“You are worth more to me.”

Rayne’s words were the first thing to trickle into Nox’s consciousness—

A living consciousness.

Nox opened his eyes—his own eyes—and immediately panicked. “Rayne?!” Her name was hard to form, as if his tongue was unfinished.

Still, it proved effective as Rayne called to Nox from… Where were they? He couldn’t see through a blurry haze.

“I’m here,” she said with more gentleness than he deserved. “Try not to panic, okay? You’re not… exactly done yet.”

A form appeared at Nox’s side, a Rayne-shaped blob haloed by the glow of her skin. Relief washed over him. They were momentarily fine. Even more so. Whatever situation they currently faced, together they could endure anything. Rayne had taught Nox that. With this in mind, he asked with his half-formed tongue, “What. Of. Enki?”

Rayne’s smile was in her voice, sad and melancholy. “Gone.” Something had transpired while Nox was resurrecting to cause the tremor in the word.

Nox’s next attempt at speaking came easier. “Tell. Me.” Even with all the adrenaline from waking half-made, unaware of his surroundings, he rallied enough consideration to add, “Please.”

“We died.” Rayne made a little noise at how preposterous her sentence sounded. “Elden resurrected me, and we’re in the nacre chamber. I started your resurrection about ten hours ago.”

Started his…

Nox couldn’t keep the astonishment out of his voice. “Voluntarily?”

Rayne laughed, and there was irony in it. The gradually focusing blur of her moved a mass of hair over her shoulder as she said, “Yes. You still have work to do, soldier, unless… Well, I never thought to ask your consent. Nox, would you want to be resurrected—”

“Yes. Yes.” Nox swallowed to say, “Absolutely.” A sudden thought made him frown. “The. Weapon?”

Now Nox wished he could see, because Rayne’s voice never sounded so beautiful. Elation suited her. “Gone. We’re free.” There was a slight tinge to the words, which he found curious, but excitement took precedence.

Free.

Seven million years as a killing machine—A nightmare sicked on the galaxy and aimed at the girl beside Nox. For the first time in his life, he could act without the trained impulse to harm and avoid contact of any other nature.

“You’re crying. I know you can’t see yet, but your tear ducts are working.”

Rayne had bestowed a gift onto Nox. Her small hand slipped into his heavy palm and squeezed. Chronic anxiety washed over him as he waited for the words, ‘Calibrating. Optimizing. Stabilizing… Unable to stabilize—’

But they never came.

The anxiety couldn’t recede. Not fully, not yet. Instead, Nox heard Rayne’s sniffles and smelled the salt of their tears. She understood. Aside from Korac, Rayne was the only person in the Vast Collective who could understand.

Rayne said, “No more warning. Rest now. It’ll speed up the process if you don’t interfere. I’ll be right here.” She took back her hand, but the warmth lingered. More so, Rayne hummed Queen’s Somebody to Love.

Nox fell asleep to her gentle voice and the smell of ocean spray, seashells, and strawberry ice cream.

A heartbeat.

Strong, but…

Nox’s resting heart rate beat once every two hours. This… this was a flurry of activity. Not since his childhood had Nox’s pulse rushed this fast. With his eyes closed, he calmed himself, counting.

Fifty.

Per Minute.

Impossible.

Nox opened his eyes. Amber glass comprised the dome above him and, through it, Li blazed on. The same view in Rayne’s Atramentous eyes.

“Rayne?”

A shuffling sound drew his attention to the right. As Rayne stood and approached, Nox’s pulse increased by one beat per minute. He could see in his periphery. Long dark hair braided back from her face had left the angles of her cheeks and jaw in stark relief. Bright blue eyes searched Nox over with her brows drawn lightly in concern. Her lips were rosier than normal, like she’d bitten them with worry. Rayne had changed out of her Enki explosion gear into denim shorts and a cropped tank covered by a long sweater. She folded her arms into it, hugging herself, as she reached out and brushed a strand of hair from Nox’s face. She looked small and tired.

