Page 29 of Stars in Umbra (The Sable Riders #8)

His skin was heated, his glyphs shifted with sluggish slowness over his pale skin.

Her heart jolted, soul keening, until, without warning, he moved.

His lean digits twitched and clamped around her own with unrelenting strength.

A groan tore from his throat, hoarse and guttural, as though dragged from some place far beneath waking consciousness.

His head rolled toward her.

‘Mo?’ she whispered.

His lashes fluttered. The seconds stretched, then his eyes opened, heavy-lidded and unfocused at first, then recognition flickered.

A hazy gleam of gold and storm-gray locked onto hers.

A weak smile played across his cracked lips.

‘ Mi kaya ?’ he rasped, the words just audible.

Rina’s heart jolted, then clenched.

She exhaled, holding his hand tighter.

‘You’re safe,’ she murmured, swallowing down the knot in her throat. ‘You’re on Dunia, in New Rambasa, at the General Hospital. Don’t try to move.’

He frowned, his mouth parting. ‘Thirsty,’ he croaked.

He tried to rise. She reached out, bracing a hand against his shoulder to press him back with a gentle, firm push of her palm.

‘ Nada . Rest honey.’

‘Is he thirsty?’ one of the doctors called out. ‘He’s not ready for water, but I’ll get him ice to suck on.’

Moments later, Rina accepted the cup of ice with a hushed thanks and scooped out a small chip with a spoon.

She brought it to his mouth and eased it between his lips.

‘Here,’ she murmured. ‘Just this for now.’

He sucked on the frozen cube, never taking his eyes off her.

His gaze roamed her face, as if confirming she wasn’t a dream or hallucination.

She noted the disbelief, the ache beneath the fatigue.

She didn’t know what to say.

Still, this was not the time to confront him or demand answers.

Her focus now was on comforting him and being present.

She turned to the medical team. ‘What’s his condition?’

One of the younger medics stepped forward.

‘At first, he appeared to be in a kind of induced coma. However, he’s lucid now, and he’s healing.

Faster than anything we’ve ever recorded.

We’re discussing how quickly the muscle regenerates, how fast his neural pathways are repairing.

It’s accelerated and doesn’t match any standard norms.’

Rina blinked. Her eyes moved back to Mo, narrowing as she caught the glyphs along his collarbone pulsing with energy, like flames trapped beneath skin.

She had questions, but she didn’t press, deciding to park her curiosity until later when he was well.

So she sat beside him, allowing her bag to slide from her shoulder as she settled into the seat.

The medics exited, murmuring as they tried to make sense of their patient, leaving Rina alone with Mo.

The antiseptic scent of the med-bay did little to calm the storm inside her, even as his eyes locked onto her.

She gazed back into them, emotion overwhelming her.

The sight of him lying, with a stark white bandage all over him, was enough to silence the logical part of her that dealt in protocol and strategy.

All she experienced was a seismic wave of relief that crashed over her, so potent it almost buckled her knees.

Their last parting had been a battlefield of pride and fear; her own words a clumsy defense against his declaration that she was his and would bear his children. She had run, not from him, but from the terrifying truth of his statements.

Now, she gazed at his hand. His grip wasn’t loosening; if anything, it tightened.

She let him hold on, or was it he holding on to her?

She took a ragged inhale and squeezed his hand, a reassurance to both of them, even as his spectral eyes fixed on her, flaring with fire. The sentiment within was so potent that it made her face heat.

She missed him. She missed the man, the tender lover, the massive-hearted male who took her beyond incandescence with his touch and laughter.

She had never been happier than when they were together, a simple fact that cut through every one of her defenses.

A shiver of fear went through her, a visceral shudder at how close she came to losing him. In that moment, it hit her.

She was hooked for sure.

Her soul, which had been fighting so hard against the inevitable, finally won the war against her past misgivings.

Mo wasn’t a fleeting affair; he was exceptional, a connection so deep it defied her controlled world.

She took an inhale, met his eyes once more, and found her voice, which trembled with emotion.

‘Mo,’ she began, her gaze locked on his. ‘I’m so sorry for how I treated you. I have no excuse for not getting back to you over the last few weeks. But this isn’t about me. Let’s get you better, then we -.’

The crash of shattering plex sent Rina reeling and gasping.

Glass exploded inward from the upper windows of Mo’s ward, spraying the sterile floor in glittering shards.

The sudden roar of rotors followed, so close and violent that it rattled the lighting panels. A stealth-class helo hovered just outside the breach, its camo-shell flickering as it shed invisibility.

