Page 87 of Sunastara & the Venusian
“Yeah. These are just another puzzle.”
“Well, that’s good to know. But then what?”
“We run,” he mouthed, pointing at the cavemouth. “Obviously.”
“We can’t just run. We have no idea where to go. We have no food or water. We’ll die out there.”
Giving me a level stare, he said, “They’re going to kill us if we stay here. You know that, right?”
He was too smart. Too damn smart. “Yes.” I squeezed his finally warm fingers. “I know.”
“But you’re right. We need a plan.”
Slowly, we both looked out at the sleeping FFKs, our gazes lingering on Reya.
“She’s the weak link,” Sai said. “You can get her to break. Tomorrow. We’ll have to make our move tomorrow.”
I frowned down at him. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Sai. But you’re a teeny bit terrifying.”
“I’m a KU senator’s son,” he explained, nestling against my side again, closing his eyes. “Of course I’m terrifying.”
“Is Tig okay?”Reya asked me, her voice a dry rasp. “She didn’t get hurt, did she?”
I peered up at her from where I squatted in the dirt, surrounded by a stand of tall conifers with narrow trunks. I’d asked for one of the FFKs to take me to relieve myself, and when Axel offered his services, I requested Reya because of “female stuff.” Axel had no issues letting Reya take me after that. Sometimes, it was just too easy.
The hollow, dark circles carved under her eyes made me wonder if she’d slept at all last night. And if not, had she heard my conversation with Sai? It didn’t matter. I had her alone. It was now or never.
“I don’t know, Reya. The last I heard before you fragged my VC was that Morgath had found her crying on the floor of the control room.”
Turning away from me, her shoulders rising toward her ears, she said, “I didn’t want this. I never wanted any of this.”
After pulling my jumpsuit back up, I took advantage of the moment to look around, trying to figure out where Saiand I might go if we were somehow able to escape from the well-guarded cave in the middle of the frigid night on this foreign and hostile planet.
It was actually beautiful, wherever we were—a small clearing in the middle of a dense pine forest with snow-covered cliffs spreading out into the distance. Since my shoes and Sai’s bare feet were hardly appropriate for cliff climbing, our only way out would be through the forest. But we needed a direction. We needed intel.
“Reya,” I said, positioning the first chess piece. “What is ‘this’ anyway? I thought you were different. I thought you wanted change for your people.”
Wheeling around, she crossed her arms, digging her fingertips into her skin. “You don’t understand. You couldn’t possibly. Kravax is not like the rest of the KU. Beliefs here are not modern. We are not evolved. We do what our elders say. Always. We don’t have a choice. But”—she paused, her eyes closing—“I really did hope that would change.” She opened her eyes again, clearly fighting to hide the emotion welling behind them.
“Did you know all along?” I asked. “Did you know the plan was always to take the boy?”
Her chin dropped to her chest, her black hair flowing forward to curtain her face. “I thought BLIX was real. I was excited about something for the first time in my life. And then, when I met all of you, when I met Tig, I thought maybe, with her, I could finally be”—she shrugged—“myself. Away from this planet, from these beliefs. But no, I didn’t know. I swear it. Tano told Axel and me an hour before he made his move.”
“And you felt compelled to go along with them because that’s just how things are here.” I wasn’t questioning or judging. I was only validating.
She nodded. “I shouldn’t have. I should have pushed back, told Rax or Morgath or you. Maybe if I had”—she paused, and a single tear rolled down her cheek—“I would have stopped it. I should have been stronger, braver. I failed.”
I should have been stronger. How many times had I said this same thing to myself?
A bird twittered above our heads, and pine needles crunched under my feet as I stepped toward Reya. Placing a hand over her crossed arms, I said, “Tig will understand.”
Her head jerked up, a second tear chasing the first down her cheek. “No, she won’t. She will never forgive me.”
This was my window. I had to open it. I had to try. “She will,” I insisted. “Because she’ll know that you are not your people. She’ll know that youarestrong and brave. You are special to her, Reya. And she is special to you. That sort of thing doesn’t happen all the time.” My heart squeezed out its next few beats, Raphe’s words to me, my words to Elanie, Freddie’s worried eyes all flashing through my mind. “It’s precious.”
Glancing around nervously, as if making sure we weren’t being overheard, Reya said, “That sort of thingneverhappens on Kravax. That kind of love… It’s forbidden.”
I risked giving her arm a squeeze. She let me. Time to attempt a gambit. “Listen to me, Reya. The universe is vast and open, and your place in it is not defined by where you were born, what lies you’ve been told about what is right or wrong, or who you choose to love.”
