Page 25 of Jace

But to the two of them, it was more incredible than the stretched hovers the stars used. It gave them privacy, a commodity that was so rare it was almost priceless back on Terra-11.

She had been pretty sure both their hormones were raging, and her curiosity about exploring the wild sensations she felt at Nyk’s every stolen touch was in hyperdrive.

She might not have been in love with him, but he was the school’s hero - a championship athlete with a bright future playing for the Intergalactic Leagues. Scouts had already been to their school, conspicuous in their fancy clothing, to watch him play and then confer with his parents and the coach.

Susannah was proud to have caught the eye of such an important boy, who might put their scrappy planet on the map. And besides, her younger brother, Kal, hero-worshipped him and would never have forgiven her if she had turned down a chance to have him hang out at their house a couple of times a week.

One day, they were rolling down the street and had just reached Old Port Bridge, which led out of the village, when Nyk’s hand snaked across the seat to rest on her thigh.

Shivers of awareness shot through her.

And then there was a loud groan and a sound like a crack of lightning striking the car.

The wooden support beams that held up Old Port Bridge had been rotting and splitting for years. But times were tight, and there was no money in the town budget to pay for materials and labor. So, it had been patched this year instead of a real repair. Just like last year, and the year before…

The beams all gave way at once in that moment, dropping the car to the precarious hillside below, where it landed on its side and rolled into the river.

The sheer drop, the pain on landing, and the terrifying roll into the rush of frigid water were a part of her now. For years, she dreamed of Nyk’s horrible scream as his left leg shattered.

The doctors patched him up. But he would never play ball again.

Everyone said they were lucky to survive. She sat by his bedside at the local clinic until he was released. But after that, his family moved to the city, the sight of their small town probably too much for them after their son’s dreams were demolished.

That would have been enough to have her believing the curse was real, but it didn’t stop there.

The next boy she dated, Fendrake, was eating a bowl of dried fruit and pretzeled bread with her as they watched a holo-film.

He wrapped an arm around her when she screamed at a scary part.

It felt good to be pressed to his warmth, and for the first time since Nyk, she felt her rattled libido awaken again.

But when he took another bite of their snack, Fendrake began to choke. His face turned red and swelled to the size of a sweetmelon.

The clinic said he had an allergic reaction to arden powder.

But Susannah and her mother had prepared the snack, and she knew there was no such ingredient in it. Arden powder was a rare Drathian spice. As far as she knew, they’d never even had it in her house.

The situation left her a little shaken. And made her wonder if her streak of bad luck was more than a coincidence.

She told Fendrake she would rather just be friends. Seeing him almost die was enough to cool her interest, and she was pretty sure he felt the same.

For a long time after that, she didn’t date.

She told herself it was because she was more interested in helping her parents with their new land project, which had taken on a life of its own and was making her family one of the richest on Terra-11.

But then Jarvin Briggs had come calling. He was handsome, kind, and lived right down the street. And she’d had a crush on him since they were little.

It was too hard to explain why she didn’t want to date him, so she decided to give it a whirl. A year had passed since Fendrake - enough time to let her think maybe it really had been just a coincidence.

The winter morning of their second date, he came to pick her up for a trip to the local greenhouse.

Her family was doing well by then. They even had a heated driveway to melt away the ice before it could form.

But Jarvin slipped right before her eyes, and ended up with a bad concussion.

The contractor said the circuit breaker for the driveway heater must have failed.

But Susannah knew better by then.

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