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He took a jagged breath and made a guttural sound halfway between a laugh and a growl.

‘I’m a man of science,’ he said gruffly, returning to the window. ‘Everything I’ve ever learned tells me this shouldn’t exist. Still, it does. So I need to accept what I’m seeing is real.’

His head tilted. ‘However, this isn’t about me,’ he muttered. Tis about you.’

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye; his gaze narrowed now as if trying to see something beneath her surface.

‘Are you eager to go home,kidaya?’ he murmured after a beat.

Her lips pressed together.

She rotated back to the Celestial Pathway, watching its divine currents twist and churn, the cosmic tide pulling them forward, heading for the Seventh Heaven.

She swallowed. ‘It was home before it all fell apart. To me, belonging has never been about a location. It has always been about people. When those who ruled over us turned their backs on my family, we found a new, safe place. Sivania and the entire planet of Sacra are no longer my sanctuary. Home is where my father, mother, brother, and sister abound.’

She swiveled away from the Pathway, facing Ki’Remi again.

His eyes were on her, and his expression told her while his norm was to question everything about her, doubt, push, and challenge, he’d try to have faith in her.

Hell, he’d followed her into this madness, the unknown, and the gods’ jaws.

Wasn’t that the epitome of faith? The substance of hope, the evidence of the unseen?

‘Somehow, with you, I feel at home too,’ she whispered.

He made a guttural growl, stepped to her, and enfolded her in his arms.

Before she could process it, his hands were on her hips, his forehead on hers, his breath hot against her lips.

‘Issandra?’ His voice was gravel and thunder.

She gazed up at him. ‘Tis my Sacran birth name.’

‘I like it a freakin’ lot.’

She let out a slow exhale, allowing her head to fall into his chest, his presence wrapping around her, steadying her as they were pulled into a reality set in motion long before they met.

They stood together, entwined on the edge of the infinite, gazing at the impossible unfolding before them.

Well aware nothing might be the same after this journey, or even if they’d return.

23

Sacred Citadel

Ki’REMI

The celestial fortress city of Sivania loomed ahead, an impossible construct of grandeur and divinity.

They sat in a skimmer, which set off from the rear deck of the larger Sacran vessel they initially traveled in.

A pair of supernal sentinels stood guard in the transport behind them and remained silent, motionless, statuesque in their armor.

As they blazed toward the citadel, Ki’Remi sent a command to his neural node.

Record.

He had to get this shit down because talking about what he was seeing wouldn’t do it any justice, for no words adequately described what lay before him.