“Are there other females on Andrelexa?” Carl jumped right back into questions as soon as we joined the circle. Angie must have told the others what she’d walked in on because Dale kept winking at me. His attempt at winking was really blinking because he struggled with the whole closing only one eye thing.

“Yes. Of course there are.” Rachel leaned into my side. “Plenty of them.”

“Yet he chose you as his mate?” Carl sat cross-legged. “Not that you wouldn’t be life mate material, but…”

“I can see why he chose her,” I spoke out loud before really thinking it through.

“Yes. Obviously. Angie told us. Good for you. Now let Carl talk.” Dale had abandoned his attempt to wink.

“I don’t know why he chose me. I can’t trust anything he, or anyone else there, has ever said so even if someone else had explained it, it wouldn’t matter now.”

“And it doesn’t matter.” It didn’t. Obviously everything about her time on Andrelexa mattered in some way, but it wasn’t a big deal. There were far bigger questions to contend with, but I’d humor Carl. He usually had a point to the things he said.

“Yet you didn’t want to be with him. At first I thought it might be an innocence thing, but uh, according to Angie you’re comfortable with some level of intimacy, so am I correct that that isn’t the problem?”

“Something changed for me my last few weeks there. I already mentioned the fog… it’s like everything was suddenly different. And even if I had wanted to be his life mate—not in that way. Not with the way he gave me the medallion without a choice.”

“Then why didn’t you give it back?” Angie asked. “Not to be pushy… I mean plenty of girls keep engagement rings after breaking off engagements.”

“I wish I could. And I tried. But it’s Narva gold.”

“And?” Carl put his palms up in his lap.

“And it can’t be broken. At least not in any way I know.”

“Wait. So you’re stuck with that thing?” What luck. She was stuck with a reminder of the biggest betrayal of her life. Not to mention that creepy creatures obviously wanted it.

“Yes. Otherwise I would have left it behind.”

“Why did the creature want it?” Dale asked a surprisingly useful question. “That’s probably the bigger issue right now.”

“Because these medallions are powerful. They serve as keys to all the strongholds. Because the Emperor would do anything to get it back.”

“Where’s your ship?” Carl folded his hands. “Sorry for the abrupt change in conversation, but that seems relevant. Where did you hide it? I would have heard if there was a spaceship lying around the garden district.”

“Oh. It’s in here.” She tapped her watch.

“No. Freaking way.” Dale crawled across the circle to examine her watch. “The ship is actually in there?”

“Well, the pieces of it. It can’t be stored in its completed form, but in theory we could rebuild it. Yes.”

“What else does the watch do?” I gently took her wrist and got another look at the watch.

“What doesn’t it do?”

“Wait. Does it have GPS?” I remembered our early conversation about it.

“It has a locator function, but someone would have to know to look for it.”

“Did anyone hear that?” Angie angled her head back.

We fell silent.

I heard nothing at first until there was a jarring sound and the glass sunlight above the kitchen came crashing down in a torrent of glass and white plaster. A figure came with it.

Before I even made it to the kitchen to investigate a man stood up from the center of the mess and started to brush off debris. I prepared myself to come face to face with Caspian—to fight him if I had to— but this wasn’t Caspian. At least I didn’t think it was. He was tall—incredibly tall—but he had to be at least fifty-years-old.

He looked right past me. “Thank you. Thank you.” He fell to his knees. He was speaking in English, but by his height and the type of outfit he was wearing—solid black bodysuit—I assumed he was from Andrelexa.

“Telton?” Rachel stood right beside me. “What are you doing here?”

I grabbed her hand without really thinking. She squeezed mine back. I assumed that meant that had been the right move.

He scrambled to his feet. “Telton? You stopped calling me father? Never mind. It doesn’t matter. I am so proud of you. I knew you could do it. I never doubted it for a second.”

Deep lines creased her forehead. “You lied to me. Everything you ever told me was a lie.”

“No.” He shook his head. “That’s not true.”

“No?” Her voice lilted. “How about Earth? Let’s start with that. This is a pretty nice place for a planet that was destroyed thirteen years ago.”

“Rachel. I can explain everything.”

“Then explain.” She put her hand on her hip. “Explain it all now.”

“We have no time. But I promise everything I did was for the greater good. And I promise I did believe I was doing the right thing when I took you.”

“Took me.” Her voice grew angrier. “You make it sound so innocent. You kidnapped me. You pulled me from my life.”

“A life of loss and despair.”

“No.” She shook her head. “My brother was neither of those things.”

“You don’t remember what came before. You don’t remember why you were in New Orleans.”

“And whose fault is that?” She yelled. “Whose fault is it that I don’t remember?”

“The fault belongs to no one.” He spoke in barely a whisper. “Earth infants cannot remember things.”

I couldn’t just stand there and say nothing. “Why are you here?”

“Because Rachel has succeeded and now the next stage of the plan must begin.” His voice held excitement but deep sadness marred his face.

“What did I succeed in?” Her hand tightened around mine.

“You found your way back here with the medallion. Everything hinged on that.” He walked over and stood a few inches from us. I debated stepping back and pulling Rachel with me, but I was afraid that might come across as overprotective or something.

