Page 48 of Fallen from the Stars

He leaned closer to Theo. Her scent perfumed the air, mixing with the briny smell clinging to him to create a new, sweet, maddening scent. He took her chin between the pads of his thumb and forefinger and guided her face toward his, meeting her gaze. “I am here for you. Tell me what he did, Theo.”

She nodded slightly. “I remember the bed dipping as he sat beside me, and his breath. It stank. It always stank, but I never said anything about it because he’d been so nice. But I remember that smell as he leaned over me. He kissed my cheek, my nose. I remember feeling odd, like Iknewit wasn’t right but couldn’t understandwhy. Then he kissed my mouth.

“I cringed away from him, but he followed, and kissed me again. Then he slipped his hand under my nightgown to grab my leg, and I knew, Iknewwhat he was doing. What he’d done to Tess, what he was going to do to me. I’d seen it in other homes, heard from the other kids who’d been molested. And it waswrong.”

The emotions that had been building in Vasil crashed into the temporary wall he’d erected in his mind, smashing it to pieces; they were held back temporarily by his disbelief. He understood what she was inferring, but it seemed unfathomable. Kraken, male and female alike, protected their young. That was the responsibility ofeveryadult.Protect, provide, and teach. Everyone did their part to raise all the younglings. Not to take advantage of them, not to force them into situations they couldn’t possibly understand.

Her story went against everything he’d learned in his life, and yet there wasn’t a trace of deception or exaggeration in her voice or expression. She was sincere.

Vasil’s skin took on a reddish hue as anger boiled up from his gut and filled his chest. He focused all his will on keeping his body still; he didn’t want to risk causing her any harm in his rising fury.

“And did he?” he growled through clenched teeth.

“No,” Theo rasped, shaking her head. “No. Even in that place, I always kept something on hand to protect myself. I don’t know if it was habit, or paranoia, or a suspicion I never fully acknowledged, but I just felt safer that way, even when it wouldn’t have made a difference. So when he touched me, I reached for it under my pillow, where I was hiding a fork from the kitchen…and I stabbed him in the throat.”

She pulled her hand from his and looked at it. “I remember the heat of his blood on my skin and the choking, gurgling sound he made, but I didn’t stay.Couldn’tstay. So I ran. I just ran, and ran, and ran.”

Vasil shifted his hand to rest atop his bunched tentacles, squeezing it into a tight fist. He released a shaky breath through his nostrils. “Did you kill him?”

Theo reached for him and took his hand, tugging gently until he allowed her to pull it closer. She eased his fingers open and rubbed the spots where his claws had pricked his palm.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I hope I did, because it would have meant he couldn’t hurt anyone ever again, but…I don’t know.”

“I hope the same.” He glanced down at her fingers as they continued to soothe his hand. What she’d described had happened long ago, when she was a child. He could not blame himself for his anger, but it would do neither of them any good. “What happened after you fled?”

“The home must’ve been close to a spaceport, because that’s where I wound up. Somehow, I made it past all the security and to the launch pads. I really don’t remember how, it’s all fuzzy, but when I think about it now it seems impossible. I wasn’t caught until I’d already snuck onto one of the ships. And that’s…that’s when I met Malcolm.”

“Who was Malcolm?”

Theo smiled, but the expression was tinged with sorrow. “He was this gruff old man with black-stained hands and a big scar on one side of his face. And he scared the shit out of me when he found me in the parts storage room of that ship. He grabbed me by the wrist, and his hand was sostrong that I knew he could crush my bones to paste if he wanted to. He looked me up and down, saw the blood staining my hands, and for a moment I thought I’d run away from one bad man into another. By the look of him, I was convinced he’d chop me up and eat me or something.”

She chuckled softly. “And then he saidyou look too scrawny to even lift a screwdriver, but I guess I got work for ya. He tugged me over to some lockers against the wall, opened one up, and took out a shirt that was too big for me. Told me to get changed and get to work.

“When the ship’s captain came down for inspection a little while later, I thought for sure I was caught. They’d turn me in to the police, and I’d go to prison… But Malcolm said I was his granddaughter, and that he’d taken me on as his apprentice. That was enough, I guess. I worked with him for eleven years on at least a dozen ships. We went wherever there was work, and he taught me almost everything I know about spacecraft, engines, and machinery.”

Tears welled in her eyes and tumbled over her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away. “He was everything to me. He became my friend, my mentor, my mother and my father…and I can still picture the look he would’ve given me if he heard me say that. Hell, he was the one who gave me my name.”

Vasil’s brow furrowed. “You did not have a name for eleven years? Even after your mother died?”

“I made one up when I was young. When Malcolm found out that my mom never gave me one, he decided to because… Well, I was the daughter he never had.” She flattened her palm against Vasil’s, lining up their fingers. “What about the ones that hurt you? Are they dead?”

“A few of them died when the ship caught fire and sank,” he replied; though he did not know all their names, he too remembered each of their faces. “The rest survived. My people chose peace.”

“Did you?”

“I did not intend to as we fled the burning ship. I would have ended all the hunters then to ensure the safety of my people. Peace came at great cost to us.” He looked down at their hands; hers was small and delicate-looking compared to his own, but he knew it was strong and sure. “The kraken clashed with each other, and many died. There is blood on my hands, too…but I think the cause was just. By the time we made contact with the humans again, we had had our fill of bloodshed and death.”

“Have you told anyone else about the torture, or about the anxiety you’ve been suffering?” she asked.

“No one.”

“Only me?”

There was something in her voice that called his attention back to her face, where he found something new in her eyes — vulnerability, perhaps? Hope?

“Only you, Theo.”

“Besides Malcolm and Kane, you’re the only one I’ve told about my past.” Raising her other hand, she brushed her fingers over his siphon, smiling when it twitched. “Maybe it’s time to let go of the past. To bury it here. It can’t hurt us anymore.Theycan’t.”

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