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It’s not just body heat. It’s an inferno. But where his skin used to be gold, it is now the color of the void. A deep, velvety black. And scattered across it are tiny, flickering points of light.

Stars.

But they are dimming.

“Sarven!” I shake him.

His head lolls back against the rock. His face is a mask of devastation, eyes squeezed shut, lips pulled back in a silent snarl of agony.

I press my hand to his jaw. The moment skin meets skin, the barrier in my mind shatters.

A scream shatters the silence, feeling like it’s coming from everywhere at once. Only, it’s not a sound; it’s asensation. A tidal wave of black, crushing sorrow. It slams into me, stealing the air from my lungs. It tastes like the remains of a fire. Smoke and ashes. It feels like the end of the world.

Gone.

Failed.

Alone.

The impressions batter me one by one. It takes me a full three seconds to realize that the sensations I’m feeling are coming fromhim.

The stars on his skin flicker faster. The heat in his body receding, retreating into a cold, silent husk.

He is leaving.

“No,” I gasp, panic clawing at my throat. “No, Sarven, I’m right here!”

I shake his shoulders. Hard.

He doesn’t even flinch.

The sensation of sorrow swirls thicker, so potent a sob tears through my throat.

“Open your eyes!” I scream.

His eyelids flutter, opening just enough to reveal eyes that are no longer red, but swirling, blinded nebulae.

He looks right through me, but I don’t think he sees a thing.

I dig my nails into his shoulders, hard enough to leave marks. But he just closes his eyes again, surrendering to the dark.

Terror spikes through me.

And then I remember. I remember the light. I remember the golden particles entering my body. I remember them chasing the fire of the rot away. A lot of shit has happened on this planet since we crash landed here. A lot of things I cannot explain.

But somehow, I know that wasn’t a dream.

He poured his life force into me to restart my heart, and now he is hollowing himself out to follow me into the dark.

He is dying of a broken heart.

“No,” I gasp, panic clawing at my throat. “No, you don’t. You do not get to quit.”

I scramble closer, climbing over his legs, ignoring the way his muscles are locked rigid as stone.

“Sarven, I’m here! Please,” I sob. “You just have to open your eyes!”

Nothing.