Where Stars Go Dark

The ground was still burning when it happened.

We had what we came for. The clan's compound was broken, their ships grounded, the sky clearing above us. Zaedon was calling the all-clear. Rynel was laughing — actually laughing — spinning his Tracker in his palm like the day owed him money.

I turned toward the sound of the engines coming down for pickup.

And that is the whole of it. That is the moment. I turned.

Behind me, through the smoke, men I have never seen since put their hands on my youngest brother. Hydraulic Clan markings. Faces I would burn galaxies to find again.

Solyn fought. Whatever they say about him later — the pampered one, the soft one — Solyn fought. He reached back through the fire with both arms, his cloak half torn off him, and his voice came through the smoke and hit me in the spine.

"Kaelon—"

One word. Cut off. A door slamming in the middle of a sentence.

I was already running. The void was already in my hands, black and screaming. I covered ground no man should be able to cover.

I was not fast enough. That is the sentence I will carry into whatever eternity is waiting for us.

Their ship lifted. Dust. Heat. The roar swallowing every other sound in the world. I got close enough to see the hull markings burn themselves into my memory. Close enough to see a hand — his hand — pressed flat against the glass, reaching down.

Then there was nothing to reach at. Just sky. Just smoke going thin. Just my brothers arriving behind me, one heartbeat too late, all of us standing in the ashes watching a light get smaller.

Rynel screamed his name until his voice tore. Zaedon went down on one knee in the dirt like the ground had opened under him. I stood there with my arms still raised, the void still burning in my hands, with nothing left in the world to aim it at.

Look up, I kept thinking. Look up. He's still your brother up there. He knows you're coming.

That was the last hour of the old world.

Everything after is just the sound of it spreading.

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*QUAD CHECK 💬👑 — Before we begin at the beginning: what do YOU think the brothers should have done differently that day? Tell me below.*