{Cinder}

Kyle kissed Silence’s chest where she arched for him. He kissed over her nacre, north of her mind. She released the most beautiful cry for him as she finished for the fourth time in the last half hour. He wanted to give her more, but they needed sleep before the frenzy rained down on them tomorrow.

A full house moving all at once to repair their broken establishments. Her memory walk with Rayne was far overdue. Andrew was right to insist on it, and infusing Xelan with Sagan’s bank of memories would bring the returned Icarus up to speed.

Kyle squeezed Silence’s hips where she sat astride him. “We need to sleep—”

She kissed him deeply and moved again above him. Everything regarding her put him in mind of Valkyrie legends. Including their increased appetite for sex. Where Kyle was more than ready, his reason robbed him of his will.

He broke the kiss and gazed into her frenzied eyes. An animal lived behind them, and it stalked his desire for her. Temporarily caged, she asked, breathless from their exertions, “Must we sleep? Let us draw this out a little longer.” She emphasized every word by rolling her hips away, withdrawing from him slowly.

Kyle’s eyes definitely rolled into the back of his head as he groaned. He swallowed, wet his lips, and whispered, “Little longer. Yes, please.”

Two hours passed before he convinced Silence to tuck against him and fall asleep in his arms.

Thunder. A streak of lightning across a dark sky. Kyle stood on the cliffs outside the Iona Medical Ecology. Icarean bodies littered the ground. Flames roared from the Arsenal’s entrance.

He stepped around them and walked to the edge of the cliffs. All around, the darkest storm clouds swallowed the horizon and strobed the ocean with lightning.

Was this his dream with Rayne, finally?

“Where are you? Why are you so quiet? And why now? Why after…”

The wind picked up and hammered against him. Violent.

“Rayne, what is it? What’s wrong?!”

The clouds released their burden, but not a deluge of rain.

A shower of fire.

Black flames fell from the sky and floated along the surface of the sea. Beautiful and terrifying.

What did this mean?

A vacuum emptied the dream of thunder, wind, and surf. Not a sound.

A voice whispered directly in his ear, “Kyle Jacob Roberts. Open your eyes.”

He snapped them open and frowned. “Silence?”

She tipped her head back, drinking from the pendant on his chain. Her skin pulsed with that azure wave twice. She smiled sadly at him. “I’d hoped you’d sleep through this.”

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Bolting from the bed, Kyle instantly groaned and cradled his head. “What did you do?!”

“I disabled your nacre. I don’t want to harm you, but I couldn’t risk your interference. Stay here. Don’t alarm the others. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Despite his limited energy, he jumped for her. No matter how much Kyle tried, he couldn’t reach her for a memory blast without his nacre.

Silence moved impossibly fast. She wasn’t even in the room anymore.

“Fuck.”

Andrew and Lucas bunked in the next room over. Kyle woke up the entire hall banging on the door. Conscience answered, and his eyes widened without the other Progeny saying a word.

Andrew dressed quickly. “Do you have any idea what she plans to do?”

“No, but it has to be Rayne. Get Lucas, let’s go.”

“He’s not here.” Andrew opened the door to display the empty room.

Lamassau groaned in his doorway. “What’s wrong?”

Smith appeared from down the hall, dressed and loaded, apparently on guard duty. “What’s shaking?”

Kyle wasted no time on words and ran to the pit. The rest followed. He stopped at the top of the ramp.

Andrew ran passed him to the bottom. “Lucas, have you seen—”

Silence lifted the entire Martyr Complex and balanced it on her shoulder. She did this while Lucas looked on.

A shot fired from behind Kyle, and Andrew went down, twitching from the electric shots.

The golden-eyed Icarus snapped. “Careful with that.”

Lamassau snarled, “Smith, you better aim that at me next if you plan to live.” He opened his mouth to breathe some fire, but a charge took him out from across the pit.

Holy Shit.

Abresson smirked over the nacre disabling rifle. “These are fun.”

“What the fuck is going on?!” Kyle snarled his best for intimidating, but honestly he had nothing.

Smith shoved him with a freshly charged gun. “Get Conscience and wait on the shore like a good soldier.”

Kyle was pissed. He glared at Silence, with mostly confusion and a lot of hurt. “Why?”

Celindria as T.a.o. Seamswalked into the pit looking hella too much in that outfit and that whip. “Because she’s our Mother.”

Silence glared at the younger woman, and it terrified Kyle that Celindria shut up.

Shoved down the ramp by Smith, he grabbed Andrew along the way. Sore and nacre depleted, he pretty much crawled to the lake’s shore. Karter and Para flew in from the vent with no glances for the people concerned about them. That’s something Celindria failed at when she possessed people—Expressing and acknowledging emotional responses.

But what should Kyle expect from a crazy, inhuman bitch?

The two Valkyrie fixed explosive charges. They were the same ones Celindria forced them to place around the Vast Collective while inside Kyle’s body two weeks ago.

He shuddered.

Both bodies she controlled turned and looked at him. In Celindria and T.a.o.’s voices, she assured, “Oh, I haven’t forgotten our time together.”

Kyle waved over at Silence. “Yeah, if you don’t mind, I’ll take death over Celindria controlling me and you breaking my heart. Anytime you’re ready. Just take me out.”

Andrew muttered beside him, “Why isn’t Rayne reacting?”

Story Taker shook his head. He remembered the plan. The original. The basis of this religion they formed. He wasn’t about to remind Andrew within hearing range of the enemy.

Lucas approached with nacre cuffs. Kyle glared at the Icarus as he secured them. Andrew—God. Andrew was devastated.

Glowering, Conscience shared, “I suspected we were in a Probability where you betrayed us but I couldn’t let myself believe it. And now Rayne’s paying for my mistake.”

T.a.o. watched on with unveiled interest. Silence kept Rayne on her shoulder like the flooded Martyr Complex weighed less than feathers. Abresson examined the plumbing for Cinder’s conduit.

Lucas smiled sadly at Andrew. “I initiated you to join us. I have the mother’s permission to extend an invitation. Come with us.”

With the strain in his eyes, it was obvious Andrew tried some suggestion. His face went from red to purple to blue before giving up with defeat darkening his gaze. He hung his head until Lucas waved a spent chain in his face. Andrew’s chain.

The golden-eyed Icarus looked so sad as he explained, “Rayne’s blood made me impervious to suggestion.”

Now Andrew was pissed. He struggled against his cuffs, gritting his teeth to hold back the tears.

Kyle sympathized. Until Lucas abruptly pressed his mouth to Andrew’s ear, close enough for the other Progeny to overhear. “Keep your faith in me a little while longer.”

Lucas disappeared to the island so fast Kyle almost thought he Seamswalked.

“Hey, what’s going on out here?”

Kyle closed his eyes and hoped this was a bad dream. When he opened them again, Chris faced off with a rifle pointed at Jack. Relentless, Celindria forced Chris to pull the trigger and sent the King Regent crashing to the floor.

This was a nightmare.