For the first time in years, Soma Locke wished the day would last forever.
It was ridiculous. Only that morning, he'd nearly retreated from the convention before anybody spotted him. Now he was walking through the exhibition hall with Raven's hand in his, laughing so hard at Miles that his ribs hurt.
"You tried to flirt with someone by showing her your damage-per-second calculations?" Soma asked.
"She asked what I was passionate about!" Miles insisted.
"So you showed her a spreadsheet?"
"A very impressive spreadsheet!"
Milly sipped her iced coffee. "She blocked him."
"MILLY!"
"On three platforms."
Buck wheezed. "MY BOY GOT REJECTED WITH MATHEMATICS!"
"IT WAS A GOOD SPREADSHEET!"
"Excel?" Soma asked.
"Google Sheets."
"That's worse."
Their laughter followed them into the quieter artisan section. Hand-painted miniatures filled illuminated cases. Framed artwork covered the walls, and exquisitely detailed dioramas recreated famous moments from Ascension Overdrive.
Raven's eyes lit up. "Art shopping!"
"More shopping?" Soma asked.
"Completely different."
"Of course. My mistake."
Buck slowed beside a pretzel cart. Ella noticed before he had his wallet out.
"We just ate," she warned.
"I'm looking."
"At pretzels?"
"Admiring the craftsmanship."
"Milly," Ella said, "please supervise him and Miles."
Milly regarded the two men, one already holding a pretzel and the other examining whether his foam axes could be worn like wings. "I need a raise."
"You don't work for us," Ella pointed out.
"Exactly."
Raven seized the opportunity and tugged Soma toward the artwork. The guild's familiar arguments faded behind them.
For the first time all day, they were alone.
✦ ✦ ✦
The smaller booths smelled faintly of wood shavings, fresh paint, and coffee. Warm lights shone over carefully arranged figurines. Raven wandered between the displays, leaning close whenever something caught her eye. Her purple hair slipped over one shoulder, and her free hand moved enthusiastically as she explained a sculpting technique she'd watched online.
Soma watched her instead of the merchandise.
He had seen her smile on countless calls. He knew the slight crease beside her eyes when she was excited, the way she spoke faster when she forgot to be self-conscious. But now there were details he'd never seen on a screen: the shifting violet tones in her hair, the way she moved easily through a crowd, the fitted shirt that suited her beautiful curves without diminishing the energy in her expression.
"What?" Raven asked, catching him looking.
"Nothing."
"You're staring."
"I'm studying the craftsmanship."
She followed his gaze to a ceramic frog in a wizard hat.
"Really?"
"Look at the detailing."
"Soma."
"Very impressive hat."
She laughed. "You're hopeless."
"That's what my performance reviews say."
She stepped closer. "Well, I don't mind when you look at me."
He promptly forgot the correct use of his tongue.
Raven's playful expression softened. "Can I tell you something? I was nervous this morning."
"You?"
"I changed clothes four times. Redid my hair twice. Spent twenty minutes wondering if you'd think I looked strange."
"Raven, you look incredible."
"You keep saying that."
"Because it's true." He glanced down. "I thought you all might meet me and realize I'm boring in person. Or awkward. Or that the version of me you liked only exists with a headset on."
She stopped smiling, not because she was upset, but because she was listening.
"Do you think we're friends with you because you're good at a game?"
"Sometimes I don't know what else I've got," Soma admitted.
Raven gently lifted his chin. "I liked you before anybody knew our guild. I liked the guy who stayed up talking when I couldn't sleep. Who remembers the little things I say. Who acts like he doesn't understand people, then notices immediately when somebody needs help."
He swallowed. "That's a generous character assessment."
"Your tactical score is excellent. Your flirting needs work."
He laughed. "There she is."
She caught his hand again. "There's the guy I came here to see."
Something tight and old inside him eased. He wanted to tell her how much that mattered, but words seemed too small for it.
Then Raven stopped at a glass display case.
"Oh."
Inside stood a hand-painted statue depicting a strategist in dark robes carrying an elven healer through the ruins of a dungeon. Tiny crystals formed magical sparks around them. Even the expressions were recognizable: his avatar appeared alarmed, while hers looked far too pleased with the arrangement.
