Page 188 of Eclipse Sector

If he even comes for me,I think.

Closing my eyes, I refuse to consider that alternative.

That path isn’t good for either of us.

This is the only right way. The best?—

“All right, little riddler.” The deep voice washes over me, causing my eyes to spring open.

Grey stands a few feet away, covered in blood, just like in my visions. I tremble, both terrified and elated. “Y-you’re h-here,” I stammer out, my voice barely resonating above the waves.

He frowns, then holds out his hand. “Let’s get you somewhere warm.”

I consider it for longer than I should, then reach up to grab him just as howls sound in the distance.

Grey lunges forward to grab me, then shadows us out of Kodiak Sector before anyone can stop us.

But he doesn’t take me back to his lair.

He takes me somewhere else entirely.

To a place I’ve dreaded since the first time I dreamt of this moment.

I know what comes next. The words. The irritation.The pain.

He instantly pulls me into his arms, a wool blanket wrapping around me. But his eyes are hard as he tilts my head up so I’m forced to meet his gaze.

“I’m going to warm you up,” he tells me. “Then we’re going to talk about those little notes in your journal about Nikiski. And afterward, you’re going to help me find her.”

There it is.

Our fate.

The one that’s either going to make us… or break us.

Because it requires us to go back in time.

To visit a past neither of us wants to consider.

To embrace a potential future that could destroy us both.

To return to…Kodiak Sector.