He hooks his leg around mine, and we crash to the ground, white light bursting behind my eyes. Scrambling for his fallen pulse gun, I roar as he twists my arm behind my back.
My fingers slither on the weapon’s grip as my shoulder screams, my elbow close to snapping. Erien draws one of the kaat blades on his back with his free hand. But my fingers finally find purchase, and I grab the gun, twisting and unloading into his chest.
The muzzle flashes, the Stun blast lighting up the shocked expression on his face. He tumbles back, a smoking scar scored across the black breastplate of his Paladin’s armor. Wincing, I gasp for breath, still gripping the gun tight as I stagger to my feet and—
The walls around me washed with rainbows.
The ground shaking beneath my feet.
I can hear screaming. The air in the corridor turns the color of dried blood and the blue of midnight, dotted with shining stars.
And then I see it, hanging in the dark in front of me, glittering like fireworks on Foundation Day.
My heart surges at the sight of it—more than my home for the past six years. More than the place I grew up. A symbol of hope, a light in all that darkness, burning bright against the night.
“Aurora Academy … ,” I whisper.
… you still have a chance of fixing this …
I reach out toward it, fingers trembling. And as I touch it, the academy blows itself to pieces before my eyes. My belly turns cold with horror, fire blooms in the dark, and beyond it, darker still, I see the shadow.
The Ra’haam.
A moan slips from my lips at the sight—ten thousand ships, a hundred thousand shapes, rising up before me and blotting out the stars.
Too big.
Too much.
I turn my head, close my eyes tight so I don’t have to watch.
And so it is I don’t notice Erien rising up behind me.
I hear the ring of metal on metal and turn to see him standing there. His beautiful face twisted with rage. Blood dripping down his chin, dark gray in the light of the Fold, light gleaming on the kaat blade he slides off his back.
… you told me where it happens …
I grit my teeth, raising the gun.
… fix this, Tyler …
And I gasp as he buries his blade in my gut.
11
TYLER
“Do you know there is no Syldrathi word for goodbye?”
My eyes flutter open, light slipping through my lashes as I groan. Saedii is seated beside my bed, picking at her fingernails with a long, beautiful knife.
“Wh-what?” I whisper.
I force my eyes open again, head swimming. I’m surrounded by the soft hum of medical equipment, the light low and gloomy. Looking down, I realize I’m shirtless. Again. There’s a dull ache in my belly, a derm patch over the wound from Erien’s blade. But this is an Unbroken battle cruiser, and their med facilities are top-notch—the pain isn’t even that bad, to tell you the truth.
I mean, for a brutal stabbing and all.
“It is true. Syldrathi believe that people once united can never truly part.” Saedii waves the knife toward the derm patch. “Even were you to perish today, the atoms of your body would remain. Over eons, those particles would break apart and coalesce, become incorporated into other beings, other planetary bodies. Drawn into collapsing stars and scattered again by supernovae. And the last, when the great black hole at the heart of this galaxy draws everything back into its arms, all things shall be reunited. Thus, we do not say goodbye when we part. We say an’la téli saii.”
“What’s that mean?” I groan.
“I shall see you in the stars.”
She tilts her head, and her soft smile fades. “I tell you this because you seem to be in an extraordinary hurry to die, Tyler Jones.”
“A mere flesh wound, madam.” I press my hand to the patch, wincing. “Your lieutenant needs to work on his aim if he wants to kill me.”
Saedii scoffs. “Erien is a First Paladin of the Black Circle. Maker of a thousand orphans. If he wished you dead, you would be dead. I am talking about Antaelis, Erien’s betrothed. You made rather a mess of his beloved’s face. Antaelis wanted to challenge you to a duel for Erien’s honor.”
I shake my head, sighing. “Like we don’t have anything better to do, with the whole galaxy ending and all.”
Saedii leans back, lifting her boots and resting them across my thighs like she’s claiming a piece of territory. Her gaze roams slowly over my body, drifts back up to my eyes. That trace of amusement flickers between us again, tinged with a low, pulsing anger.
“You still do not understand where you are, do you?”