Page 20 of A Thread of Breath and Bone

“Hey,” Ryker says, shaking me from my thoughts. “It’s going to be okay.”

I nod.

He pulls out his Prism. The glass device illuminates with the blue lines before he projects it above. “I just got the reports before you landed.”

“Have you read them?” I ask, gripping a hand to my throat.

Something like anger, then sorrow, passes through his eyes. “No. I was waiting for you.” He turns his gaze back to the device and selects the folder titled Classified. It contains a folder of images, a video, and a document with a detailed report.

He selects the document first.

Upon further inspection, the atmosphere did not contain any traces of light or fuel. As is typical, the moon itself remained shrouded in a dense layer of cloud cover. Using penetrating radar scans, the moon shows no changes or signs of life.

After a full scan, we deployed a probe to capture live video for further inspection. As you can see, scans remain unchanged from archives.

We checked the Veil around Ateria, sampling energy outputs, in every sector. The outputs also remain unchanged and hold steady at per 3.2×1020 second.

“That’s impossible,” I whisper, doing the math in my head. “You said it was gone. This shows that it’s even stronger than before.”

Ryker closes his eyes for a moment before shaking his head. “I don’t know. It’s…fine. The veil is fine. Damn.”

I shake my head in disbelief. According to these reports, in a single heartbeat, the veil releases more energy than a billion lightning bolts combined. The last report I trusted showed that it was 2.4×1017 per second. That was less than a month ago, and it was on the verge of total collapse.

Ryker closes the report and flips through the photo and video files. There’s absolutely nothing out there—just an eerie blue landscape with glassy plains and bioluminescent plants clinging to life beneath the clouds. In one video, a cryovolcano erupts, shooting water and ammonia into the atmosphere, where it freezes like nature's ice sculpture.

I shiver watching it.

Ryker sighs and shuts his device down, tossing it onto the nightstand. “It doesn’t make sense, but this is good news, love. This means we have time.” He lies down on the pillow beside me, wrapping warm, strong arms around me. “We know what’s coming,” he says, pulling me to his chest and tucking me into him. “We don’t have to stop training.”

I yawn, feeling both exhausted and safe. Despite Ezra’s grumbling when Ryker grabbed my pajamas from my room earlier, I know they’re all happier that we're both in one location. Just because we’ve been in the same bed the past two nights doesn’t change the risk we’re taking. Tomorrow I’ll sleep alone.

With another yawn, I bury my face in his bare chest, breathing in my favorite scent in the universe. I press a soft kiss to his skin before drifting off.

Tomorrow will be different.

Chapter 8

Raea

It’s the last AerBall game of the season this morning, and I'm beyond excited. This past week, we’ve fallen back into the routine of school, carving out time to train. If it isn’t Trysten pushing me harder in the gym, Ryker is pulling me from my own bed—go me—before the sun is up so we can train in The Overlook training center. Our sessions mostly involve Ryker trying to make it rain while I practice drawing small amounts of energy from Baedyn without destroying a forest.

The first few times I tried, I had Ryker right next to me, ready to siphon it away. I was able to do it successfully once. But hey, once is better than none. It means it’s possible to do.

Aolyn returned last night looking more tired than I have ever seen her. We were up late into the night with Ryker, Trysten, Professor Ainslyn, and our security team. She said all traces of the visitors who were in the palace over break are gone. She mentioned that the wing of the palace they were staying in had a lingering scent of something rotten, but there wasn’t a single piece of furniture out of place, and no Regils stopped her from wandering.

Her father even attended dinners. She told them she needed to be home to discuss the heating initiative she was working on.

They bought it.

Reluctantly, Ryker and Ezra agreed that I was fine to sleep in my own room. Speaking of sleeping, now that my new guard, Theovan, is here, Ezra is finally sleeping on a normal routine. He’s less grumpy. Theovan arrived on Baedyn two days ago. Before being placed as my guard, he was a commander in the elite ops team. No training was needed.

Aksel seems happy about the addition. They knew each other from a mission they worked on before. He seems nice enough, but it’s going to take some time to get used to him.

Ezra has him working today for the game as extra coverage.

Aolyn also told us last night that her family was flying in to attend the last AerBall game. Everyone, including Ryker, tried to get me off planet, but I insisted I was safer with them than without them. So naturally, everyone is on edge—including Aolyn and me.

“What time will your parents be here today?” I ask, wary about approaching the topic of her father.