MY CRUEL PROTECTOR
A mercenary emerged from a side door, his harpoon gunraised, but Nevan’s bullet found the gap in the man’shelmet before the trigger could be pulled.
The water was ice-cold, a visceral shock that threatened toseize my heart completely. In the digital world, thecathedral began to shake. The walls of light were cracking, replaced by the crushing weight of the indigo sea. I felt thestatic, the corruption of the data. The empathy was turninginto agony.
Nevan... I tried to scream his name in the network, but I had no voice.
"I’ve got you, Ruby," he whispered, his breath ragged in my ear. "Just stay with me. Don't go into the light. Stay in the dark with me."