Page 51 of Lunar Bound
As Milano forces poured from vehicles at the clearing's edge, Lunar allowed himself one final look at Poppy. Her face was tear-streaked but determined, and her eyes fixed on his fading form. Her energy signature was already permanently etched into his essence.
The extraction field enveloped him completely, reality distorting painfully around his shadow form. As dimensions shifted and Earth fell away, Lunar held onto one thought with all his remaining consciousness.
He would return to her. Even if he had to tear through the fabric of reality itself. He would see Poppy again.
The extraction field collapsed, and darkness claimed him.
Chapter
Fifteen
Darkness surrounded Lunar, but for the first time in his existence, he found no comfort in it.
The dimensional fold had torn him violently from Earth, his shadow essence compressed and stretched across the void before reforming aboard the Galaxy Brides vessel. That had been twenty-three Earth days ago. Twenty-three days of emptiness unlike anything he had experienced before.
He floated near the observation port, his form perfectly still as stars streaked past. Behind him, the ship hummed with activity. Bob and Gary chattered in their native tongue Dani and Solar engaged in what humans called relationship building. Lunar remained apart, as was his nature.
Yet solitude, once his preferred state, now felt hollow.
He did not want to be alone. In fact, it caused every speck of him to ache.
"You're doing that creepy statue thing again," Dani observed, appearing beside him with her characteristic human bluntness. "Solar says you haven't moved in six hours."
Lunar did not bother to correct her. It had been eight hours, seventeen minutes. "I am conserving energy."
"You're brooding," she countered. "And I get it. Really, I do."
He doubted that. How could she understand? She had Solar beside her. It had been her choice to accompany him rather than remain on Earth. She hadn't been forced to abandon the being who had fundamentally altered her existence.
"The Shadow Council will require detailed testimony regarding Milano's capabilities," he stated, deflecting from his emotional state. "I am organizing my observations."
A more accurate statement would be to say he was trying to piece together the mission logs he'd not finished on Earth.
Dani sighed. "For someone so smart, you can be really dense sometimes."
This assessment confused him. "I do not understand. My shadow essence is precisely calibrated for optimal perception."
"Exactly." She leaned against the viewport, forcing him to look at her. "You've barely spoken since we left Earth. Solar's worried about you, though he'd never say it. And I'm pretty sure you haven't processed a single emotion about leaving Poppy behind."
The name sent ripples through his essence, disturbing his carefully maintained composure. Poppy. Her warmth. Her perception. The way she had seen through his shadows from the very beginning. He felt an empty space where she belonged inside him.
"Processing emotions is not a shadow-dweller priority," he replied stiffly.
"And how's that working out for you?" Dani asked, her expression softening. "Because from where I'm standing, you're in pain. And you're not letting yourself feel it."
Pain. Yes, that was the correct designation. A constant, gnawing absence where Poppy's energy signature had resonated with his own. He had attempted to analyze this sensation using shadow intelligence protocols, categorizing and compartmentalizing. But the emptiness persisted, immune to his analytical approach.
"I failed her," he admitted finally, the words emerging before he could suppress them.
Dani's eyebrows rose in surprise at his candor. "What do you mean?"
"I had calculated seventeen different scenarios where both of us could have escaped Milano's pursuit. I had developed tactical approaches that would have allowed me to remain on Earth while still warning Zorveya of the threat. But the extraction field's instability was unforeseen."
"You didn't have a choice," Dani pointed out. "If you hadn't stabilized the field, we all would have been scattered across dimensions."
"There is always a choice," Lunar countered. "I failed to identify the correct variables in time."
The truth was more complex than he could articulate. For a shadow operative trained to analyze every possibility and predict all threats, he had been blindsided by the simple reality of the extraction field's energy requirements.
