Sentinel's Key (Aelaran Warriors Book 3) by Elin Wyn

Author:Elin Wyn [Wyn, Elin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-17T16:00:00+00:00

KAEL

I held her tightly from behind. Slowly, we drifted toward the rock containing the gate.

Amina’s body jerked, spasming.

This atmosphere—it didn’t hold nearly enough oxygen.

Tumbling in freefall, we slowly made our way to the surface. What once was a ledge on Mount Hood now rotated in space, a planetoid among many.

Aelaran warriors were genetically modified to survive in many different atmospheric conditions.

Humans had evolved in only one—less than a quarter oxygen, three quarters nitrogen, some various other gasses thrown in.

I could smell the nitrogen, the CO2, but methane, hydrogen, helium took the place of her necessary O2.

Much of it was toxic to her. None of it was life-sustaining.

The chunk of rock housing the gate still retained remnants of Earth atmosphere, but it was diminishing, off-gassing. This body didn’t have the gravity to hold an atmosphere.

Amina was dying.

In the green space above us, relatively, the crevice on Mount Hood closed.

We were now trapped in this pocket dimension, spacetime folded hard. Detritus from portals all over the galaxy, perhaps the universe, dumped into this linear hell.

My unit had been dispatched to Earth because our kind developed in a similar environment.

But war being what it was, we had to be prepared for sudden decompressions in space cruisers, poisonous gas attacks, hard-suit leaks.

Amina’s lips began to turn blue.

She didn’t have that much time.

From my toolbelt, I fumbled out an injector.

Our physiologies were so different. Would the nanobots work? They had saved me from poisonous atmospheres many times.

Could it save her?

Would it kill her?

Amina went still.

No choice. I stabbed the injector into her neck.

It might help her convert this thin air into something breathable.

An eternity passed.

Finally, I felt her chest rising.

My hand stole to her neck. I felt her warmth, the beat of her heart. Slowly, the antidote worked to compensate for the lack of oxygen.

Relaxing slightly, I examined our anchor.

We had landed between large points of stone. It looked wrong to me. Jutting barbs were reminiscent of the stalagmites in the cave system.

I was no geologist.

Amina would have a much better idea about this freefalling body.

Unless the lack of air had damaged her brain.

The thought of it froze my heart. Ironically, I had been ready to smooth her brain, wipe all memories of me, the portal, from her mind. Was that only days ago?

Now I couldn’t bear the thought.

Streams of cold, blasts of heat swirled around us. I held her more tightly.

Whether the injection worked or not, neither one of us could survive in this dimension for long.

Light flashed behind me, against the ragged rock surface. Looking down, I saw the indicators of the scanner wildly blinking.

The alarm was silent in the thin air. Thankfully.

I took it from my belt. When I pointed it in the direction of the gate, the LEDs blazed, crazily.

Whatever this device had started out as, the thing had been modified. Now, it seemed to be a portal detector.

For all the good it did us.

Amina gasped. She thrashed, threatening to pull from my grasp. I couldn’t let her fling herself into the dimensional space.

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