Spock hit the dirt and rolled once before his wings folded under him.
Colby tried to move, but Silas already had the tool set. The metal tip bit into the shard site. Pain climbed through Colby's body so hard that the fire ring blurred around him.
Then the shard came free.
For one terrible second, Colby felt weight leave his body and take part of him with it.
He fell on his side. Blood soaked into his uniform from the torn place near his shoulder. The absence hurt more than the wound. Spock's presence had been strange, irritating, loud, and new, but it had become real before Colby understood how much room it occupied.
He tried to pull air with the same rhythm Spock had taught him during training, and the rhythm came back empty. No second instinct answered. No small voice told him to stop wasting effort. Even the wind around his fingers felt farther away, as if it had moved to the other side of a closed door.
