Page 144 of Cage of Starlight
He does, and it floods through Sena. It’s better. The flicker of his heart is a flutter, then an irregular squeeze. Everything Jeffra gives him, he pours into Sena.
There’s life at the core of Tory and he can channel that, too. He gives it away, throwing it against that impassable wall, but it’s not enough. All his strength, and it’s not enough.
“Tory, hon, maybe it’s . . .”
Niela settles down beside him and together with Jeffra, she stokes the warmth inside him to life once more. He’s a bonfire. A bomb. Tory grabs the growing energy and pushes it into Sena, finally pushespastthe wall he couldn’t break through.
Sena’s body jerks with it, and the weak shiver of his heart—stops.
“Shit, no, no—”
And beats again. A strong, deep thrum flushes blood through Sena’s body, and then another, and another. The static energy of the Voidseed ignites again and pushes Tory out. He chokes out a laugh and lets himself drop, ear against Sena’s chest, savoring the pulse of his living heart. His lungs expand, skin flushed, again, with life.
Tory’s vision fades in and out again.
Tory sinks into the steady, strengthening song of Sena’s heartbeat and the ocean-blue glow of light through his closed eyelids.
CHAPTER THIRTY
The last thingSena knew before death was the crush of warm arms andI’ve got you, I’ve got youguiding him down into the dark.
He’s reborn to the distracting unpleasantness of knuckles on his sternum. He doesn’t have the strength to push them away, but he makes a passable effort at it.
A familiar laugh. “See? Anexemplaryresponse to painful stimuli. He’ll be fine.”
Tory’s voice: “He’s awake?” Pressure on his shoulder. A hand on his chin. “Hey. Sena?”
He opens his eyes to flowers swinging overhead in arterial blood-red and the eerie, electric blue of Tory’s eyes, both like and unlike Kirlov’s.
Kirlov isdead, and Sena is alive.
He never dared to imagine the moment that followed freedom from control. A breath pushes out of him in an odd hybrid of laugh and sob.
A smile softens Tory’s face. “Hey,” he says. “You’re back.”
Sena mumbles something that approximates a reciprocalhey. “Wh-what . . . happened?”
Niela leans over him, teeth bared in a grin. “You died a little. Nothing irreparable. Glad to see you’ve decided to return to us. Sorry about your sternum.”
Sena has dealt with worse than a brisk sternal rub. “Don’t worry about it.” To Tory, he offers, “I thought I wouldn’t see you again.”
Tory’s face warps. “Yeah. I—I’ve been meaning to tell you something.” He steels himself, and Sena readies himself for the gentlest letdown. Maybe something like,I have to go now.Or even,It was easier being beside you when I knew there was an expiration date.
Sena interrupts before Tory can finish. “You can go,” he whispers. It’s always been easier to be the first to walk away. Maybe it will hurt less if he does it this time, too. “The things I need to do—they’re only going to get harder from here.”
“Absolutely fucking not,” Tory says, at around the same time a red-clad, dark-haired woman drops into a threatening crouch on Sena’s opposite side and says, “I think I’m owed a proper introduction!”
“Not now, Hasra!” Tory yelps, flustered.
“Oh, am I interrupting something?”
But Sena can’t focus on her, because suddenly Tory’s hands are on his face, work-rough and warm, tipping his chin so all he can see are Tory’s steady blue eyes, and Sena can’t breathe.
“Just—listen,” Tory says, and Sena can’t do anything else. “Because I’m shit at this stuff and I can’t say it twice. Being with you is the scariest thing I’ve ever done, okay? I can’tthink. I feel sick, and nothing makes sense, and I’m frightened of things that never used to worry me, and I’ve never gotten so close to dying so many times as I have since I met you.”
“Ohhh,” says the dark-haired woman. Eyes wide, she stares at Tory. “Oh, damn. Tory, I’m going to needdetails.”
“Hasra,” Tory whines, which is an interesting sound coming from him. Sena doesn’t dislike it. “Please. A minute.”
