Page 66 of The Darkest Parts of Me

“Are you okay?” I ask softly, and he nods. All I want him to do is hold me in his arms and tell me it was all a terrible misunderstanding, that it will all be alright, but I know from the look in his eyes that it’s far from okay.

Without a doubt, I know this has something to do with the mysterious past he’s kept secret all these years from everyone in Solitude Ridge. I know a side of Renn that no one else does, yet I still don’t know that one thing—the one thing that has such a strong hold on him. The thing that makes him different from anyone I’ve ever met. I feel the tears forming again.

“I’m so sorry, Maven.” He looks down for a moment. “I am so so sorry.” His voice is barely above a whisper, and I see the tears he’s holding back.

“You saved my life, Renn,” I say, looking out the window toward the forest. Even though I can’t see it through the darkness, the fear freezes my limbs for a second or two.

He saved me, and there was a moment when I wasn’t sure if either one of us would be walking away. I watched him kill someone, but no matter what happened, I hold on to the fact that I’m alive and it’s because of him. I almost say, “You've actually saved my life in more ways than one.”

Flashes of what happened enter my mind. I see Renn, bloody and beaten . . . that man who came to kill him and almost did. The images send a chill throughout my body, but I have to believe there’s a reasonable explanation or I might go mad. Maybe I already am.

“So, you knew that man,” I say, not a question, and Renn nods in response.

“Renn, what’s happening? I don’t . . . understand what this all means.” I can see the emotion thrumming through him as his throat bobs.

“You won’t believe me.” His voice is calm.

I wait for him to go on, but when he doesn’t, I say, “Well, based on the current situation, I think you have to tell me what the hell is happening anyway.”

He stands there a few more beats, looking over my face again. I don’t like the way he’s looking at me, his eyes full of remorse. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t tell you, I just didn’t think I’d ever have to, because you’ll think I’m insane once I do.”

I gulp, not sure if it’s from fear or nerves. Probably both.

“You don’t know that.” My voice is practically a whisper. He cocks his head to the side, but instead of a smile spreading across his face like it usually does—like so many times before—it remains unmoved.

“I do, Maven. Because if I were you, and someone told me what I’m about to tell you, I’d run as far away from them as I possibly could.” A shiver runs down my spine, and it’s not the good kind. I just shake my head at him, not knowing what to say. “I will tell you everything, and you can ask me whatever you want once I’m through. I’ll tell you the whole truth, I promise. But before I do, there’s something important you need to know first.”

He gestures for me to take a seat at the table. I do, and he sits across from me like he thinks we need a barrier between us for the words he’s about to speak next. He takes a deep breath, and his eyes darken like he’s about to confess his greatest sin. It’s agonizing watching all of this play out on his face. He takes another deep breath and holds my gaze.

“The first thing you need to know . . . is that I’m not from this world.” He speaks slowly, emphasizing each word.

I inhale sharply. “What do you mean?”

He pinches the bridge of his nose like it’s actually paining him to speak, the frustration spreading on his face, not at me, but at himself.

“I mean I wasn’t born on this planet, Maven. My home world is a place very much like this one, except that it’s more than five billion miles away.”

My only thought for a moment or two is that I misheard him. I’m not sure if I should run, scream, or laugh. I’m dreaming, I must be, and for a moment, I pray that I am, that this whole night was just a horrible nightmare. But maybe . . . Could it be true? Renn had shown up in Solitude Ridge one day with no explanation or past. He is always lying low, sharing just enough so people won’t ask questions, while at the same time becoming a beloved member of the town. He’s always seemed different, but I could never explain why . . . and now, the man who came for us tonight, that man who Renn had killed. He was speaking to him in a language I had never heard before, and they knew each other.

No, this isn’t true. I’m still in shock from the attack. My mind is trying to tell me that this is crazy, that Renn is crazy, but my heart tells me something else. I have a million more thoughts and questions running wild in my head.

For a moment, I feel dizzy, so I close my eyes to focus. The disarray of memories of everything he’s ever told me, everything that caused me to suspect that he was different. But through it all, I still trust him. This story that Renn is about to unfold for me, I need to know. I need to make sure I hear and understand every word. So I compose myself the best I can, even though my heartbeat is thumping loud in my ears as I speak.

“Who are you, and where did you come from?”

He looks at me with complete absolution in his eyes, leaning forward a bit as he says in a cool, smooth voice, “My name is Aldrenn Anton. I was captain of the starship, Seraphim, and I’m from a planet called Earth.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Six Years Ago

The captain goes through the messages and reports of the day, sitting at the desk in his private quarters on the exploration vessel, the Seraphim. He has this smaller space for more intimate conversations, and a larger office to conduct official business. Most of the ship’s interior is bright with shiny surfaces, but his office and personal lodgings are made to his particular taste of dark-walnut walls and leather furniture. It’s cozy, which isn’t a feeling one typically experiences in space, but being captain has its benefits.

Captain Aldrenn Anton is one of the youngest star captains the Space Exploration Association has seen in the last hundred years, and even at his young age, his reputation precedes him. It wasn’t only his natural talent as a pilot that got him noticed at the mere age of twelve, it was also his natural ability to lead. The academy rarely accepts students under the age of fifteen, but they’d made an exception for him based on academic scores, aptitude tests, and the drive he possessed to succeed at such a young age. Not just anyone can be accepted into the Space Academy, and it is even more rare to excel above and beyond. If you can’t last in the academy, you won’t last in the uncertain and dangerous arena that is space. The single purpose of the Academy is to find the best of the best, because that’s what one needs to be to venture into the cosmos and worlds beyond Earth. Aldrenn is one of those special officers who was educated, molded, and trained to the extremes so he could reach his full potential—and he has done just that, and more.

He lost his mother when he was a baby and his father at sixteen. He follows in the footsteps of his father, who was a distinguished captain in his own right. It is strange to think that Aldrenn has been part of the SEA longer than he has not. Maybe that’s what makes it easier to go on, to fall back on the life that he is so much more familiar with than those distant memories of when he was a young child being raised by his grandparents. He had persevered through it all, and now, after seven years at the academy, then another six years on various missions, he has made a name for himself. His exploits are nothing if not revered. Now, here he is, captain of his own ship at twenty-five years old.

His crew has reached the one-year mark of their three-year mission, and just like all other Star Exploration voyages, the mission is to explore unmarked space and establish alliances and peace with other human civilizations. Only the best crews are selected for deep space exploration. This is completely uncharted territory in the galaxy, and this crew, under Captain Anton, is no stranger to the challenges of completing such a task.

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