{???}

“I believe in us.”

This sweet young woman. After everything the Tritans and Nox put Rayne through, she still harbored so much hope. It energized her. Weeping one minute and then the next—

Rayne hopped to her feet and stared down at him with her hands on her hips. A beautiful, encouraging grin amid those dry tears. Black hair still wet from the rain. Commanding his agreement with the enthusiasm of someone who survived one war, not several.

“I believe in us.”

Nox believed in her.

And Xelan.

If anyone could infiltrate Enki and exploit its weaknesses to bring down the fall of an eon-long empire, it was Nox’s little brother. Once Xelan learned of Nox’s existence in Rayne’s conscience, it would all end. And truly, Nox found justice in that.

So bring the battle and bring the strife. There was only one person in the entire galaxy who could thwart one-hundred percent Probability in the Matrix, and Rayne smiled with all the warmth of Li down on Nox at this very moment.

Rayne was capable of anything.

Meanwhile, the recording of Korac’s voice continued the harrowing tale of his life. Nox’s brother-in-arms and the only person he could call a friend. He’d suffered so much before Cinder.

Nox smiled for Rayne. Not a grin or a smirk. Something he hoped came across as reassuring, but frankly, those muscles were out of practice on his face. “As your majesty wishes, we will revisit the stratagem enlightened by this news. But as we work, I recommend we listen closely to what messages the former General of the Icarean armies encoded for you in this broadcast. A broadcast they risked life and limb to share with you.”

Her smile crumpled into a thoughtful frown as she tilted her head, considering. “You’re right. This was a dangerous ploy for them.”

Nox nodded with solemn understanding. She sank back onto the couch beside him with the smile returned, unable to contain her excitement at Xelan’s resurrection.

Again, Nox understood. Some part of him wanted to praise Elden and beg forgiveness from the brother he loved and perhaps misunderstood, but another part of him wanted to punch Xelan in the face for waiting so long after his death to revive as he obviously would. It was obvious to Nox, anyway.

Rayne reached over Nox to claim the pillow on the other side of him. He moved his hands away to let her by, and she smiled at him as she did it. Continued to smile as if nothing would ever take that expression from her again, even as Rayne curled onto the couch in the exact position Nox witnessed her curl into many times while reading Xelan’s diaries.

The rites. The Weapon inside her—its fuse responded to pain dealt and pain received. Years ago, Rayne came here to hide that she’d inserted rites—Icarean torture devices—under her ribs. After tapping into Xelan’s security feed at the stronghold, Nox watched her cut them out. And she knew.

“You have no right to be here. And if I find one thing out of place, I swear to Elden I’ll cross the desert and cut your brain out.”

Rayne also knew when Nox had spied her retaking Iona-29 in a bloodbath that Korac indicated Nox quite aptly enjoyed. He always appreciated her violence, but that wasn’t the point. Rayne had smiled for the camera feed. With bodies littered around her, Rayne smiled for Nox.

“How did you know I was watching the feeds?”

The words rang in the silence and nearly wrenched that pretty smile from her face. Certainly not his intention, but his curiosity refused to relent.

Rayne remained curled against the armrest, but tensed. Her eyes flashed momentarily as Nox assumed she recalled the instances to which he referred. Eventually, she answered, “The Tritans programmed you as my target with a special tracking system—Your heart. I could hear it across the Vast Collective. Slow. Steady. I knew your whereabouts at all times, but I also knew when you were resting, exerting yourself, or afraid.”

Nox frowned at her pause.

Rayne licked her lips and darted her gaze away as if concerned how to word the rest. Tucking a hair behind her ear in a nervous gesture, Rayne elaborated, “Your heart beats a certain way only for me.”

Of course it did.

In an instant, Nox was on his feet, unsure as to why. His skin itched under this mental construct of a shirt. He needed to breathe—

A walk. A hunt sounded good. Not only because that was far too intimate a connection to process but also because it no longer mattered.

Dead. Heartless.

This was—

“Nox.”

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He hazarded a glance over his shoulder at Rayne still curled on the couch and comfortable in his presence despite their history of destroying each other.

“Listen. Korac is about to describe how he met you and Xelan.”

That elegant cadence in his arrogant tenor resonated through the space louder and clearer than before. Nox looked at the black, empty void above and absorbed his best friend’s words.

{I caught the arrow before it pierced my throat.

I heard the youngest boy gasp, “Wow,” from across the courtyard.

Yes. It was quite impressive.

[SS]: Korac smirks and winks at me. I’ll let him be cheeky with no teasing from me. He’s earned it. Although, if we don’t take a break for food soon, he’ll quickly find me in a less forgiving mood. Your girl gets hangry.

You know the rest of this story, sprite. Nox and Xelan took me to their royal chambers. I thought they were some upper echelon of the army, or looking for a slave. I stripped naked to let them inspect me, as this was always done.

How they reacted changed my life.

[SS]: He’s no longer talking. It’s been a minute at least. I’m letting him have a moment with his reflections. I initially assumed his childhood would be the hardest for him to share with me., but now I wonder if it’s harder discussing what he lost on Cinder once he finally found it.

He’s ready.

