The Seam siphoned Sagan from this plane. Exhausted from the last two weeks, especially the last twenty-four hours, she grew weaker. The white stone floor and cathedral arches reminded her of bone. Ash snowed down from a ceiling her nacre-enhanced eyes couldn’t reach. It smelled of the forgotten: dust and dry air.

On her knees, Sagan’s short wet hair covered her face. She braced her forehead on the stone and wept. The pain in her temples took so much from her. How could she hope to stay away?

Rayne’s voice cut through her despair, “Sagan?! Sagan, did you leave?”

The blond woman hauled herself up with great effort and lugged her heavy muscles back to Earth. Her grip clung to the ever-present axe. She collapsed in Rayne’s arms. Light blazed from their leader’s eyes the moment their skin connected. But Sagan hardly noticed because the pain subsided. Her fatigue melted away. In Rayne’s warm embrace, Sagan found serenity.

So she was terribly disappointed when Rayne set her upright and stepped away. More leather material coiled around her best friend until it covered everywhere Sagan touched. On a sob, she cried, “No!”

Rayne’s eyes drowned in tears. “I’m sorry. I can’t—”

“Why?! What happened? What’s so bad that you can’t tell me?”

“You don’t need to know this.”

“How were you able to strangle Celindria if you can’t stand to touch me?!”

Her lover swiped at the tears and choked on her words, “Pain. I was causing her pain in combat.”

Rayne took a step toward her, but Sagan held out a hand to stop her. “Unless you’re coming over here to hold me or to tell me what happened, don’t bother.”

Her General looked away. The tears streaming down the drawn lines of her face wrenched Sagan’s heart. But—

“Fine. I’ll find someone who will.”

Rayne cried after Sagan as she Seamswalked to the desert fortress on Earth. Like her best friend and Nox’s pulse, something always drew Sagan to Korac. It took sometime for her to understand what caused the sensation. When he touched her in the Pit, the tether constricted like rope on her wrists. His thoughts of her drew her to him.

And Korac was always thinking of Sagan.

The sun burned bright in the sky. Keeping to the shadows cast by the sandstone structure, she waited for the Icarean General to pass her on his rounds. Momentary insecurity struck her, and she checked her reflection in the axe. Her shower-fresh hair dried. The swimsuit and short getup sucked for combat, but she knew how to improvise.

Maybe five minutes passed before she heard footsteps. Sure enough, the gorgeous Icarus strolled by in a breezy white linen button up and loose pants. The unfastened overshirt exposed a white undershirt. She was about to wrinkle it.

Sagan stepped into the Seam and out onto his back. Wrapping her legs around his chest, she ignored how his loose hair smelled of spruce. She held the axe to his throat and jerked the blade against his skin until blue blood trickled.

He swallowed hard against it. “Lt. General. To what do I owe the… pleasure… of this ambush?”

“Tell me what happened to her.”

Korac cursed, and Sagan tightened her hold. “General Callahan doesn’t want you to know. I don’t want you to know. I don’t exactly come out looking so good in the end.”

Frustrated and exhausted, tears sprang to her eyes. She squeezed out, “Do you have any idea how hard it is not to touch her?! What it’s like? The only thing that can anchor me from the Seam, and I can’t have it from her.”

“Sagan.” His rich voice held a trace of sadness. Could he understand? “Lower my weapon. I’ll give you what you need.”

She lowered her weapon and hopped off his back. Her eyes grew wide and shocky. No way to hold back how much this affected her. Leaning against the wall, she watched Korac stare at the cresting dunes in the distance.

“I won’t hold anything back.” When he met her eyes, she flinched.

Whatever happened traumatized him as well as Rayne. Sagan nodded for him to continue.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I delivered her to Nox. He took her to the viewing platform in front of millions of soldiers and subjects. He swallowed Xelan’s nacre. When she screamed at him to stop, he busted her larynx. Then he threw her onto his throne…” He broke eye contact and looked down.

A tremor traveled through Sagan’s body. She clenched her fists to fight off the shaking, but it refused to abate.

Don’t say it.

Please don’t say it.

“My King claimed your General as his prize without her consent.”

Sagan sank to the sand on her knees, head down as a violent quaking racked her body. “Nox raped her.”

Korac rushed to her side. When she looked up at him, he retreated a step. Eyes wide with shock, he whispered, “T.A.O.?!”

Hell opened beside her.

The conduit split a rift in the desert the size of a Gargantuan Tritan. Through the Seam, geysers of fire plumed in a wasteland made barren by volcanic activity. She named the place “Hell.” Stuck there several days after Korac stole Rayne away, Sagan considered herself intimately familiar with the inferno.

“Was I so wrong to trust you?”

At the Atramentous change in her voice, he stepped between her and the conduit. He gazed at it, fascinated. “What is this place, Sagan?”

