Page 66 of Until the Stars Fall

Zola fell to her knees beside Beck, pressing her fingers to his neck. “Beck! Beck honey, wake up!” She gently pulled open each eyelid, then carefully swept his body, running her hands in a claw-like manner down his body, around his head.

Hannah and Eyre ran up, out of breath, the former opening Zola’s medkit beside her. Zola grabbed her stethoscope, listened to him.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “There’s no apparent injury. No bleeding, airway clear, temperature feels normal. He’s not sleeping, but he’s—” She pulled out a small light, checking his eyes again. “He’s just not here. Go get the stretcher. Let’s get him into the med bay.”

Hannah and Eyre ran off together, and I grabbed his hand, kissing it, crying.

“Did you try your magic?” Zola asked.

“Yes. I can’t find anything wrong with him.”

“He’ll be okay,” she said firmly. She sat back and tilted her head, studying the edges of him. She frowned and tears slipped down her face.

“What are you seeing?”

“Maybe nothing,” she said, wiping her face. “His aura’s dim. Not normal.”

Hannah and Eyre came up with the stretcher, and we loaded him carefully onto it. Zola pushed him out of the forest.

The med bay doors opened at our approach, and Zola brought him into the back, pushing his stretcher under the AI nurse and locking it there. She initiated the AI nurse and connected him to a heart monitor. “Step back ladies. Let Nurse Clara do her thing,” she murmured.

I stepped back beside Eyre, could see Hannah through the window talking to Summer tearfully over the intercom.

“Zo, can you see his aura?” Eyre asked, wiping her face.

Zola bit her lip and shook her head as she went around to the consoles. “It’s there, but it’s dim. I don’t know what that means. I’ve never seen that before.”

I joined her at the consoles. A full MRI scan of Beck’s body came to life on the screen. I didn’t understand any of what I was seeing, except that his heart rate was normal, like he was sleeping. His blood pressure was low normal. Oxygen level, normal.

Zola tapped on the monitor, expanding the MRI of his brain. “He looks completely normal, except he’s not. I don’t understand enough about his brain scan. She’s going through common scenarios. It may take her a while.” Her eyes darted around the screen, making sense of data I couldn’t hope to understand. “Not consistent with a coma. No trauma. No injury. No swelling.” She looked at me and Eyre. “Y’all can go back to him. Clara’s done.”

Neither of us had to be told twice. I took one hand, and Eyre took the other. We waited quietly by him while Clara compiled and compared data. I was almost too numb for tears. I kissed his knuckles and smoothed hair from his face. No way was this real life.

Hannah came in. “Eyre, I’m so sorry, but Summer needs you on the bridge. Now that we’re through the Bifrost, she wants to make sure we’re on the right track with no deviations.”

“Yeah, okay.” Eyre’s dark eyes met mine. “Let me know if anything changes?”

“Of course,” I nodded, swallowing hard.

Eyre left, and Zola followed her out. Hannah came around and put her arm around me.

“We’re gonna figure this out, Gemma. He has to be okay.” I fell into her arms crying, still not letting go of Beck’s hand. “You two are too good together. We’ll figure it out.”

Summer’s voice came over the intercom. “Gemma, I’m so sorry to ask, but can you meet me in the engine room? We have to get this electrical problem under control. We only have a few more hours until we land, and we don’t have what we need to decelerate for entry. The entire ship’s in jeopardy.”

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

I pressed a kiss to his forehead and let Hannah lead me out of the room, downstairs, and into the engine room. Hannah was right. I was being so, so stupid, just as stupid as when I let Beck walk away. There was a chance, however small, that he was still okay, and that’s what I had to cling to. He wasn’t just the man I loved, because I knew now that I loved him, more than anything. But he was also the man everyone loved.

He needed me, and I wouldn’t abandon him to whatever this was any more than I would’ve left him to drift in space, before I knew what he’d mean to me. He may not want me back, but I had to try. And if I had to use my magic, I’d be the best damn witch the world had ever seen.

Summer met us in the engine room. We hurried through the dark room, guided by the blue runs of emergency lights on the floors, past the flickering expanses of candles in the spells that were still working, still protecting the ship.

Once we were up by the electrical grid, I asked, “Do you think we can get the lights working in the ship again? The electrical panel’s not my forte.”

“Yeah.” She studied the panels with a frown. “A bunch of the breakers are flipped. That must be what was causing all the problems. I mean, it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but I’m no electrician.”

“Neither am I,” I said, paging through the ship’s systems on a console. “Beck’s so much better with this than me.”

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