The hours of the night passed slowly, dragging on. Lucian lay in bed, his eyes open, staring at the corners of the ceiling—not searching for anything, just trying to silence his thoughts, which darted through his mind like empty bullets in an unloaded magazine. The accident kept replaying before him, again and again, but it wasn’t only the sound of metal hitting the floor he heard when the beam crashed down. It was her scream. The woman’s voice, as pain tore through the presence that had once seemed so stable. He tried to push the images away. His own reaction. His anger. The rage he should not have unleashed on Andromeda, but on the world that had once again taken control from his hands. But despite the darkness and the silence, his mind refused to let him fall asleep.
And then he heard
