Page 36 of Until the Stars Fall

I reached up and patted her face. “I’m alright, Nannapie. I told you I’d come back.”

“Girl, that was epic,” Summer said. “If I was a real captain and had a medal of honor to hand out, I’d give it to you.”

I leaned my head back against the wall. “Is it just me, or is it a thousand degrees in here? Or negative eight? Definitely one of the two.”

“Let’s get you out of this suit.” Hannah waved her hand and closed the cubicle curtain between us and Summer. She knelt beside me and began unfastening the locks.

“What happened out there? Did your propulsion die?”

“For a minute,” I lied, “but it kicked back in long enough to get us back.”

Hannah brushed tears from her cheeks in between undoing my zippers and snaps. “I don’t think I’m gonna sleep tonight. When I close my eyes I just see you drifting away.”

The suit slipped off my torso and cold goosebumps rose all along my back and neck. She lifted me. Shivering, I threw my arms around her neck, letting her pull the suit off my bottom and legs. She left it in a heap on the floor and grabbed my tank top, slipping it over my head and pulling my arms through it as if I was a child.

I couldn’t stop shivering, but my arms were working better, and at least I felt honestly cold now. I grabbed my leggings and slipped them on, leaning on Hannah to stand.

She waved her hand across the curtain, and it opened. “Do we have a blanket?”

Summer flung open a cabinet door and pulled out an old airplane blanket. She sent it flying through the air on waves of magic to envelop my shoulders.

“What do you need, Gem?” Hannah asked. She slipped her arm around me, and I rested my head against her shoulder.

I breathed and thought a moment, snuggling close to her. Then my stomach twisted with a cross between hunger and nausea. “I might throw it all up, but suddenly, I’m starving.”

Hannah laughed, relieved. “She’s okay.”

Eyre rushed into the room and ran right up to hug me.

“Beck’s still unconscious, but Zola says he’s going to be fine. Thank you for saving him, and all of us,” she said.

“Thank him. And thank God it worked,” I murmured.

Two hours later, I’d stuffed my face with the most delicious hamburger and fries I think I’d ever had, courtesy of Eyre’s appreciation. I’d taken a bath, slipped into my favorite silky nightgown, and had a chance to calm down. I pulled back the velvet comforter on my bed, eager for sleep, but my tablet buzzed on my nightstand.

Zola: Hope I’m not waking you. Beck’s doing great. He’s up and asking for you. I promised I’d tell you.

I marked the message with a heart and threw my fuzzy purple robe on.

Zola looked up from her novel as I walked into the med bay.

“Gemma.” She exaggerated my syllables in an awed tone. “That was”—she breathed out hard—“foolishly brave of you, and an impressive act of CPR. I don’t know how he survived it, but it’s not an exaggeration to say you saved his life. Beck’s one of my favorite people on the planet—” She caught herself. “On any planet. Thank you for bringing him back to us.”

I smiled. “He’s growing on me. You said he was asking for me?”

“Yes!” She pointed to a glass-enclosed patient alcove draped in closed curtains. “He was awake a minute ago when I went in to check on him.”

I peeked through the slightly open curtain. One soft lamp cast its shadow across the small room, and Beck lay in the bed, eyes closed, hooked up to monitors. His arms rested on top of the covers, an IV in his hand and his tattoos peeking out from beneath a home-sewn, blue-flowered hospital gown. Oby lay half-asleep, curled up in between his legs. He opened one green eye then flopped over half on his back, his paw over his face.

I stepped just inside the room and watched Beck’s chest rise and fall for a moment. Thank God he was breathing so easily. I’d been replaying everything in my head. The moment he pushed away from me. The moment the electrical short shot him off the sail. Him and me, drifting into the cold abyss. My magic flooding his heart. I took a shaky breath.

His eyes fluttered open and found me. “Hey,” he said quietly, smiling and taking a long, slow blink. “I’m glad you’re here.” He opened his hand and reached out.

I padded into the chairless room and perched on the side of his bed, taking his outstretched hand in both of mine.

“You look so beautiful, like a space angel.”

I tucked an errant curl behind my ear as a blush warmed my cheeks. I’d left my room with my hair loose and un-straightened, and no makeup on.

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