Clare’s eyelids drifted downwards, but she fought them off. One hand buried in the joint subconscious. Reaching.

System, is Kepler hearing me?

Negative.

It wasn’t the first time she had asked, nor the first time she’d received that answer. She just shifted on her feet and twisted her perceptions of the out-through to reach for her symbiote once more.

Her head ached. Not just her head, really, but that was how she perceived it. Like an icepick behind her eyes.

Leaning against the wall, she startled as a profound Darkness grasped her perceptions and gently folded them back into her core. The bond with Kepler wasn’t broken—but she had been blocked from following it.

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The headache didn’t lessen but stopped getting worse.

Sighing, she sank her hand back into their subconscious. Tried to find a gap in the darkness.

s n a p

Clare tumbled to the ground. The mind-space trembled.

And an entirely different kind of darkness swirled in, forming the body of Kepler. He blinked down at her with those vivid purple eyes that he preferred, that she’d found herself often savoring.

Then she was in his arms.

He smelled faintly of cinnamon and chili peppers, tasted of insecurity and sunlight-sweet affection. Their embrace dissolved the mind-space, as they had no attention to spare for anything else.

The core sizzled in its casing below their statue, turning condensation to steam that whistled through stony pores. Above them, the decoy core shattered.

Clare could find no reason to let him go. So, she didn’t. It was odd; like suddenly finding a 3D object in a flat, papery world.

But it was also warm. Like she’d just stepped into a hot bath or drank a full mug of that peppermint tea her mother had made her once.

It was an undeniable warmth.

They held one another for a long time.