Nova ripped a strip of fabric from her shirt and tied his hands behind his back. “That’s right. If you’ll listen to reason, maybe you can help us.”
Tauren’s eyes blazed. “I’ll never go against my father’s orders.”
“Then you’ll have to sit by and watch us succeed, because we sure as hell ain’t going back to Paradise 21 to drop you off.” Leo nodded to Asteran. “Right?”
Asteran helped Nova secure the ties. “That is correct. Not only do we not have enough time, but surely your leaders would capture us upon arrival.”
As they spoke, my mind turned the events of the night over and over. If Tauren had known about our plan or even caught on while it was in motion, he would have alerted his father right away, and that meant he would have come with reinforcements. But no, it was just him against the three of us and he’d never risk such a tactical disadvantage. He must have already been on the ship before we arrived. If that wasn’t suspicious, then I didn’t know what was.
I leaned over Tauren’s face, which had swelled with all the extra exertion. “What are you doing here?”
He strained against his bindings. Nova had tied the knots well. “I’m on a mission. Direct orders from my father.”
I leaned in even closer so I could feel his breath on my lips. “A mission for what?”
Tauren’s face hardened and he looked away. “I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Of course.” Nova stood and walked away. “He’s not gonna tell us anything.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll just get the job done and then bring him back. He can skewer us with all his accusations later.” Leo started to pace, making me more anxious. “We’ll just have to keep him tied up the whole time.”
“That seems against your code of ethics.” Asteran stood, observing Tauren with his beautiful eyes.
Leo spread his hand over Tauren’s broad chest. “He’s a liability. We can’t let him roam around, shooting whoever he wants.”
“Then we convince him of our cause.” Asteran bent down and helped Tauren straighten against the wall. “Starting with civilized introductions.” He held his hand up so that his palm faced Tauren. “My name is Asteran Dulith Val Kilaminju, waverunner of the Tulisian people of Priavenus.”
Tauren narrowed his eyes as if he still had a smarty-pants move up his sleeve. “I’m Tauren Crophaven, son of Commander Crophaven...”
I rolled my eyes. Like his status on Paradise 21 would have any effect on Asteran. Boy, was he wrong.
Tauren wasn’t finished. He sneered, licking his lips as if he relished the moment more than pumpkin pie. “I’m also Lyra Bryan’s lifemate.”
Chapter Fifteen
Direction
Asteran turned to me, confusion swirling in his eyes. My world came crashing down. How would I ever explain my situation to him? He must think I’m the biggest two-faced flirt on the planet. In that moment, I despised Tauren more than I’d ever resented him before. He made me feel like nothing more than his possession, on a par with his uniform or his laser.
Leo didn’t seem to notice, because he continued as if Tauren’s words hadn’t slashed Asteran’s composure. “I don’t know if your daddy told you, but there’s an entire fleet of arachnid ships waiting to take over Paradise 21. We have about sixty days to eliminate the mother brain controlling all of the drones, or our entire colony will end up like Old Earth’s twin.”
“And you know this because some,” Tauren jabbed his chin at Asteran, “gold alien...told you so?”
“That’s not some gold alien, Tauren. That’s Tanny.” Leo said it in all seriousness, and I covered my face in my hands.
“Asteran.” I crossed my arms. “His name is Asteran. It happened to his people, and he’s going to stop it from happening to us.” Fortunately, my voice came out strong and steady.
Tauren’s claim on me had shaken my confidence, and I wasn’t sure my relationship with Asteran could recover. If it didn’t, I’d never forgive him.
Who was to blame, really? If I’d been honest and told Tauren how I felt from day one, then he wouldn’t think he had a claim on me.
Tauren spit at Asteran’s feet. “How valiant.”
Asteran bowed his head as if defeated. “I’m only doing what I feel is right.”
“Sure, what you feel is right.” Tauren leered at me. “I’m sure you’re feeling a lot these days.”
“That’s enough.” Anger boiled in my veins as I gestured toward the corridor. “There’s no way he’s going to help us. We should lock him up with a box of soybean wafers.”
