31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

A walk in space.

I skipped from one end of the shuttle to the other. Zoltilvoxfyn tracked my movements from his seat near the wall. I’d tried to sit next to him, but I was too excited. It had been way too long since my sense of adventure had been tickled. I loved the little thrill of what could happen or what I would or would not see. God, what was happening on the cheese-shaped ship? I had to know.

“You’re happy,” Zoltilvoxfyn said.

“Hmm?”

“You like this.”

“It’s the unknown. What’s on the ship? Who is on the ship? What if it’s empty? What if it’s not empty? I can’t wait to find out.”

His shoulders relaxed and his writhing tail settled. “Your tether.”

“What?”

“You must be a seeker soul. Your tether is the unknown. It’s why you wandered the universe, Caleb.”

My head cocked to the side. Possibly. I did love to explore, but something about his words rang false deep within me. I instinctively knew that wasn’t my tether.

Shaking my head, I said, “That’s not it.”

“No?”

“I don’t know how, but I know that’s not right.”

“Well, I still love watching you excited, even though I wish you wouldn’t do this.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, finally taking a seat next to him. “I promise. I will come back, and I will remain right here beside you. Mostly.”

“Mostly?”

“I have to explore your planet.” I bounced in my seat. “Maybe we can go on another date in the city. I want to see the shops. And the forests. And oh, that canyon we flew over might be interesting, but going back to the beach would be great too. Or the mountains in the distance. I want to see those too. Do you have plants that eat people? Cause that would be fun.”

“As long as you return to me, you can have whatever you desire, Mate.”

I licked my lips. “Anything?”

“You are insatiable.”

“Yep, and I want to see how much I can feel.”

“You will not strain yourself again, Caleb.”

This was a conversation we needed to have later when I had a chance to argue my stance. I was going to touch him, as long as he allowed me to, but I wasn’t going to focus until I met resistance again. The risk was too great. Continuing what we’d been doing should be perfectly safe.

“We are right below the vessel,” Monty said from near the front of the shuttle. He’d probably heard everything Fyn said, not that it mattered. I wasn’t shy, and he was Sunshine’s family. Still, I appreciated the interruption.

“Mwah,” I said as I pressed a non-existent kiss on Fyn’s cheek. “I will be right back, Sunshine.”

When I stepped away, he reached for me, and I paused. “Please,” he said, “come back, my Mate.”

“I will. Wait for me.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

I stretched like a fighter going to the mat. “Here we go.”

I began to slide through the floor, and he tensed. Right before I disappeared, I said, “Don’t worry, Sunshine, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

His expression didn’t change, and he vanished from my sight and was replaced by the inner workings of the underside of the shuttle, then nothing but space. Stars stretched out in the distance with nothing to mar them.

Spacewalking was an art that I had not mastered. Sure, I'd left the protection of a ship twice in my afterlife. The first time had been an accident, and I spent the entire time screaming bloody murder, not that anyone heard it. Not a pleasant memory. The second time had been a necessity. The ship I’d been on blew up, and I needed to hitch a ride on a passing shuttle.

None of this I told Fyn because he wouldn’t have let me do this, not that he could stop me. But he would’ve worried more than he already did, and I didn’t want that.

I curled into a ball and rolled, so my head pointed at the foreign ship. The trick was convincing my soul to move. Physics did not apply to me. I didn’t need to push off anything; I could move at will. Like everything, I merely had to believe it was possible.

“Let’s go.”

Painfully slow, I lifted toward the ship. Now came the scary part. Would the shield keep me out or burn my soul? I had no way to know, so fun times. As always life—rather death was an adventure.

My eyes scrunched closed when I approached the white wedge-shaped ship. This was the moment. I would either crash and burn or be totally fine. Hand out, I waited and waited and waited . Nothing happened. More time passed, and still nothing. I cracked one eye open, and I was right next to the ship, alive—or as alive as I got. I pushed through the hull, legs wiggling, and I slid inside.

Aliens, here I come.

I watched Caleb disappear through the floor and my soul fled my body. My instincts roared that I draw him back into my arms, but he’d asked me to trust him, and I would try.

“Monqilcolnen, show me the underside of the shuttle.”

“Will you be able to see him? Dontilvynsan’s inner fire doesn’t work over screen.”

“I have no idea,” I snapped. “I haven’t had many opportunities to ask spirits to enter the void of space and check if I can see them.”

He lifted a single eyebrow at my harsh tone.

“Show me,” I demanded, desperate to see Caleb.

Monqilcolnen pressed a few buttons on the console, and the underside of the ship came into view on the screen spanning the front of the shuttle. My breath stopped as I scanned space, begging the Crystal for any glimpse of my mate.

“Anything?” he asked.

I shook my head as the backs of my eyes burned. He was lost to me, and I didn’t know what to do with that. Something flickered, and I turned, then paused. Caleb. He was curled into a ball.

“Something’s wrong.”

“What?” Monqilcolnen asked.

“I see Caleb, and he’s not moving. Move the ship, so he’ll be inside.”

“Maybe he needs a moment?”

“Or he is being ripped apart. Move. Now.” When Monqilcolnen didn’t shift, I growled. I couldn’t pilot a shuttle; I’d never learned.

“One moment, Zoltilvoxfyn. Give him a chance.”

“I can’t.” Every fiber of my being was screaming to protect Caleb.

“Breathe,” he said, tail wrapping around my forearm.

I took a shuddering breath, and before I finished, Caleb rolled and stretched out. “He’s moving.”

“Good.”

Caleb appeared incredibly peaceful as he drifted to the ship, as if he’d done this frequently. As much as I knew about my mate, he hadn’t spoken of his wanderings, and I didn’t know why. Now, I was determined to ask him. I wanted to know everything about him.

He paused right outside the ship, hovering in place, completely at ease. Caleb had never looked more beautiful, but he was so far away, untouchable. My soul clenched at the thought.

Finally, Caleb slid through the shield and into the ship without a hint of trouble. When he disappeared from sight, I said, “He’s inside.”

Powering up the engines, Monqilcolnen said, “Time to head back.”

“What? What about Caleb?”

“You can see him on the screens. When he exits the ship, we’ll come get him.”

“No,” I said. “I will wait here for him.”

“Dontilvynsan ordered me to come back if you could see Caleb from a distance.”

Anger rumbled in my chest. I would not abandon my mate. Not ever.

His tail wrapped around my forearm again. “I don’t say this to injure you, but Caleb is dead. You are not. I have to protect you. We are going back to the ship, and you can watch for him there. I swear by the Crystal’s light, the second you see him, I will take you to get him regardless of the danger.”

My hands fisted as I stared at where my mate had vanished. “I will hold you to your word.”

“Don’t fret. My instincts tell me this all works out.”

“What?”

He said, “I sense things.”

“Precognition?” I asked, shocked. If there was a gift rarer than mine, precognition was it.

“Not quite,” Monqilcolnen said as he directed the shuttle away from my mate. “I do not get visions. Sometimes I know things. It’s not true precognition, but I do have a sense that this will work out.”

Part of me wanted to snarl at Monqilcolnen. He expected us to be honest with him, and yet, he rarely told us anything. While inner fires didn’t have to be disclosed, nor was it odd for someone to keep it to themselves, it irked me that Monqilcolnen had never told us, though he might have told Hallonnixmin and Dontilvynsan because they were all the best of friends.

I wished when I was a child that I had kept my inner fire secret, as apparently Monqilcolnen had. It would’ve spared me a considerable amount of trouble.

Pushing my anger aside, I glanced out the front screen to see the ship that held my soul. “I hope you are right.”