"For longer than this life," Arik said.
The words settled between them with the weight of something ancient.
Liam stared at him.
The white ether crawling through the support ribs overhead painted shifting light across Arik's face, catching in his golden eyes until they looked almost unreal against the shadows of Lab V. The Vanguard turned below them in slow mechanical thunder, its massive rings refining red ether into blue and blue into white, the entire chamber humming with power vast enough to feed cities.
And still Liam's entire world had narrowed to the man standing against him.
"For longer than this life," Liam repeated softly.
Arik did not look away.
Liam's breath caught somewhere in the middle of his chest.
That answer should have frightened him more than it did.
Instead, it opened something dangerously warm beneath his ribs.
