Ren had to tighten his arms around her to keep her from falling as she went completely limp. "Kateri?" He shook her slightly. Her head lolled back.
She was out cold.
Fear shredded him. "Sundown!"
They all slowed down to look at him.
Jess came running over immediately. "What happened?"
"I don't know. She just passed out."
And in the next heartbeat, she stopped breathing entirely.
Raking his hands through his hair, Ren stood back with tears in his eyes while Jess tried to resuscitate Kateri, who lay on the ground at his feet. But she didn't respond at all.
She was dead....
How?
The answer didn't really matter to him. Not even a little. The reality was that she was gone, and the pain of it slammed into him so hard that it left him weak in the knees. He couldn't breathe or focus. Nothing in all eternity had hurt him this much. Nothing. He felt like the world around him was crumbling to pieces. Like the very ground he stood on had swallowed him whole.
She'd just entered his life, turned it on its head, made him feel again, and now she was gone. Why? Why would the gods have done this to him?
He'd been all right alone. He'd gotten by without having any real ties to anyone. Maybe not deliriously happy, but not really miserable either. Muted emotions had worked for him.
At least they beat the hell out of this utter agony that made him want to shout his anguish to the gods and kill whichever one had taken her life.
Panting, he glared up at the muted underworld sky.
I want her back! Damn you! I want her back!
How badly?
His heart stopped its rapid beating at the foreign voice in his head. But it wasn't foreign. It was familiar, though he couldn't place it. Before he could remember, a flickering shade appeared to his right.
Windseer.
More beautiful than any mortal woman, she stood there as a wraith with an unamused expression that made her cheekbones even sharper, her olive skin more luminescent. It was as if she was listening to someone else in her head.
And he knew exactly who would be pulling her stings.
Grizzly.
Get thee behind me, bitch, he growled at her.
She shrugged nonchalantly. Fine. Let her die. She means nothing to me. She started fading.
Kateri might mean nothing to them, but she meant everything to him.
"I'm really sorry, Ren," Sundown said, rising to his feet. He pulled his hat off respectfully as he shifted his weight to one leg. "There's nothing more we can do. She just won't respond."
"Hijo de puta," Cabeza snarled. "Who's going to reset the calendar now? Huh? We just got screwed, mi hermanos. Might as well stay here and set up camp. Once those gates open, everything here will head to the surface. This will be a ghost town."
Urian rolled his eyes. "That's a really indecent pun, Khan."
Jess sighed. "This ain't good. Not good at all."
Sasha nodded in agreement. "Blows chunks, my friends. Blows serious chunks. Thank the gods I'm not human. Can't wait for the gates to fall." His tone dripped sarcasm. He passed an irritated smirk to Sundown. "And we thought it was bad when we were attacked with the plagues. Woo-hoo, Field Day II here we come. Who wants popcorn?"