Chapter 47
Wraith collapsed next to him, gasping for breath.
Kael grabbed her, dragged her to his side of the door, HushTec raised. Nothing moved. He heard nothing but her panicked gasps.
Shit.
Shit shit shit.
He bent down to her. What the hell had they hit her with? He couldn’t see a wound.
She grabbed at him, clawing at his chest. Her eyes were wide and unseeing. There was no wound. He checked as best he could as she thrashed.
Someone would be alerted soon. He had to get her somewhere safer. He had to—
He couldn’t feel her.
The thought slammed into him like a freighter.
He couldn’t feel her. And in one way or another, he’d never stopped being aware of her presence since their time in the Void.
This wasn’t a physical wound.
“Wraith,” his whisper came hoarse and urgent. “Wraith, look at me.” He tried to turn her head to him, but she’d started to shake.
No—she wasn’t just shaking. She was seizing.
Shit.
He looked around the corridor as if it would give him answers. None were forthcoming.
Void damn it!
A ripple.
Wait.
Void! He screamed it inside his head as he struggled to hold on to Wraith’s increasingly violent seizures.
Help me! Help me help her.
A whisper answered, then a hum, then a swell—ending in a question.
Yes, yes. Whatever you need. But later! Now, HELP ME!
Something flooded him. Awareness and presence that sank into every molecule of his being, alien and discomforting. And settled.
He still couldn’t sense Wraith. But suddenly, he knew how to reach her.
He pulled her up to him, arms straining to contain her. Held her against his chest. His cheek against hers and his lips at her ear.
“Wraith,” He whispered it with his lips and his mind. “Ash. I’m here. I’m with you. Find me.”
And without even knowing how, he opened his soul to her.
The world shifted. Tilted. Then tore.
Wraith had spoken of a reach. This wasn’t it.
This was… arms open to give a hug. Not forcing. Ready.
She gripped at him, fingers clenching painfully into his shoulders. Pushed herself back and somehow found his eyes. Met them.
And then she was there. Inside him.
Silence shattered. Connection sealed.
Wraith was not herself.
She wasn’t Ghost Command either.
She was more.
For a moment, she was everything.
Then the paradox of full integration snapped into place, and they were something else.
For a second, they could see Wraith in Kael’s arms. Eyes still wide, but pupils constricting back to normal size. Muscles relaxing.
They could hear heavy footfalls in the distance. The near-silent breathing of the soldiers creeping up behind them.
They were aware of the tug of the anchor, and the cries of the bound—Spirit, part of them thought, and others.
Then they were moving.
There was no doubt. No hesitation.
They made no sound as they moved. Two bodies, one purpose.
The enemy soldiers fell. All of them.
And then they stood before the door and—
“Stop!”
Wraith wrenched herself away. Stepped back from Kael. From the Major. Held a hand up so he’d keep his distance.
That had been… unreal. Too close. Too integrated.
There had been no sense of individuality. No sense of self.
How the fuck had he managed that?
And how could she stop him doing it again?
The hall was slick with blood, littered with bodies. She didn’t have a scratch on her.
The Major was pale. Breath hitching slightly as he surveyed the carnage.
He looked up at her, eyes as wide as she remembered hers being. “What the fuck was that?”
Kael couldn’t catch his breath. This was nothing like before when he’d lived through her memories.
This was… an obliteration of self.
There were no boundaries between them. There was no her or him. They were them. And for those few scant minutes, everything was clear.
All the doubt he’d ever felt about killing: Gone.
Consequences: Not even a question.
Let alone a concern.
How much of that was her? How much was him?
Kael swallowed as the memory of something alien settling inside him surged.
And how much of it was the Void?
He waited a moment, as if it might respond. But there was nothing. And he wasn’t sure whether he was relieved or disappointed.
Wraith’s eyes kept darting away from his, as if she was worried that looking at him too long might reintegrate them.
He could still feel her. The connection wasn’t broken, just waiting. But he needed answers, and she was the only one who might be able to give them to him.
“Again, what the fuck was that?”
She stared at him. Opened her mouth—
“You know, that’s something I’d be interested in knowing myself.” A cold voice carried through the corridor. He recognized it from Wraith’s memory.
The door next to them clicked, opened.
“Why don’t the two of you come in?”
Hard as she tried, Wraith couldn’t meet Kael’s eye.
Run, Baby Bird!
And there was Spirit again. Great. Just fucking great.
You know there is no way we can go now, right? she mentally yelled at him.
And Kael’s voice sounded in her head, as comfortable as if it had always been there. So you… do… want to walk into that trap?
Without thinking, she looked up, met his gaze and glared. I wasn’t talking to you.
“Come now, children. Time’s wasting. And we have much to talk about.”
Kael again, softer now. This is bad, Ash.
No shit, Major. And don’t—
Call you that. I know.
She could almost catch his deeper thought, it sounded vaguely sarcastic. But she wasn’t digging.
Go, Baby Bird. Please.
Kael’s confusion slipped into the link, Who?
It’s Spirit, Major. Leave if you want, but I’m going in to get him.
She stood up, started to wipe the blood off her blade and saw her Penumbra suit was saturated to the point of dripping. An overwhelming scent of copper hit her, and she swallowed as anxiety threatened.
Fuck that.
She found her rage, instead.
She was already soaked in blood. A little more wouldn’t make the suit any less ruined.
She stepped over a body. Through the open door.
Didn’t look back.