Page 10 of The Brightest Night

“No, wait!” I ran toward them, waving and screaming. “Stop. Please stop!”

Shit. They couldn’t hear me. I looked back the way I’d come, but the cave mouth was gone, swallowed up by the storm.

My bootprints…I could follow them. But a few steps was all it took to lose sight of them too.

I stumbled and hit the ground on my knees. Exhaustion washed over me, leaving my limbs too heavy to move. I fell onto my side, a sob breaking from my lips.

One moment.

I’d get up in one moment.

The world grew darker. The white melting away. The howl dropping into a petulant whine. Better. Quieter. I could see the stars now. Pretty.

The pulse in my throat throbbed harder as if desperately trying to keep me awake by playing a staccato rhythm.

I was dying.

Slowly.

Quietly.

My eyes pricked, hot tears freezing as they licked at my cheek. Each breath was shallower. Shorter.

A fist formed in my chest, squeezed then relaxed. Heat flooded my limbs, sudden and searing, the internal pressure pushing out my chest and arching my body as green energy shot out to wreathe me in a halo.

My power pulsed. Warming me. Protecting me.

Yes. Help me. Please.

It flickered and burned brightly for a moment before sinking back into me with a sigh of sorrow.

The heat remained for a beat before dispersing too, leaving me cold and alone.

No…

Darkness edged my vision, oblivion pulling me under.

No, no…no…

“Nova. Nap time is over,” Kai said. “Wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey.”

I peeled my eyelids open and stared blearily at Kai’s mechanical face. “What time is…” Memory came flooding back in a rush. “Fuck!” I sat up fast, then slumped back onto the soft mat beneath, the world dimming for a beat.

“Slow it down, chick,” Kai said. “We can dance later.”

Oh, fuck, he was in chipper mode. “Kai, please switch back to grumpy mode.” The cave walls glowed amber. How had I gotten back here? And Kai… “What happened?”

“We got fried,” he said. “Superbly. But Dareth saved us.”

Dareth? I sat up again, slower this time, looking across the cave, past the flickering campfire where my mech angel was prone, head turned away from me as a man hunched over his back, fiddling with his spine area.

“Get away from him!” I scrambled to my feet, fighting a wave of dizziness. “Stop!”

The man paused what he was doing to look my way with a frown. His lean, almost regal face was softened by laugh lines bracketing his mouth.

“I am not hurting the mech,” he said calmly. “I’m reanimating him. One moment.”

“He got me back on my feet,” Kai said. “I don’t think he’s bad. I think he can help us.”