“Don’t,” he warns in-between heavy breaths. “Don’t pretend you didn’t know. I’ve given you more than enough time; it’s been a decade, Lowe. We have a child together. Whatever you needed to get out of your system, it ends now.”
When it comes to first loves, I’ve always found it nothing short of a miracle that some people stay together. In my experience, being young and infatuated rarely equalled good decisions. The way we loved each other was fast and intensely, but mostly, it was immature. The kind of love that convinces itself nothing else will do. If it weren’t for Vee, I’d regret ever meeting Dominik Gryphon.
“I don’t belong to you. You’ve never been able to order me around, so what makes you think you can start now? And what thefuck, Dominik? What, you’ve been hoping I’ll come back to you this whole time? It’s been years since the last time I even spoke to you.”
He unclenches his jaw. “You never stopped belonging to me! If you weren’t so stubborn, Harvey wouldn’t have ended up in the middle. You gave me an ultimatum, and I made the wrong choice—I’m man enough to admit that now. I could have fixed whatever went wrong if you would have justletme. Every time I’ve tried, you shut it down.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I cry. “We can’t be fixed. When did you ever try—”
Dominik interrupts me. “Here’smyultimatum: come home, or the only ground you’ll touch on Mars will be a prison yard.”
I stare. Something pulses through me, though I can no longer tell whether it’s rage, disgust, fear, or shock. Whatever it is, it moves sluggishly through me, weighs down my limbs and my heart. I can hardly make sense of what I’ve just heard.
“Are you blackmailing me?”
“Yes,” he says matter-of-factly. “And if you choose to be difficult, don’t expect the crew to leave unscathed.”
“Do you even love Vee? How can you threaten his well-being and use him like this?”
“Marlowe.” Dominik sighs, and in this moment, he suddenly looks weary. A man older than his years; bone tired and at the end of his rope. I resist sympathy, turn away from the soft underbelly he exposes. He pinches the bridge of his nose and rubs the skin until it’s red with agitation; an old habit of his that makes my heart hurt. A habit that means he’s stressed.
“Your problem is that you want to believe I can’t be capable of love just because I can also make the hard decisions. I love you both. That’s why I’m taking charge of our future; everything’s in place, except you,” he says.
But Dominik doesn’t love us. He thinks he owns us, and that’s so far from love I don’t even know where to begin. I think back to Vee telling me how he really feels about Dominik. I think back to something I remember saying to Tanisira: that Vee sees him and loves him, that he wants a relationship with his father. But I never asked him, did I? I assumed… because he went where he was told to and didn’t complain. In the end, I did the exact same thing to him that my parents did to me. And that makes me feel sick to my stomach.
Dominik never let us forget his place in our lives. He always had the power, the wealth, the sway. I was the idiot who thought—for Vee’s sake—we could at least be polite whilst co-parenting. Yes, he’d tried to reach out to me occasionally, but it was always through Opal, and it was never about Vee. I had no reason to respond. That should have been deterrent enough, but a man like Dominik has never understood rejection—it’s what his legacy is built on.
The reality is, I would do anything for Vee. I’ve already failed him. I won’t do it again.
There’s no question what I have to do, and Dominik knows it.
Divine Intervention
Marlowe disappears on the heels of Mae, and I try to stay calm. She didn’t want me to come with her—and that’s fine—but my muscles are tensed to follow anyway. My jaw is tight, and I feel liable to crack a tooth. I stare after them until I feel settled enough to face the crew.
“Kulâri.”Devyaan approaches, a gentle hand coming to rest on one of mine—it forces me to notice they’re curled into fists. He looks down as I unfurl them, then meets my eyes. “Let me make you something to eat. Sumna veyan taresh.”Food is good for the soul.
I appreciate his offer, the connection of our shared language, and the pleasant jolt I get from hearing the familiar idiom. It’sone of myNayya’sfavourites. My churning stomach doesn’t approve but I have too much life experience to refuse food when I know I need it. I won’t be able to relax until Securitas steps off my ship; no need to starve until then. Dominik knows Marlowe’s onboard, and he has all the power to use it against her. This is the very thing she’s been so terrified of, and I’m anxious for her. I could do with the distraction.
So I let Devyaan fuss around me until my shoulders no longer hover by my ears. He makes everyone lavender cocoa, teaching Vee how to make the delicacy and doling it out whilst we wait for dinner. The atmosphere is hesitant, but it never stays that way when Beau and Khrys are around. Beau makes insane claims, and Khrys starts a back-and-forth with them until Devyaan’s laughter rings out and lightens the room. It’s followed by Vee’s youthful giggles, releasing stress he’d been carrying in his narrow shoulders.
His mother’s been gone for a while now, and he’s rightfully worried. No one has mentioned what Eduard said about trespassing, but there’s tension thrumming beneath the facsimile of calm. Because it’s the last thing I need right now, therefore inevitable, I wait for it to snap.
Everyone keeps their questions to themselves. By the time platters of elegant sky rolls and solar harvest noodles are slid onto the table, Marlowe still hasn’t reappeared. My stomach’s so violently opposed to food I can’t stand to sit here any longer. I’m at the door before Devyaan has even straightened up, and by the time he realises I’m leaving, Vee’s by my side.
“You’re going to find my mum, right?”
I jerk my head towards the door, and we take off without Devyaan protesting—I’m grateful. We check the bridge first, but Marlowe’s no longer there. The strange faces standing around my chair set my teeth on edge. Before today, I’d have simply asked Kit about Marlowe’s whereabouts. Now I knowthe ship can be overridden, including her code, I no longer trust the AI.
Vee fidgets, practically jumping out of his skin, as we search a few of her usual hangouts. For the first time since I’ve known him, he’s quiet. There’s something so harrowing about his silence when all I’ve ever seen from him is natural exuberance. I want to comfort him, but it’s not something I was ever good at. I take action; that’s my solution to everything. MyNayyaneeded me to be strong, and my sister needed me to be reliable, so that’s what I was. What I am. I didn’t learn the intricacies of consolation, but Vee’s downturned mouth makes me wish I had.
In the end, we find his mother in the one place we didn’t think to look first: her cabin. The intercom is activated, and Vee seems perplexed when her voice comes through the door’s speaker. We share a look of confusion. I can count on one hand the number of times Marlowe has spent time in her room.
“Vee?” she calls.
“Yeah. And Captain—Tanisira.”
There’s a pause. “Right. Sorry, I should have come back to the galley after, but I was just... so tired.”
