The first breath of water was like being reborn.
Sensation flooded back—her skin blazing brilliant indigo, her Song returning as a distant hum in her bones. The suit fell away in pieces, and she was herself again, suspended in the flooding cabin, her body finally doing what it was designed to do.
Survive.
She ripped free of the restraints—the silver cutting deep into her wrists, drawing blood that swirled in the water like smoke—and oriented herself in the darkness. The shuttle was sinking fast, tilting towards the bow, debris and bodies floating everywhere.
Valrek.
The bond was still there, still muted by distance and the chaos of the storm, but she could feel him. Searching for her. Coming for her.
Hold on, she thought desperately.I’m coming back to you.
But first she had to get out.
She swam towards what she hoped was the nearest breach, her enhanced vision cutting through the murky water?—
And stopped.
There was something in the cargo hold. Something small and golden and familiar.
Her heart stopped.
Lilani.
The girl was unconscious.
She floated in the flooded cargo hold, her small body limp, her wild curly hair drifting around her face like a dark halo. One of her hands was still clutching the strap of a storage crate—she must have hidden there, stowed away somehow, and the impact had thrown her free.
No. No, no, no?—
She dove towards her, her body cutting through the water with desperate speed. The shuttle groaned around them, metal screaming as it tore itself apart. They had seconds. Maybe less.
She reached for Lilani just as a massive chunk of the bulkhead crashed down.
She barely twisted aside in time, the debris catching her shoulder and sending her spinning. Pain flared, bright and sharp, but she ignored it. She had to reach Lilani. She had to?—
“Ariella!”
Merrick’s scream was distorted by the water filling his lungs, but she could hear the raw terror in it. He was pinned beneath a collapsed section of the bulkhead, his elegant suit reduced to tatters, his hawk-like features twisted into something almost unrecognizable. Blood seeped from where the metal had crushed his arm, creating dark ribbons that danced in the current.
His free hand reached for her.
Grasping. Always grasping.
“Please.” The word was a gurgle now, his mouth filling with water. “Save me. I’ll give you anything—the contract, your freedom, anything you want.”
But she wasn’t looking at him anymore.
She was listening.
Her Song reached out into the darkness, searching, searching. The shuttle’s groaning metal created a wall of noise that threatened to overwhelm her senses. She pushed harder, her skin flaring bright indigo with the effort.
There.
A heartbeat. Faint, but unmistakably there—the rapid flutter of a child’s heart, growing weaker with each passing second.
Lilani.