I wished for a people. For a home. To belong somewhere. Xelan, you self-righteous mad scientist, you gave me the robe off your back. Donated half your clothes to me. And your absolute lunatic head-case of a brother gave me status and purpose. Your mother procured my wardrobe, furnished my room, and educated me.

I’ll never forget Nox’s words. It was the first time in my life anyone spoke to me that way.

“No. None of that. No one touches you here. You fight. Kill them if you have to. I vow after you fell the first one, the others will not likely try again.”

No one touches you here.

You’ve read in his Verse that Nox called Amolot into the room to supply my upgrade. He subdued her with one-hand—

How?! How else was I supposed to respond to these moments? Not only Nox’s words, but his actions demonstrated integrity, nobility, and kindness. Foreign notions to me.

I responded in the only way I knew how.

When Xelan asked if I could take her blood, I looked to Nox for his approval before accepting it. As I would do countless times in the next million years.

Damn you, Nox, for recognizing the significance of that moment. For writing it in your Verse to Rayne. Sprite, you must understand. From the start of my life, I followed orders and did as I was told to keep myself alive. But on Cinder…

I found people worth fighting for. I would give up my life for Nox. For Xelan. And now for you.}

Nox opened his eyes and grinned.

“I found a people worth fighting for, too.” Rayne sounded so warm and sincere from her cozy perch. “He talks as if he thinks you can hear him.”

Funny that Nox could. “Maybe Korac suspects.” Now wouldn’t that make things more interesting?

Rayne responded in silence, prompting Nox to turn and take in her shocked expression. Blinking, she gasped, “You don’t think he knows? Do you? I mean… he’s the only one who figured out I swallowed your nacre.”

This was a dilemma. Nox knelt to ease her craning to maintain eye contact. “Rayne, if Xelan is alive, how will you explain this?” He gestured to encompass the room and himself with it. “To him and Sagan and Korac? Or won’t you?”

Rayne held up her hands in surrender as she reasoned, “One thing at a time. I’ll change the venue back to the strategy room. I don’t think the study is working for you.”

No. No, Nox needed to visualize. Within a beat of his absent heart, the room shifted form. Once more, he stood in the black room with lilac projections. Beyond it, Nox glimpsed a bolt of lightning striking the ever-present beach. Sand hardened to glass.

Rayne selected a projection of Xelan and stared at it, smiling softly. Hope brightened her already electric eyes, but the storm on the beach raged on.

“Why does it not abate?” Nox asked. In her elation, he expected the storm to fade.

As if chilled, Rayne hugged herself and turned her back on him to face the storm. Her words barely carried over the torrent. “I’m still grieving for John. But now there’s more. My confusion and my doubt.”

“Doubt?”

“What if this is a trap? A lie to lure me out of the box? Or let’s say he is alive. Did I do the right thing sealing myself in the Martyr Complex? Hiding myself and you. Will I… Did I disappoint him—”

“Enough of that talk.” Nox walked through the projection to stand beside her. They both gazed out at the storm. The island’s eruption continued while Korac told a story Nox recalled with fondness.

{Fluorescent lava drained through the freshly opened fault in an impossible vortex. The awesomeness of it glitched out my ability to comprehend it. This isn’t what normal people stared at. And certainly not something they considered riding down.

I smirked.

My best friends laughed.

We were ready.

Nox took the lead, and I followed, with Xelan behind me. The current—there’s no way to describe that fury. It took us through a vertical tunnel of spinning magma. The heat pressed and tested the limitations of our suits, but I had faith in them. The skids, however…

My feet felt loose.

I glanced at the other two to see if they were having the same problem. And when I realized they were fine, I knew I was in trouble.

Wasting no time on feeling ridiculous, I shouted, “Banana!” Such a stupid word.}

Despite the literal clouds over their heads, Nox and Rayne peered at one another before bursting into laughter. She giggled sweetly, and he chuckled deep in his chest.

“It is such a stupid word, and I love Xelan for it.” Rayne held her sides and looked back at Xelan’s projection. “How can you keep that joke coming, and it never stops being funny?”

When Nox wrote his Verse, he focused on anything that might count as helpful to Rayne. Names, places, and events all bearing significance to the Tritan threat. But also because Nox often neglected any memory that offered normalcy. Promised hope. With every other terrible event in his life, how could he get lost in those fleeting moments—

Not fleeting to Korac.

His best friend clung to those memories and grasped the true promise in them. The hope for a home and a family.

Judging from the exchanges between Korac and Sagan, it sounded as if he finally found what he was looking for.

“They’re happy together,” Rayne offered as she listened on. “Hell, I’d say they’re even cute together, but I hope he doesn’t get too comfortable warming my side of her bed.”

It was such a ridiculous and unexpected thing for her to say that Nox barked out a laugh so abrupt it dismissed his train of thought entirely.

Rayne grinned at him before inquiring, “So… you were fun once?”

The mischievous spark in Rayne’s eyes told Nox they weren’t getting any work done today, and he relinquished himself as her entertainment with an elated abandon denied to him for far too long.

“I believe in us.”

With evidence of Korac’s restored faith surrounding them, so did Nox.