Chapter 22

For a moment, all Levi could hear was his own heartbeat as he waited for the explosives to blow. The mattress offered little in the way of protection, but it was all he had.

What worried him more, apart from Cora's safety, was what would happen after. If he died from the blast, he wouldn't know it. But if he didn't, he'd have to save two lives—his own and hers.

Assuming all went well with the explosion, Levi knew he'd probably only have a few seconds to get out. A few seconds of confusion before a bunch of guards swarmed the site of the explosion. A few seconds of chaos before every Jorvlen in the settlement was after them.

He wished he could yell out and encourage Cora, but he knew any unnecessary noise before the explosion would only give them away. Instead, his heartbeat remained his only companion as he waited to learn his fate.

Only a second later, the air in the cell was ripped apart by four consecutive explosions. What happened next occurred in the blink of an eye, but to Levi it felt like it unfolded in slow motion.

The mattress was battered with debris. When Levi pulled himself out, his ears were ringing and the room was filled with smoke and dust. As he scrambled to reach the blast hole, he was looking for only one thing—Cora.

He wanted to hold her, kiss her, grab her by the hand, and run. He wanted to tell her how he felt, wanted to thank her for saving his life, wanted to rejoin her and tell her that almost as soon as they'd met, he'd recognized her as his partner, the one he was destined to be with.

With this compulsion in his mind—along with the heart-pounding adrenaline rush and flood of panicked thoughts that accompany catastrophic destruction—he reached what used to be the impenetrable prison wall. Now it was nothing more than a gaping, ragged hole.

His hands grasped the crumbling concrete, sand, and dust as he hoisted himself up. The hole was just big enough for him to climb through. When he came out on the other side, the ground was a mess of debris.

He saw figures running away from the blast and others running toward it.

The one thing he didn't see, though, was Cora.

The ringing in his ears was getting louder—or was that an alarm?

Rubble and broken metal crunched underfoot as he ran through the clearing smoke, searching frantically for the woman who had saved him, the woman who had stuck by him, the woman he loved more than life.

"Cora!" he called out in a panicked shriek through the noise.

Jorvlens were yelling—guards and civilians alike—in a cacophony of confusion. Nobody really seemed to know what was happening yet, at least outside. All they seemed to know inside and out was that an emergency was taking place.

The ringing was definitely an alarm, and he knew he needed to find Cora and escape before they fell prey to the Jorvlens. Again.

Then he saw it. Against the wall of the opposite building, a small, crumpled body lay in a sea of charred too-big clothing and matted dark hair waving freely in the wind.

"Cora!" This time his voice was like its own explosion, rocketing out of his mouth and into the smoky air.

Levi sprinted to her, but he could tell before he even reached her that she was unconscious. Her eyes were closed and her head slumped down on her shoulder, lolling aimlessly. He slipped his hands beneath her and lifted her into his arms. Cora's small limp body was light in his arms, but the weight on his heart at seeing her like that crushed him.

They couldn't stay there, though. Levi knew that much, and with Cora held tightly to his chest, he ran and ran and ran, cutting through the mess and using the smoke and dust as cover to dodge the bystanders and guards.

He headed for a nearby alley of the nearby settlement, skirting the main roads and sticking to back streets and service roads as best he could. By now, his ears had stopped ringing, but the alarm had not. It seemed like no matter how far he ran, the noise followed him, seeming to get louder the further he ran.

He needed another way out.

As he turned a corner, Levi saw his chance. A hover cart was parked next to a quiet building, and Levi knew if he could manage to hot-wire it, they'd have a real chance of escape. Gently, he laid Cora in the back before pulling up the lock-picking software on his comm, which was once again functional after he crossed into civilian territory. He knew hot-wiring didn't always work for vehicles, but he needed it to work now.

"Come on," he muttered under his breath while glancing over his shoulder. The street was still empty, but he could hear shouts nearby, as if a swarm of Jorvlens were on the move, looking for them.

The shouts were getting louder while his comm was still working hard to crack the hover cart's ignition code.

Levi almost gave up hope as the sound of shouting and sirens filled his brain and brought with it images he dreaded of their capture and subsequent punishment.

His own suffering he could handle, but Cora's? The thought made him nauseated. Not only that, but if he was brought into custody again, that could spell the end of Lorr's freedom.

The hot-wiring needed to work.

He cast one last glance over his shoulder, almost ready to give up and start carrying Cora again when a small chime from his comm made his heart leap.

He was in.

In a matter of seconds, Levi was in the driver's seat, speeding down the road toward what he hoped were the city limits. If he could get away from the settlement without detection, they might just be able to hide until they could figure out a plan.

To be safe, Levi pulled his hood over his head. He couldn't do much about his violet skin, but he figured as long as he stayed low in the hover cart and stuck to the quieter streets, they'd have a chance.

As Levi brought the hover cart through the settlement's industrial district, he allowed himself to slow a little, and he looked back at Cora. She was still unconscious, but her cheeks were flushed and her eyes flickered a little. He was no doctor, but he'd had basic medical training, and as far as he could tell, these were good signs. At least, they were good signs for Lorrs. He prayed the same rules applied to humans.

He couldn't believe how close he had been to losing her, and he vowed never to let anything like this happen again.

For now, though, he needed her to be okay. He still hadn't told her he loved her, and the thought of never being able to say those words made his chest feel like ice.

"I love you," he told her softly. "I need you to know I love you. So, you have to be okay. You have to wake up."

She didn't stir, though, and Levi had no choice but to turn back to the road and kick the hover cart up a notch. They had to get out of there safely. They could worry about the rest later.