Tauren ignored me, staring at Asteran with hatred and disgust. “And where are you going to find this all-powerful mother brain?”
Leo stepped in. “Duh. At their home planet. Asteran knows where it is.” Leo pointed to the star system illuminated in the red orb. “We’re going to Cavernia.”
Asteran held up a finger. “Actually, that’s Priavenus.”
“What?” Leo stuck his finger in his ear as if his earwax had made him hear something wrong. Nova furrowed her slender eyebrows. I stood dumbfounded, feeling like someone had melted the floor underneath me. Asteran had never mentioned returning to Priavenus. Why would he keep that from us?
The ship moved slightly under our feet, reminding me we had placed our lives in Asteran’s hands based on my assessment of his character. Had I been wrong?
Tauren chuckled with bitterness. “You don’t get it, do you? This alien tricked you into taking him back to his planet. The arachnids will attack, all right, but we’ll all be stuck on Pria-what’s-it’s-name, tanning in the sun with these shimmery elf-men.”
Asteran narrowed his eyes at Tauren. “That is incorrect. We must travel to Priavenus before we reach Cavernia. We need crystals like this one to protect all of you from the mother brain’s psychic powers.” He found the leather cord tied around his neck and dangled the jade crystal in front of Tauren. “Without the crystals to protect you, she will drive you insane.”
“Why didn’t you mention this before?” Nova’s voice shook. Tauren’s accusations and Asteran’s change of plan must have frazzled her.
I was feeling majorly frazzled myself, although a deep voice inside told me Asteran’s plan rang true. He wouldn’t take us all with him if he wanted to return to Priavenus. Would he?
Asteran bowed. How could he be so calm and collected all the time? “My apologies. We didn’t have time. I needed to get this ship airborne, which meant picking a course.”
“And you’re the right one to choose?” Leo narrowed his eyes.
Asteran held his hands in the air in surrender. “There is no other choice.”
“What if those arachnids harvested all the crystals on his planet? What if there aren’t any left?” Leo threw his arms up in the air. “Then we’re all doomed.”
Asteran held up a hand. “I know of a secret place where the elders hid our last remaining crystals.”
“So we’re just taking his word for it, then?” Leo glared at me.
“He’s right.” Nova stepped in front of Asteran as if to shield him from the rest of us. “We need those crystals. When I used this orb to free my team, I almost lost myself to the mother brain. Look at him. He can control the ship without being susceptible to her powers.”
“Psychic spiders? Mind-blocking crystals? This is nuts.” Tauren shook his head like a parent when their five-year-old asked if they could swim in space. “Why don’t you fly back to Paradise 21 and let my father take care of this?”
“Your father doesn’t know what he’s dealing with.” Asteran sighed and his shoulders slumped forward. “Those spiders took out my whole planet and everyone on it.”
Tauren gave him a self-satisfied smirk. “Your people just didn’t know how to handle them.”
Asteran winced. I reached out and took his arm, sending Tauren a wicked stare. “How dare you.”
Tauren chuckled like an evil bad guy when he finds the hero’s weakness and rubs it in.
Nova
gestured to Leo. “Come on. Help me take him away. He’s spoiling the group morale.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am.” Leo grabbed his feet as Nova slipped her arms under his shoulders. On the count of three, they hoisted him up, with Leo taking the brunt of the weight.
Leo grunted. “By the Guide, you weigh as much as a desert cow. Too many of those oversized potatoes, eh?”
Tauren scoffed. “It’s all muscle, scrawny boy.”
“Enough!” Nova turned so she took the lead. “I know just where to put him. Follow me.”
“You’re going to get us all killed.” Tauren spat the words at Asteran as they carried him away.
Silence fell as Nova and Leo disappeared down the tunnel. I wanted to tell Asteran so many things: how Tauren shouldn’t have taunted him about his people and how I was going to break it off with the despicable human who’d insulted him. My tongue stuck to the bottom of my mouth. I had no idea where to start.
