blood to Oxandri and if you go back on your word then she will strike you down.”
Jaxor saw the flash of impatience on Tavar’s features, though he hid it quickly. Most of the Mevirax revered and prayed to Oxandri, the Fate of Sacrifice, and her alone.
Jaxor’s jaw clenched, but he looked at the dagger that Kilan pulled from the sheath attached to his leg.
“How much would she require?” Jaxor asked, his eyes cutting to Laccara.
The female’s lips pressed together. She snagged the blade from her mate’s grip and stepped forward.
Jaxor didn’t even flinch when she pressed it deep into his right pectoral, carving Oxandri’s mark into his skin. Blood dripped from the fresh wound and Laccara’s eyes flickered to him. He’d mated her once, long ago, long before Kilan began courting her.
He’d lusted for her once and she’d always seemed to hate him for never wanting her again. Now her nearness, her scent, only made him think of the rixella in his base.
“I make the vow to Oxandri,” Jaxor rasped, his blood hot and slow as it dribbled down his flesh, “that I will uphold our agreement.”
Jaxor had never given much weight to Oxandri. His mother had favored Kollasor, the Fate of Rebirth, and when Jaxor had prayed, it had been to her.
Laccara seemed satisfied with his vow. Even Kilan gave him a nod. Tavar, as always, was watching him.
“One more chance,” the Mevirax leader finally said, his eyes flickering to Oxandri’s mark, the kekevir wounds on his chest, and his shorn hair. Jaxor kept his expression neutral. “You leave tonight. I will give you five spans to track them down and bring them to me. If you fail, then you will never get close to Po’grak and you will never step foot in the Caves of the Pevrallix again.”
Chapter Eighteen
The next morning, Erin found Jaxor gone again.
When she stepped from the cave, the base was quiet, almost eerily so. Even the kekevir were silent and Erin found she’d grown used to their noises.
The morning sky was still grey, heavy with a dense fog that shielded the sky from her sight.
“Jaxor?” she called out, hesitantly, her voice echoing around the crater, bouncing off the stone walls.
There was no reply. He’d come back last night—from wherever he’d gone—in a strange mood. Well, in a quiet, broody mood, which wasn’t all that different from how he usually was. He’d had blood on his chest from a fresh wound, but he hadn’t answered her when she asked how he’d received it. She wondered who he met with because she wasn’t foolish enough to believe he’d left to scare off ‘intruders.’
She didn’t know how long she had, but she had another rare opportunity to be alone. Navigating her way off the stones that led up to the cave, she got down to the base floor and wound her way through the tunnel, making sure to avoid any sharp rocks in the floor. On her way, she noticed that the pulley system was down, meaning Jaxor had lowered himself again, probably gone off to forage or check his traps.
The hovercraft was still in its place. Last night, she’d followed Jaxor down the tunnel and watched him start up the engine, though his fingers had been a rapid blur over the silver pad screen as he did. Still, Erin remembered. She just had to be certain she did, needed to practice so she wouldn’t forget. She’d traced the motion he’d made on the rock walls of the cave, trying to imprint it on her mind the night before as she waited for him to return, shivering as she tried not to think of what they’d done in that cave or the strange conversation they’d had over the fire.
She jumped onto the hovercraft after checking the kekevir gate and walked over to the controls.
A part of her still thought this was foolish—trying to learn to pilot an alien hovercraft in an attempt to blindly navigate her way back to the Golden City.
Actually, all parts of her thought this was foolish. But she suspected that Jaxor had met with the Mevirax last night—that him trading her to them was still a possibility.
The thought…stung. She didn’t think it would, but it did. She tried to imagine her friends’ mates exchanging them for something—willingly giving them up—and couldn’t. Lihvan, Beks’ mate, had almost given his life to fight off a dangerous beast to keep her safe. Rixavox had knowingly performed a blood bond with Cecelia when she’d been poisoned, even