Chapter Forty-Four
“Take the front seat,” Kalen says once we’re outside, circling his hoverpod.
Slaves never ride in the front. When I hesitate, he comes around and opens the door for me.
“Get in, Lark. Hurry. What I want to show you is very time sensitive.”
I climb in, and he closes the door behind me, then jogs to the other side. The smell of leather fills the air. Kalen takes the driver’s seat, flips on switches, and presses buttons. The hoverpod starts with a whir, then steadily lifts off the ground. He presses the throttle forward, and we veer out of the estate, heading north. We hover up in the Express Lane, and I look out the fishbowl windows, where the streets are bare, the citizens of Neket still sleeping. Above, the sky is dark with no hint of dawn in sight.
“So…where are we going so early?” I ask.
“It’s a surprise.”
“At least give me a hint.”
“No hints.”
“Are we going to the beach?”
“You can keep asking questions, but you’ll never know till we get there.” He flashes me his signature half grin.
Excitement bubbles up in my chest. Biting my lip, I glance out the window and try to guess our destination. We shoot down an unfamiliar street at top speed until we arrive at the city gate. A breath of utter shock escapes me as he flashes his ID. The gates open, and we’re out in the open Crecian desert. No buildings here. No walls to keep me in. This is a part of Tavdora forbidden to slaves without their masters. I scan the horizon, but in the dim moonlight, all I can see are jagged outlines rising ahead.
“These are the Cliffs of Darkness,” Kalen says.
We fly into a canyon, winding deep between the dark foreboding walls. The cliff’s face shoots high up, leaving only a sliver of the star-specked sky above. The canyon keeps getting narrower and narrower until it feels like we’re being swallowed by the cliffs. Kalen lowers the hoverpod to the ground, then opens his door.
“We’re going to make the rest of the trek on foot. Hurry.”
His excited energy is contagious. I leap out of the hoverpod and follow him up the steep trail. The early morning air is cool and brisk. The trail is steep, and my sandals bite into my feet, so I pause to take them off. It’d be easier just to walk barefoot.
Kalen glances back. “What’s wrong?”
“These sandals are cutting into my feet.”
He closes his eyes and lets out a heavy breath. “Of course. Why didn’t I think of shoes?”
“It’s fine, really. I’m used to walking barefoot.”
He shakes his head and walks back toward me.
“Lark. A lady should never walk in the wilderness barefoot.” In one fluid movement, he wraps his arms around my waist and lifts me onto his back. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and my legs around his waist.
“You really don’t have to do this,” I say, trying to hide my grin. “I mean, I don’t want your back to give out or anything.”
“Are you insinuating that I’m…old?”
“Not insinuating.”
I hear an audible gasp. “Here I thought you saw me as some valiant hero, but now I know you see me as a senile weakling.” He jerks me on his back, sending a delightful thrill through me. “Well, little native, allow me to prove you wrong.”
He bolts up the trail, bouncing me on his back the whole way. And I can’t stop the laughter from bubbling out of me. The sound only seems to encourage him. And I feel so free, so utterly elated as I hug his shoulders to my chest. Closing my eyes, I bury my nose in his neck, inhale the scent that is uniquely Kalen, soak in these last moments we have together. I never imagined I would ever fall in love with a Tavdorian.
And I’m about to betray him. The thought sours all sweet emotions, and I temporarily push it out of my mind.
Kalen sets me down when we arrive at the top of the cliffs, and I walk as close to the edge as I dare, the wind whirling all around me. We’re at the highest point of the cliff. Dunes washed in the moonlight stretch for miles below, sloping into each other.
“Wow,” is all I can manage to say. The stars blaze through the darkness, taking up the space of the black sky. The crescent moons are brighter and larger than I’ve ever seen them.
With the wind tugging at my hair and the white-specked onyx sky stretching overhead, I feel like I’m standing on top of the world. I want to stop time and absorb the vibrancy of it all. Kalen steps up behind me and wraps his arms around my shoulders, rests his chin on my head. The warmth of his body pressing against my back ignites electricity through my veins. Another gust of wind sweeps in from the east, washing over me until I feel weightless. I close my eyes and breathe it in, losing myself in the sense of complete and utter abandon.
“Rika and I used to go out at night and look at the stars,” I say. “Winter was the best time because all the trees were bare and the sky was a broad black canvas with glowing white specks splashed across it.”
