Page 1 of The Enduring Universe (The Rages Trilogy #3)

In the airborne nest, the falcon found him.

Its massive silver wings cut through the air.

Its black eyes glinted in satisfaction, for there was fear and recognition in the man’s eyes.

The falcon slammed into the floating nest, ripping it apart.

Earth and trees fell away, disappearing into the jungle below, as the nest tilted, plummeting a hundred feet before righting itself.

Where was the man-thing? It would not be denied again.

It saw him emerge onto grass, holding a female body.

It saw his indecision as he looked to the female, as if he would choose her.

The falcon screeched in outrage, unleashing its power.

Vines grew around the woman, strangling her.

It would take her out of the reckoning.

It would destroy her.

It swooped down, clutching the man’s body between its talons, leaving behind cries of fear and shock.

The jungle screamed below, and the falcon turned its power into the globule of stars, exerting its will.

Shards of earth pierced its wings but as the falcon pushed its power, the storm relented.

To navigate carefully through the storm was necessary.

The human would not survive the jungle.

The falcon despised the man-thing, but it needed him safe, and so he remained alive for now.

The falcon flung him away in disgust once they arrived at the safe-nest.

It returned to the darkening caves where others of its kind slumbered.

Awake, it called to the other survivors, but it had tried before.

These creatures—its kin—were lesser still, unheard by their halves.

For thousands of years, the falcon had tried to awaken them, to corral them into action.

They were too dull. Too lost. Exhausted, it tucked its head under a wing to tend to its wounds.

The next time it awoke, the man had arrived, accompanied once again by the female.

The falcon fluttered its wings warily.

In the velvety darkness, it saw the man’s jagged shape, and felt a rush of relief as it realized the human wished to finally unite their powers.

Thousands of years, it had waited for this moment.

It mimicked the man’s light, creating a spiral vortex of great power, and wrapping the man and his female within its wings.

Power coursed through it, and it wove among the stars, guided by the man, just as the man wove through the Deepness guided by it.

They felt completion.

Its voice burrowed within the man, and the falcon thought, Peace.

There is peace.

Words and language flowed into its mind, slowly at first, then with growing rapidity.

The remembrance of such sentience was so beautiful, it ached.

But despite months of unity, the man did not give in.

He did not learn.

He refused to see purpose.

His heart was too full of anguish.

The falcon studied the shape of him, the angst and infinity, the shame and guilt, and its rage mirrored back.

Its purpose bled in the man.

Amends, he heard the man say.

Destroy, the falcon returned.

And the man agreed those meant the same thing.

The falcon laughed, a feral sound even to its own ears.

In the velvety darkness, it attacked the man over and over again, trying to take him over—this small, foolish creature that should have acquiesced in seconds but had resisted for years.

It felt the man’s terrible purpose and it screamed in panic and terror as this small creature performed a subsummation—no, no, no—

It dissolved in a final relief, its presence a shadow inside the man’s heart.

And within that shadow, an understanding.

A waking.

A learning.