She stared at Zellendine for a moment, but finally slumped her shoulders and nodded, because even she had to admit it was true.
“Why did Briar attack you and your dad, though? He was close with you both.”
“Because the ability first comes along with some weird rage that Zellendine is a unique trigger for,” Troylus said, his voice weak and small, but there.
“Hey,” Zellendine said, brushing his hair out of his face even though his eyes were still closed. He smiled and remained as still as before.
“So, is Briar to blame then or not?”
Troylus did open his eyes at that point, his smile falling into a grim line.
“Yes,” he said. “I had the same rage at Zellendine when my eyes first turned, but I made a choice not to let it win. Because it is really clear, even in the middle of it, that it’s irrational. Briar didn’t make that choice. He needs to face some consequences. But not stasis forever.” He shook his head a fraction, as much as her lap would allow and shut his eyes again.
“Why not stasis forever?” Alara asked.
“Because it’s cruel,” Zellendine said, putting her hand on Troylus’s cheek and wishing it was what she wanted. But in reality, she wanted Briar to go away and never bother anyone again, while it was Troylus who thought of the cruelty.
Troylus, she decided, was a better person than she was. And she was okay with that.
Rullon and Indigo came around the corner, being led by the two guys who had been posted at the door.
“Let them go,” Alara said, shaking her head.
Indigo rushed over to Troylus and relaxed when he opened his eyes, Rullon took his time, a smile on his face.
“He over did it?” he asked, sitting down next to them.
“Of course,” Zellendine said.
While Troylus caught them up on everything, he gained enough strength to get up from the floor. And all of them walked back to their quarters, not looking back at the mess that was Briar’s cage even once. Leadership could handle Briar, it wasn’t their problem anymore.
46
Troylus
Waking up with his arms wrapped around Zellendine and hers around him, was sweeter than he even remembered it being.
For a split second, he wondered if he would have appreciated it as much if he hadn’t thought it would be gone, but he dismissed that idea.
There was going to be no stupid attempts to see the good in the bad about the utter shit situation he had been in. No, he was just going to do what had been drilled into his brain since he was tiny, keep moving forward and try to forget.
He buried his face in Zellendine’s neck, deciding it was his favorite way to wake her up as she started to squirm and tangle her fingers in his hair.
“You are going to be really hard to live with on the planet, huh?” she whispered in his ear and he laughed into her neck.
“Not for you. For everyone else, probably,” he said with a wink and kiss.
“Okay, you two, big day today.” Rullon climbed from his bunk with a big grin on his face and made his way to the service. “Have you checked which spindle you’re on? I need to know what time you’re boarding so Indigo can come see you off.”
“We’re on spindle 4,” Zellendine said, kissing Troylus again before she climbed from the bed and headed to the wet room.
“Let me check what time we’ll be boarding,” Troylus called to Rullon and checked his schedule on his holo.
But it didn’t say he was assigned to spindle 4, it said he was assigned to spindle 1.
“Shit,” he yelled, jumping up and throwing things on.
Rullon came out of the service with his eyebrows high, and Zellendine stopped to cock her head to the side as she walked out of the wet room.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Going to find Alara and have her switch my assignment to spindle 4,” he said, reaching for the door.
“You’re not with me?” she asked, grabbing his arm.
“I’m on spindle 1.”
Rullon groaned, but he held up a hand, stopping them both.
“Okay,” Rullon said, “So, they did the assignments before everything went to shit. We’ll eat something after you both put in emergency meeting requests on your holos. After yesterday, they have to listen when it’s you two. Then they’ll fix it when they get here. Come on, don’t freak out.”
Troylus still wanted to get it taken care of right that second, but his dad had a point. It was their last day on the Wheel, they shouldn’t spend it stressed and not with Rullon and Indigo.
He pulled Zellendine into him for a hug, and did what his dad asked.
Indigo and her partner showed up not long after they sent their messages and ate with them while they all speculated about the planet, the timeline for the rest of the population to land, and all manner of other things.
Rullon could have told them stories from when he was young on their last planet, but he still had trouble looking back. Plus, Troylus thought it was more fun to imagine all kinds of possibilities and he thought Rullon agreed.
Not long after they ate, there was a knock on the door.
Troylus hopped up to answer it, holding it wide open for Grandpa Kason and Alara on the other side who nodded their greetings to everyone inside.
“You received our messages?” He asked, not bothering with small talk.
“Of course,” Grandpa Kason said, “And we would like to accommodate your request, but I’m afraid we can’t. Not at this late date.” But the smile on his face and the frown on Alara’s, told him that was a lie.
“Why not?” Zellendine asked, coming to stand next to him, her arms crossed over her chest. “I’m sure one of the other starwalkers or medics would switch with one of us.”
“Because we didn’t give anyone else the option to choose who they were assigned to a spindle with, we can’t play favorites,” Grandpa Kason said, his smile brighter.
“No,” Rullon said from behind him. “Since her father died, she’s been living with us, she’s become like a member of the family. All families were supposed to be assigned together.”
“Like a member of the family could be said by a lot of people, I’m sorry but that doesn’t work.”
“If you hadn’t locked me up, we would be partners by now,” Troylus said, and Zellendine slipped one of her hands into his, threading their fingers together.
“That happened fast, it was just last shift that you were furious with her,” Grandpa Kason’s smile didn’t slip, but his eyes narrowed.
“I told you about that,” Alara sighed, “It’s complicated.”
“Zellendine, Troylus, I’m so sorry,” Alara said, turning to look at them and boxing Grandpa Kason out of the main section of the doorway. “I was out voted. But, as soon as the spindles start to deliver more colonists to whatever burgh you’re in, there will be travel allowed between them, and you can re-settle at one of the others after you’re partnered.”
Grandpa Kason and Alara nodded and left.