A melancholy frown crept into the corners of his beautiful lips as Asteran turned toward the orb. The star system had grown larger in the span of the few minutes it took to bring Tauren down. Asteran placed his finger on the fifth planet revolving around a medium-sized star. Instead of a brightly colored globe, dark blotches covered the surface. “I hope your lifemate is incorrect.”
“He’s incorrect about a lot of things.” I circled the orb to the other side to meet his gaze. This was the perfect chance to make things right. All I had to do was explain how I was going to break it off with Tauren. I took a deep breath.
“Something’s happened to Leo.” Nova interrupted.
My breathed hitched, and I whirled around. Nova stood in the tunnel opening, with fear in her eyes.
My unease spiked. No, no, no. Not now. I tried not to jump to conclusions. Maybe Tauren had gotten a hand loose and punched him. Not that violence would be much better than craziness. “What’s wrong?”
Nova glanced at Asteran as if she didn’t know whether to tell me in front of him. “He’s acting strange.”
Yup. He’d fallen into his alternate reality again. All of the stress must have pushed him over. Now Nova would know our secret. Panic bubbled up inside me and I made my face into a blank emotional shield. “I’ll handle it.”
Glancing back one more time at Asteran’s concerned face, I followed Nova down the tunnel.
Once we were out of Asteran’s earshot, words flew from Nova’s mouth at a click a second. “Tauren’s foot slipped the binding, and he kicked Leo in the chin, which sent him sprawling across the room. I think Leo hit his head on the floor. He lay still until I shook him awake. When his eyes opened, it was like looking into a stranger’s face.” Nova increased her pace to a jog.
I struggled to keep up with her. “Is Tauren loose?”
“No. I sedated him with an anesthetic in the first aid kit in my backpack. He’s tied up in the hatchery.” She checked each tunnel attached to the one we were in, making me nervous.
“Where’s Leo?”
“Wandering.” Nova turned to me and winced as if I’d strike her. “I didn’t know if I should leave him. He refused to come with me, calling me Nora, of all things.”
Oh boy. This is bad. I swallowed the doubt that one of these days I wouldn’t be able to bring him back. “Just take me to where you last saw him.”
We entered the hatchery where Nova had blasted all of the arachnid eggs to flame. The laser marks still swept up the walls and the faint scent of burned flesh tinged my nostrils. Tauren’s bulky form breathed heavily from the back wall.
Even though he’d been a jerk to all of us, I still felt a pang of remorse. “How long will he be out?”
Nova shrugged. “A day or so. I made sure to give him a good dose.”
“Excellent.” I scanned the tunnel offshoots. “Which one do you think Leo took?”
“He was babbling about some kind of audition.” Nova shook her head. “I think he’s watched too many of those Old Earth movies.”
“You may be right.” I thought back to all of the scenarios. He always sat at a piano, in a practice room, in a concert hall or at a gig. We were in an alien bug ship. None of the tunnels looked especially musical.
“That one.” Nova pointed to the wider tunnel on the right. “He stared over there as he talked.”
“Okay, let’s go.” Worry jittered in my stomach. What if he lost his balance and fell down a hole or cut himself on one of the sharp stalagmites? Guilt poured over me for bringing him and putting him in danger. I should have stayed firm and left him behind.
We followed the tunnel to a fork. The right branched down into narrow darkness, and the left hinted at a dim glow of reddish light.
“This way.” I knew my brother well enough. For all of his bravado, he always kept his sleep pod light on at night. He’d never crawl deeper into the darkness, crazy or not.
We followed the tunnel as it wound in a sharp turn to the left and up an incline so steep the floor tilted from horizontal to vertical.
Nova shone her beacon light on dips in the metal. “Handholds.” She went up first.
I followed her, placing my hands and feet in the same pattern. Vertigo seized my senses, making it almost impossible to go on. My sweaty fingers clung to the indents. Whatever you do, space brain, don’t look down.
Nova glanced back at me as she crested the ridge where the tunnel leveled out. “You sure he’ll be able to climb this in his dream-like state?”
