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PROLOGUE #1
ELLA
Past
“There arebillions of stars in the galaxy,Mi Cielo,but nothing beats the sun.”
I stare at the boy with the messy black hair and the strange way of talking. We’ve only just met, but he’s already calling me ‘my sky’ in Spanish, as if a tiny piece of me belongs to him. He says it so carefully though, like it’s a gift he’s scared of breaking.
How many is ‘billions’ again?
At five years old, I can’t count that high, so I imagine a big box of buttons spilling out ontoMamá’snavy-blue blanket.
He watches as I run my fingers through the sand, making straight lines and wavy ones before scrubbing them all away. Lifting my hand, I purse my lips together to blow the sticky grains from my skin, laughing in delight at the tickling sensation it makes.
“What’s a galax-ly?” I ask.
He stares at my mouth for a moment, his eyes all wide, like he’s never seen a smile before. “It’s everything above us.”
“But that’s heaven.”
“Higher than heaven.”
“Higher thanheaven?”
My brain scrambles to make sense of this amazing thing. I’m tempted to look up and see for myself, butMamátold me never to do that, so I think about the tallest Christmas tree with this sun-star at the very top. “What’s so great about it anyway?”
“Here, let me show you.” Reaching into the pocket of his jeans he pulls out a small, gray stone. He hands it to me, and I gasp. Someone has painted a yellow sun on it—round, bright, and perfect. It’s the second most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, while the first is sat talking to me about skies and stars as if I’m just as interesting. “We can’t exist without it,” he explains, watching me study the stone. “That’swhat makes the sun special. It gives life to everything trapped in darkness.”
“It makes shadows too,” I say, remembering somethingPapátold me last week.
“It does,” he agrees, glancing sideways at my parents.Mamáis in the ocean in a white swimsuit, bouncing my baby sister, Thalia, in and out of the waves.Papáis standing on the shoreline, dressed in black, talking to the boy’s new family.
He had another family before them, butMamásays they’re all in heaven now.
Don’t look up, Ella. Don’t look up.
“I hope nothing badever happens to the sun,” I blurt out, feeling anxious suddenly.
He smiles, but it’s the sad smile of a boy who has a secret inside him that hurts. “Me too,” he whispers. “And if I keep on running and forgetting, then maybe,just maybe, she’ll be okay.”
PROLOGUE #2
EDIER
Present Day
“Are you into foreplay, Señor Grayson, or are you here to fuck?”
The woman skims her palms across the dove-gray satin sheets and juts out her breasts, the neckline of her dress barely covering her modesty. “I’ll keep my heels on, if you like? All you need to do is slide my panties to the side and…mmm.” Catching her lip between her teeth, she lets it slip free with another tortured moan, before adding huskily, “I bet your cock is as big as your reputation.”
So is my gun,I’m tempted to add, but I haven’t decided on her fate yet.
Maybe she’ll live.
Maybe she’ll die.
Maybe she’ll open her fucking mouth and give me what I really came here for.
