The Girl From Mars

by Brenda Hiatt

  Before seeing him on the bus this morning I was worried his mother would make him promise to stay away from me. Or that he might decide for himself that was safest, no matter how magical those kisses were last night. Because it probably would be safest. I was incredibly relieved to discover he’d chosen our…whatever it is…over cold logic.

  I’m still smiling dreamily when I get to French—then notice the curious looks from my classmates and Molly’s knowing, slightly smug expression. M, however, doesn’t look happy at all. She stares at me piercingly, frowning almost like she’s seeing me for the first time. Almost like she’s…jealous.

  Which pisses me off. Does she still consider Sean her personal property even though she threw him over for Rigel? My indignation on Sean’s behalf is enough to undercut my happiness…until I see him again in Lit class.

  “Hey,” he greets me with that half-smile that accelerates my pulse before I even reach him.

  “Hey,” I respond, closing the gap between us. He takes my hand and, like always, his touch sends a pleasurable shiver through me.

  There’s no chance to talk during class, but on the way to lunch afterward I ask whether he told his sister about…us.

  “Not exactly. But Molly’s always been too observant—too nosy—for her own good, so I’m sure she knows.”

  “I’m sure, too. We haven’t exactly avoided each other today,” I point out.

  “Why should we? It’s not like we need to keep it a secret. Unless…you’d rather?”

  I chuckle. “You probably have a lot more reason to worry than I do. If you’re fine with it, so am I.”

  “I’m absolutely fine with it,” he assures me with a smile that warms me right to my toes.

  As though to prove it, once we have our lunch trays he leads me to a table in the corner where we can sit together and talk uninterrupted and unheard. Though we’re still drawing a lot of curious stares, the only people who look upset are Alan…and the Sovereign. I consider asking Sean what her deal is, but I don’t want to risk spoiling our first lunch together with questions about his old crush.

  In Government, the teacher announces we’ll be starting a new project on the electoral process. When she tells us to choose partners, Sean immediately turns to me. “Might be fun to work on that together, don’t you think?”

  Delighted to have a legitimate reason to spend more time together, I enthusiastically agree, barely noticing the sour looks Alan and M give us.

  * * *

  My good mood lasts all afternoon. Not even Adina’s giggling insinuations after we get off the bus bother me—much.

  “Just don’t say anything to Mum yet, okay?” I caution her. “You know she’d make a huge deal out of it and I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”

  She laughs, but promises. “By the way, I talked Mum into letting me stop Taekwondo. I’m still not all that into it—and I’d rather spend the time teaching Aggie more tricks and stuff. I told her you’d want to keep going, though. Right?”

  Given a choice, I’d now rather spend that hour on Wednesdays with Sean, but after a moment’s consideration, I nod. “Yeah, I do. I enjoy it and it’s almost always a good workout. It might even come in handy someday.”

  So when I walk to class half an hour later, it’s by myself. I pause a moment by the arboretum, remembering the blissful interlude I spent with Sean right on this spot last night. If things go on like they did today, it probably won’t be the last time. I hope not, anyway.

  Sean may have convinced me that Emileia isn’t necessarily a terrible Sovereign, but I’m still ticked at her for acting upset that he and I are together. Whether it’s because she’s jealous or because she considers me “beneath” him, I look forward to sparring with her again to give vent to my feelings. Unfortunately, we spend the whole class on forms and kicking combinations and never even put our pads on.

  I stay after a few minutes to let Master Parker know about Adina dropping out. When I finally leave, the Sovereign is waiting for me outside.

  “I think you and I need to talk,” she says without preamble. “Walk together?”

  Though startled, I immediately agree since I have a few choice things to tell her, too. Together, we head toward Diamond Street, her Bodyguard following half a block behind us.

  “Molly tells me you and Sean are seeing a lot of each other these days. I noticed you two sitting together on the bus today, and at lunch.”

  I instinctively bristle at the hint of accusation in her tone. “Yeah? So? Does that break some other rule you somehow forgot to mention?”

  “Are you still upset I told your parents they shouldn’t have invited my uncle to dinner?” The look she gives me holds a trace of amusement, which only irritates me further.

  “That you called them out about it in front of everybody, yeah. I guess I am.”

  She shakes her head. “I never mentioned them by name. Nobody knew who I was talking about until they made a point of apologizing afterward—and I doubt many people even heard that.”

  I frown at her, thinking back, and realize she’s right. Technically. But my parents were still embarrassed, and it was her fault. “I just think you should have said something to them privately, instead.”

  “But that wouldn’t have kept others from doing the same thing,” she points out. “I thought it was admirable of your parents to immediately come forward like that. Most of the others didn’t. Anyway, back to you and Sean—no, there’s no rule I know of that you and he can’t be together. I just…don’t want him hurt again. So if you’re only going out with him because you have some grudge against me—”

  “I’m not,” I interrupt, even if she is the Sovereign. “It’s nothing to do with you. Anyway, you’re one to talk about not hurting Sean after the way you bounced back and forth between him and Rigel this past year. You knew Sean liked you, even apart from the whole Consort business, so it was just cruel to lead him on when you obviously wanted to be with Rigel the whole time.”