“You should see what it looks like when you’re flying through those specks. It’s completely magical.”
I remember flying here. There were no windows in our chamber of slaves. Just flickering white lights. But the Tavdorians must have a view from where they sit on the spaceship.
“Is the magic ever gone?” I ask. “Once you’ve traveled through space so many times that it’s no longer a mystery, does the wonder leave?”
“Never. Does the beauty of a sunset ever grow old? The magic is always there. Like new. Every time I look at the night sky.” He kisses my temple. “Just like you.”
He drops his hands from my shoulders and steps besides me, then looks toward the horizon. I take this moment to study him, to memorize the features I will never see again. Sculpted full lips, dark hair curling on his forehead and around his pointed ears, deep-set lavender eyes.
Stepping closer, I reach up and caress his cheek, rough with day-old stubble. Oh, rugged Kalen is so irresistible. He looks down at me, then weaves his fingers into my hair, cups the back of my head, and kisses me.
His kiss is gentle. Inviting, testing, almost…timid. He opens his mouth slightly, closes it, then opens it again. My stomach floats in space, like a lost wave trying to find its way to shore.
He pulls away, a war seeming to go on in his eyes before he turns around and walks to a flat spot, where he sits down. He gestures for me to join him. I sit between his knees, and he wraps his arms around my shoulders, pulling me back until I’m leaning against his chest. The intimacy of this position leaves me breathless.
Lifting the small sleeve of my shirt, he kisses my shoulder. Then kisses it again. I look down to find him kissing each star tattooed on my skin that marks me as his. The Rydell insignia. My heart squeezes as he kisses the last star, then lifts his violet eyes to mine, a deep sorrow embedded within. An apology for what his family’s company did to me. He rests his chin on my shoulder, and we sit in companionable silence as the horizon begins to lighten with the promise of dawn.
“My parents used to bring us here when we were kids,” he says. “It’s the one place where I can slow everything down and live in the moment.”
And no wonder. I’ve never felt so far removed from the world as I do now.
“Let me see your ear dials,” he says.
I take the earbuds out of my pocket and place them in his palm. He slips them into his ear, slides his finger across it a few times, then hands them back to me. I put them in, a calming tune greeting my ears.
“I synced your dials with mine,” he says.
He wraps his arms around me and pulls me against his chest. Resting my head on his shoulder, I soak in the music while staring at the stars. The melody weaves around my soul. The symphony builds in a beautiful crescendo until it’s drowning me in a sea of orchestrated instruments. My heart sings with the music, my blood dancing through my veins, through my body, through my soul.
And I’m free.
Somehow, for this brief instant, the bonds of slavery have been left behind. I’m living in a perfect world where only Kalen and I exist within the music and the stars and nothing else in the world matters.
Nothing.
When the song ends, I find him studying me. His lavender eyes are full of warmth and passion and love. “This is the most I’ve ever seen you smile.” He brushes a loose strand of hair behind my ear, and I have to look away, because I’m terrified, so terrified that if I look into his eyes too long, he’ll figure out what’s going on, how badly I’m about to hurt him.
The stars begin fading, slowly winking out of existence as the horizon lightens.
“The show is just about to begin,” he whispers against my ear.
Slowly, like the beginning of a love song, the red-orange sun emerges and spills light onto the face of the planet. Rays blast across the desert sky. The dunes turn golden brown, stretching for miles and miles until it looks like the world ends where the bronze sand meets the whiskey horizon. I’m swept away by its beauty, lost in its magic. Another gust of wind blasts into my face, whipping my hair in three different directions. I breathe it in, fill my lungs with the freedom of the wind.
Kalen combs my hair from my forehead and kisses my temple. I tilt my head toward him and his lips are on mine. He combs his fingers through my hair and his mouth opens. I need him. His kisses become more passionate, and my heart grows wings. I fly higher than the cliffs, higher than the wind, higher than the sun and the moons and the stars.
“What are you doing to me, Lark?” he whispers against my lips.
But I can’t respond, because I’m completely breathless. And I want more. So much more.
So I pull his head down. And kiss him again.
And I never want this day to end. I never want this moment to end. I never want this to end. Because this…this is everything. This is passion being satisfied. This is longing being fulfilled. This is everything I’ve wanted and nothing I want to live without, and I realize that I never knew what I was missing.
