{Enki | Bridge}

Thank Elden for nacres with perfect recall. Razor’s map proved useful for traveling across the Torrentus content with no guides. It was a wasteland eroded from constant weather. Alone, Tameka traversed the conduit labyrinth until she entered a globe of clear, seamless glass suspended over an ocean of Cascading Light. That’s when the lights went out. She lingered there, wings retracted, afraid to move or risk falling. When the lights returned moments later, she followed the glass gangways, which brought her to the final conduit. Through there, if Razor had told them the truth, Tameka would enter the bridge.

“Please Xelan already be here. Rayne and Pax, too.”

With another brief prayer to Elden, Tameka crossed the final threshold and stepped into a confounding scene. Xelan lay closest to her, Iuo was on the ramp beside Pehton, and Tumu was stretched across the central hub. All of them were unconscious. Only Sagan and Korac moved around the space, hovering over a terminal.

From across the way, Tameka heard Sagan say, “Razor, you can’t be a hero and seek vengeance at the same time. We learned that from Nox and Korac.”

“Sagan.” Tameka tried to keep her voice neutral because, despite the present chaos, she was thrilled to see her best friend again. “What’s happening?”

Razor cursed.

Sagan spun and cried out, “Tameka!” She Seamswalked across the planks and pulled Tameka into a weak embrace, almost leaning into her. The hoarseness of her voice didn’t stop Sagan from her excited burst of words. “I held Echo, and she’s beautiful. And oh my god, Rayne. She found us. Her frequency is zero zero twelve. Oh, and Celindria’s dead. Remorse killed her—”

Razor interrupted the reunion with a silken laugh, like a proper villain.

Both women turned to him. In the motion, Sagan stumbled and Tameka took her weight. With a brow raised, she pushed. “Do you have something to say?”

He went about his work, unsupervised, which really grated on Tameka. He asked, “Who told you Remorse killed Celindria?”

Beside her, Sagan frowned. “Xelan.”

“Ah. Yes. Well.” Razor sounded bemused and incredulous all at once. “Don’t mind me. I’m just operating a Dyson’s Sphere.”

Tameka held her hands up in a stopping gesture. One thing at a time. Staring only at the impossible view below, she asked, “Where is my son?”

Sagan winced, leaving Razor to answer with a curious lilt to Korac’s voice. “Remorse took him.”

“Tameka?”

It was Xelan.

Sagan straightened and nodded. “Go to him.”

Tameka went and knelt beside him, noting someone had already brushed his hair away from his face. She said, “I’m here.”

Xelan squeezed her hand weaker than usual. His voice was soft, faint. “Korac was right.”

She leaned down to make sure she heard him correctly. “About what?”

“You’re alive.”

The relief in his voice made her eyes squeeze shut. He’d thought Torrentus had killed her in the firestorm. Tameka kissed Xelan’s cheek and promised, “I’ll never leave you.”

While Tameka comforted the love of her life, something was taking place behind her. She glanced over her shoulder to find Sagan held in Korac’s arms, only centimeters from falling into the maelstrom. Tameka asked, “Sagan?”

Razor was still at the steering wheel, carrying the Seamswalker like a princess. “She’s struggling.” The concern in his freaky eyes grossed Tameka out as Razor said, “She needs blood.”

That was enough. “What. Is. Happening?”

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“Yes, Razor.” The strength had returned to Xelan’s voice with a dash of sexy anger. “Give me one good reason to keep my end of the bargain and load you into the Hall of Dead Kings after you’ve pulled this stunt.” He stood, lifting Tameka with him.

Sagan, barely conscious, stared into his face with all the love meant for Korac—Delirious.

Razor looked into that expression, saying, “I have only ever known the love of one and the friendship of another.” He glanced at Xelan. “Correction, two others.”

Tameka tried hard not to look at Xelan. His past relationships were none of her business, no matter the implications of said relationships.

As if sensing Tameka’s patience, Xelan looped his arm around her waist and pulled her tighter against him.

Razor continued. “Since occupying space behind Korac’s conscious I’ve… gleaned emotions. Not exactly eavesdropping, although, let’s face it, I am not above that, but more impressions of warmth and acceptance unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, even among my own people. Triss was all there ever was for me. She’s gone now, Xelan. She passed only minutes ago.”

Xelan swallowed audibly beside Tameka, and she sensed the loss affected him more than he’d expected.

Later.

They could share mutual grieving later.

