Page 131 of Between Imminent Fates

A sharp pain stabbed inside his skull, and before he could gasp, he collapsed.

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Voices were shouting above him. Zeke didn’t move, and he didn’t respond. It was as if he’d lost the ability to process what the voices were saying. His mind had begun fraying at the edges. He was unraveling.

“Sovereign?”

A jumble of consonants and vowels. It took everything to recognize the word. He couldn’t seem to pry open his eyes.

“Zeke.”

Someone was scrubbing their knuckles along his sternum, attempting to rouse him. No pain filtered into his mind, but then again, the agony of his depleted reserves and the compounding torment of his own spiral into an energy drought was ever-present.

“Zeke!”

Several sets of hands pressed against him, and the warmth of healing waves quickly escalated to a burn. The sharp, biting pain in the center of his mind swiftly became a dull ache. As the confusion subsided, Zeke realized he was laying on the office floor, surrounded by senior healers.

More voices began to clarify around the room, and though he was groggy, Zeke began to understand the conversation. Instructions were being called out, from clan transition support to how Kaien and Tzuriel were going to assume control.

It was then that Zeke recognized what was happening.

Finally.Finally.The pain was ending—and he would see Nina again.

“Zeke?” Kaien’s voice held a note of fear.

Zeke’s eyebrows knitted together in genuine remorse. “I’m sorry, I—I’m sorry.”

Heaving himself into a sitting position, he fought off the tide of nausea associated with the change. Inhaling to center himself, Zeke finally registered that Kaien and Tzuriel were both being tended to by different healers—they needed the energy to take over the clan bonds.

So many had gathered to support them. His death would alleviate the burden from the healers who’d volunteered to be here. Slowly reaching up, he touched Luna’s fingers on his shoulder.

“Help Kaien and Tzuriel now,” he said softly.

There was only a moment’s hesitation, but the second the healers’ hands left him, the pain began to amplify once more. His cause was lost. Nina had always been stronger. She’d always been his better half. Knowing he’d see her in a few minutes was what propelled him through the building agony.

Zeke had never liked his office. It had always felt cramped and cluttered, and he preferred the outdoors where the wind sung, and the trees swayed. The lake had always been one of his favorite places—where he often found Nina playing with their children.

He rose to his feet, ignoring the way his balance wavered, and the healers made a move toward him. Shaking his head, he stumbled toward the door, veering outside as the wind bit into his skin.

The room where Nina lay faced the lake, and though he couldn’t see her, hefelther. If he could choose a spot to die, this would be it. By the lake, surrounded by the presence of his mate.

Though he knew he’d been followed outside, he had no idea who it was. He could no longer discern psychic signatures.

As his energy began to fade, he could weakly sense the others work to uproot the network. For a moment, all he could do was float in a rising tide of disorientation. His knees buckled under him, but he fought against succumbing completely. Any second he could hold on gave them a greater chance for success.

Several hands gripped his shoulders, steadying him as he fell. So many minds brushed against his, the dual sovereignties slipping from his now-porous neural net.

As his mind began to fail, it was all he could do to support their efforts, but it was a losing battle. Agony erupted along the deteriorating ties to his clan, and blood poured from his nose. Through the fog, Zeke could only hope for the end.

His last thought was of Nina.

Chapter Twenty-One

Kaien

Kaien’s torment magnified asthe neural network in his mind began to crumble, and it was everything they could do to retain its rigidity. Though Zeke had tried to support them as best he could, the other man’s energy was failing.

They sensed the exact moment when his sovereign lost the battle with consciousness. Going limp beneath them, Zeke’s mental signature began deteriorating. It was a catastrophic side effect of his thoroughly depleted psychic reserves. He was dying.

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