AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Stari didn’t say a word as I edged toward the door and that black line that delineated the two worlds. The one I inhabited where I could fool myself into believing Chax was still alive, and the real world where he was gone.
The difference couldn’t have been starker. The tiny cell versus the vastness of the galaxy.
Did I want to live in the past and never let go? Did I want my future to be dictated by a lie I believed, no matter how pleasant it was?
I took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold. Once the first foot was over it, the second followed easily.
Stari smiled at me. It was a friendly, supportive smile that I very much needed to see at that moment.
I peered back at the little room I just left. The memories I had of Chax would never leave me. They would be with me, always, tucked away safe and sound in my mind. Billions of Changelings might have seen our romance blossom and grow but none knew what it felt like to have him touch me, the warmth and strength of his fingertips on my skin, and the shiver he gave me every time his eyes ran over mine.
They hadn’t seen every part of our relationship. That moment in the loft of the dilapidated barn was ours and belonged to no one but us. There had been no cameras up there. No one could spy or steal it from us. I would carry it with me always.
Even they couldn’t take that from me.
I followed Stari through the endless hallways of the underground base. If I could help make the Changelings pay for what they had done to me, I wouldn’t hesitate.
I would pay it back a thousand-fold.
None of the Yayora took much notice of me as Stari led me through their base. Dirt dusted our heads every few seconds from the vibrations caused by the tools the Yayora used to expand the base.
My room was housed along one wall of the largest space—what Stari referred to as “the hangar.” It stretched so far up it was hard to make out the top. Thick girders braced the ceiling.
“We’ll have to bring the ceiling down when we’re ready to attack,” Stari said. “We can’t risk the Changelings finding us down here by opening it any sooner.”
These guys were seriously organized.
“It might be hard to believe now but we’ve always been a peaceful species,” Stari said. “It took the Changelings taking everything we held dear to learn the value of aggression and the need to overcome our enemies, no matter the cost.”
It was hard to imagine Stari letting anyone walk over her. She wore a blaster pistol at her hip. She didn’t seem very concerned with me being so close I could grab it and use it against her.
Stari took me down another tunnel, this one cut into a huge mountain of dirt and rock. Along the hallways on either side were the remains of the stones they’d sliced through to create these vast tunnel networks. Small lanterns hung at regular intervals, much like mining tunnels back home.
These guys were not messing around.
Finally, we came to a circular room buried in the heart of the soil. It had a low ceiling and high-tech computer terminals ran along the outer edges. Yayora sat wearing headsets with a glass visor in front of their eyes in place of monitor screens.
“Grandpa?” Stari said, addressing the man sitting in the middle of the room in a large worn chair. “Maddy is here to see you.”
Her grandpa lowered the papers he was reading and turned a switch. His wheelchair spun around so he could look at me. He was the oldest Yayora I had seen yet. He had a big bushy white beard and so many lines on his face it was hard to tell whether or not he was permanently frowning.
“Maddy,” he said in a deep rich voice.
He extended his hands to mine. I was expected to step forward and repeat the gesture. I did, and he leaned forward and took my hands in his own. He bowed his head but not low enough to touch my skin.
I glanced at Stari, who nodded politely as if this was the usual custom for Yayora to greet each other. After he released me, he held his hands out to me.
“She’s not a Yayora, Grandpa,” Stari said. “She doesn’t know our customs.”
“Sh,” Grandpa said, keeping his eyes on me.
I took his hands in mine and bowed my head the same way he had. I shot Stari a look. Am I doing this right?
She smiled and nodded.
That was a relief. I didn’t want to offend these people. Not after they risked their lives to save me.
“How are your quarters?” Grandpa asked.
