“You are insatiable.”
“Yep, and I want to see how much I can feel.”
“You will not strain yourself again, Caleb.”
Thiswas a conversation we needed to have later when I had a chance to argue my stance. I was going to touch him, as long as he allowed me to, but I wasn’t going to focus until I metresistance again. The risk was too great. Continuing what we’d been doing should be perfectly safe.
“We are right below the vessel,” Monty said from near the front of the shuttle. He’d probably heard everything Fyn said, not that it mattered. I wasn’t shy, and he was Sunshine’s family. Still, I appreciated the interruption.
“Mwah,” I said as I pressed a non-existent kiss on Fyn’s cheek. “I will be right back, Sunshine.”
When I stepped away, he reached for me, and I paused. “Please,” he said, “come back, my Mate.”
“I will. Wait for me.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I stretched like a fighter going to the mat. “Here we go.”
I began to slide through the floor, and he tensed. Right before I disappeared, I said, “Don’t worry, Sunshine, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”
His expression didn’t change, and he vanished from my sight and was replaced by the inner workings of the underside of the shuttle, then nothing but space. Stars stretched out in the distance with nothing to mar them.
Spacewalking was an art that I had not mastered. Sure, I'd left the protection of a ship twice in my afterlife. The first time had been an accident, and I spent the entire time screaming bloody murder, not that anyone heard it. Not a pleasant memory. The second time had been a necessity. The ship I’d been on blew up, and I needed to hitch a ride on a passing shuttle.
None of this I told Fyn because he wouldn’t have let me do this, not that he could stop me. But he would’ve worried more than he already did, and I didn’t want that.
I curled into a ball and rolled, so my head pointed at the foreign ship. The trick was convincing my soul to move. Physics did not apply to me. I didn’t need to push off anything; I couldmove at will. Like everything, I merely had to believe it was possible.
“Let’s go.”
Painfully slow, I lifted toward the ship. Now came the scary part. Would the shield keep me out or burn my soul? I had no way to know, so fun times. As always life—rather death was an adventure.
My eyes scrunched closed when I approached the white wedge-shaped ship. This was the moment. I would either crash and burn or be totally fine. Hand out, I waited and waitedand waited. Nothing happened. More time passed, and still nothing. I cracked one eye open, and I was right next to the ship, alive—or as alive as I got. I pushed through the hull, legs wiggling, and I slid inside.
Aliens, here I come.
I watched Caleb disappear through the floor and my soul fled my body. My instincts roared that I draw him back into my arms, but he’d asked me to trust him, and I would try.
“Monqilcolnen, show me the underside of the shuttle.”
“Will you be able to see him? Dontilvynsan’s inner fire doesn’t work over screen.”
“I have no idea,” I snapped. “I haven’t had many opportunities to ask spirits to enter the void of space and check if I can see them.”
He lifted a single eyebrow at my harsh tone.
“Show me,” I demanded, desperate to see Caleb.
Monqilcolnen pressed a few buttons on the console, and the underside of the ship came into view on the screen spanningthe front of the shuttle. My breath stopped as I scanned space, begging the Crystal for any glimpse of my mate.
“Anything?” he asked.
I shook my head as the backs of my eyes burned. He was lost to me, and I didn’t know what to do with that. Something flickered, and I turned, then paused. Caleb. He was curled into a ball.
“Something’s wrong.”
“What?” Monqilcolnen asked.