  Again, she’s shaking her head. “It wasn’t like that. I never, ever tried to make Sean think I liked him more than Rigel.”

  “That’s not the way I heard it,” I retort. “Everyone says you broke up with Rigel last fall, after Sean got here, and started going out with him instead, that you were still going out with him when you left for Mars. No wonder he thought you liked him back. But all along it was just some kind of…smokescreen so you could sneak around with Rigel behind Sean’s back. Behind everyone’s back. You even convinced the Echtran Council to make Rigel your Bodyguard. And we all know how that turned out.”

  She stops and I realize we’re right by the arboretum. “I guess I’d better explain the whole situation. Come on, there’s a place we can sit and talk in here.”

  But I don’t want my special memory of this place tainted by the resentment boiling up in me on Sean’s behalf. “Yeah, I know. It was politically expedient for everyone to think you were with Sean. You don’t have to explain that to me.”

  “There was a lot more to it than that, I promise. Come on.”

  Too curious now to refuse, I follow her through the archway to a metal bench in a back corner, well away from the few people wandering along the paths. It’s a lovely place—a place I’d like to visit again with Sean. Even as I’m thinking that, M gestures for me to sit, then sits down next to me. Like we’re friends or something.

  “The only reason I agreed to make it look like I was going out with Sean last year was to save Rigel’s life.”

  It’s so totally not what I was expecting, I gape at her. “To… What?”

  “I know it sounds melodramatic, but it’s true. You probably don’t know about this—they hushed it up really well—but early last December, Rigel and I tried to run away together, to keep the Council from separating us permanently.”

  I nod. “Molly told me they were planning to test an antidote to your bond with him?” Running away still seemed like an overreaction to me.

  “The Council—especially Allis
ter Adair—absolutely refused to believe our bond was real until after they made Rigel leave for ten days over Thanksgiving and saw how sick we both got—and how we immediately got better once we were together again. They had to believe then, but Allister’s solution was to order some Healers to come up with an antidote, then make Rigel and his parents move away from Jewel.”

  Though giving her the benefit of the doubt rubs me the wrong way, I can’t help imagining how I’d feel if I thought I’d never see Sean again. And the connection she and Rigel had, even back then, was apparently even stronger than ours.

  “So you ran.”

  “We ran. But the timing turned out to be terrible, because on the very same night we left Jewel, Faxon was finally overthrown. I mean, I’m sure they’d have come after us anyway, but because of that…”

  “They needed you on hand as a symbol for everyone in Nuath to rally around. To make those videos, to reassure us there wouldn’t be a power vacuum,” I finish, recalling that chaotic time, that first video, vividly.

  “Exactly. Once they caught up with us, they hauled Rigel off to Dun Cloch and me back here to Jewel. The Council claimed it was absolutely imperative for everyone on Mars to believe I was learning everything I’d need to become Sovereign, and that Sean and I were becoming a couple. They were afraid if the story of Rigel and me running away ever got out, it would undermine that impression, so they wanted to make Rigel a scapegoat. They actually charged him with kidnapping me, even though I told them that wasn’t what happened at all.”

  Allister and Lennox definitely hadn’t mentioned that, though they must have known. Assuming it’s true. “So why did they let Rigel come back to Jewel at all?” I demand, trying to poke holes in her story. “And that still doesn’t explain why you led Sean on, for months afterward.”

  “That was the deal I made with the Council. Sean found out from his uncle that not only was Rigel not given the antidote, but that he might not even get a trial. That they might just declare him guilty of kidnapping and treason and erase his memory before he could talk to anyone. So I called an emergency Council meeting and promised to pretend I was with Sean from then on, but only if they dropped the charges against Rigel and let him come back.”

  “And they agreed to that?” I’m still skeptical.

  “Not at first. Not until I swore I’d absolutely refuse to be their Sovereign if anything happened to Rigel. Hardly anyone knows this, but…they’d just found out about the Grentl, those aliens who—”

  “I remember.” I don’t mention that Sean told me about the destruction they nearly wrought in Nuath last spring.

  “Since I’m supposedly the only one who can talk to them, that gave me a lot of extra leverage. Even so, it was…close. Finally the Council took a vote and agreed to my compromise, six to one.” The shadow of remembered fear in her eyes convinces me she’s telling the truth. Mostly.

  “Six to one? Someone on the Council still wanted to—?”

  She snorts in disgust. “Allister was the single ‘no’ vote. It turned out he and Lennox, the Governor of Dun Cloch, had been plotting all along to get Rigel out of the picture—and not just by erasing his memory. Rigel told me when he got back that Lennox told him to his face he planned to kill him and make it look like an accident.”

  I draw in a quick, horrified breath. “No way. They couldn’t have—” I break off, beyond shocked. I trusted Allister and Lennox. “Was there any proof, other than what Rigel told you?”