There was no more to do, there wasn’t a way to stop it.
He was going to be separated from Zellendine.
She flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. He wrapped his around her and held on.
“No matter what, I’m making this as fast as possible, and getting back to you,” he said.
“You better,” she said, pulling back so she was looking in his eyes, “I’m going to miss you.”
They kissed, what he knew was going to be one of their last kisses for what could be a year. It was too much time. Somehow, he was going to have to come up with a way that he saw her sooner than that.
All day spent with his sister, her partner, his dad, and Zellendine, wasn’t enough when they had to split up to get on their spindles. It wouldn’t have been under normal circumstances, but after his time locked up, it wasn’t even close.
But they said their goodbyes, they made their promises, they shared their awkward pats on the back, and their pass
ionate, if melancholy, kisses, and they split up to their individual assignments. Onboard the Wheel, or on two different spindles, they separated to start the biggest change year of their adult lives.
47
Zellendine
She ran the number through her head again. It was the most important thing she owned. The knowledge of how to spread the word.
They may have taken away her father’s holo, made sure it stayed in the clinic, but they would never think to look in that file. They would never realize exactly what she had. And they would certainly never realize that it didn’t matter that they had taken it, other than it pissed her off even more.
Maurice next to her, suspended as she was in straps, bounced a little. His grin was gigantic, and his eyes wide, although there were no windows on the spindle.
Rullon said he was a friend, so she tried to stay next to him. The one person on the spindle she felt like she could trust at all, was someone whose name she had only spoken for the first time the day before.
For a guy who seemed pretty solid attitude wise, and who was closer to Rullon’s age than hers, his bouncing made her feel like she was strapped in next to Upton.
“Excited?” she asked, smiling despite herself.
“Of course I am. Planetside… It’s been way too damn long. You’re going to love it.” He pointed his grin at everyone, making eye contact with each of them.
Some of the people around them smiled back, even if shyly, some just opened their already wide eyes more as if his enthusiasm was scaring them. But one person, a girl with a bright yellow tie in her hair, flipped him off with a wry grin.
Zellendine laughed. A sound she was unaccustomed to in recent days.
But it felt right to laugh on the way to the planet. It felt right that she was about to be as free as she was going to get.
As soon as everyone else made their way down from the ship. As soon as she found Troylus, got him back in her life, whether at her spindle or his, and anyone else who wanted to leave their settlements behind, she was going to send the message. And then, she would really laugh.
48
Troylus
Of all the ways he imagined his trip to the planet to go, and there had been so many over the years, including the ones where he didn’t go at all, none of them were quite like this.
The straps over his shoulders and crossing his chest felt too flimsy for what they were about to do. But he couldn’t look to the side and joke with the person next to him about it. He didn’t know them.
He didn’t know anyone on his spindle. Not a single person even looked familiar to him from the faces he had seen in the halls or starwalkers who worked similar hours.
In every scenario he had conjured up in his mind, someone he knew was part of his landing crew. But the other starwalkers were from different shifts. The terraformers were none he had ever even seen. And the medic wasn’t her.
Maybe it wouldn’t have bothered him so bad if she was staying behind. Which sounded shitty, even inside his own head, but if she was still on the ship in the clinic, he could believe she would eventually be assigned to his same burgh and join him. But she was in another spindle.
Not for one damn second did he believe the computer chose their assignments. Not for one damn second did he believe that it just happened to put Zellendine in a spindle as hard for him to get to from his as possible.
But if leadership thought their little game was going to end with them on opposite sides of a damn mountain range and not with them broadcasting their information out to the other ships, they were in the wrong universe.
As the spindle shifted around him, separating itself from the others and the Wheel itself, moving through space toward their new home, he made the planet a promise.
Someday, even if it took him a year, he was going to make a home there for him and Zellendine. He was going to do it away from the Chapter, their computers, and all of their lies. He was going to do it with her help and create a place where any of the people who didn’t want to be part of the main group could find a community.
He just had to figure out how to get to where her ship was. He just had to land.
Epilogue
Briar
* * *
All he had ever wanted was flying off. Without him.
He watched out the window of the gathering room, the view split by cobbled together pieces of metal and lots of sealer, while people around him celebrated. But there was no joy in him seeing the spindles depart. Not when he wasn’t on one. Not when it wasn’t a mission he should have been a part of.
Those people didn’t know what it was like to care about being a good citizen of the Wheel. They didn’t care. They wouldn’t have done what he did. They wouldn’t have done what was needed. But they got rewarded.
And all he got to do was watch and stay silent. Grandpa Kason had made it very clear that no one else would understand, and he wasn’t to say a word. But he wanted to. Oh, he wanted to.
He wanted all of them to be stuck on the Wheel and for him to be the one to set foot on their planet first. He wanted to be the one to claim it for the Chapter.
But instead, he watched as the daughter of a traitor, the one who had probably looked backward and was probably in on the plot with her father to take down the Chapter computers, flew away.
The only thing left for him to do was look forward. Look forward and plan.
Afterword
Thank you for reading!
If you enjoyed this book, please leave a review at your favorite book vendor.
The third book in The Grimm Star Saga: First Light
is called
The Shattered Aurora
and it will be out soon!
While you wait, don’t forget to check out the other books by the author, get a free book, and keep up to date on all the upcoming titles at
jdarleneeverly.com
Acknowledgments
A whole hearted thank you to Bean, the Rottens, and all of my friends and family. A big bag of thanks again to Jupiter Alley and Magnolia editing for their help in making this happen, as well as the team at Wishing Well. This story kicked my butt, and then it picked me up off the floor and dusted me off, more than ready to write the third book for Troylus and Zellendine. Trust the muse, for she is wise, and if you don’t listen, she’ll still win.
The Spindle Page 16