Page 11 of Xerxes Ascendant
“What is the last thing you remember, Mr. Randall?”
“Are you able to breathe without difficulty?”
“Who is Akira, Kyle?”
“How many fingers am I holding up?”
“Are you alright?”
“Let’s assess sensory perception. Can you feel this? Good. What about this?”
Kyle answered the medical staff’s questions but not his cousin’s, sensing her frustration and sympathy vying for control.
“I’ll check your scans for indications of intracranial pressure,” the doctor said brusquely and then disappeared with the nurse, leaving him alone with Indira. She perched on theedge of the narrow bed and nibbled her bottom lip in fretful agitation.
“You scared us, Kylie.”
He gave her a wide, teeth-filled grin intended to comfort. “Just wanted to catch up on some sleep,Indy.”
“Eleven days’ worth, you prick?”
By the stars.
“Yep,” Kyle said easily. Freaking out about it wouldn’t change anything. He’d just have to come to terms with the fact that he’d lost nearlytwo weeksof his life.
Better than losing that life entirely, and...
And according to Indira’s breathless explanation, he had Master Epsilon to thank for that. His mercurial boss had saved him – again – when the damage to their skyborne city would have had him falling multiple storeys to his death.
The relief Kyle felt in hearing that Akira was back on his feet after everything he’d endured at the hands of Theta and Mackenroth’s thugs was strangely exhausting. It buoyed his heart, eased his breath, loosened his tense muscles...but the bitter memory of betrayal also flooded him with an array of complex emotions that weren’t easy to pick through.
And just when Kyle had assured himself that he didn’t need to figure it all out rightnow, and that he could focus on just waking up from a star-damned coma, those same stars laughed and spat in his face by causing the man himself to stagger through the door.
“Kyle,” Akira said, the word taking his entire breath to speak. His body seemed to slacken and collapse, and he slumped against the doorframe with his fingers twitching as though wanting to reach for him. Kyle felt the same contradictions, simultaneously needing him close and needing him on the other side of the fucking planet.
“What...how did you know...”
“I messaged him as soon as you began to stir,” Indira declared in response to Kyle’s croaked half-questions, shooting Akira a friendly smile over her shoulder. Had theybondedwhile he’d been out of it? “We’ve been taking turns here at the hospital. We’ve all been so worried about you.”
She turned and gave Kyle a conspiratorial wink.
His cousin, the wingman. A shame she’d fallen prey to the same smooth, suit-clad lies as he had.
Fuck, Akira was compelling. Handsome even with such pain and exhaustion etched across his gaunt face, elegant despite the slump of his shoulders, and his dry, chapped lips could not stop Kyle from fantasising about kissing them.
He struggled to push himself up to a seated position on the bed, ignoring both of their protests. Kyle couldn’t deal with this right now. He needed space to think. To process.
But Akira had been fuckingtortured.
“Epsilon,” he began, using the title both for Indira’s benefit and to try to keep some distance between him and the man he’d so inevitably fallen in love with. “They hurt you badly that night. Are you…okay?”
Akira nodded stiffly. “I’ve recovered well, thank you.”
A lump formed in Kyle’s throat. It wasn’t the response he had expected. “You could have said no. ‘No’ would have bought you my sympathy. ‘No’ might have let you stay instead of me telling you to fuck off.”
Akira shook his head, not taking his eyes off him. They were dull and hollow, with none of the spark that usually swirled in their depths. “But it’s the truth. And I promise I’ll never lie to you again.”
The words, uttered softly amidst Indira’s noises of confusion, sounded heartbreakingly lost. Apologetic and sincere and with a generous serving of helpless plea lacing each syllable. An appeal for forgiveness.
