Barbarian Lover (Ice Planet Barbarians #3)(46)

HARLOW


I need two poles for a travois. Okay. I can do this. Aehako’s instructions ring through my mind, over and over. My heart races wildly in my chest as I sprint through the snow, looking for the thin pink wispy trees of this planet. Kira’s gone, and both aliens are wounded. They need my help, and I can’t let them down. My feet sink into the snow, but I trudge forward over a drift-covered hill, and when I see trees in the distance, I pick up the pace.

I have Haeden’s knife, since he’s too wounded to use it. When I get to the first tree, I touch the bark and wince, because it feels spongy and damp despite the chill in the air. It doesn’t feel like a hard, woodsy tree at all. I have no idea if this will work, but I’ll give it a shot. Kneeling down, I begin to hack at the base of the first tree. The knife sinks in with a squishing noise, and sap squirts out onto the snow. Ugh. I wrinkle my nose and keep cutting.

The snow crunches nearby, and I stand upright, surprised. It almost sounded like a footstep. “Hello?” I turn around and look. “Aehako?”

No one’s there. I must be imagining things. Or maybe it’s a rabbit. Or…whatever the rabbit equivalent on this planet is. I can’t be a silly chicken and freak out at every little sound, though. I turn back to the tree and continue hacking at it.

I hear the crunch of snow again, and a moment later, a heavy thudding. No, not quite a thudding, a…purring? What on Earth…

Something slams into the back of my head, and I pitch forward into darkness.

Even there, the purring follows me.





AEHAKO


There’s no sign of Harlow. Damn the human for abandoning us.

I’m loading an unconscious Haeden onto a makeshift travois when a roaring sound comes from overhead. I look up and watch as the black smudge of the alien ship on the horizon approaches. My heart slams in my chest as I watch it slowly crawl across the sky. Is it leaving? Taking my Kira with it? Helpless fear burns a track through my guts.

The oddly shaped flying ship seems to be tilting to one side, continuing its slow descent. It flies overhead and I turn, then realize it’s heading directly for the side of the nearest mountain. “No!”

My hoarse shout echoes on the lonely, snow-covered plains. It doesn’t stop the alien ship from plunging headlong into the rocky slope, or the crash and fiery explosion afterward.

“KIRA!” I fall to my knees in agony.

No. My mate. My sweet, sad-eyed mate. The pain of loss is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I’ve always been a lucky one, born into a large, loving family. We were spared when the khui sickness hit the caves hard many years ago. I’ve never lost someone I loved so intensely as I loved Kira.

The thought of going on without her staggers me.

I fall forward and press my fists to the icy snow, trying to contain my rage and grief. Haeden needs my help, even though I want nothing more than to chase down that black, smoking char of a ship and find any traces of my sweet Kira. Was she in fear when she died? Hurt? A harsh sob breaks in my throat.

She deserved better than this.

Dully, I look over at Haeden’s unconscious form. It would be easy to just roll onto my back and wait for my own end to come. To give up and join my Kira in death. But Haeden is here, and he needs the healer, and for a moment I feel a wave of ugly resentment for my wounded friend, that he won’t let me join her.

But that doesn’t mean I cannot grieve for her.

I sit up on my haunches, ignoring the stabbing pain of my wound. I grab a fistful of snow and begin one of the mourning songs, the one for a mate. I have no ashes to pour over my horns, so I let the snow trickle down over my brow, and I give my dead mate the respect she deserves. I will have a better ceremony when Haeden is safe. I will give my horns the proper cuts, smear ash upon my brow and chant songs of our love before I can go on without her.

If I can go on without her.

Right now, the thought seems impossibly cruel.

I pour another handful of snow over my brow and horns, my mourning chants growing louder. I’m so lost in my grief that I don’t hear the noise around me until a shadow passes overhead. Then, I realize there’s a thick buzzing in the air, a hum not unlike the elders’ cave.

I wipe the snow from my eyes and watch as a pod, the same dark color as the alien ship but much, much smaller, lands delicately in the snow nearby. There’s a whoosh of air, and then a hatch opens, like an egg cracking. Something is immediately flung out into the snow, and the scent of blood and char touches my nose.

It…looks like a severed hand. An orange, alien hand.

Then, a small figure stumbles out of the pod and lands, face-first, into the snow. It’s a human, with pale brown hair, dirty, torn leather clothing, and the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen.

“Aehako,” Kira chokes.

“My mate,” I growl, surging to my feet. I forget my wound. I forget the mourning rites. I forget Haeden, lying unconscious nearby. All I care about is that my Kira — my beautiful, delicate human Kira – is in front of me, alive and whole. I stagger toward her and sweep her into my arms, clutching her against me so tightly that I fear I’m going to crush her.

I can’t let her go, though. She’s never leaving my sight again.

“Aehako,” she sobs again, and her voice is full of laughter and joy as well as tears. Her arms around my neck are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever felt, and when she grabs my face and begins to press sweet kisses to my mouth, I nearly explode from joy.