Ki Book One

Chapter Fourteen

  She was seated on a cot pushed up against a wall. She’d pulled her legs close to her body. Her head rested on her knees, she shook back and forth, the cot bumping into the bricks behind her with a soft and repetitive thump.

  It was over. No, it was worse than over. Soon Max would contact the Zeneethians, if they weren’t already on their way. She would be taken back and Jackson would be left here to rot.

  Rocking back harder, she tried to regain even a scrap of emotional control. As a priestess it should have been easy. Yet she could not stem even a single tear.

  The Guards had brought her food and water, but they remained untouched by the door. Though her throat felt swollen and hot from dehydration, she wouldn’t take a single sip. Neither would she lie down to rest.

  As the hours wore on, several Guards came in, and they attempted to make her eat. When it became clear she would not, they cursed her and walked out. The expressions on their young faces were always the same: distilled, bottomless hatred.

  It made her feel far more alone than she could have fathomed. It stirred up the hopelessness until she felt she’d drown under it.

  Though she’d resolved not to sleep, soon she could not help it. Crumpling down on the bed, a wave of deep exhaustion washed through her. Shivering, she tried to swallow, but ended up causing a coughing fit loud enough to wake the gods.

  As she closed her eyes, the door opened.

  She tried to pay no attention.

  She heard someone walk in, lean down, pick up the glass of water, and stand by her bed.

  “You need to drink,” Max said.

  Despite her resolve, her eyes snapped open, her back buckling back and slamming into the wall.

  “Hey, it’s okay. I’m not going to let you get hurt.” Max handed her the water. When she didn’t accept it, he reached down, picked up one of her hands lightly, and closed her fingers around it.

  When she tried to throw the water away, he stopped her, fastening his hand around hers until she could not fight back.

  “Go away,” she choked, her throat so damaged she could hardly speak.

  Max’s cheeks paled and he quickly darted his calculating gaze all over her. “You are weak. You need sustenance immediately. Drink or I will have the doctors put you on a drip.”

  Reluctantly she took a sip. It produced yet another coughing fit. As she doubled back and forth, spluttering and wheezing, Max looked down at her. His face was cast into shadow, his tall, broad back facing the dim light from behind. Though she could only see his eyes and the line of his bottom lip, it was enough to read his expression.

  He was deeply worried. The concern so obvious as he slowly pumped one of his fists.

  Despite outward appearances, perhaps he was not in complete control of this situation. Maybe the Zeneethians were not on their way, maybe he didn’t have any more tricks up his sleeves.

  “Keep on drinking that. I’ll try to find something with electrolytes in it. The effects of the biomedical field that healed your wound in the mine won’t last forever. We should be out of here before then, but you have to rest.”

  Placing a hand over her mouth as her fit ceased, she squinted up at him. He was talking to her as if they were comrades, as if they were companions stuck in here together.

  “I know it is improperly manufactured, but you have to eat,” Max whirled on his foot, grabbed up the plate by the door, and returned. He did not hand it to her, but instead broke off small pieces and handed them down one-by-one.

  She tried to throw the first few away, but he grabbed her hands when she tried again. “I don’t want to hurt you. Please, just eat.”

  She shook her head, the move causing a sudden wave of nausea to spread through her.

  Sitting down beside her, she watched as he took a pressured, sharp breath. That patina of control that usually masked his features cracked up with frustration as he clutched at the plate harder. “You have no idea what you mean to my people. You are so important.” He kept staring ahead, not facing her, simply focusing on some scratch on the opposite wall. “We need you. You can save so many lives. Please, just eat.”

  She’d never seen him show emotion like that. It felt real. His cheeks crinkled into his eyes, his body drooped as he sat there, his gaze becoming deadened as he continued to stare at the wall.

  “I’m sorry we took you from your people, but we had to,” he finally turned to her. That wash of emotion surged and his lips quivered as he spoke. “We’re fighting to save our people here.”

  He couldn’t be faking it. Though she’d seen him smoothly step into the role of Archer Reed with little warning, this was different. Her years of training in empathy could not be wrong.

  “Why do you need me?” she coughed into her hand as she spoke.

  Excited at her reply, he stiffened, bringing up the plate and handing her a morsel of food immediately.

  She took it, considered it briefly as she rolled it between her fingers, and silently took a bite.

  She watched his expression ease, a small smile even kinked his lips. Tentatively he handed her the plate, watching her carefully as he did. When she did not throw it on the ground, he breathed a resounding sigh of relief.

  Leaning back, he rested his shoulders and head against the brick wall, brought up a hand, and ran it several times through his cropped black hair.

  Eating slowly, despite her rumbling belly, she watched his every move.

  “I’ll get you more water. I’ll try to find appropriate pain medication. Without my matter scanner I won’t be able to tell how effective it will be, but we won’t need to rely on it for long. One night and we’re out of here.” Max sat up, turning to her.

  That look was back in his gaze. The reverent one.

  She brought up a scrap of stale bread to her mouth, but stopped. “Why do you need me?”

  He forced his lips together and swallowed, his Adam’s apple pressing against the torn and dirty collar of his once-grey shirt. “We just need you safe. We’ll get out of here.”

  “If you want me to finish this, tell me. Why do you want me?”

  “Because you can save my people,” he dipped his head down to her level, and he never blinked once. “We need you.”

  She rested the plate on her lap. “Why?”

  “You don’t need to know—”

  She snatched the plate and tried to toss it against the floor. He caught it, though half the remaining food slipped off onto the bed beside them. Clenching his jaw, his eyes blazed. Not with anger at her, but deep frustration.

  “Tell me, or I’ll kill myself,” she leaned away from him. The words bubbled up from within, horrible but instinctive.

  “We would never let you do that,” he kept a hold of the plate, his knuckles pearl white as he held it in a tight grip.

  “If you take me back to Zeneethia, I’ll find a way. You won’t continue you’re experiments on me. I’ll find a way.”

  He dropped the plate beside him and grabbed her shoulders. “You don’t know what you’re saying. I realize the experiments might be... uncomfortable. But they are necessary. We need you. You can save lives.”

  “Uncomfortable?” she choked on her words, tears staining her cheeks as she jerked her head away from him.

  “Hey, I’m sorry. But there’s no other way,” Max didn’t let go of her shoulders.

  “Get away from me. Just leave me alone. I won’t go back with you. If you take me up there I’ll find a way—”

  He stood up, the plate falling from the bed and shattering by his boots. His face was white, the muscles loose, his mouth cracked open. “You can make this hard for yourself,” his words were slow and staccato as he searched her gaze, “but we won’t let you do anything. You’re too valuable to us.”

  “Why?” she screamed. It sent shooting pain through her neck and throat, and she heaved in a gasp, clutching at her mouth.

  He stood back, gaze still darting over her. “Don’t hurt yourself, please,” he tried.

/>   “Why?” she screamed again. But she could hardly force her voice out. Bringing her hands down to her neck, she groped at it as she panted through the pain.

  Max sucked in his lips, locking his jaw tight until the line of it cut a shadow against his neck. “Just don’t hurt yourself. Don’t make me knock you out. I will do it. I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”

  Shaking, she pushed herself backwards until she was propped against the cold, uneven wall. Holding his gaze, she finally closed her eyes.

  Without another word he walked out. Minutes later more food and water were brought to her room. If she didn’t partake in it, she knew he would be back. Next time he would come good on his threat and force the food down her gullet or anesthetize her and feed her through a drip.

  While everything seemed uncertain, there was one thing she could not doubt – his resolve. Max appeared ready to do anything.