MasukSkyeAlex holds my gaze for several seconds. Two weeks of separation and the gravity of the last six hours crush the space between us, turning the rest of the world to nothing but static noise. He runs his fingers through his damp hair and nods to himself like he’s just made an executive decision. Toby lingers just within view–waiting for the same thing I am. Direction. Any kind of direction about how to move forward… for him. As a team. His friends. Me… whatever I am to him. “Meet me in my office in an hour. If anyone asks, I’m going through the data about the collapse,” he tells Toby, who takes the command as the dismissal it is, and within the space of two thundering heartbeats, we’re alone. “I wasn’t going to let you die,” I say, closing my arms around my middle, preparing for a fight. “I couldn’t. Not when I have the ability to… be anywhere, at any time. I found you.”“I knew you’d come. I could feel you there, just like when I was a kid, and you found me in my dreams.”I suc
AlexSkye is pressed to my chest when I open my eyes. I stroke my fingers down her spine while staring aimlessly at the ceiling. She has to leave today for the funeral and to spend some time with her family. I already put in her bereavement leave, not that it matters. The campus is shut down as it stands. I doubt I’ll be able to access the lab.I jolt, gripping the fabric of Skye’s flannel pajamas at the base of her spine. She flinches but settles back into sleep with the deepest, most exhausted sigh I’ve ever heard, and I glance at the clock on her bedside table. It’s early morning.We spent the night at my place. I don’t remember coming here….I slide away from her, careful not to wake her, and reality hits me the second I glance down at my thermal pants, which are hacked off at the knee. I was in the lab last night. We were drilling, finally bringing what should have gone down as a successful production to fruition after weeks of preparation and careful planning. It all went to h
SkyeI crash into my condo with a crack that echoes through the space, rattling the potted plants along the window where the skyline is nothing but starlight, and the ever-present aurora dancing almost as if to mock me. Tonight, it’s crimson, just like the red glare of the alarm still painting my condo in red light, but thankfully, the sound of the alarm is off, or maybe I’ve tuned it out. I gasp several breaths. Icy pain jets up and down my spine. I’m depleted, for sure. It’s been decades since I’ve felt this kind of cold, and I live in the coldest place in our world. But the body beneath mine is warm. Just a little bit warm. “Alex?” I rasp, grabbing his face between my gloved hands. He’s impossibly bruised. His hair is frozen in odd angles, but his skin is soft and only slightly gray from the cold. When he doesn’t answer me, I press my gloved hand to his chest, waiting seconds to feel the rise and fall. His heart already beats so slowly, but now it only flickers every minute or
SkyeAbby catches me from across the length of the hallway. Her dark eyes widen, her platinum hair pulled back from her flushed face as she rises from a crouch and shoves her way in my direction. I have only a handful of seconds to collect myself before we collide. She wraps her arms around my waist and squeezes so tight I lose the ability to breathe for a moment. “What are you doing here?” she says into my coat, her voice muffled by the fabric. “I thought you were in Moonrise for another week?”“Tell me everything.”“Everyone needs to move now!” someone shouts at the end of the hallway, and I realize it’s Toby directing traffic as lab assistants and postdocs lift themselves up from the floor where they’ve been trying to catch their breath. Abby pulls me to the side so we’re flush against the wall, and people can pass by. There’re more people than usual, I think, especially for this time of night. Toby notices me, and his expression shatters. I realize in that moment, based on the g
Alex“Well, shit,” Mark, the engineering department head grumbles, crouching to get a better view. He braces his hands on his hips while huddled around the same screen I’m sharing with Toby. He’s been knocking his head on the ceiling of this tunnel all evening, but that has more to do with his height and less to do with the already overly cramped quarters we’re sharing. He’s from the Deadlands and built like it. Burly and broad, he stands several inches taller than me, and I’m taller than most men on campus, but he has at least sixty pounds or more on me, and it shows. They breed them big in the Deadlands, supposedly. Toby’s words; not mine. “Shit,” Toby parrots, shaking his head as the drill several hundred feet below us whirls and kicks up liquid sediment. “I wasn’t expecting a water pocket.” I curse under my breath, rolling my neck to try to alleviate some of the tension. We’ve been at it all day long. Drilling, drilling, and drilling some more–trying to secure a perimeter around
SkyeI’ve been in the southern Allied Kingdoms–mostly Moonrise–for a little over a week but haven’t faced my father yet. I anticipated that. I knew he’d be busy helping make arrangements for Isaac and Maddy with my grandpa Sydney. What I didn’t anticipate is this. Ryatt stares at me from across the coffee table in the castle in Crescent Falls. He’s dressed in his usual black but looks like a modern man in a finely fitted black suit and tie compared to his cape and rugged dark ensembles I’m used to seeing him wear in Eastonia. He hasn’t blinked in what I’m sure is several minutes. His acute, quicksilver stare bores holes in my reserve, but I refuse to be the one to fold and start the conversation he wants to have. After several days of travel on the royal train, forced to witness the epic fights between Fallon, Naomi, and Maeve, I could sit here in silence and play this game with him for hours. Family members, both closely and distantly related, filter in and out of the room, but no
*Maddy*Cassian is in pieces. That’s the only way I can describe him. His chest is flayed open, the bandages holding him together are soaked through with blood. Isla’s magic isn’t working fast enough. She’s leaning over him, her face stained with fresh tears as she pours a fourth vial of that preciou
*Maddy*I might be dreaming. The distant echoes of a scream flicker through the room. I look down at the moonlight dusted arm of Isaac, who is still holding me against his chest as he sleeps. He doesn’t wake to the sound, and it’s gone in an instant, replaced by total silence. But every fine hair on
*Maddy*Isla told me to stay here. I should, I definitely should. Do I really want to see Isaac get killed, or allow himself to get killed because he thinks it’ll save his people? We never had a chance to figure this out together. One moment we were married, the next he was gone, and I had to untangl
*Ella*The walk through the forest is short, but the sun sets behind us, and the forest is cast in a deep violet glow. A chill settles in my bones. It’s autumn here, the same as in Crescent Falls. My bare feet are coated in dead leaves by the time we crest a hill and look down at a small village tuck







