Page List


Font:  

“This is a kitchen? And why do you have human stuff in here?” I stepped into the room and slid into a chair, watching him make two cups of coffee.

When he returned and placed a cup in front of me, he sat across from me. “I ordered them and set up this whole kitchen for you with foods you enjoy.”

“Why would you think I’d ever come into your spaceship?” I picked up my mug and inhaled the nutty aroma before sipping it.

“You ask a lot of questions. And Reaver SC is a space cruiser.”

I didn’t know where to begin because my head spun with everything of late.

“You’re safe now,” he murmured. “That’s what matters.”

“Stop saying that.”

Something behind his eyes shifted. Gone was the smile and patience.

But I’d had enough of being shoved here and there without explanation.

“Our compound on Earth was compromised and the Khonsu found you. They were coming to take you as theirs, so we left in our ship.”

“And where are we now? I want to see my friends.”

He was on his feet, shaking his head. “You know that’s not possible.”

Just hearing the words left me shaking, and my throat thickened, but then I fingered my neck, wondering if I’d choke on the ring inside me.

“Let me show you something that might answer your questions.”

I climbed to my feet and took my cup of coffee with me, cradling it in my hands because each time I inhaled it’s aroma, it reminded me of home.

In the narrow hallway, we passed several doors, and he stopped outside one. He tapped something into the keypad and the door zipped upward, vanishing into the wall.

“This is your cabin.”

I peered inside to find a bed that looked like mine back home along with a bedside table, lamp, and even a bookshelf filled with books.

“The Mess Hall is stocked with all kinds of food for you, but come, I need to show you something in the Bridge.”

I tracked after him into the main control room, closer to the enormous black window. Corran pointed to it. “What do you see?”

“Blackness,” I retorted.

“Look again and closer,” he insisted.

So I turned and stared into the eerie darkness, when I caught something blinking in the distance… tiny and far, but I leaned closer, squinting.

“This might help.” Corran suggested and hit a button, the lights in the room fading.

The view outside of me changed, came to life, became so much more than I first thought. Outside the window, a pitch-black curtain draped over the sky all around us. No, not the sky… couldn’t be when the blinking stars around us made shapes against the dark backdrop.

“Are…” Oh, shit. “Are we…” I glanced at him as he nodded, a tight smile pulling at his lips.

I should have known better than to think I could trust them in any way, but this… Fuck. “We’re in space!”

Even before Corran answered, my knees wobbled and I collapsed into one of the seats looking out at the endless world ahead of us.

“It’s beautiful isn't it?”

Words left me, and all I could do was gape at the expanse of the universe, caught up in the breadth of it, the sheer explosion of… space. I couldn’t move my mouth to speak, instead I felt trapped as if I was frozen underwater, my world moving in slow motion.


Tags: C.R. Jane The Fallen World Fantasy