{Reipon}

Sagan stepped out of the luxurious bath and rubbed exotic oils from across the Vast Collective all over her naked skin. Left her favorite silk bathrobe open as she swept into the bedroom. Korac was naked, waiting on the edge of their bed. She kissed him deeply, seeking the peppermint on his tongue. His frosty scent blended with her sweet watermelon, and he purred deep in his chest against her. Her fingers tangled in his hair, and she secretly reveled in the growing length. He cupped her ass with both hands, beckoning her to complete them.

Pulled to Korac, Sagan straddled his lap and stared into the dark gray flecks in his eyes. He coaxed her. She took from him what she needed. They gasped at their mutual satisfaction. Moved together until they found an intoxicating rhythm.

Breath catching, Sagan closed her eyes. So very close. He twisted his hips for her, and she lost herself. “Korac!”

He anchored her as she rode out the storm. Floating back down, she—

“Pain Kitten.”

The purring voice was her lover’s. The nickname was not.

Filled with dread, Sagan opened her eyes to find two sets of twin crescent pupils smirking back at her.

“Razor!”

Sagan startled awake from her nap, frantically beating the sheets to crawl away from—

No one. She was alone.

“Korac?”

After each of her nightmares, he’d soothe Sagan. Let her have some air before pulling her close and kissing her hair. So sweet and patient with her trauma.

Korac’s absence troubled her, and she glanced at their axes hanging on the wall for strength. Sagan climbed out of bed from her Half Day nap and threw on a robe. Belting it this time, she went in search of—

Screams carried down the hall. They came from the infirmary. Rushing, Sagan found the Doc preparing a needle.

“Pablo, is it Triss? Is she—”

Another cry of agony followed by Korac shouting, “Now would be good, Doctor.”

She walked with Pablo into the bedroom where her lover held down the mother of their future adopted baby. Triss’ spine bowed and twisted. Her face was contorted in torment. Bone protruded from her elbows and knees where they bent backwards and punctured the joints.

The bone… It was amber colored glass.

Sagan cupped a hand to her mouth while Pablo tried to inject Triss with more sedative. “This is a last resort. It would put down a Hellkite, but it—”

The needle broke on her hardened skin.

“—Might require another delivery system.”

Triss howled. Her belly looked less round and more square. Hard angles and straight lines. Like the baby was a gift, and she was the wrapping.

Momentarily coherent, Triss spared the breath to curse Korac. “You don’t deserve this baby. None of you deserve her! AHH!”

Pablo hurried around Korac where he pinned her arms, waist, and legs. The doctor went to Triss’ side. “I want to help with the pain. Please, drink this.”

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He poured the contents of the syringe into a cup, and she drank of it greedily. Her face softened in his presence. “Please. Please, Dr. Suarez. Make sure this baby survives. Please.”

Pablo eyed the square in her stomach and the broken bones before returning his gaze to her. He said, “Triss, with your permission, I’d like to put you in a coma. One I can’t promise you’ll ever wake from. We can’t leave you in this state, and these fits risk the baby.”

Triss swallowed and shifted her gaze to the ceiling, as if considering her options. Another spasm hit, and she screamed.

Korac pinned her, but also stared at Sagan across the room. His eyes held a question. One she expected a week ago. One she wasn’t sure how to answer.

It seemed like the right thing to do. But why? None of the people involved deserved their kindness, but dammit, they would do it anyway. It was only right.

Sagan nodded.

Korac met Triss’ pained gaze. “Former Executive Warden, I’ll upcycle Razor for one visit if you agree to the sedation.”

Triss didn’t hesitate. “Agreed.”

Within the hour, because they really had little time, Sagan wrangled Xelan into chaperoning like when they wrote Razor’s cameo in Korac’s Verse. Tameka insisted on joining, and her support of Sagan warmed her heart.

“I owe you a debt,” Korac said to Xelan outside of Triss’ room. “She… Well, I know you’re fond of her, so I wanted to prepare you for her condition—”

“She’s dying.” Pablo’s voice and eyes were so hollowed out. “Every blood vessel is dissecting, and her bones are changing into glass. I’m beginning to think the Aegis young is a parasite that erupts from its host rather than births from it. There isn’t time for conversation beforehand.” He opened the door, walked inside, and arranged a chair at Triss’ side. “I’m ready to administer it.”

Sagan stared at the woman writhing in the bed with a visible cube warring in her womb and tried to muster some pity. But then she thought of how that same woman wanted to force Sagan into this very position against her consent to please the man she loved and…

Tameka’s hand laced into hers and squeezed.

Xelan rushed across the room and soothed the dangerous predator in that bed. “Triss, I’m here.” He touched her hand, and she grimaced a smile at him as he promised, “I’ll oversee the visit.”

While Triss responded with barely audible gasps, Korac sat in the chair with his hands on his knees and closed his eyes.

“I’m here,” Tameka muttered to Sagan, who squeezed her hand back. “I hate to admit this, but that man adores you. He won’t let anything happen to you and neither will Xelan.”

Sagan wasn’t sure anyone understood her trauma with Razor. It wasn’t a physical threat he posed. Especially not after she cut him in half. The trauma came from every fiber of her being that wanted to convert him to their side, and when he betrayed that, her shame translated it into a failure on her part. A failure to protect herself, to see the monster for what he was. This was all Sagan’s fault.

Korac opened Razor’s eyes with their twin crescent pupils. Did he look at the mother of his child in pain? No. Did he assess Cinder’s Traitor Prince to test his chances of escaping with Korac’s body? No.

Razor stared at Sagan as if he knew her worst nightmares were about him. And he liked it.

“Sagan. Your eyes…” Tameka whispered.

Xelan held up a reassuring hand. “We’re here, Sagan. You’re safe.”

While they checked on her, Razor finally acknowledged Triss and her state. She gasped and weakly reached out a hand he took with a gentle but earnest grip. He kissed the knuckles, and Sagan wondered what that was like for Korac.

Razor asked Xelan, “Who sees to her?”

Pablo held up a hand from across the bed. “I’m Dr. Suarez.”

Xelan vouched for him, “He was one of my students.”

Brushing Triss’ hair back from her face, Razor acknowledged, “You’re providing excellent care, but now she needs infusions of Aegis blood to help the conversion.”

“I want to render her chemically comatose.”

Razor recoiled in Korac’s body as if slapped. “She’ll never wake.” Those eyes darted around in a panic, and Korac’s face fell, crushed by the weight of reality.

“Hurts…” Triss gasped, and her spine bowed again. As the spasm released her, she breathed, “I… love you…”

Razor bowed Korac’s head and whispered in such a way that Sagan realized he wished they were alone for this, “My siren, we are the Eternal Bind. I’ll find you again.”

Tameka and Sagan looked at one another after they glimpsed the hot tears rolling down Korac’s cheeks.

Xelan clasped the man’s shoulder in consolation. “We will look after her.”

After another row where her muscles contracted almost off the bone, Razor nodded Korac’s head and Pablo immediately set to pouring medicine into her mouth. “I’m sorry for the taste.”

Triss didn’t seem to notice much of anything. If this was Aegis labor, Sagan was grateful nacres allowed her the choice and saddened all the same she and Korac would never conceive together.

“She’ll be as beautiful as her mother, Triss.” To Sagan’s astonishment, Razor stood and covered her mouth with Korac’s. Tears and all.

Tameka whispered, “What do you think is going on in his head?”

Sagan wondered about that herself.