“How are you feeling?” Rayne asked with a little bounce, like she’d been waiting a while.

Nox took account of his digits, extremities, mouth—He made a fist and clenched his jaw. His jaw. He could turn his head and look up at Rayne, fortunate as he was—

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Was Nox clothed?!

The momentary anxiety sent his pulse racing, but Nox was indeed dressed in the same black t-shirt and jeans Rayne had made him wear in her consciousness.

Nox said, “I believe I’m finished. Except…” He wet his lips before adding, “My pulse is awfully quick for an Icarus nearing eight million.”

Without a word, Rayne took Nox’s hand and placed his fingers on her wrist.

The same.

Not only the number of beats per minute, but the rhythms were identical.

Nox frowned with the question Rayne was already answering. “Remember when Silence gave me the virus to permanently entrap me with my nacre? How mine almost absorbed yours? I kept ours separate as best I could, but this is a byproduct. Even with Elden’s nacre, we still share the fusion from the one shard inside me.”

“Elden’s nacre?” Nox sat up inside the resurrection casket, frowning at her. “You took it?”

Rayne bit her thumbnail, nodding.

Nox’s eyes widened, bewildered. “Why?”

Around her thumbnail, she said, “He asked me to. It’s complicated, but it will help me with my mission. I couldn’t use mine. The shield virus kept the Weapon active, unlike yours, which dissipated when you detonated on Volcano Day. So, here I am, infused with your deity.” She switched her eyes to Atramentous. It was still the view from the nacre chamber of Li’s explosion, but there was a mirror of the image on the bottom. A vista of flames stretching on for eons—

“Nox.” Rayne steadied him and switched her eyes back to a brilliant blue. “Sorry. I wish I had a mirror to see what it looks like.”

With a shake of his head, Nox assured, “It looks impossible, but beautiful. In a terrifying way.” Restored, he climbed out of the resurrection casket, nodding to Rayne as she stepped out of his way. Only when they stood face-to-face did Nox notice the touch of pink to her cheeks at his compliment. He looked away and cleared his throat into his fist to say, “You mentioned a mission.”

Rayne’s sweater brushed the tops of her combat boots as she swirled to walk away, presumably to hide her reaction to him calling her beautiful. With her back to him, she said, “The same mission as always: keep our people safe. But you saw her, Nox.” Rayne turned and faced him, braids moving with the action. With appropriate gravity, she said, “Celindria’s alive.”

So grave. So tired.

While Rayne explained the deal with Elden, Nox boxed with his shadow, cast by the sun along the dome of Aegis bones. Nacre ore. Unbreakable—His fist went into it. Broke right into it, splintering broken glass in a spiderweb. With shards of nacre glass slithered under his skin, Nox announced, “This is new.” He couldn’t break nacre glass before…

Rayne ran over and timidly checked Nox’s fist as the ore regenerated around his bleeding hand. With a wince and a hiss of air through her teeth, she tried to pry it free, asking, “Are you okay?”

Absolutely not. Elden, Nox’s ancestral father and leader of Cinder’s Icari, was taking advantage of Rayne like all the other planetary leaders in her life—Nox, included. Slamming his fist into the wall was therapeutic, all things considered. Only…

The genuine concern in Rayne’s eyes told Nox he’d need to find a better outlet for his frustration around her. He couldn’t have her worried about him every time he punched something in his lifetime of pain-induced catharsis.

“There. Can you remove your fist from the glass—Right, like that.” Rayne sucked air through her teeth again, and, with more of her gentle demeanor, she said, “Let me see.”

Nox tried not to look at her this close until Rayne asked knowingly, “Did it help?”

“Yes.” Always honest with her.

Rayne kept her eyes on the healing wound, nodding. “I understand.” When she met Nox’s eyes, there was something close to appreciation in hers. “I get it, but we can’t do this anymore, Nox. Let’s take some of the healthier outlets we learned in my consciousness and use them in the real world. We’re better than this.”

