His mother’s shouts were cut off when the elevator doors closed. He crouched in the corner, his heart racing. When the doors dinged open, he rose and charged forward, knocking aside several people, one man shouting at him as he passed.

  Lucian was blind and deaf to it all. All that mattered was catching a Lev to anywhere but here.

  He ran to the Lev station across the canal fronting the League building. He stepped onto a timely train, rushing to an empty seat as the doors hissed shut behind him. The train shot north, propelled by magnetism. The glittering skyscrapers of downtown Miami blitzed by.

  He held his head in his hands, closing his eyes. Now what?

  Canaveral Spaceport was an hour away. He had some savings, enough to buy a ticket to Sol Citadel, and if not that, one of the L-Cities. The only thing that mattered was getting distance. Maybe he could talk a freighter into taking him on. If he could do that before his government profile was flagged, he might have a shot at escaping.

  As his panic faded, he hung his head lower. This would never work. Even if he somehow made it to space, the law would catch up to him. If he ever found himself on a ship, the captain might decide that the most prudent course was a one-way trip through the airlock.

  Lucian’s slate was chiming. In his distress, he hadn’t even noticed it. This was the third missed call from his mother. There were also several text messages, each more hysterical than the last.

  He was acting like a child, and he knew it. He couldn’t run from this, even if it was all he wanted. What would happen when his powers destroyed him? It likely didn’t work as a switch. Day by day, he would only get worse.

  Lucian looked at the various passengers, most carrying luggage for the spaceport. He would have traded places with any of them. Canaveral was only two stops away. And still, he couldn’t decide what to do, even as his slate chimed again.

  He picked it up and pressed it to his ear. He heard his mother breathing on the other end, but couldn’t bring himself to speak first.

  “Lucian, where the hell are you?”

  Bringing himself to answer was difficult. “The train. Going north.”

  “Oh, Lucian . . .” she sighed. “What are you doing?”

  He swallowed a lump in his throat. “I don’t know, Mom.”

  “You can’t run from this. You know that, right? This will follow you wherever you go.”

  “I know. I just . . . can’t think right now.”

  “We have to face this. Together.”

  Lucian closed his eyes. He couldn’t deal with this anymore. He still didn’t want to admit the truth, but deep down, he knew his mother was right.

  “What am I supposed to do? My life is over.”

  “No, it’s not,” she said. “Never give up, Lucian. Never. I didn’t raise you like that.”

  “You didn’t raise me at all.”

  The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them. There was dead silence on the other end. What he said, he knew, had hurt her more than a physical punch. Before he could apologize, she responded, her voice thick.

  “Just come home.”

  She hung up.

  When Lucian got home, his mother was sitting on the couch with her usual cup of strong coffee. Her eyes were puffy and red. All Lucian could do was stand at the threshold. He didn’t even know how to start apologizing. An apology felt hollow at this point.

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  “Sit down, son,” she said. Fatigue and defeat strained her voice.

  Lucian took up the old, overstuffed armchair across from her spot on the couch.

  “They’ve sent me the details of the loan. I can’t pay this unless I head back to the Citadel right away.”

  She let the words hang in the air. There went her furlough.

  “How soon is 'right away'?"

  She opened her slate, and a screen projected itself in front of her. “Come here. I’m booking a shuttle now.”

  Lucian sat next to her, feeling as if he were in a daze. It seemed as if she wasn’t angry about him running. Just sad, and tired. In a way, that was worse than anger.

  Lucian focused on the Pan-Galactic portal that projected from her slate as a hologram. It was displaying several voyage options to Volsung. When he saw the price of the ticket, it was more money than he had ever seen in his life.

  “Mom, that’ll take years to pay off . . .”

  “I know. Traveling interstellar isn't cheap. I’ve already sent a message to my C.O. about coming back early. They can get me a bonus, so we have to leave ASAP. And since you have to be off-world in a month anyway . . .”

  Lucian saw it could happen no other way. It was just that things were changing so fast that it was difficult to wrap his mind around it.

  She let out a sigh. “Rumors are flying around about the Swarmers. Let’s hope they’re not true. Either way, we don’t have much time. I figured we could catch the same shuttle to the Citadel. From there, you can catch your voyage to Volsung.”

  “When would all this be happening?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  Tomorrow? Lucian could only stare at her in shock. “So soon?”

  “It’s the only ticket I could find. They’re giving a discount if it’s booked for tomorrow.”

  Lucian fumbled for words, but nothing came out. Money was always tight, and it seemed there was no other option.

  “On Volsung, you’ll at least be around people going through the same thing. This isn’t something you want to face alone, son. Maybe one day, a full cure for the fraying will be found.”

  Lucian was silent as he absorbed this, and he couldn’t argue with good sense. “What about the money?”

  “Don’t worry about the money. I’ve been trying to research this place with the GalNet, but there isn't much information. Maybe it’s illegal to publish anything about it; I don’t know.”

  There was no use fighting it anymore. Maybe his mother was right. Maybe one day, they’d figure out how to stop the fraying for good. He would undergo training and become a Talent. Wasn’t that what Dr. Ross had called it?

  But he would have to be accepted for training first. Just the thought of having his fate in someone else’s hands made him queasy.

  “My stint with the fleet is done in two years,” his mother said. “After that, the loan should be paid off.”

  “I have some money I’ve been saving up, too. It’s not much, but it will help.”

  “I know. You’ll need money to spend. Travel isn’t cheap. They charge you for everything on those passenger liners. You’ll need every cred.”

  “All right, then,” Lucian said.

  “We can figure out the rest later. Maybe you can do what you can on the journey to find out more about mages and . . . magic.”

  “That’s the thing,” he said. “I don’t understand why this is happening. I’ve never once used anything remotely close to magic. They asked me all these weird questions about dreams and déjà vu. What does that have to do with anything?”

  His mother shook her head sadly. “I don’t know, son.”

  He placed his head in his hands. His life had gone from something carefully planned to something he no longer understood. He’d worked so hard to escape this situation, to even make his mother proud. And now . . . this.

  “Hey,” she said, placing a hand on his arm in a rare show of solidarity. “You’ll get through this.”

  “How? How does anyone get through this?”

  She smiled bitterly. “Like everyone who has ever been through some rough shit. One day at a time.”

  The words sounded too simple for something so life-changing. Lucian remained silent, not knowing how to respond.

  His mother confirmed the arrangements. They were booked on the same shuttle from Earth to the Citadel. From there, they would go their separate ways. They would have a short time to spend together on the massive space station, but not long. Even if all Lucian had ever wanted was to escape Earth, this was the last way he would have chosen it.

  “It’s settled,” she said. “We leave tomorrow morning.”

  A silence hung over them. Never in a million years would he have expected this. After he had left his mother behind, he’d be on his own. Perhaps he had learned to become so self-reliant for a reason. Maybe everything in his life had been building toward this.

  It wouldn’t be easy. Life never was. But, as his mother had said earlier, he wasn’t going to give up and take it one day at a time. Or was he just kidding himself?

  The mages at this Volsung Academy were the only ones who could help him. Stopping the fraying was supposed to be impossible. But at least there, he might figure out a way to prolong his life, long enough for a full cure to be found. If he became a Talent, maybe he’d have a chance of leaving this academy someday. Maybe.

  He let his mother draw him in for a hug. She held him for a long time, squeezing him tightly. Lucian only felt numb.

  In just a few hours, both would be bound for Sol Citadel.