Page 208 of The Space Between Stars

{You’ve always been mine.}

I found a new destiny.

The creature shivered and retracted, and a realization struck Calver so suddenly, it cleared the darkness like a northern wind. He’d been fighting the Survivor for so long because he hadn’t wanted to become it. Because he didn’t want to do the things it did.

He’d never fought the Survivor because he wanted to stay himself. But ever since stumbling on a sea-kelp scholar in the depths of the Sharinash, and for as long as he’d wanted to stay himself—to stay alive—it had been easier to control it.

There was a version of him that needed to live beyond the Survivor’s intent for him. He would fight for that man.

The Survivor withered further, and the foreboding of Calver’s second sight ebbed.

Then, not twenty meters into thin air over the Casowhatan, a window opened in the sky—an unnatural thing, both completely devoid of light and also an abstract array of color. The sight of it turned Calver’s stomach. It flashed silver and dissolved into nothing, revealing a silhouette against the burning sky. Raimee’s limp body arced backward and plummeted into the sea.

Calver’s heart went with it. Definitely not the plan.

His gaze snapped to Cul’Mon, whose eyes were fixed on the space where she had fallen.

“Retrieve her,” he uttered to his men, low voice tight with authority.

Shit.

If Calver had ever needed powers, it was now. He eased into the void state, where he’d only ever gone to run away. Now he went there determined to preserve himself so he could pull that damned woman out of the sea.

The void thrummed. The Survivor fell away. Calver remained.

Two Tera’thian soldiers stepped toward the ledge. Calver stepped in to meet them. Their blades locked together with a thunderous clang.

NIKLAUS

Niklaus looked into the frothing rush, more than ten meters down, where the Ruxian had disappeared. A second ticked by. Then another. A metallic reverberation rang through the air.

Calver was occupied. He may not have even seen the woman.

“I’ll—I’ll just—go get her,” Niklaus said, though his voice didn’t carry over the clashing of dowagas.

The ripples where the Ruxian had landed had disappeared, absorbed by the waves against the rocks. He kept his eyes on the spot and aligned his body with it.

Chaos. This was suicide. He remembered a time, not very long ago, when he had stood on a Skywalk balcony and stared into the Casowhatan with that very thought in mind. Best be on with it. Niklaus planted his feet wide on the ladder, leaned out over the narrow pass that separated the warehouse from the cliffside, and launched himself toward the sea.

The fall stole the air from his lungs. He was about to scream when the icy water struck him. His eyes opened against the sting of salt, unable to see anything in the fading light. He swam blindly down, arms reaching, when by an extraordinary stroke of luck, his fingers collided with fabric.

Lungs bursting for air, he kicked for the surface until their heads broke free. Niklaus gasped for breath and, like music, the woman in his arms began to cough and hack. He treaded water, already exhausted, and pulled her the short distance toward the rocks. He sliced his hand open as he grasped for purchase through the battering of the waves. There was nothing to stand on, and he couldn’t climb out on the rockface without letting go of the Ruxian, so he held tight with one arm and supported her with the other.

She choked and wheezed for nearly a minute before managing, “Niklaus?”

“Aye. Niklaus Meyernes,” he panted. “Ruxian assistance services.” And a hell of a job he was doing. He was a kretch swimmer and had no idea how he would get them out of this.

The woman’s weight lessened as she floated, hair fanning out in a watery halo.

“I missed,” she breathed, eyes locked on the wall vaulting from the base of the cliff into the crimson sky. Then she chuckled, a feeble, lifeless thing. “I’ve always dreamed of making it to the Casowhatan… but this wasn’t… how I planned it.” Another laugh rumbled from her throat, and she began to sink.

Niklaus threw an arm beneath her, nearly going under in the process. “What’s happened to you?” His arms began to tremble. He might not be strong enough to keep them there for much longer.

Her words were so faint they almost didn’t leave her chest. “I can’t seem to distort… without it coming… at my own expense.” Another gurgling giggle. The woman was damned loopy. “First Ruxian in a lifetime. Can’t distort. Joke’s on me.”

“I’m going to tow you in,” he said, hoping the words might give him the power to actually do it. “We’ll have to get around to the docks.” They were a few hundred yards away. If she remained buoyant and no one pelted them with tanka bits, they might actually make it.

She didn’t seem to hear him. “Calver’s alive. Is he under attack?”