too much, it popped like a balloon.

Relief made her knees weak and she sagged lower, but Zenon was there, standing and taking her with him. His arms wrapped around her, holding her so tightly she could hardly breathe. “We have to go. They couldn’t have gotten far. The magic was disrupted. They will return,” he said, ushering her to the mouth of the cave.

The joy coming from him was nothing but a shadow of the guilt pouring off him. It suffocated in its intensity. “I’m so sorry I hurt you, my Nickie.”

His words rang true, but what needed to be said could not happen right then. He’d hurt her, and they would have to deal with that—but not yet. “We’ll talk about it when we get to somewhere safe. For now, let’s go,” she said before stepping into the howling wind.

The downhill hike to the truck was faster and easier. And without the worry of what she would find when she reached the cave, Nickie was able to admire the mountain views. Kind of. She was still hyperaware of everything around them and was ready to drop at the first sign of trouble, by the time they reached the lookout, her greatest discomfort was her cold nose.

Thankfully, the parking area was empty when they got there. Without saying a word, she hauled the fresh clothing from the bag at the back, handing them to Zenon so he could dress while she started the engine. As soon as the motor was warm enough, she’d set the heater to high. If she was chilled with her jacket on, he had to be freezing.

“Do not worry, mate. I am well,” he sent the reassurance into her mind.

It should have brought her comfort knowing he was there, but it poked too close to the open wound he’d created when he’d closed himself off to her. That, more than the fact that he’d lied, hurt the most. He’d taken their bond and dismissed it—dismissed her. Pile on top of that everything that had happened between then and when she’d risen in that cave next to him, and she couldn’t process it. The fear, if she thought about it for half a second, crippled her to the point where she couldn’t breathe. He had delivered himself to the enemy without a backward thought about how it would affect her knowing that they were torturing him—killing him—over and over.

Zenon’s soft touch remained in her mind, but he didn’t push her—didn’t force a conversation she wasn’t ready to have. Before she could even think about any of it, she had to get them off the damned mountain and somewhere safe. Shoving everything to the back of her mind, she threw the truck in reverse. At least the trip down the mountain wouldn’t be as treacherous since her heart was beating normally again.

Neither of them spoke as she drove. They passed the service station without uttering a word. By the time they reached the highway, the exhaustion of the past twenty-four hours beat down on her. The adrenaline that had kept her going through the night and into the morning disappeared, leaving her shaking and bone weary.

“We have to stop, my Nickie,” Zenon said softly when she couldn’t keep from yawning long and loud.

Part of her—the stubborn one who’d had her choices taken away—wanted to argue and tell him that she wasn’t ready to stop, but she wasn’t stupid. Driving that tired was dangerous for not only them, but everyone else on the road.

When she spotted a small hotel on the side of the highway, she pulled in. She didn’t say anything as she dug her backpack out. Though she hadn’t specified whether he should join her, when she got out and headed toward the lobby, Zenon was right there with her.

Checking in took longer than it should have. The kid behind the counter was more preoccupied with whatever texts he had coming in than taking care of the customer, but eventually, with key in hand, they made their way to their room.

“You can shower first,” Nickie said as she collapsed onto the bed fully dressed. Even if she wanted to, standing there would require more energy than she had.

Zenon took a deep breath, then nodded.