Because this.
This is love.
“Lark.” His voice is unexpectedly thick with emotion as he pulls away and searches my eyes. “What’s your last name?”
I clear my throat, confused and thrilled all at once. “Walker.”
“Lark Walker.” My name is a symphony coming from his lips. “I never want to let you go.”
My excitement dies down.
“I…I can’t fathom the idea of living without you,” he continues, a sheen of tears in his eyes.
Shit. This can’t happen. Not now.
“Kalen—”
“Please tell me there’s something I can do, something I can offer to make you stay.”
“Stay?” The word leaves my lips in a breathless whisper. “What do I have here, Kalen? I’d live like a captive on Tavdora until you grew tired of me, and then what?”
“I would never grow tired of you.” Chills spread across my skin at the certainty in his voice.
“Where would we live?”
“In a mansion guarded by walls.”
“Who would you converse with? So many of your friends would abandon you.”
“If it’s my well-being you’re so concerned with, then we could always live like Giff’s parents, and you could masquerade yourself as a common slave in my household, though I’d never ask that of you.”
I gasp and stare at him in shock. “How did you know about Giff’s parents?”
“You didn’t think I could figure it out?” he asks. “Giff’s short for a Tavdorian, yet his pointed ears and his relation to his father make few question his bloodline. That woman who helped with the patients looked more like Giff than his own father.”
I try to suppress my smile.
“We could live like them, if you wish,” he continues. “But I would prefer to elevate you, to let the whole city know you were my partner, my equal. I think it would be a beginning, a necessary step to normalize freedom for aliens.”
It would be a big step. But one that would result in Kalen losing all status, his job, his friends. It might be the first step to normalizing it, but we’d be old or gone by the time it was normalized. I couldn’t do that to him.
“Why do you want to return to the ruins of Earth so badly?” he whispers. “There’s nothing there for you.”
“I have to warn them about the mercenaries. I have to tell them to move on.”
He runs his fingers down my arm. “What if I told you I purchased the hundred acres of land on which your community lives?”
My heart leaps into my throat. “What?”
His expression becomes guarded. “Just today, I purchased the land from Alno. No one can cross the border without trespassing.”
Oh, shit. “If Daniel knew—”
“I made it clear to Alno not to tell your community. They’ll continue to live completely unaware that the land belongs to me. It was the only way to ensure their—and your—safety. No mercenaries can touch them. No slave traders can capture them. As long as they stay on that farm, they’re safe.”
I shake my head, unable to believe what he’s telling me.
“But—my mom—she’s really sick. I have to get that cure to her.”
“I’ll make sure she gets the cure on our next trip. You can come with me and give it to her yourself. We could even bring her here, where she could receive the best medical care imaginable. Please, Lark.” He pulls back and studies me. “Please stay with me.” His eyes are so full of need. Tortured about me leaving. I reach out, stretch my fingers across his jaw, run my thumb along the grooves of his features. He leans into my palm, closing his eyes briefly before searching mine for an answer.
“My family’s there, Kalen. It’s my home.” I swallow the unexpected burning in my throat. “We have a good community. A good life. I don’t want to live in a confining city the rest of my life, where I would be looked down upon all the time.” I shrug. “I don’t belong here.”
He tips my chin up. “I would make you belong.”
“You can’t make an entire nation accept me or my people. Your own family would disown you.” I shake my head too many times. “I can’t—I can’t stay and masquerade as your slave, nor can I allow you to elevate me as your partner and watch your world fall to ruins, all because I’m a Human. I can’t do that to you. I can’t do that to me. I’m sorry, Kalen.” I blink and look away, because this heartbreak—this life that I desperately want with Kalen isn’t even possible and it’s so unfair. So incredibly unfair. “It would never work.”
He lets out a shuddering breath, blinks, long lashes shadowing tanned skin, and a tear splashes down his cheek. My heart splits open. There is so much I want to say, yet no words come out. His arms still around my shoulders, he slides his ring off—the one with a small bead caged within wires—takes my hand, and slips it onto my middle finger.
“When you go home,” he says, his voice wavering and husky, “wear this ring in memory of me. I pray you never look back and think of me as the ruthless slave trader my father is.” He kisses my hair, and I’m surprised to find tears streaming down my own cheeks. “I’ll always love you, Lark Walker. Don’t you forget that.”