Nox’s pulse fluttered while he stared down at her, and they both looked away. Still, he assured, “I can’t guarantee my success, but I will try.” He stared at his fists, flexing it and wondering at the efficiency of this nacre upgrade. While she paced away, he asked, “About the mission? How do you want me?”

In seven million years, Nox could count maybe twenty times he’d wanted to retract a sentence the moment he said it. That was number twenty-one.

Another thrill raced through Nox’s pulse before Rayne turned and crossed the entire nacre chamber from him, weaving between the pedestals. She said, “I want to give you the option to be on your own. Out in the world without a weaponized nacre. You could do anything you wanted and leave the rest to me and Elden—”

“Martyr.”

Rayne stopped and stiffened with her back to him.

Nox examined the nacre on Elden’s pedestal, saying, “I told you once, I wouldn’t entertain your self-sacrificing notions, as your friends have done. Yet I understand… It’s simply your nature. No, I don’t believe I’ll let you be rid of me so easily, your majesty.” The nacre was Rayne’s, all intermixed with Nox’s forefather’s nacre. A massive explosion waited inside this tiny pearl. What waited inside of Elden’s?

Rayne was quiet for too long, so Nox turned to find her… smiling at him. With a sigh of relief, she said, “All right. I’ve sorted through Razor’s dossier. There are some mutual contacts between him and Celindria on all the planets, even Earth and Cinder, which warrant some investigation. Obviously, it would go faster if you and I split up and rendezvous once we finished our assigned planets.”

Split up.

Rayne trusted Nox on his own. Did he trust himself? He tapped his fist in his palm, considering. “Which planets will I take?”

Now Rayne beamed as she said, “Pil, Lukemore, and Reipon.”

All the planets least likely to recognize Nox. Smart. He said, “Which leaves Lacceirus Capra, Cinder, Earth, Yu, and Mon3 for you. What about Thailea? And Ishkur?”

“There were no contacts on Yu. Legir’s against all things Enki and Imminent, and I’m even more impressed those agencies didn’t infiltrate his people. Thailea’s murky in the dossier. Razor kept it off limits. Once we interrogate our marks, we’ll rendezvous on Ishkur.”

A thought occurred to Nox. He asked, “Do you have access to Elden’s memories?”

Rayne shook her head, expression intensely grave.

Ah. So the arrangement was more of a benefit to the Icarean forefather than to her.

Rayne bit her lip before changing the subject, while the worry from earlier returned to her eyes. “I’ve been trying to reach Xelan, but he’s not sleeping. I want him to know I’m alive because I’m worried about how he’ll grieve for me otherwise.”

After Savis died, Xelan had spent months in his labs before Colita convinced him to leave. And only then so he could see Korac at Nox’s coronation while apparently stealing books from the castle. Nox confessed, “I believe your concern is merited, but you’ll find your way to him. Of that I’m sure—”

A lurching groan resounded, disrupting their conversation. Nox was surprised it corresponded with the empty ache in his stomach.

An appetite. For Elden’s sake, when was the last time Nox had wanted food?

Rayne snickered into her hand.

Nox crooked a brow at her.

“Oh no. Don’t give me that look,” Rayne said, giggling in her words. “I’m starving.”

Affixed to the very northernmost point of Elden’s sphere like a blister, the nacre chamber was only accessible via Seamswalking. Nox asked, “How do we leave?”

To answer his question, a conduit opened.

Elden?

Nox stepped up to the conduit, peering out. Red soil stretched on as far as the eye could see, ensconced in black mountains. Cinder. He stepped aside and bowed to the lady in the room, like the son his mother had raised. “After you.”

Rayne had many smiles. Sad ones, happy ones. They were all beautiful, but this one… This one was special. Her eyes sparkled with it as she stepped through the conduit.

Nox followed her and instantly regretted his second chance.