Leo had managed to leave our family unit multiple times while in one of his alternate realities. Once, we even found him in a tree in the biodome. “Yes, I’m sure.”
“So, this is something he does a lot?” Nova’s voice sounded innocent enough, but who knew what Crophaven had told her to report.
I froze halfway up. What was I going to tell her? I couldn’t tell on my brother, yet she was part of this team and deserved to know the truth. My fingers started to slip and my breathing came in ragged spurts. I couldn’t stay down there forever. The reddish light was getting brighter, illuminating Nova’s figure as she leaned over the rim and offered her hand.
“Wait.” I needed time to think. Something about the floor plan tugged at my memory. We took the right tunnel, then turned left and made a steep cut up to the higher floor.
My stomach soured as I thought of crazy Leo touching the orbs. I hoped Asteran watched over the controls. “This is leading us right back to the control room.”
Nova dangled her hand even lower and wiggled her fingers. “Come on.”
I took her hand, and she pulled me over the rim. We bolted to our feet and ran.
The hazy light brightened as we entered the control room. All of the orbs glowed, untouched. Asteran stood across the room, facing my brother. Both of his tan hands touched my brother’s forehead, his fingertips spread from his hairy eyebrows to the crown of his head. A surreal blue light emanated from between their faces.
My chest deflated as my stomach sank to the floor. “What is he doing to him?”
“Asteran, stop!” Nova moved toward him.
“No.” I grabbed Nova’s arm, afraid if she broke the spell, she’d harm them both.
“What? You’re just going to stand here while your brother may be in danger?”
I had to make a choice. I’d put all our lives in Asteran’s hands based on a shared memory and a gut feeling. How much did I really trust him?
I thought back to the compassion in his face when he’d run his fingers along my scar and the joy he’d expressed on his surfboard sliding over the waves. “Give him one more moment.”
Just as I spoke, the light faded, and Asteran stepped back, releasing my brother.
“What just happened?” Leo rubbed his eyes.
I breathed with relief and ran to his side. “Are you okay?”
“Fine, if you don’t count the kick to my face.” He extended his jaw. “Damn commander’s son thinks he’s all that. Hurts like hell.”
Leo was back again. My anxiety dissipated like mist in th
e sun. I hugged my brother so hard he squirmed.
“Enough with the PDA, sis.” Leo pushed me away and I felt like Mom on our first day at school. Man, was I getting old.
Nova approached Asteran. “What did you do to him?”
Breathing heavily, he leaned against the wall and slid to his feet. His glimmering skin had paled and shone slick with sweat. He propped his elbow on his knee and rubbed his forehead above his tattoo. The inky black swirls glowed in the red light. “I gave him a compass.”
Chapter Sixteen
Multiple Sight
“A what?” Nova stood over Asteran with both hands on her hips.
I regarded him with a newfound awe. He’d just done in minutes what would have taken me over an hour and a song or two. “You mean you brought him back to reality.”
Asteran shook his head, wavy locks falling around his ears. In the dim reddish light, his hair shone a dark navy, almost bordering on black. Cerulean and gray specks sparkled in his eyes. “I showed him the way to this reality.”
Unease spread through my gut. The boundaries of time and space stretched too far for my little human mind. “What do you mean this reality?”
“Your brother has an exceptional talent. He can see what once was, what transpires now, and what will come to be. I only showed him how to navigate to and from each separate time.”
My mind swam with the meaning to Asteran’s words. All this time I’d thought my brother’s ramblings were nonsense and he’d pulled me in as a character in his dreams. Had I lived past lives as well? Were we really rival musicians back on Old Earth? The realization dumbfounded me, leaving me speechless.
“You mean I’m not crazy?” An astonished smile brightened Leo’s face.
“You have greater powers than anyone I’ve ever seen.” Asteran studied him with wonder.
I shook my head. “All this time we hid his visions for fear of persecution.”
I turned to Nova. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t have the psychologists lock him up.”
She placed a hand on my shoulder with compassion softening her usually stoic face. “If he were my brother, I’d have done the same.”
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