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“I’m taking Kal back to the hotel. She’s out of sorts right now.”
“Absolutely not,” Margot says from the other side. “Listen, we need to talk. Kallista can’t stay at the hotel right now. That asshole knew where she was staying right down to her room number, and he says he leaked it online. She can’t even stay on the damned planet.”
My head swirls like an oil painting, all the colors blurring together as fear grips my chest. He knew where I was staying. He knew which room I was in.
“Right,” Xav says, his voice going icy. “Yeah. You ready to talk now? Because I want to get her somewhere safe.”
Somewhere safe. Does that place even exist anymore? Did it ever exist at all?
28XAVIAN
My first priority, as usual, is making sure Kal is safe, which in this case means leaving the planet entirely.
The rest of Kallista’s tour is canceled, despite her protests. It’s admirable how much she loves her fans, but one of them tried to kill her today, so Margot and I are on the same page for once. No more tour. Not until things die down.
No one aside from Kal’s inner circle knows where I’m taking her.
“Where are we going?” Kallista asks, shooting me an adorably sour look. “Are you going to tell me yet, or are you just going to keep giving me the silent treatment?” We’ve been flying through leygate after leygate, hopping across galaxies like lily pads for at least two hours. I don’t blame her for getting antsy.
I glance over at her and smile. “I’m not giving you the silent treatment. I was letting you relax.”
“Okay. I’m relaxed. Now, where the fuck are we going, Xavian?”
“Terra,” I say quietly, gripping the steering wheel harder as I brace myself for the fallout.
“What?!” Kallista sits up quickly, straining against her seatbelt. “We’re going back to the Milky Way?”
I nod, working my jaw. Yeah. Figures she’s not happy. Didn’t think she would be. But it’s a necessary change of scenery. The jammer thrums softly as we pass through another leygate, and the gate whooshes around us, pulsating like strobe lights. Within seconds, we pass through it without incident and sail past Pluto.
Kallista lets out a whimper as she watches the gray rock disappear in the rearview mirror. “There has to be somewhere else we could go,” she says. “Please.”
I flick my gaze over to her as we pass Neptune next. Then Saturn. Then Jupiter.
As we approach Terra, Kallista bites her bottom lip so aggressively she draws blood.
“H-Hey, hey,” I say. “Kal. It’s going to be okay, I promise.” I reach over to squeeze her shoulder, but it doesn’t help. Her eyes remain glued to the glass as she stares up at Luna. I need to say something, anything to help her with what I think might be the start of a panic attack.
"You okay? What’s going on? Talk to me, princess,” I say in as soothing voice as I can manage. “Not a fan of Luna, I take it?”
Kal continues to stare up at Luna’s rocky surface with a deep scowl. “You could say that,” she murmurs. “Too many bad memories, I guess. It’s.. a little triggering.”
I grip the steering wheel tighter, as my eyes prickle with sympathetic tears as she sobs quietly into her hands. “I understand. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, of course. But I’m here if you do. All ears, Kallista.”
Kallista smiles weakly at me. “Thank you. But maybe some other time.”
Hey, we’ve all got our scars. I’ve got more than a few myself and know better than to go poking other people’s wounds. Kallista rubs her eyes and my chest tightens. Shit, is she crying? Whatever that moon did to her must have really messed her up. She lets out a shuddering exhale as I enter Terra’s atmosphere as quickly as I can.
“I’m sorry,” I say under my breath. I don’t even know why I’m apologizing. Just feels like the appropriate response to someone being in distress.
“It’s fine, Xav. Really. Don’t worry about me,” she murmurs.
When I force myself to look Kallista in the eye, her tear-soaked cheeks are like a kick to my gut.
* * *
“Wait, where did you say you lived again?” Kallista asks as I land the jammer in Toronto’s downtown hangar. It’s funny, watching Kal’s face contort with confusion as we glide over the CN Tower, illuminated by a blend of neon colors, before descending into the hangar.
“I’m from Toronto,” I say as I turn off the ignition. The hangar is relatively quiet today, with few jets coming and going. Good. The fewer people around to see us, the better. I called ahead to let Aiken know we were headed this way, and he agreed to bring his smaller jammer over, along with an oversized hoodie for Kal to wear. “I grew up here, but moved out once I turned eighteen and went pro.”
