Page 71 of Xerxes Ascendant
“How well can you Dive with a broken arm, I wonder?”
“Thr-”
“Master!” cried Kyle. “Let him go!”
Miguel’s gun was buried in Akira’s side, making it impossible for the man to miss. Kyle would rather take their chances with Mackenroth than watch his boyfriend inevitably bleed out on his roof.
Akira let out a displeased breath but did as ordered. The men pulled apart from each other with wary glances.
Acknowledging the assistance with a cool nod in Kyle’s direction, Miguel backed up towards the edge of the roof with his gun trained carefully on the pair of them.
“I don’t want to dothis, either,” the man said, twisting up his face into awhat can you do?gesture. “I like you, Kyle. But my orders were to get the two of you onto this rooftop, no matter how hard you struggled.” He shrugged, and Kyle wondered if he was planning to taunt them for how much theyhadn’tstruggled. They’d walked right into the trap laid for them. “You might both survive what comes next…and you might not. But for what it’s worth, I really hope you do.”
And then Miguel flung himself over the side of the skyscraper, arms already outstretched and the parachute flaring to life behind him, leaving Kyle and Akira stranded and alone.
Tension recalibration on main load cables completed (94% optimal stability) and tether integrity holding. Power sync trials successful on three minor junctions; core runic grid remains isolated. Microshifts in tether alignment due to wind shear require constant adjustment. Strut C-7 showing stress fractures; replacement parts requested.
-Xerxes reunification status update from Project Lead (Civil Engineer Mara Vell)
CHAPTER 20
Akira
Akira was pissed.
Despite knowing that they’d been compelled to accept Sinead’s deal under the combined pressure of his debt and their captivity, he was still enraged at himself for his capitulation. Because had he really expected anything other than treachery from the fucking Carrion?
And now they’d been abandoned to the mayor’s security forces...and in the impossible position of needing to escape a building suspended in the air. How, by every star laughing at them from the inky blackness above their heads, did they get themselves into these situations?
He glanced cautiously over the edge. Nothing but sleek chrome and glass except for the several-storey gap where the anti-grav kept the top few levels suspended in the air. A few balconies here and there, some large enough to park a car on, but nothing they could use to climb all the way down to the ground.
“Sweetheart,” Kyle murmured, tugging him away from the dizzying view. He cradled Akira’s face between his gloved palms and pulled him close to press a gentle kiss to his forehead. “I’m here.”
“That’s the problem,” Akira whispered, his heart sinking. He laid his hands over Kyle’s and squeezed through the thick fabric, trying to convey the regret and remorse that tore at his insides. “I am so sorry I got you mixed up in this, Kyle.”
His boyfriend just grinned back at him. It was as genuine a smile as he’d ever worn, as though they weren’t facing imminently painful deaths at Benedict Mackenroth’s hands. For a moment, the intensity of that smile was enough to soothe Akira’s racing heart and trembling breaths, and almost enough to convince him this was all a terrible nightmare and the pair of them were still behind the protective runes of House Epsilon, safe and content.
“Miguel was right. We should get out of these things if we’re to have any chance of surviving.” Kyle let go of him so he could wrench off Akira’s Diving suit, and the tiny mewl that unwillingly escaped Akira’s lips at the loss of his touch made the blonde’s mouth twitch in amusement.
“Give me a moment, kitten.”
Akira would gladly give him forever.
He stood there helplessly, fear warring with affection, and let Kyle strip the bulky material from him. He lifted his arms when instructed, turned around, let himself be moved and manoeuvred and fall into the soft, comforting rhythm of being taken care of.
“There,” declared Kyle a minute later, casting the mound of fabric aside with a delicious ripple of muscles beneath his shirt. “You look like you again, Master.”
Then he cocked his head and gave him an assessing once over, trailing his fingers down Akira’s waistcoat.
“Although your fancy, expensive-as-fuck suits are still only my second favourite look on you. I don’t suppose I can convince you to adopt the first?”
“Strip naked on top of a roof?” Akira asked dryly, crossing his arms. “No, I don’t suppose you can.”
“Maybe later, then.”
“Kyle. There’s not going tobea later.”
“Pfft.” The blonde flicked a dismissive hand. “We’re not done for yet.”