Soma groaned. "They immortalized that?"
Raven pressed her hands to the glass. "It's beautiful."
"You tripped over your own spell circle."
"Because you told me the boss was going left!"
"It was going left."
"Until it wasn't!"
He remembered the raid. Raven had slipped during a sudden shockwave, and the boss had turned toward her while her defenses were down. Soma's strategist had scooped her up and carried her beyond its reach. They'd both survived by inches. The guild had spent the following week calling him her knight in shining armor.
Raven stared at the little figures with a smile that made the cost seem suddenly irrelevant.
She reached for her purse.
Soma stepped toward the vendor. "Excuse me. I'd like to buy that one."
"Soma!"
The artist beamed. "Excellent choice. That's a one-of-a-kind hand-painted piece."
Raven caught his sleeve. "Did you see the price?"
"Yes."
"It's ridiculous."
"Agreed."
"Then why are you buying it?"
He considered making a joke about rare collectibles. Instead, he looked at the figures beneath the glass.
"Because it's one of my favorite memories with you."
Raven fell quiet.
"I know it was just a game," he went on. "But I remember thinking you were going to get hurt. And then I remember how relieved I was when you were safe enough to yell at me."
"You deserved that," she whispered.
"Probably." He smiled. "There are a lot of nights I remember because you made them better. I guess I want something I can actually hold onto."
Her eyes shone. "Soma…"
"And today's been a pretty good day."
"Pretty good?" She laughed shakily, then threw her arms around him.
He returned the embrace while the vendor became intensely interested in a roll of packing tape.
When the piece had been secured inside a protective box, Raven hugged it to her chest like a legendary drop.
"Thank you," she said.
"You're welcome."
She studied him as though she wanted to say more, then held out her hand. "Come with me."
✦ ✦ ✦
They stopped in a quiet alcove beside the VIP corridor, where distant music and the low rumble of convention voices drifted through glass partitions. Raven placed her boxed statue on a bench.
Soma leaned against the wall. "What now?"
"There's something I've wanted to do all day."
"That sounds ominous."
"Only if you make it weird."
"I'm very good at that."
"I've noticed."
She stepped closer. A violet strand curved against her cheek. Her perfume was sweet and familiar now, and her eyes held none of their usual mockery.
"Soma?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I kiss you?"
His mind emptied so completely that he might have heard the Windows shutdown sound.
"I—yes."
Her smile softened. "Good."
She rose onto her toes, curled her fingers into his jacket, and leaned forward. He met her halfway.
The kiss was gentle at first. Her lips were warm, tasting faintly of cherry lip balm. He rested a hand at her waist, and when she moved closer, he returned the kiss instead of thinking about how badly he might be doing it.
All the imagined versions of this moment—every unfinished sentence after a late-night call, every joke he'd almost turned into a confession—fell away. There was only Raven, real and close, choosing him.
When they parted, they stayed forehead to forehead.
"Wow," he whispered.
"That's your review?"
"Five stars."
"Only five?"
"Out of five."
"Better."
He smiled and, gathering what remained of his courage, kissed her again. She laughed softly against his lips before slipping her arms around his neck.
"I've wanted to do that for a long time," he admitted afterward.
"Me too."
They stood there smiling like idiots, neither eager to be first to move.
Somewhere outside their little corner, people cheered for a competition. Somebody dropped a stack of plastic trays. The world carried on, entirely unaware that Soma Locke had just experienced the best moment of his life.
Raven finally retrieved the statue. "We should find the others."
"Before Buck files a missing-person report?"
"He'll file a wedding announcement first."
She turned toward the corridor, and Soma caught sight of the large white lettering across the back of her custom shirt.
TACTICALKLUTZ IS MY BABY DADDY.
He stopped dead.
"YOUR SHIRT!"
Raven glanced over her shoulder with a wicked grin. "What about it?"
"YOU'VE WORN THAT ALL DAY?"
"Of course."
"In front of THOUSANDS of people?"
"Marketing."
He covered his face and laughed until his stomach hurt. She laughed with him, holding the boxed statue close.
And for one bright, fleeting moment, Soma was completely happy.
✦ ✦ ✦
The first warning was a low metallic groan.
