Page 22 of HaL

I want what every other girl in the universe gets. A life. A chance. Someone to love me. Somewhere I belong. But I never got that chance before, and right now I feel like you are dangling a carrot in front of me, teasing me with a dream that is still unreachable.

I’m almost grateful those stinking bastards took me. I’m grateful I crash-landed here. I’m grateful I was only minutes from death, because somehow—it brought me to you/here.

I also know what those symbols on your chest mean, HaL. I know enough to understand that they matter to you and your kind more than you are letting on. But the real question is, why haven’t you told me about them? Is it because I am a soft-skin and an inconvenience to you, too?

Am I just another burden you’re waiting to get rid of, like I’ve been to everyone else?”

I stop dead in my tracks. “NOooo, it’s not like that … How?” I point at the runes dancing across my chest, my own body reacting to her distress and acknowledgment. Taking her small hand in my own, I am mesmerized by her delicacy.

“You can thank ANDI. The moment you left to help the others on Ethra, I started researching your kind. Honestly, I was fascinated. A little star-struck, too, and you know how ANDI is when it comes to anything remotely romantic. Give him a hint of a love story, and he becomes obsessed.”

A small smile pulls at my lips when I picture her bent over a holo pad, practically stalking me on the other side of space. Her gray eyes seek out my own, and I know she is trying to figure out how I am processing all this information.

“He showed me your two forms and told me about your world, your culture, your history. And about the fact that your kind are just one of the few who can flourish this close to the Void, the same place where Ginger and several others were found.

I had nothing but time, so I used it to read everything I could find about your people and about this world and your role in it.”

She must have seen the question on my face.

Yes, there are still a thousand things I don’t know and I’m not pretending otherwise.”

Her gaze drops to my chest before rising to my eyes, and I am shocked by her next words.

“But I do know what happened on ANDI. You touch me willingly. From everything I’ve learned, that isn’t something your people do casually. Touch means something to your kind. You don’t offer it to strangers. You don’t give it to someone who means nothing to you.”

My thumb moves slowly over the back of her hand.

“And now you’re sitting here, holding my hand.”

I let the silence settle between us. My mind is trying to figure out the correct way forward.

“So, tell me why?”

The runes beneath my skin are moving again. Dancing. Glowing in intricate patterns that shift and pulse with an almost impossible rhythm. A rhythm in sync with her heart.

“So … Are you going to tell me why the runes on your chest are dancing in time with my heart? Or are you going to keep playing hard to get? Because I’m too old for games.

I’ve done the research, HaL. I know what your touch means. I know what those runes are doing. What I don’t know is why you’re still pretending this doesn’t mean something. So, tell me the truth.

Why does your body know what your mouth refuses to admit?”

“You don’t know everything, Dawn.” I watch her gray eyes flash and her cheeks flush, and I must hold back the smile that rarely graces my lips as I enjoy the fire in her soul.

“HaL, let me tell you what I do know. I am a twenty-six-year-old woman, who is touch and life-starved. A woman who finds you interesting and magical, not to mention beautiful in a way that you’re almost scary. But aside from looks, I know you raced across a barren landscape to save a stranger.

You carry the weight of your people on your shoulders and probably feel out of place among your own because of your father and the expectations you put on yourself as his son.

So, you understand more than most about what it’s like to watch from afar, to want to be a part of something, but know it’s not possible. But the one thing I need to know HaL, is … You didn’t know it was me the Korgons had taken, did you?”

“No.”

“See, that didn’t matter to you. You would have done the same for anyone; you are a good man. I know that your healer looks at you lovingly, and that you’ve sat by my side for days now. What am I to you, HaL? Am I just another random Earth girl lost in the cosmos?”

“You are my Mate, Dawn! The one I never dreamed of … or saw coming.”

She doesn’t seem shocked by my words; if anything, it’s relief and a little bit of worry I now see in her beautiful features.

“Were you really going to send me away?”