“The only place meant for rapists.” A howl and a snarl escaped the conduit. She smiled despite the pain. “The Petrified are coming.” Make them suffer.

A tiny edge of apprehension crept into his voice, “The Petrified?”

“Monsters made of calcified bone. Rock solid and starving.” While she concentrated on the ice pick jabbing into her brain, he reached for her axe to fight with its mate.

The first behemoth charged through the rift. Two headed—one goat, one goblinesque—the Petrified towered several feet above the Icarean General. The two arms on the left side brandished a sword each. The single arm on the right swung a tire-sized fist at the Icarus’ jaw.

Korac dodged, easily. With a flourish and a twirl of his open shirt and his long hair, he severed the two arms on the left. Disarmed it. Smart. With an elegant backflip, he dodged the stomp of a massive taloned foot. Both axes made for a fatal dance with his opponent. Pretty in battle.

But Sagan refused the distraction and concentrated on keeping that conduit open. Make them pay. “I thought nothing would take her from me. But he did. And you let him. Now, I’ll send you both where you belong.”

The conduit expanded, and she gasped from the pain.

Two more Petrified joined the battle, and he twirled and spun majestically, cutting away their limbs. Even with that much activity, his voice never strained, “I won’t waste our time together with a defense. Rayne walked away from that box without the slightest inclination to kill me, herself—”

That was true.

“—Because of what little interference I provided, she survived. She needs time to heal, Sagan. Just give her that.”

Where her fists clenched, they bled. “I may not have any time left to give. I can’t stay here anymore. Not without her touching me.” Sagan slammed her fists into the sand and cried, “I need her to anchor me!”

An alarm raised from the fortress. Six Petrified dominated the conduit. A few absent of their appendages after Korac’s work, but he tired as one man fighting a swarm ought to do. He backed away from the herd and fought them closer to her. Protected her.

Through the clanging of metal, he said, “I can’t replace her. That was never my aim. But if you can’t stay here because of something outside her control…”

He decapitated four heads on two separate bodies simultaneously, showering them in fossilized dust. When he landed, Korac shielded Sagan from the encroaching horde. “Then let me hold you until she’s ready.”

The Icarean General kissed her with both hands on either side of her face and a fuck ton of monsters at his back. Hard, warm, alive. The pain vanished. Using her hands on his shoulders as leverage, she stood with him. They kissed as the conduit closed. They kissed as his men surrounded them, taking out the remaining Petrified. And they kissed as the soldiers fell to their knees in deference of their intrusive leader.

When they finally broke away, their gazes remained locked. No need to look back. Sagan knew who stood behind her. Instead, she drank in those terrifically pale eyes. Extra exposed by their audience, she gave Korac a shy smile as she promised, “Expect to see me soon.”

“I look forward to it as always, Lt. General.”

Sagan walked through the Seam, leaving Korac to Nox.

Gone an hour at the most, she returned to the cabin. How could she face Rayne? After Sagan’s relationship with Justin, she understood some of what her best friend endured. Korac was right. She needed time to heal.

Determined to apologize, Sagan marched onto the porch.

“Did he take back his axe this time?”

Sagan whirled around and searched the woods for Rayne.

“Up here.”

The glowing girl perched high in a tree. When her words sunk in, Sagan checked her hip. “Shit!”

Rayne jumped to the ground with no issue. “I’m sure he’ll give it back if you ask nicely.” Her voice sounded harsh, like broken glass.

Sagan stared into those bright blue eyes and lied to her best friend, “He didn’t tell me anything. He said it wasn’t his story to tell. I’m sorry I pushed you. But I just want to understand. Being with you—” Her voice cracked as she hesitated.

Should Sagan tell her about the Seam anchor when Rayne digested everything as guilt? Would it make her feel worse for what Nox put her through? No. Protecting Rayne mattered more. Sagan handled this alone—

A stick poked her on the nose. When she went cross-eyed to glare at it, laughter bubbled out of Rayne. The blond girl gave a slow blink before evaluating her best friend’s sanity. “What in the world—”

“I’ll find other ways to touch you. I’m incredibly imaginative.” Rayne peered at the stick. Sagan flinched when it disintegrated in her hand. “As for going behind my back for a story I didn’t want to share with you, I’m grateful to Korac for leaving it alone. Nox hurt me. That’s more than enough detail. I can’t—I won’t give him the satisfaction of your nightmares.”

Sagan winced. The lie was necessary, but it hurt to keep it from her. “I—”

Tameka rushed from the cabin. She shouted for Rayne before she spotted her. “It’s Jack. He’s on the radio.”

Rayne spared Sagan a glance before they both rushed to the door. Absently, Tameka asked, “Has anyone checked on Lynn and Pablo? It’s been like eight hours…”

The two girls shook their heads. Rayne snickered as she said, “Let’s make eighteen the new standard.”