Page 41 of Grounded (Convergence #1)

“She's here!” Commander Vor shot out of his chair.

“What? Who's here?” General Ankeh looked around the room.

“Her!” Vor ran out into the hallway.

He could feel her. His woman was there. Within reach. She was in the city!

Footsteps echoing off the metal walls to fill his ears and mimic his heartbeat, Vor ran for the window at the end of the corridor. No time for platforms. He shoved open the pane of glass and jumped.

Metal hand extending, Vor knew just when to close his fist. He locked onto a ledge, jumped, and landed.

Kept going. In two seconds, he was on the ground.

Soldiers guarding the stronghold's main entrance pulled back and went for their darts.

As soon as they saw it was him, though, they put the projectile weapons back in their holsters. Vor barely glanced their way.

She's here!

It had worked. The Aethari man had summoned the woman to Ranuvul. She had . . . Vor stumbled. Catching himself, he growled, “She didn't come for him. She came for me. She just doesn't know it yet.”

Oh, fuck. Tech damn him. There she was. In his arms! The Aethari was free and flying, making haste to one of the upper tunnels—a tunnel that led to the surface. How did he know which one to take? The bastard! Vor ran for the nearest wall.

On a platform that was still rising, Vor jumped.

Landed on another platform. He leapt again, stopping each time to judge their timing.

The Aethari was losing feathers. Even as they fell, they disintegrated, turning to black ash.

Maybe he wouldn't make it. If Vor could time it right, he could jump, grab his woman, and let the Aethari fall to his death. Perfect.

It looked as if his plan would work. The Aethari was failing. But with the last of his strength, he got the woman to the tunnel. Vor grinned as the Aethari fell. Then it was Vor's jaw that fell.

His woman summoned technology. It bowed to her will.

Metal flowed like water under her touch, shooting out to lock onto the Aethari's wrist and anchor into the wall.

The Aethari hung there, just as stunned as Vor, and then the impossible happened.

The metal transformed into a chain that pulled him up, moving without a power source.

Convergence! She had converged in Ranuvul.

Even a Medean shouldn't be able to summon magic underground. But his woman was special.

And leaving.

“No!” Vor roared and leapt for another platform.

Up and up he went. Finally, he got to a platform that took him to the tunnel his woman had vanished into. It was empty.

Vor ran, technology lighting the way for him, leading him to her. He ran faster and faster, his tech parts speeding him along. The lights got fewer. The ground went from metal to stone. Where was she?

There! She was at the barrier. Vor put on a burst of speed, but she was already speeding through in some kind of sleek conveyance. By the time he reached the barrier, it was shut, the magical energy field humming over the steel to repel him. He couldn't even touch what separated them.

“No!” He spun and pounded a fist against the stone of the tunnel wall. “Why?! Why would you lead me to her only to give her to him?”

No answer came. He was too far from the Source of Technology.

So even though it pained him to leave her, Vor headed back down the tunnel, his feet moving faster and faster.

Anger and frustration ate at him. At last, the walls went from stone to metal.

And then he was near a city entrance. Close enough.

Vor slammed his palm onto a steel panel. This one hummed with thermal energy produced in the heart of Ranuvul, where machines siphoned power from the molten core of Para. In short, this wall was a vein that led to Source. He couldn't be ignored here.

“Why?” Vor growled. “Tell me why you let them escape? You helped them!”

The wall came to life beneath his palm, light glowing in the outline of his hand, and the answer seeped into his metal flesh. The Source of Technology didn't speak so much as convey knowledge, sometimes through imagery.

It conveyed. The images were unwelcome.

Vor shuddered.

“No,” he whispered. “She's mine. She cannot have multiple paths. This can't be.”

Source showed him more.

Vor's eye twitched, but then he nodded. “Very well. I will prove myself as he has and take her from him. I will choose her path for her.”