A serpent, slithering up a tree. No, not a tree. I swim as close as I dare, my brain yelling at me to breathe, as I try to get a better look.

It’s a fucking handle. It’s a water release valve.

It’s a sluice gate.

Holy shit. Hope wells in me, and I kick my legs as hard as I can, dots dancing before my eyes with the need for air. It takes much too long to reach the surface, and I cough as I suck as much air in as I can.

“Gen, get its underbelly!” Kanuz shouts at me, still battling the thing.

“There’s a door under there,” I scream. “I’m going to open it.”

“Good, yes, my brilliant flower, do that.”

“Don’t die!” I shout at him, noting in a rising panic that he’s bleeding from several deep lacerations.

“I will not die before I have claimed you,” he says dramatically.

“My hero,” I tell him, and I’m not even sure if I’m being sarcastic. I’m pretty impressed with him, to be honest. I start hyperventilating, trying to flood my blood stream with oxygen. Hopefully the Suevan goddess didn’t fucking rust the damn valve, or her little pet tentacle monster is going to have a nice dinner.

Okay. I can’t put it off any longer. I take one last gulp of sweet cave air, and I swim as fast as I fucking can, heading for the sluice gate. The glowing fish dart around me, unbothered, and my ears pop as I yank at the gate. Nothing happens. Shit. That’s not working.

I blow out a controlled stream of air, my face twisting as I strain at the door. Nothing.

“Fuck,” I mutter, losing more air as the water swallows the word. Stupid.

I twist the handle this time, bracing my feet against the stone floor. A muffled clicking noise interrupts the rushing of water.

The sluice gate gives.

I twist more, relief and need to be out of this goddamn pool overriding every cell in my body screaming for more air. My thighs burn, the metal tearing my palms where I grip the bar, and heave, throwing my weight against it.

Might be easier if I were Suevan, but I’m a human, and I’m still gonna fucking do this thing.

When it swings open, I am unprepared for the shift in the current.

Stupid, stupid, idiot sandwich.

The gate grinds all the way open, and I’m immediately sucked into the opening, my chest burning with the need to breathe, my brain yelling at me to keep my fucking mouth and nose shut.

Water rushes around me so fast that I squeeze my eyes shut, crossing my arms over my chest and holding on to myself for dear life. Guilt tugs at me just as hard. Kanuz. I want to sob, but I’m too afraid to drown, so I simply hug myself.

My head breaks through the surface.

I gasp in a lungful of delicious oxygen, and this time, I let myself sob. Relief and fear both pound through me, and I can’t stop crying. I’m alive. Kanuz is… not here.

I look back, trying to figure out how to get back to him, taking stock of where I am.

Stone walls rise up around me, barely visible through a dense crush of verdant foliage. The water continues to spill around me, up to my waist, but I’m sitting in it, mud thick around where I press my palms into it. Birds call to each other from the treetops, and in the distance, I can hear a fucking dinosaur.

Some kind of courtyard?

I stand slowly, still dizzy, exhausted from the rush of adrenaline leaving my body. I’m still crying, though the intensity of it has faded, leaving me whimpering as I trudge back through the muddy bank, searching for wherever it was the torrent of water carried me from.

“Kanuz, please be okay,” I say, crying openly, rubbing my palms against my arm. Mud cakes my feet and ankles, and still I walk, to where water flows freely through a huge pipe. It’s still coming so fast. There’s no way I can swim through it to get to him.

Numb, I stand and watch it flow, waiting for a flash of green in the frothy blue, some hint of his skin.

But only water keeps rushing through, and another sob wracks me as I watch it flow.

“Kanuz, I don’t want to do this without you,” I choke out, my hand at my throat. “I need you with me, you have to be okay. Please, please don’t be dead. I need you, you smug, funny, handsome alien prince.” Tears stream down my face, and I hiccup, the water finally slowing. “I’m sorry I’ve been mean. I’m sorry. Please just come out of there. Alive.”

A hand clasps on my shoulder, and I scream.

“My flower, I did not know you thought I was handsome.” His voice is smug, but I’m too relieved to care.

I throw myself at him, sniffling as I wrap my arms around his broad chest as best I can. “You’re here, you’re okay,” I say, and I’m not sure if I’m reassuring him or myself.

“You solved another riddle, my sweet flower. And you have not been mean.” He pulls away, drinking in my face. “You have been yourself, in a rough situation. You have been a soldier, and a warrior princess, and a fine companion. Plus, you are very nice to look at.”

I throw my cheek against his chest, suddenly crying harder.

“Why do you make water?” he asks earnestly, and I hiccup a laugh. “Are you ill? Did you drink too much of it?”

“It’s called crying, and it’s perfectly normal for humans,” I tell him, amused. “We do it when we’re sad. Or happy. Or angry. When we have a lot of emotions.”

“I am sorry I have caused you so many emotions.” He tilts his head. “Which one do you say you feel the most?”

I snort. “I’m relieved. I’m so happy you are okay.”

“I like this crying, then. I am relieved we are both well.” His arms curl around my bare skin, and I tense for a second, remembering I’m in nothing but underwear, then relax, hugging him tighter.

His body goes taut under my hands.

“Are you hurt?” Gingerly, I step away from him, or try to, but he pulls me back.

“The zeloth inflicted several wounds, but none are serious.”

I inspect him, raking my gaze over his hide. He’s bleeding from several places, but nothing looks too deep, thank goodness.

“You bleed, too,” Kanuz says, his expression darkening. His hand slips down my hip, down the expanse of my thigh, to a laceration about two inches long. It seeps blood, but it’s not deep. A purple bruise is already raised around the edges of the wound, though. Even his gentle inspection makes me wince.

“We’re alive.” I hang my head back, exhausted. “I was starting to wonder if I’d ever see the sky again. What happened to the monster?”

“The zeloth?”

“No, the other monster,” I say, then grin. “Yes, the zeloth.”

“It died when over half of it was exposed to the air. Immediately.” He frowns. “It was deeply unpleasant to witness.”

I am so fucking glad he’s alive, and I can’t stop myself from throwing my arms back around him.

“Perhaps I should fight zeloth more often, if this is the reaction I will receive.” His voice is husky, and a hard mass prods against my bare leg.

I want to laugh, but it dies in my throat.

Maybe it’s the near-death experience. Maybe it’s the overwhelming relief at seeing him alive, his smug smirk firmly in place. Maybe it’s because, if I listen to the little voice deep inside, I know I like him.

Really like him.

So with all the emotions tumbling inside me until they’re polished and shiny, I do the only thing possible.

I tug his big, handsome face down to mine and kiss him like I mean it.

And I do.

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

OceanofPDF.com

KANUZ

Her kiss steals my breath more surely than any threat of danger ever has. My relief at seeing her whole and alive is eclipsed by my affection for her. Need rages through me, the need to rut my mate until all the terrors of the past days are forgotten, until the world contracts and is only her and me, forever.