Page 35 of Until the Stars Fall

I gasped for air, blinked away tears. Icy sweat slipped down my back, and spots threatened my vision. I squeezed again, inhaling a shuddering sob. Nothing. We’d drifted even farther away.

This wasn’t happening. Nothing made sense but the ragged beating of my heart. I reached down for Beck’s propulsion. Dead like mine. His eyes were still closed. More cracks in his vacglass.

Then I made the worst mistake I ever could have. I looked out.

The French call it l’appel du vide, the call of the void. I looked into the eyes of infinity, and it looked back at me with billions of glittering stars, vast clouds of dust and gases, the spirals and bright smudges of other galaxies. It was a siren, seductive, dangerous, and undeniable. I shifted my legs to move toward it.

A bulk between my thighs reminded me I wasn’t alone. Beck was here. Beck, who was afraid of the dark, quiet hell of space. Beck, who I wouldn’t condemn to drift in the abyss, dead or alive. I took a deep breath, the call of the void forgotten like a past shiver.

I repositioned him, freeing my hands to fiddle with the propulsion. I might be able to fix it with tools and time, but I didn’t have either. All I had was Beck, and he was in trouble.

No. I had something else.

Deep in my marrow, my magic begged to be released. The power I’d been trying to coax out with lighting candles. I didn’t need much propulsion, just a little.

My hand still on my propulsion, I shut my eyes and reached deep inside myself. I pushed out with my mind, just like with the feathers and pencils in middle school. But this time it was me and Beck, two adults drifting ever closer to the abyss. I opened my eyes. We were farther away. It wasn’t working.

I took a deep breath to still the sobs shuddering through me, applying my scientific mind to the willing spark that awoke within me, ready to do my bidding. We were light as thoughts out here, and I was as strong willed as iron. I focused on the airlock, calculated the vector, emblazoned the image in my brain, and shut my eyes.

I coaxed the little spark into a flame, and pulled.

I opened my eyes. We were soaring toward the airlock.

Within seconds we were inside it. I smashed the close button on the inside of the doors as we passed them.

With a hiss, the airlock began pressurizing, and I fell softly to the floor, straddling Beck. I unlatched my helmet and threw it away, peeled his cracked helmet off, pressed my fingers to his neck. I couldn’t feel anything through the damn gloves. I unzipped his suit down his chest and laid my ear against him. An erratic beat. But he wasn’t breathing.

I sat up and began compressions, my magic wild and pushing into his body at each thrust, seeking something to heal. Tears streamed down my face as I gasped for air.

“Beck,” I said weakly. “Beck, wake up!” Save him, I willed my magic.

I barely heard Summer’s voice through the intercom over the roaring of the air.

“Gemma hang in there. Zola’s almost in.”

Beck gasped but didn’t open his eyes.

Then Zola was at my side. “I got him, Gemma. It’s okay.”

I stumbled off of him at the touch of Zola’s hand on my arm. She leaned over him, and a stretcher waited on his other side.

“He’s breathing, heart’s steady,” she called.

I watched in a daze as Eyre dropped the stretcher, and she and Zola loaded him up. Zola slipped oxygen on him as Eyre pulled the stretcher up and rushed him out of the airlock.

Zola crouched by me, bringing her scent of jasmine. She peered into each of my eyes with a small light, listened to my heart as she squeezed my hand. “You did great, Gemma. I’m so proud of you. You saved his life, and we hit our course correction. Are you okay?”

I nodded, tears falling.

“Your vitals are good.” She turned to Hannah and Summer as they rushed in. “Her vitals are good. Get her out of this suit and let me know if anything changes.” She kissed the top of my head and took off.

Hannah ran up. “Need help getting up?”

I shook my head and tried to stand, but my legs quivered. I fell back down. Hannah and Summer each grabbed under an arm and pulled me to my feet.

My whole body shivered in paradoxical cold, like putting a hand under too-hot running water and having pain receptors unhinge, thinking it’s cold. I closed my eyes only for a moment, but when I opened them, I was all the way in the dock.

“Never mind, she’s up!” Hannah called across the room. She turned to me, her eyebrows drawn together. “You okay?”

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