Free Blue Abyss: Timewalker Chronicles, Book 3 (The Timewalker Chronicles) by Michele Callahan Page B

made, Mari pulled her waterproof camera from her pocket and took at least fifty photos, every desk, map, chart and screen burned into digital data for inspection later. That done, Mari tucked the camera away and raised her hand. She fired at the hundreds of monitors lining the walls. She kept at it until she felt like her hand was on fire and there was nothing left but heaps of ash.
    Smoke filled the room and she hurried back to the platform, choking on the acrid smell of burning plastic. As she waited for the door to close behind her she took a deep breath from Raiden’s rescue tank. Toxic smoke had filled her lungs and made her head spin. Maybe frying this place had been an emotional decision and not a rational one. Still, she couldn’t make herself regret it, smoke or no smoke. She was more worried about the small fires burning up all the oxygen down here.
    She had to get Sleeping Beauty out of here. She couldn’t get him out of this hell-hole fast enough. She needed fresh air. Humans. A hamburger. Something normal.
    Mari opened the next door and saw her perfect prince waiting for her in the glass coffin. No man should be that gorgeous. It just wasn’t fair. It really wasn’t.
    And she wanted to kiss him again. But this time, he’d remember. This time, neither one of them was going to die.
    <><><>
    Raiden came back to life in stages and focused on pulling air into his lungs for what felt an eternity. The poison coursing through his veins caused everything to ache, but not with the debilitating pain he remembered. Had it been metabolized by his body during the long sleep? Dried blood pulled and tugged on the sensitive skin of his back, reminding him of the traitor’s attack and the reason he’d locked himself in the deathless sleep.
    The shredded tissue of his shoulder ached briefly before fading away, replaced by a soothing warmth that radiated from his left shoulder and spread throughout his body. Strength coursed through him to banish his despair. Not for the first time, he thanked his Immortal mother, whoever she was, for making him more .
    Rage burned anew, but not the hot forge of emotion that had pushed him to this stasis chamber. He’d been driven to take a desperate gamble, and survived. The fire was banked, replaced with icy resolve. Nothing would sway him. He would complete his mission, but not the mission the Queen had given him. She would brand him a traitor, but he no longer cared about her rules or her struggle to maintain power. Too many had died already, not just his friends on the ship, but millions of souls on both worlds.
    He’d slain countless enemies. He need only survive one more…
    He sensed the presence of another and opened his eyes. A goddess looked down on him, with eyes the color of Earthen whiskey, thick black hair and deeply tanned skin that looked softer than liquid silk. Her hand rested on his shoulder and was the source of the unnatural heat that coursed through him.
    “Time to wake up, Raiden.” A healer. A very powerful healer.
    Gods she was beautiful.
    He clenched his fists at his sides, the desire to touch her was strong. A fixed suit of some kind impeded his view of her form, and her eyes locked on to his with both confusion and desire in their depths.
    Was she a dream? A figment of his imagination? Did it matter?
    “Thank you, healer.”
    She smiled and he saw pain in the lines around her eyes. The hurt turned her pupils dark and brought lines of strain to her flawless face. Physical pain. Not a spirit then, but flesh and blood.
    She grinned despite her pain, relief and some unnamed emotion flashing through her eyes before he could catalog it. In a moment, he’d be healed, thanks to her touch. He only wished he could feel the soft caress of her palm against his bare skin. Perhaps that would make him feel something other than the bitter necessity for vengeance.
    The thought stirred him, made him wish for things that would never be. Intellectually, he knew that he’d been