Page 75 of The Darkest Parts of Me

“You’re insane. You won’t get away with this,” he yells as Nate hands him another detonator. “What about you?” he whispers.

He gives him a smirk. “I’ve got an idea. Don’t worry about me.”

Renn gives his friend a worried look.

Nate nods to the drive in Renn’s pocket. “The drive also holds a signal that can only be traced by me. Turn it on as much as you can, and I will try to find you. Get far, far away from here, and don’t look back.”

Aldrenn feels a stabbing in his chest, realizing that this could be the last time he sees his friend. They both could be dead soon, but they aren’t going to die without trying.

“Stop fucking around, Aldrenn. Surrender now, or I will kill you both.”

“Aren’t you supposed to bring us back alive, Locke?” he yells back.

“Accidents happen. Any last words from the famous Captain Aldrenn Anton before he’s blown to pieces?”

Renn’s finger hovers above the button ready for his touch. “Yeah, just a few.” He pauses looking at Nate one last time.

“Ready, Captain?”

Aldrenn nods, and they both push their detonators and throw them into the madness. “I’ll see you in Hell.”

“RUN!” Nate shouts as they both stand, firing at anyone they see through the smoke. Renn spies the outline of a ship in the fog, running as fast as his legs can carry him. He sees a few people fall from his blasts, but he doesn’t stop until his feet hit the metal ramp and he’s inside the ship. He doesn’t look back to see where Nate has gone, and he doesn’t waste a second as he powers up the ship and flies out through the docking tunnel.

Thankfully, his ship’s shields are up, because he enters directly into the wreckage of what is left of the Seraphim, and it shatters his heart just as much as the pieces floating around him. He doesn’t have a single moment to give his crew the respect they deserve. One year was all he had with them, but it might as well have been a lifetime, and now the beautiful ship, in a blink of an eye, is nothing but broken metal and dust. He closes his eyes before he powers up the thrusters to send him into the vastness of darkness.

Darkness like the state of his own heart.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Maven

Renn tells me everything. He began with a brief background of his career and then went on to explain the series of events that brought him here. He told me how he had come upon Aetherium by pure luck, how he had crashed here, and how he’d blended in over time. I didn’t so much as blink or move as I took in his story, word by word. My mind was drowning with so many questions that I couldn’t come up for air. I have no idea how long we sat there, but it felt like hours. His voice was steady and calm the entire time, never wavering, even in the most devastating of moments as he told me about his crew—how they had died. All this time, those gray-and-green eyes had truly beheld a storm of his past, raging and billowing, holding him down. Sure, he is good at controlling his demeanor, but his eyes always give him away, and I wonder if he knows that but hopes people won’t notice.

He also removed all the strange items that were in the box and laid them neatly on the table, explaining each and every one in detail, giving me an example of how they functioned, and their purpose. The ointment was the most fascinating, as I had been curious since that day he used it on the retreat. Renn said that it was more for immediate use, like the gash on my head and the stab wound on his side. It hadn’t completely fixed my already healed knee, but there was still a noticeable improvement even weeks after the retreat. I’m sure my eyes were wide the whole time; they certainly felt like they were when he finished.

“That’s everything,” he says very matter-of-factly, and the room is suddenly unnervingly silent. I look away from him for the first time in hours, rubbing my dry, tired eyes. I don’t know where to begin.

“So, you’re human, but not the same kind of human as me—as us?” I’m surprised this is the question that falls out of my mouth first. It sounds strange saying it out loud, and Renn looks just as surprised.

“Yes and no. We are genetically the same.” He pauses to gauge my reaction. “There’s nothing anatomically different about my body in comparison to a man from this world, but my race has no origin to this planet.”

I soak in his answer as he waits, already anticipating the next question, and I know he will stick to his word and answer every single one that I have. “How did humans end up on so many planets? Do we all originate from a single place?”

He shakes his head. “No one knows,” he says, calmly. “That was part of our mission, so to speak—to find other human worlds and possibly answer the origin of life as we know it. We were an exploration crew.” His words send a chill through my body. Such a simple answer to a complicated situation.

“Are you still in danger even with him . . . dead?”

He breathes in deeply before he says, “Honestly, I don’t know.” I gulp, turning away, trying to think of what to say next as the words sink in. “But I will do everything I can to make sure it never happens again.”

I look back to Renn, confused. “What do you mean?”

He stands, running a hand through his hair. “I’ll leave and hope that, if there are others tracking me, they will leave this planet alone if I’m no longer here.”

Leave? How? The words must appear in my expression because he adds, “I’ll find Locke’s ship—it must be somewhere nearby. I’ll try to make contact with some allies, but I have no idea what’s been happening out there for the last six years. I may have to just turn myself in.”

“Turn yourself in? But Renn, you’re not a criminal,” I say before I even have time to contemplate it.

Renn’s face is a mixture of shock and frustration. “Maven. Out of everything I told you, you don’t see that this is all my fault? That your life, the lives of millions, could be in danger?” He almost yells, but I shake my head, refusing to believe. “Who knows how many people have died because of what I did for years. Years, Maven!” He is shouting now, not out of anger, but disbelief. “Not only did I get my crew killed, I’ve single-handedly assisted in the murder of thousands of people, maybe more.” He turns away from me, running a hand through his hair again.

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