24. Kyric

24

KYRIC

Light in the darkness.

I wasn't dead.

A figure standing over me.

It all came in flashes, hands helping me out of a shipping crate, my body shivering, suddenly overcome by cold. The contents of my stomach roiling and coming up when I tried to drink the cool water someone handed me.

I wasn't in the Legion anymore.

Death.

I recalled the sentence with cool detachment, the memory as sharp and clear as if it had happened moments ago. The tribunal's split vote echoed in my mind—two to one.

It was the soulless representative who had voted to spare me. The other two, their faces stern and unforgiving, had sealed my fate with a swift word.

My life came back in a rush, everything that had led me to this moment. Flashes of images as if I was looking at them down a narrow tunnel. No sound. No emotion. Nothing but data.

"Kyric?" One of the men helping me said my name.

I had to blink several times before my vision cleared enough to fully make them out. The room around us was dim, some sort of storage area. And the air smelled too recycled to be anywhere but a space station.

"Drex. Zyrus." I recognized them both. Two men I'd saved before I became soulless, before I stopped being able to save anyone.

I tried to step forward, but my knee went out from under me, and Zyrus held me up, wedging himself under my armpit.

"He needs a medic," said Zyrus.

"You were all like this. We have the medscanner back in the room. Let's get him out of here before someone catches us."

And they led me down an unfamiliar hallway, leaving me to wonder what I was supposed to do next.