“But the epicenter of this phenomenon comes from her.” Razor gently gestured with Sagan in his arms. After another heartbeat of him staring at her and creeping Tameka out, he confessed, “I have something to prove.”

Xelan asked an important question. “Where is Korac?”

“When he wakes, he’ll blame me for the nacre concussion and cycle me before I can complete my purpose. But I swear to you, the effect was unintended.”

Tameka had been through a lot today. This was one more thing too much. She squeezed Xelan in a side hug before letting go and crossing the space to stand in front of Korac’s body with Razor’s eyes. “Why did he upcycle you rather than Zero or anyone else?”

The Aegis entreated her with unmasked sincerity in his gaze. “Father wanted no one to find Ishkur. He was adamant to the point of risking his demise.”

Behind her, Tumu said with a groan, “It’s true. The Primaries tortured him often over it. He wouldn’t give the bridge up either.”

She glanced away from Razor to check Tumu with her own eyes. He stood and went to the others, helping to roll Iuo onto his tail.

Meanwhile, Razor frowned. “Where did you get Aegis blood on you?”

Tameka scowled when she realized he was talking to her. “What?”

He pointed to her shoulder, stained with a drop of Celindria’s blood. Originally crimson, then cobalt, now it was canary yellow. Tameka peered at it, confused. “I backhanded Celindria. How—”

Razor laughed that silken note again, with Sagan still dazed in Korac’s arms. “You are most impressive, Fury.”

“I think it’s time you put Sagan down.”

The Pain Curator handed the Seamswalker over to Tameka. He said, “Yes. My brother will wake soon.”

Although Tameka was more than strong enough to bench-press three Sagans, they were nearly the same in height. It made the princess carry a little awkward. “Xelan?”

He was already there and took Sagan from her, staring at Razor. “How much work remains?”

“I’ve nearly summoned Ishkur and mapped the route for power. Here.” Razor swept over to the terminal. “I even revived the nacre radars so you can locate Remorse and Pax. Bol is here. Near the Pantheon.”

Tumu cursed. “You don’t want him involved in that fight and… are those—Those aren’t our troops.” He pointed at the millions of dots veiling the southern portion of their Pantheon clearing.

Razor shook his head. “Those are Imminent soldiers.”

Iuo lost some color. “The fighting… it’s already commenced.” He adjusted his earpiece, presumably to the other channels.

Tameka followed suit and flinched at all the noise on the other end. “This is Bones with the Pantheon team. Code Red. I repeat, Code Red. Bridge team come in. Over.”

Xelan answered them. “Pantheon. What’s your status? Over.”

“Oh thank fuck, Wingmaster. We’re barely holding on out here. There are millions of Weapons. Conscience amped up his suggestion to full-on volition control, but he can only hold them if we don’t touch anyone. That’s everyone, good and bad guys. Over.”

Iuo responded, “This is Bridge team. This is a good news/bad news situation. Fury is back—That’s the good news. The bad news is that Seamswalker One is fainting. We’ll recover her and update you ASAP. Over and Out.”

Transport.

They needed transport.

They all turned and looked at Sagan near passing out in Xelan’s arms.

All except Razor.

Tameka hated this. “I take it Korac is still unconscious?”

The Pain Curator nodded without turning around.

“Feed her.”

Just saying it made Tameka’s skin crawl, but dammit, they were out of options and time. She knew from personal experience that clinical feeding was never completely clinical. For an Icarus-blooded being, sharing blood was an intimate act. When Caedes and Tameka lived together for two years in Enki, he let her feed from his wrist out of necessity, but he still purred as an autonomic response.

Xelan wasted no time kneeling to make Sagan more comfortable. Razor went to Korac’s knees and bit into his wrist, letting the yellow blood flow. It dripped onto her lips as he sealed the vein to her mouth.

No remarks.

No looks.

The Pain Curator was neutral, staring out into the room without seeing it. Razor didn’t even watch Sagan’s mouth latch onto the sensitive skin or her throat convulse when she swallowed.

It worried Tameka more than if he was scathing about it. The bastard was planning something.

“What the fuck?”

All of them, including Razor, looked in Pehton’s direction. She was cradling her head, glaring and frowning in confusion, looking mostly hungover. “What did I miss?”

Tameka smiled at her. “A lot, but once Sagan’s mobile, you’re coming with me.”

Xelan asked, “Where are we going?”

“To see Rayne. We need her blood to be at our best, and I can’t wait for her to meet Razor.”