Kora and Jask grew closer, though both pretended nothing was happening. I'd catch them during night watch, standing close together while Jask pointed out constellations of portals and told her their names. The way she looked at him made my chest ache with something I didn't want to examine. Cypher was right. Getting attached wasn't a good idea.
Three weeks into our journey, everything changed. I was at the helm with Cypher—he'd started joining me during my watches, claiming he wanted to monitor my progress but never actually saying much. We sailed in our usual silence, and I was starting to not mind it. Silence with Cypher felt different from silence with others. Less awkward, more… oddly comfortable.
"There's a storm ahead," he said suddenly.
I looked up scanning the darkness off the side of the ship. It looked the same as always, just absolute darkness save for distant portals. "I don't see anything."
"You're not looking with your rift senses. Open yourself up. Feel the currents."
I closed my eyes and did what he'd taught me. I stopped thinking and justfelt. And there it was, a disturbance. Like turbulence in water, swirling, moving and chaotic. "What is that?"
"Void storm. Happens when multiple currents collide and create unstable eddies. They're dangerous and can tear a ship apart if you're caught in the center." He adjusted our heading, angling away from the disturbance. "We need to go around."
"How long will that add to our journey?"
"A day, maybe two. But it's better than the alternative."
The storm grew as we approached, and even without my rift senses I could see it now, a swirling mass of darkness that was somehow darker than the area around it, shot through with flashes of sickly green light. The air pressure changed, making my ears pop.
"All hands!" Cypher shouted. "Secure everything! Storm protocols!"
The crew erupted into action. Zoya raced to the navigation station, Omri disappeared into the engine room, Knives and Tor began securing loose items on deck. Jask appeared at Cypher's side, ready for orders.
"Get the passengers below," Cypher told him.
"I can help," I protested.
"You can help by not being in the way." But his tone wasn't cruel, just practical. "This is going to get rough. Go below, strap yourself in, and hold on."
Kora appeared and grabbed my arm. "Come on."
We made it to our cabin just as the ship hit the edge of the storm. The Night-Piercer lurched violently, throwing us against the wall. Kora swore and scrambled for the bunks, strapping herself in with the safety harnesses of ropes and clasps built into the wall. I did the same, pulling Click from my pocket and holding him against my chest.
The ship bucked and rolled. I could hear shouts from above, the groan of stressed wood, the scream of overstressed metal. Something crashed in the corridor outside our cabin.
"This is fine!" Kora yelled over the noise. "So, so fine!"
Through our viewport, I could see the storm. Streamers of energy whipped past us, and the darkness itself seemed to roil and churn. The ship's crystal lamps flickered as the energy interfered with their power.
And then I felt it. A pull, stronger than anything I'd experienced before. It dragged at something deep inside me, called to the part of me I mostly suppressed. I gasped, fighting the urge to answer that call.
"Juno?" Kora's voice sounded very far away. "Juno, what's wrong?"
I couldn't answer. The pull was overwhelming, drowning out everything else. Through it, I could sense things—the currents that made up the storm, the eddies and whirlpools of void energy. And beneath it all, something else. A presence. Multiple presences.
Echoes.
They were everywhere in the storm, drawn to its energy like moths to flame. I could feel them reaching out, their consciousness fragmentary and desperate. They wanted contact, wanted to touch the living world they'd left behind. And they could feel me.
"Come,"they whispered. "Come into the dark. Come home."
"Juno!" Kora was shaking me, her face pale. "Whatever you're doing, stop!"
With an effort that felt like tearing away part of myself, I blinked and shoved away the voices. The cabin snapped into focus around me, solid wood, flickering light, Kora's frightened eyes.
"I'm okay," I gasped.
"You were glowing. Like, actually glowing. Your eyes, your hands." She gripped my shoulders. "What the hell was that?"