“You knew Caspian was giving me the medallion?” Hurt was in her voice clear as day mixed in with the anger.

“What?” Confusion crossed his face. “Hasn’t Kelby explained everything already?”

“Kelby?” Rachel frowned. “What does he have to do with any of this?”

“Oh.” The man rubbed his temple. “Oh dear. He hasn’t made contact with you yet?”

She shook her head. “No. Of course not. What are you talking about?”

“Rachel.” He reached out for her hand and then dropped it. “This has always been the plan. To get you and the medallion back here.”

“But why?” She leaned heavily into my side. I dropped her hand so I could put my arm around her.

He closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them. “It’s time for you to join the fold.”

“What fold?” She sighed.

“Why the resistance, of course. We are going to take down the Emperor, but we can’t do it without you.”

“Oh my god.” Dale gasped. “We are living a ‘welcome to the rebellion’ scene. I can barely handle this.”

I shot him my best ‘shut the hell up’ look.

“We have to go now, Rachel.” The man fell on his knees in front of her. “The fact that Kelby is late can’t be good. We have to leave.”

She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“You have to. Others have detected you. I just killed a Fleshard outside. They never work alone and are always hired out. He’s told others. I’m certain.”

“Do Fleshards have bloody fangs and hate water?” Dale asked.

Telton looked at Dale. “Who are you?”

“Rachel’s friend.” He puffed out his chest.

“Yes. I take it you met the one I was talking about.”

“Noah splashed him with water and got us away.” Rachel straightened up and took my hand. “I’m not going anywhere without him.”

“I assume Noah’s the one whose hand you hold?” The man had an amused expression on his face.

“Yes, I am.” I tried to sound far more confident about the situation than I really was. There was so much going on, it was hard to keep up.

“Well, then he can come. Kelby won’t be happy, but he’s the one who’s late.” Telton looked out the window. “But come on. Let’s go.”

“Nope. No way. Noah isn’t going with you. Are you kidding me?” Angie grabbed my arm. “I’m not losing another brother.”

The man shrugged. “Then you can all come. But we have to act fast. Take off your watch, Rachel,” Telton directed. “That should buy us time.”

“What about my ship?” She hesitated with her fingers above the strap.

“I have everything we need.”

“I can’t trust you.” She shook her head.

“Yes, you can.” Telton’s eyes locked on hers. “You have to.”

She shook her head. “I need more than that.”

Telton nodded. “If you come with me now and help the cause, I will make sure you reunite with your brother.”

“How does that give me a reason to trust you? You’ve lied time and time again before.”

He put his hand on his own watch. “Watch this. But we are running out of time.”

The hologram of a woman with a long brown braid came into view. “Rachel, you can trust Telton. I am so sorry you feel betrayed, but this is the only way. I swear to you this is the right thing to do.”

“Alda?” Rachel looked to Telton. He touched his watch and the image disappeared. “Alda is in on this too?”

“Please, Rachel. I understand you’re angry, but if you care at all for these people, or anyone, you need to come. It is true Earth wasn’t destroyed before, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be soon.”

Something about his words, or maybe that image, got to her. She nodded and took off her watch, placing it on the table by the computers. “If any of this is a lie I will never forgive you.”

“That is fair. You are making the right decision.”

Rachel looked me directly in eyes. “I can’t ask you to come with me. I can’t do that to you… But I don’t want to leave you.”

“You don’t have to ask. I’m coming.” There was no way I was letting her go. Not after the years of numbness. I couldn’t.

Dale grinned. “See, I told you renting that old house was a good idea. You’re the one who wanted to stay on campus. You can thank me later.”

“Mom and Dad are going to kill me,” Angie groaned.

“But before we go, can I ask one question?” It was an inconsequential question in the scheme of things, but I was going to ask it anyway.

The man nodded.

“Can someone tell me who Kelby is?”

The man removed a stray piece of glass from his suit. “Caspian’s cousin.”

I went with the next question. “And why won’t he be happy to have me around?”

“Because he’s in love with Rachel.” He headed toward the door. At least he wasn’t planning on leaving the way he came in. “I’m half convinced Kelby signed up for this crazy ride just to get her away from Caspian.” Telton laughed. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t let him hurt someone Rachel cares about.”

“So, we’re really doing this?” Angie sighed. “We’re going along with this crazy plan?”

“Yes. Yes we are.” I hadn’t been so sure of anything in my life.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.” She frowned.

“I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, but I don’t see why that should stop us. And you don’t have to come.”

“I do. I’m not losing you.” Her expression said it all. There was no reason to try to convince her otherwise.

“We have to go now.” Telton’s voice was stark. “We’ve been located.”

“By who?” Dale asked. “One of those Fleshard things?”

“No.” Telton touched his watch. “Someone far more dangerous.”

“Caspian…” Rachel trailed off. “It’s him. Isn’t it? He came after me?”

“You can’t trust him, Rachel.” Telton took her arm. “You have to believe that.”

“I’m well aware.” Her eyes were cold. “Get us out of here.” She pulled me closer to her side. “I’m glad you’re coming with me.”

“You and me both,” I whispered as a bright light filled the room, and I lost all sense of space and time.