Chapter 28
“I mourned you, Ash.”
Wraith’s hand was prickling where Phantom was doing… something to it. He spoke quietly, looking down as he said it, and the careful shield of anger she had just built up shattered.
“Void damn it, Tom, are you trying to kill me?”
She couldn’t hold back the tears. Didn’t bother to try.
He looked up at her, reached out a huge hand and brushed a tear carefully off her cheek.
“It’s true. And I was so fucking angry at you, Ash.”
“Yeah.” She managed a half smile. “I kind of got that.”
“Why?”
His voice was ragged. Haunted.
All these years, and it had never occurred to her that he wouldn’t know. Hadn’t figured it out.
She raised her good hand, mirroring his, wiped the solitary tear that had escaped off his cheek.
“My Wasp clipped debris when I punched out. I couldn’t Tunnel. So, I figured—go out with a bang. Maybe save a few lives.”
She shrugged.
“The bang part worked. Saving lives? Apparently not so much.”
Phantom looked down, and they both dropped their hands. He fiddled with the instruments for a moment, and her broken hand jumped as stinging pain shot through it.
Then it eased.
Phantom walked cautiously around the bed. Paused. Reached for her like she might shatter. And when she didn’t stop him, when she stepped in and wrapped her arms around him, he broke.
Kael felt… wrong.
Asleep, maybe. But not dreaming.
Or maybe dreaming someone else’s dream.
It was like he was aware of everything except himself.
Of Wraith, so close he could reach out and touch her… but never reach her. So wrapped up in pain. Her own, and another’s.
Their grief—and love—woven together in a fragile harmony.
But the edges were frayed.
It wouldn’t hold.
It hurt to see it. To feel it. Whatever it was.
Beyond, the Void was singing.
The sound curled through him, strange and familiar.
He thought he’d go and listen for a while.
Wraith and Phantom sat together. Gazes locked.
Holding hands.
Behind them, he’d turned a wall transparent, letting the Void provide a backdrop Wraith might have appreciated in different circumstances.
She’d thought she’d never be whole again.
Fucking hated that she was right.
She scrounged up a half smile, as if Phantom couldn’t feel her heartbreak as clearly as she could feel his.
“So, when do I get to meet her?”