Soma barely registered it. Beyond the corridor, a technician shouted to someone working near the Harbinger installation. A sharp crack followed, like a whip snapping against stone.
His laughter faded.
The enormous statue he'd passed that morning stood at the edge of the exhibition floor. The promotional Harbinger loomed twenty feet overhead, its metal-framed body fixed in place with cables and supports. One cable now hung loose. Another trembled beneath an impossible load.
The monster shifted.
Just an inch.
Soma's mind began calculating before he told it to.
Weight. Angle. Center of gravity. Falling arc.
He turned toward Raven.
She'd walked ahead, smiling down at her boxed gift. Her path carried her directly beneath the dark shape expanding across the carpet.
"Raven."
She glanced back. "Hm?"
A second cable snapped with the sound of a gunshot. The crowd began to scream.
The statue tipped forward.
"RAVEN!"
She turned toward the noise, still holding the box. She hadn't seen the danger until it was already above her.
Soma moved.
There was no raid party to order into position. No barrier spell. No save point waiting after the fight. Only a distance he might cross and a person he couldn't bear to lose.
He ran harder than he'd ever run. His shoulder struck Raven's side, shoving her clear of the falling structure. The statue box flew from her hands. She crashed into a vendor's overflowing display of enormous slime plushies, vanishing beneath a cascade of soft blue and green bodies.
Safe.
That was the only thought he had time to finish.
An enormous shadow swallowed him. He lifted his eyes to the descending steel scythe, so absurdly familiar from the battle they'd won together the night before.
He thought of Buck laughing. Ella fussing over breakfast. Miles's awful jokes. Milly's tiny, unexpected hug. Raven's mouth against his.
Then the world broke.
CRASH.
Metal twisted. Fiberglass shattered. Dust swept across the hall in a choking wave. The floor shuddered beneath the impact.
For a few seconds there was only screaming.
Raven scrambled out of the plushies. Her arm hurt. Her ears rang. She looked for Soma, expecting to see him laughing or waving or insisting he was fine.
"Soma?"
She saw the wreckage.
A dark stain spread from beneath the shattered Harbinger. One hand lay beyond the edge of the twisted metal.
She knew that hand. She'd held it all afternoon.
"SOMA!"
She fell to her knees and reached toward him. Security guards rushed forward. Someone shouted for an ambulance. Someone else tried to pull her away.
"No! Let me go! SOMA!"
Buck arrived at a run, with Ella, Miles, and Milly close behind. His broad face went blank as he took in the wreckage.
Then he lunged toward it. "GET THIS THING OFF HIM!"
He grabbed a broken edge and strained against the impossible weight. Security shouted for him to stop before more of it collapsed. He kept pulling until Ella seized his arm.
"Buck!" Her voice cracked.
Raven clung to Soma's motionless hand.
"You just kissed me," she sobbed. "Soma, please. You just kissed me."
Milly stood still, her hands trembling around the phone she'd used to capture so many happy moments that day. Miles no longer had a joke. Ella buried her face against Buck's shoulder as emergency workers pushed through the crowd.
And beneath the wreckage, Soma was falling into darkness.
✦ ✦ ✦
There was no pain. Only an immense quiet that seemed to have no beginning or end.
Soma couldn't feel his body. He couldn't move, couldn't open his eyes, couldn't draw breath. But somewhere impossibly far away, he could hear Raven calling his name.
He tried to answer.
Nothing.
He heard Buck shouting. Ella crying. The muffled rush of people trying to help. He wanted to tell them he was sorry. That he'd make another plan. That there had to be a way to fix this.
But for once, he couldn't find one.
Then he remembered Raven falling into the plushies, beyond the Harbinger's shadow.
She's safe.
Relief washed through what little awareness remained.
Thank God.
He wanted to see her again. To tell Buck and Ella that he loved them. To hear Miles make one more terrible joke and Milly pretend she wasn't laughing. To sit in a noisy food court surrounded by the family he'd finally met.
Another ordinary day. That was all he wanted.
I'm sorry.
The darkness closed in.
And with the last ridiculous spark of a mind that had solved a hundred impossible battles, Soma Locke managed one final thought.
I seriously can't believe I'm dying a virgin.
Then there was nothing.