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Chapter1
LAYLA
Wind whipped by my face, the icy cold air scalding the skin of my cheeks. There was an enormous hole in the side of the spaceship. I was no expert, but I was pretty sure that the hole was not a good sign. We were lucky the ship broke apartafterwe fell through this planet’s atmosphere otherwise, we pretty much would have been dead a lot sooner as opposed to in a few seconds…when we would smack into the endless watery landscape we were currently plunging toward.
“I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” Albert cried hysterically, his spittle spraying the entire right side of my face. I cringed away from him and immediately felt terrible. I tried to grab for his hand to comfort him, but he was clinging to his seatbelt too fiercely to notice my shaking palm. I figured it was probably better if I clung to my own safety harness but kept my screaming internal.
I wasn’t even supposed to have been on this flight. I knew nothing about space or space…flying?See, I didn’t even know the correct terms! I was a thirty-two-year-old school drop out that worked in an antique shop. I wasn’t meant to be on this spaceship! My boss had to bribe me to come along with her on this very dangerous adventure. If I didn’t love her so dang much I wouldn’t have and now I had a head full of regret.
Esther sent me a wince, her pale, wrinkled skin flushing sheepishly. Or maybe that was wind burn, I couldn’t be sure. “It’s going to be fine, dear!” She shouted from across the cockpit.
“I can’t swim!” I tried to shout back but the powerful wind swallowed my words. I kept my eyes locked with the only human being that ever gave a damn about me rather than catching sight of that endless watery landscape we were hurtling toward. There was a lump the size of a Big Mac stuck in my throat and unbelievably my stomach started growling. I had been seasick—nospacesick?—since boarding this ridiculous tourist flight this morning and so I skipped lunch, and dinner was never even served after that weird rip in the sky split open and swallowed this little rickety ship up and sent us through some crazy wormhole thing and spit us out who-in-the-hell-knows where. I blinked furiously, my dry eyes stinging painfully as the sharp scent of salt water began to fill the wrecked cab of the ship.
There was only a handful of us left now. Too many had not survived the initial hole ripping open the side of the craft. I was still in shock Albert and I had made it seeing as we were strapped to the last two seats on the side of the craft with the giant dooming hole. The younger man that had been on my left hadn’t been so lucky. His screams as his seat was ripped right out of the metal would haunt me forever.
I caught Albert staring at me with pure terror and I quickly looked away. I couldn’t allow his emotions to bleed onto me or I would lose my shit.
Well, more than I already had.
It felt like we had been falling through this strange alien sky for so long but logically I knew it had only been a few minutes. My entire frame was locked tight, every muscle and bone in my body braced for impact and my mind circling through every happy and sad memory as if taking me on one last joyride before the end.
It was depressing to realize just how few of those memories were happy ones. I didn’t have any people. My parents having passed away when I was too young to even remember their faces. I was raised by my aunt who was extremely stoic and career focused. The moment I turned eighteen I had been on my own. From there, I drifted through my twenties, aimless and without direction. It wasn’t until I stumbled into Esther at an antique show a block from my apartment that we struck up a friendship over our mutual love of old and broken things.
I had just celebrated my thirtieth birthday. Alone, eating a mac and cheese and tuna casserole while watching reruns ofI Love Lucy. It was amazing and yet so incredibly sad. Three years I had Esther. Three years of feeling like I finally belonged somewhere. Three years of happy memories filled with purpose and direction.
Justthreeyears.
And now it was all going to end in some freak crash on an alien planet. I was only here because I loved Esther. And now I would die alongside her.
“Just kick your feet, love,” Esther shouted, and it took me a moment to pull away from my racing thoughts and remember that I wasterrifiedof water. The high likelihood that we would die upon impact then became strangely comforting. If it was lights out before I was swallowed up by that strange green ocean spread out before me…I’d take it.
Esther grinned at me through chattering teeth, her eyes wide and glassy with fear.
This woman meant everything to me.
A loud, whistling sound began to scream through the cabin. Then a vibration that was so forceful my bones felt like they would snap in two. The whistling picked up until it drowned out every other sound around me. It sounded like a roaring beast—a furious, lethal monster.
I wanted to reach out and grab Esther’s hand. I wanted to be holding onto her for the end. The only human being to care for me since my parents died.
The other passengers left alive began screaming but I couldn’t hear their cries. I could only tell by the looks on their faces, their wide-open mouths, and the strain they were exhibiting. I, myself, began to scream but the roaring was so loud I couldn’t hear my own cries.
There was only a brief moment to brace. A split second where the nose of the ship touched down with such force that it felt like we actually bounced off the water. Every molecule inside me went on high alert, straining and bracing for impact.
And then, sharp, striking pain at the back of my head.
Everything went black.
Chapter2
ARYS
Astrange vessel was falling from the sky. I grinned a wolfish baring of my fangs. An opportunity had just presented itself. I turned to my crew, shouting for their attention.
“The skies have ripped open and dropped us a boon!”
The males aboard cheered, raising fists to the sky.
I watched the blazing vessel splash into Vyessa’s open seas. “And she will cradle our treasure,” I murmured to myself, triumph racing through my veins.
