Crucible of Fate

I was to blame for all of it. I had led Rahim and Taj and everyone else to their deaths. I was a horror.
    A gust of air, and then the creature was back, coming toward me.
    My knees weak, my throat dry, and my chest tight, I felt his eyes fix on me. I wondered if this was how I was going to die.
    “Jin.”
    He inhaled, and I was suddenly seeing a bruised and bloody Jin Church.
    “Oh God.”
    That was worse. If I had to choose, I’d rather die myself than watch him succumb. I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to get him out of the cave. If he was shifted, he could fly out, but reverted now back to just Jin, what was I supposed to do?
    He crumpled to the ground, and I was running before I even realized I was moving.
    I went to my knees beside him, pulled him into my lap, and curled around him, trying to give him any body warmth I had left.
    “Domin.” Jin’s voice, which I had always teased him about, was now the sweetest sound I had ever heard. “Don’t cry.”
    I couldn’t even speak.
    “I searched and I saw no trace of Yuri, and I don’t sense him in here at all.”
    I searched his face.
    “I swear to you, he’s not in here.”
    There was no way he could know that.
    “Please keep your eyes open,” he pleaded. “Please, Domin.”
    But there were spots in front of my eyes.
    He twisted around in my lap and put his hands on my face. “You’re ice cold.”
    But he was the one, naked, who was shivering. “You’re so strong now. That dragon thing was new.”
    He shook his head. “It’s not, did it once before. Logan hates it.”
    “I can understand why.” I coughed and my whole body hurt. “There’s a walkie-talkie back over there by Hanif. If you get it, we can at least see who might answer.”
    “You should shift to panther, you’ll be warmer.”
    “But I’m not like you,” I said softly. “I’m not me when I’m a panther.”
    He didn’t argue, simply rose and shifted, rolling into his panther form in midstride. It was really something to see and never failed to amaze me.
    I couldn’t keep from sighing. He retrieved the walkie-talkie and dropped it onto my stomach, then nuzzled against my side, head down on my chest.
    Pressing a button on the device, I gathered myself and then said, “Is there anyone there? Please. Anyone.”
    Nothing.
    “Yuri.” My heart was breaking.
    Dead air.
    I gazed at Jin. “In case I… so you know, I killed your father, not Yuri. I mean, I know Crane probably let you know, but he wasn’t in there and he doesn’t know what I did and what Yuri did. We never said. I didn’t even tell Logan. But for the record, so you know, it was me.”
    He lifted his head and gazed down at me.
    “I wanted to bring him back and kill him again, Jin. I hated him. You deserved so much fuckin’ better. I wish it was different, and I wish he had been different, and I wish I could tell you that at the end he recanted it all and realized what he’d done.”
    He nuzzled under my chin.
    “You’re a gift, Jin, so please run out of here to Logan.”
    He just cuddled tighter against me.
    “Nobody fuckin’ listens to me,” I grumbled. “Some akhen-aten I am.”
    “Domin!”
    I was wrong. The voice of my mate was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
    “Domin Thorne!”
    I lifted the walkie-talkie.
    “Domin, goddamnit! Please!”
    Pressing the button, I choked out, “Yuri.”
    “Oh, thank you, God,” he gasped on the other end.
    Even over a crackly connection, he sounded so good I was ready to bawl.
    “Where are you?” he wanted to know.
    “With Jin.”
    “With Jin? Jin’s okay?”
    “No, we’re not okay. Are you bleeding?”
    “No, baby, not my blood. Not Jin’s blood. I was the sheseru of my tribe, remember?”
    I forgot sometimes. “You’re not bleeding?”
    “I’ll be okay,” he comforted me. “Don’t you worry.”
    And everything went dark, my vision going out on me, but it was fine. I didn’t need to be able to see to work the buttons. “Hanif’s dead. There’s only one guy alive in here with us, but he’s out cold right now.”
    “Okay, we’re coming in, we just have to get people up here and more men and some bulldozers. It’s just a small cave-in, but enough to slow us down. You’re all right, though, aren’t you? You’re not hurt, are you?”
    “Come get Jin.”
    “We’re coming for both of you.”
    “I might not… Jin’s cold,” I said, and then I heard a low whine from the panther purring on my chest.
    There was nothing