Three figures dropped, swinging through the gap in perfect formation, armored, masked, and armed.

Assassins .

Rina just had time to draw her sidearm before the first shot rang out. She dove instinctively toward Mo’s bed.

But she needn’t have.

In a blinding instant, everything changed.

Mo, still draped in hospital mesh and bandages, rose from his hover bed as though summoned by a force beyond mortal understanding.

Sigils ignited across his chest, arms, and throat in a brilliant web of gold and electric indigo.

Energy whipped around him like coiled lightning, cracking the air.

The bandages freakin’ burned away.

His feet touched the ground, bare against shattered glass, like he felt nothing, as if pain was beneath him.

The lead assassin lunged forward.

Mo caught the attacker mid-motion, disarming him with an almost lazy twist of bone and steel. The weapon turned in his hands, and then one shot.

Then another.

Three bodies collapsed before they hit the floor, felled with lethal precision.

Rina stared, winded and frozen.

His power was like nothing she’d seen. Divine. Terrifying. Beautiful.

Outside, the helo’s rail guns powered up with a rising, demonic whine.

Rina didn’t hesitate. She dropped to one knee, aimed her sidearm through the blown-out window, and fired twice, direct hits to the twin engine casings.

The helo buckled, smoke venting in long dark streams.

A second later, the craft exploded in midair, careening away in a bloom of flame and fractured steel.

Sirens shrieked down the corridor as hospital security thundered toward the chaos.

Mo twisted to her, sweat glistening on his skin, breath rough and uneven.

His eyes blazed, not just with adrenaline, but with a power unimaginable.

‘Lower your weapon!’ one of the guards barked.

Mo ignored the warning, turning to Rina.

Before she could move, he seized her wrist.

In a blur, he rummaged through her bag and, to her fury, snapped her military flex-cuffs over both their wrists.

Binding her to him with a hiss of pressure-lock.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ she snarled, trying to pull away to no avail.

He gazed down at her, fierce and urgent, the heat of his body almost overwhelming this close. ‘I’d never hurt you, baby, but I need you to trust me.’

She faltered. ‘Mo, I hope you know what the Hades you’re playing at.’

His smile was tight, rueful. ‘I don’t. I’m fokkin ’ making it up as I go, but I have good reason.’

Her instincts warred with her training. He hadn’t bruised her.

He’d saved her and now, he was freakin’ abducting her.

‘I’m so fokkin’ confused.’

Still, a strong connection, virtually a tether to his soul, wouldn’t let her pull away.

She gazed into his eyes. ‘You promise me, Mo, that this isn’t a stitch-up?’

‘You think I’d get this banged up and have assassins after me if this was a scam?’

She nodded, gritting her teeth. ‘Well said, makes sense. I’ve got your six, for now.’

He jerked his chin at her, eyes cold, focused. ‘Good, we need to leave, stat.’

She leaned over and grabbed her bag.

‘Let’s roll,’ he growled. ‘There’s plenty more killers where those came from.’

She slung her carryall over her shoulder as they stepped into the corridor.

Into a phalanx of hospital security guards raised their rifles, arms trembling with tremulous fear and nerves, eyes dilated, trigger-happy and ready to fire.

Rina flashed her military ID.

‘Stand down!’ she barked, her tone crisp with command. ‘Commander Rina Mendi. This man is in my custody. Lower your weapons!’

They hesitated. Cameras clicked overhead, including those of civilians, hospitals, and news outlets. The chaos was being documented in real time.

‘Shut off the holo cams!’ she snapped to the staring crowd.

No one moved.

Then Mo turned his head. His eyes narrowed, and with a ripple of heat through the air.

The gadgets exploded.

One by one, in short, contained bursts of plasma and shattered lenses.

Sparks rained like confetti.

Gasps echoed. Someone swore.

Rina shifted to Mo, brows arched.

He stood tall beside her, golden glyphs still pulsing like a heartbeat beneath his skin. Hospital sweats hung askew on his hips, his chest bare, glowing.

So divine, and so fokkin ’ hot.

‘You’re not who I think you are,’ she whispered.

His gaze met hers, full of emotion, eyes torn and stormy. ‘I’m not who I think I am either.’

The cuffs tugged between them as he pulled her toward the stairwell.

‘Get us to your flyer,’ he rasped. ‘Then you’re going to take me to the nearest secure military base.’

She hesitated, then nodded.

They were already in free fall. The only way out now was forward.