Page 16 of Abducting Sarah

Her brow crinkled in a frown. “Wait, you said you sent Lanai Dea to Ryan as a police officer investigating my missing person case, right?”

“Yes, why?”

“How long have I been missing?”

“A few hours, Ladrian. But that is approximately two days on Earth.”

Her eyes fluttered as she rapidly blinked. “What?”

“Time here is different than Earth. It’s not a one-to-one ratio, but I can acquaint you with the formula we use to calculate the two. Are you familiar with advanced calculus?”

She laughed. “The fuck are you talking about?”

“Advanced calculus, it is what we base many of our—”

“No, Deacon, I’m sorry, that’s just an expression to tell you I’m lost in the conversation at this point.”

“Very well—I do not have the time right now to explain it. We must make haste for the union.”

“Deacon, I know you’re dead set on us being united, but you need to understand, I don’t want this.”

I huffed loudly. “Sarah Hollinger, I—”

“And if you’re going to keep saying my name, just say Sarah. I don’t hear you always calling Jac ‘Jacaranda Cozz,’ so why are you using my whole name like that?”

“Sarah Hollinger is not your conversational name?”

“Just Sarah.” She smiled the way someone smiles at a child who did something sweet and pointless.

It bothered me. “Fine. Sarah, I do not understand why you would want to go to Halla un-united, when I have told you what will happen. Do you not believe me?”

“It’s not that—”

“Then what is it?”

“I want to go home, Deacon. Even if this is a hallucination, I don’t want any of this.”

I stretched my spine down to my tail, trying to avoid outward signs of annoyance. She challenged me at every turn, and I was not accustomed to such rudeness, but in school, I had learned humans were disagreeable by their very nature—they did notknow any better. My schooling taught us humans responded well to reason.If I keep a cool mind, she will understand.

A deep breath later, I said, “Sarah, what I am giving you is a great honor. Please accept it in the spirit in which it is given.”

“It’s an honor I do not want!” Her voice had cracked with emotion and her eyes welled. “I’m not a conduit—”

“You see ghosts.”

She shook her head and her wavy brown hair swished side to side appealingly, but her face turned pink as she mumbled, “I don’t. I just see hallucinations. They’re not real. That’s why I take all those drugs that Ode was worried about. They keep the hallucinations at bay. No one sees the dead, Deacon. None of it is real.”

My insides twisted for her. I finally understood why she was so confused. Jac had told me when the light-skinned humans turn pink, they were embarrassed or ashamed, and I never wanted that for her. I took her hand in mine, the way she had done to me earlier. It was so small and cool to the touch. Delicate, like one of those butterflies Jac had brought me as a present from Earth.

I held her hand with both of mine and softly said, “I am so sorry the drugs take your gift from you, Sarah. You do not see hallucinations. You see ghosts. It’s a part of who you are, and you should never be ashamed of that. It’s a wondrous gift, and you should be proud of who and what you are. A conduit.”

She swallowed audibly, but I could hardly hear her words. “I’m not.”

“You are. That’s why I have brought you here to help save my sibling. You are the only active conduit with your heritage that can save them.”

Jerking her hand away, she snapped, “Well, I don’twantto save them. You kidnapped me, Deacon! Why should I doanything to help you? Why should I save someone who could do that to another human?”

I thought I had gotten through to her. I was wrong. “You are going to help me, Sarah, whether you want to or not. I am uniting with you to save you from the misery of being violated by ghost after ghost after ghost. I don’t have to do this. I am doing this as a favor to you, to show my gratitude for the work you are about to do for me. But ifyou’renot grateful, then why shouldIbe?”

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