Free Descent by Charlotte McConaghy Page A

part of herself.
    Now, she thought, she knew them far better.

Chapter 5
    Ever so slowly, Anna’s body was degenerating. A long, painful death that loomed ever nearer.
    The doctors on Earth had told her she had only months to live. She’d survived over three years since then. There was something about this world that had slowed the cancer down. Or maybe she was just stronger than anyone had thought.
    Most days Anna forced herself not to think about her condition. Some days, though, it was too hard to ignore the weakness in her body, so she slept, claiming exhaustion from her patrols. It was the perfect excuse—no one suspected that her constant weariness was from anything but her demanding job.
    Luca was the only person who knew about her cancer, but he had long ago sworn silence. They hadn’t discussed it for some time now, as she refused to enter into conversations about it. It didn’t actually seem like it was on the top of Luca’s list of worries. He had become like a wraith, a shadow of his former self.
    The dark secrecy had started when he began training with Kha~dim. Anna had no idea why they needed to train so thoroughly, morning and night. She could think of only one reason for this obsession, and that was that Luca must be planning to join the guard. Essentially, a suicide mission. Men onlylasted a short time patrolling the ground against a sky full of shadows.
    They were losing Luca, but to what she didn’t know.
    Locktar was Anna’s perfect companion. With his silence he promised everything she wanted from what was left of her life—no questions and no pity.
    In that moment, Luca sat atop a cliff, watching waves break below him. The darkness of the water reminded him of the night Jane had been washed out to sea.
    He never knew what it was that brought such thoughts. He’d become so melancholy, only able to think about the past. It tormented him, and when it started he had to make sure he was alone.
    He had been ordered to take a job in Cynis Witron, the place that held a woman he desperately wanted to see. But what would he say to her? Would he tell her what he’d become? The place deep inside him writhed and broiled. He couldn’t tell Ria what he was. He couldn’t tell anyone. All he could do was try to control his horrific urges, and keep the beast at bay.
    It was growing nearer to twilight. Time to get inside. He was full of despair, but he was no fool.
    He began the walk back to the city by climbing down the steep cliff face. He had no harness, but his body was skilled enough to scale the jagged rocks easily.
    At the halfway mark he stopped for a moment to gauge the best path to the sand, when, from the corner of his eye, he glimpsed a smudge on the beach. Squinting against the setting sun he tried to make out what it was, and realised, suddenly, that it was a body.
    Luca reached the bottom as quickly as he could and began to run. At this altitude he could run fast, and by the time he reached the figure, only about a minute had passed. Only a minute. But those sixty seconds plaguedhim. What if it was too late? What if this person died because he was too slow? It didn’t enter his mind that he’d made it down the length of the beach much faster than anyone else could. He expected more of himself.
    His anxiety intensified when he realised the slumped figure on the beach was a woman. It increased beyond measure when he realised who the woman was.
    Anna looked small and weak, dwarfed among the oversized clothes she wore to hide her thinness. It took him only a moment to check that she was still breathing, and to shake her into consciousness. Her eyes were glazed and pained when she looked at him.
    ‘Oh, Luca,’ she whispered. ‘I’m sorry, I just got a bit dizzy...’
    ‘It’s okay sweetheart, I’m taking you home now.’
    ‘I need to get to Locktar, it’s nearly night time ... I need to start my patrol...’
    ‘You’re not going to help anybody in this state, An.’ Luca lifted her