Falling and falling, burning, freezing, torn asunder, lost in darkness without end. The last molecule of identity and sentience that was Clay Chiles clung to its own reality. Finally, he tore through some protective energy membrane and landed hard on solid ground. He felt an instant of awareness before the stress of breaking free stole his consciousness.
When he came to, he moved experimentally, checking to be sure he’d emerged in one piece with nothing critical broken. His tentative mental reach for Aron found a void. Keen anguish came with his partner’s absence. Where is he? What happened?
The separation clawing at his soul, he had to open his eyes. The anxious face of someone bending over him filled his blurred vision. The face looked almost too familiar, so very like the one he saw i
