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Korvax sniffed the air, a dark grin on his face. "And you in particular…" he said, his voice sliding from conversational to something more dangerous. "No wonder Rael was so possessive of you. You humans, you smell so tasty. Like little bags of honey, just waiting to be torn open and devoured."
"Just like Rael is going to do to you," Elian ground out.
Korvax laughed, a deep sound that rumbled through Elian's aching body. "The man you ran away from? You think he's going to come to your rescue?" He gave Elian a particularly rough shake, sending fresh waves of pain through him. "But I like the way you humans talk back to me. It's amusing. If the bounty wasn't big enough, I think I might keep you. A little pet to cower at my feet, a pretty little thing to—"
As Korvax continued his sneering, Elian's stomach churned. Fear and revulsion warred within him, a sickening cocktail that sent cold sweat beading across his skin.
No. Elian gritted his teeth, and in the face of despair, he summoned up his pride. I might be a nobody, a forgotten cog in a machine, but I'm still a human. We don't go gently, you bastard. You're going to have to drag me to my death kicking and screaming.
He didn't say any of that out loud, though. Korvax's blows hadn't been gentle. He kept his face buried in his arm, and he bore it in silence.
He longed for Rael.
Korvax could tell. The Borraq's grip on Elian was just as tight as it had been at the beginning of the journey, but now there was an extra pressure to it, a subtle warning.
"So sulky, little pet." In the moonlight, his pupils were like black voids. "Rael was going to turn you in, I'm going to turn you in — what's the difference?"
"He wasn't," Elian said, his voice hoarse. "He's not a monster."
"No?" Korvax's breath was hot against Elian's face. It smelled of meat, of blood, of something feral. "He was still going to turn you in, just like I am. After playing nice with you, he was still going to claim his bounty. We're the same."
"He's not!" The words burst from Elian, raw and desperate. "You don't know anything about him!"
But underneath the defiance, doubt gnawed at Elian's heart.
Korvax didn't know anything about Rael. He didn't know about the moments that Elian and Rael had shared together, the little glimpses into the Borraq's life that had somehow turned into something more.
He didn't know about the way that Rael's eyes had softened when he thought Elian wasn't looking, the rare glimpses of vulnerability in a proud and powerful creature. He didn't know about the way that Rael had protected Elian, keeping him safe. He didn't know about the heated looks that had passed between them, the charged moments that had sent heat curling through Elian's body and had made him wonder if there was something more between them.
Korvax didn't know about any of it.
And he didn't know how hard Rael was going to be chasing him.
Korvax was going to rue the day he ever laid a single claw on Elian.
Chapter twenty
Rael pushed himself to the very edge of his endurance, the muscles in his legs screaming as he tore through the wilderness.
He was getting closer.
In the dead of night, under a sky full of alien stars, he was gaining on them.
Elian's kidnapper was heading straight for the city. Rael could see the route Korvax was taking, his feet barely touching the ground as he ran through the night.
If Rael didn't stop him, then as soon as he got there, he was going to sell Elian.
And then there'd be nothing that Rael could do to get him back.
At the break of dawn, Rael finally caught sight of them.
In the distance, Korvax was running through a clearing in the wilderness, its thick underbrush bordered by two steep hills. At the end of the clearing, the path to the city waited, its spires just beginning to glow with the first light of dawn.
He had a captive slung over his shoulder, and by the stars, that captive was…
Alive. Still fighting.
Relief and fury warred in Rael's chest. He'd catched up to them just in time.
