An hour passed.

  Three more Starspawn died by Dorian’s hand. Each was grotesque in its own way, warped shapes stitched together by alien logic, but none posed a real threat. With his strength, speed, and growing precision, he cut them down quickly.

  He was absorbing the third Remnant when he heard it.

  A scream.

  Up until now, he hadn’t seen many people. Most hid inside their homes, lights off, doors barricaded. A few had tried to flee, but traffic jams had turned escape routes into death traps. He’d passed one such blockade earlier. Twenty cars melted and torn apart, their occupants gone.

  This scream was different.

  Close. Real.

  Dorian vaulted a hedge, Will surging through his legs, and landed hard in a backyard.

  The sight froze him for a split second.

  A wolf-like Starspawn, hairless and wrong, lunged at a teenage boy wielding a metal bat. Two, maybe three heads were fused together at odd angles, snapping independently as it moved.

  The boy, maybe nineteen, swung through tears and panic. The bat connected, knocking the creature aside, but not far enough. One of its mouths snapped down on his leg, teeth tearing through flesh in a brutal bite.

  Before it could strike again, Dorian was already moving.

  His foot, wrapped in Will, crashed into the Starspawn’s skull and drove it into the dirt. He rolled with the momentum, came up smoothly, and rammed his stick-bug blade straight through the creature’s body.

  The Starspawn convulsed, then collapsed into ash.

  Greed flickered.

  Dorian’s eyes locked on the Remnant as it fell.

  Then he saw the boy’s leg.

  The bone was intact, but the damage was bad. Blood soaked through torn fabric, pooling in the grass.

  A better idea formed.

  “Do you see that Remnan…err, orange crystal?” Dorian asked, catching himself.

  “Yeah, what? What is happening? Who are you?” The boy’s voice cracked as adrenaline faded. “Aagh, my leg. Mom…”

  “Your mom?” Dorian asked, the words clumsy in his mouth. He was bad at this. Always had been. “Where is she?”

  The boy sobbed and looked toward the shattered sliding glass door.

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  A burned corpse lay half inside the house, throat ripped open, chest torn apart.

  Dorian swallowed.

  “Shit,” he muttered. Then, more carefully, “It’s going to be okay. Look at me. Breathe. Just breathe.”

  The boy stared back at him with the hollow, furious look of someone who had lost everything in minutes.

  “You’re hurt. Can you stand?” Dorian said, already lifting him, scanning the yard for movement.

  “Mhm. Agh. Uh huh.” The boy clung to him, barely coherent, grounding himself against the only solid thing left.

  “What’s your name?” Dorian asked, forcing him to focus.

  “…Kesi,” the boy managed through sniffles.

  “Okay, Kesi. This is going to sound strange, but I need you to grab that orange crystal. I swear it’ll help. I’ll get you there.”

  He slung Kesi’s arm over his shoulder and guided him toward the Remnant.

  “Are you sure?” Kesi asked weakly. “It looks hot.”

  “I know it doesn’t make sense,” Dorian said. “But it healed me when I touched it.”

  He left out the rest. One thing at a time.

  Kesi reached down.

  The moment his fingers brushed the crystal, his body seized. He screamed, back arching as if electricity had ripped through him.

  Dorian cursed under his breath. He’d forgotten how brutal the first one was. Fire in the veins. Bones reforged.

  Thirty seconds later, the crystal vanished.

  Kesi lay still.

  Dorian’s heart dropped. For one awful second, he was sure he’d killed him.

  Then Kesi stirred.

  “You okay?” Dorian asked.

  Kesi pushed himself upright. He looked different. Straighter. His shirt stretched tighter across his arms, muscle filling in where there hadn’t been much before.

  His voice was steadier now. “Who are you? How do you know how to kill these things?”

  Dorian told him.

  About the Starspawn. The crystals. The fighting. The Will.

  As he spoke, a faint orange shimmer spread across Kesi’s body. His own Will, flickering to life. Dorian hadn’t felt that until his second Remnant.

  Some people adapt faster, he thought.

  He didn’t mention the hunger. He didn’t realize it was even something to mention until Kesi said,

  “Can I come with you? I want to kill more of them. For my mom. For everyone.”

  While the words were honest, the fire in Kesi’s eyes was familiar.

  It wasn’t grief.

  The Remnant was already shaping him.

  Why would something born from Starspawn make humans want to kill more of them?

  The thought unsettled Dorian, but he pushed it aside. He wasn’t a neurologist, and the world was burning.

  “I could use the help,” Dorian said, managing a small smile. “Yeah.”

  “Speaking of help,” Kesi said quietly, turning toward his mother’s body. Tears welled again. “I should bury her. I don’t want animals or Starspawn to… I don’t think I can do it alone.”

  Dorian nodded. He understood.

  He grabbed a shovel from the shed and went to work. His enhanced strength made quick work of the soil. The grave was shallow, not enough to stop a determined scavenger, but enough to give her peace.

  While Dorian dug, Kesi cleaned up. He changed clothes, packed a backpack with food and supplies, and forced himself to keep moving.

  When he returned, he looked steadier. His mind wasn’t healed per se. Just refusing to collapse.

  Dorian’s stomach growled at the sight of the food. He wasn’t hungry in the normal sense, but he craved the ritual of eating.

  They sat on the curb and ate sandwiches, washing them down with warm soda like soldiers before a siege.

  The pause gave Dorian time to think.

  The blockade had failed. Humanity’s greatest weapons hadn’t stopped the flood. What kind of thing tore through fleets built to fight the heavens?

  And why hadn’t anyone told them about Remnants?

  The blockade killed millions of Starspawn. Someone must have recovered crystals. Why was there no message? No preparation?

  His thoughts spiraled outward. The stations. The colonies. The citadels. The Starspawn would have reached them first. Mars wouldn’t be far behind. How could we warn them?

  He shoved the thoughts away. Just sitting here thinking wouldn’t save anybody.

  They finished eating and moved deeper into the neighborhood. Dorian slowed his pace. With fourteen Remnants burning through his veins, his stride easily outpaced Kesi’s single enhancement.