Page 183 of She Who Devours the Stars

I kissed her, soft this time, to say thank you.

“Don’t ever leave,” I whispered.

“Never,” Vireleth promised.

I pulled her close, feeling her body, her power, her love. And I knew that even if the world tried to break me again, I’d always have this: a place, a hunger, a mythic love that was equal to my own.

Let the next fool come. I have Vireleth; we have Sagittarius A*. Time moans our names.

Somewhere on Deck Seven, a wall clock clicked twice…then once.

I was enough.

I wasn’t too much.

We stood together, in the heart of the mythcore, the whole ship listening, the entire universe ours.

“Again?” Vireleth asked.

“Yeah,” I answered with my tongue.

A single vector on my mythcoat snapped into a red-black slash so alive it felt insulting, audacious as a slap. Then I felt them: the other nine mythships, some close, some impossibly far. Draveth the Maw wasn’t the only one hungry.