  To my surprise, she nods. “Allister incriminated himself pretty thoroughly, and there were witnesses in Dun Cloch, too. Rigel was released in the nick of time, thank goodness, and Allister got booted off the Council. Now he and Lennox are locked up in Dun Cloch—along with Gordon Nolan, who was still doing their dirty work until he got caught a few weeks ago. We haven’t figured out yet how they communicated with him.”

  For several seconds, I’m too stunned to speak. I just know I need to get away from the Sovereign before I accidentally blurt out something that will get me locked up, too. I somehow doubt my accommodations would be as luxurious as Allister’s and Lennox’s.

  “I, ah, I’d better get back.” I lurch to my feet. “Thank you for explaining all this. I…I had no idea.”

  She stands, too. “Like I said, it was all hushed up at the time. But I promise you, Sean has known from the very start how things stand between Rigel and me, even if he didn’t like it. I do think he hoped for a while if I spent enough time with him I’d change my mind, that my bond with Rigel might disappear or something and I’d fall for him instead. But I swear I never, ever gave him any reason to think that might happen. Even so, none of this was fair to Sean and I’d hate to see him hurt again.”

  “I don’t want him hurt, either. I…like him a lot.”

  “I’m glad, because it’s pretty obvious he likes you a lot, too. Sorry if I made it sound like—”

  “No, it’s okay. I get it. You were worried I might be using him. Like I thought you had, before you explained all this.”

  She smiles at me and I smile back—almost like we’re friends.

  I want to ask about Sean’s touch keeping her from getting sick back in Nuath, about her bond with Rigel, and how long it took to develop, about…all kinds of things. But not now.

  Right now I need to get away, be alone. And think.

  35

  Cooldown

  Sean

  “I’m going for a walk,” I announce as soon as I’ve helped Molly load the dinner dishes into the cabinet to be sterilized.

  Immediately, Mum looks suspicious. “A walk? Where? Alone?”

  “What difference does it make?” Molly demands before I can answer. “Sean’s gone for plenty of walks at night without you interrogating him. Now, just because he might like a girl, you treat him like he’s six years old.”

  To my surprise, Dad also comes to my defense. “Molly has a point, Lili. I see no need to discourage Sean from making friends with the new Echtran students, or even dating one of them. Where’s the harm? Either we trust Sean not to get himself into trouble or we don’t.”

  Mum glares at all of us for a second, then shrugs and turns away. “Very well. But don’t blame me if people start talking and you don’t like what you hear.”

  I figure that’s the closest thing to a blessing I’ll get, at least until she knows Kira better. Grabbing a light jacket I head outside, then send a quick text to her:

  Want to go for a walk?

  It’s only been a few hours since I last saw Kira but I already miss her enough that I don’t want to wait until tomorrow to see her again.

  Her answer comes less than a minute later.

  Sure. Where do you want to meet?

  I’ll head your way now.

  She sends back a thumbs-up and I start walking toward Diamond Street—the same route we took last night, in the rain. Tonight it’s perfectly clear, though noticeably cooler.

  When I reach the arboretum I pause, smiling reminiscently about the miracle that happened on this very spot less than twenty-four hours ago. I honestly hadn’t believed I could ever feel this way about any girl other than M. If anything, what I feel now for Kira is stronger. It’s also different, in ways I find hard to define. It’s almost like Kira fills an empty spot inside me I never knew was there.

  For the first time, I wonder if what I used to feel for M was really love at all. Shaking my head, I start walking again—and see Kira coming toward me.

  “Hey,” she says softly when she gets close. “I, ah, didn’t feel like waiting.”

  Grinning, I reach for her hand, anticipating, then enjoying the sensations that flow through me at her touch. “I’m glad. Gives us that much longer to be together before we have to go back.”

  “My thoughts exactly.” But though she returns my smile, she seems a little agitated.

  “Anything wrong?”

  She walks with me in silence for several seconds before answering. “I’m not sure. I…had a long talk with M today aft
er our Taekwondo class.”

  “Oh? What about?”

  Her chuckle sounds forced. “You, sort of. She was worried I’m only pretending to like you, to get back at her for embarrassing my parents. And that you might get hurt.”

  Though I’m touched M was concerned, it sounds enough like Mum’s dire warnings that I’m also irritated. “What did you tell her?”

  “That I’m not pretending.” She smiles up at me, but there’s still a shadow behind her eyes. “I, um, also said she was a great one to talk after the way she hurt you by leading you on, pretending she wanted to be with you when she didn’t.”

  “Did she explain why?”

  Kira nods, not looking at me now. “She said it was part of a deal she made with the Echtran Council to keep them from charging Rigel with kidnapping after the two of them ran away. She, um, also told me stuff about your Uncle Allister that was…pretty hard to believe.”

  “I’m sure everything she told you was true.” I can’t keep the contempt I feel for my uncle out of my voice.

  “You mean if she hadn’t made that deal with the Council, he might have—”

  “Wiped Rigel’s memory—or worse. Yeah. He and Lennox, the former Governor of Dun Cloch, were so keen to take Rigel out of the picture permanently, they tried to take what they called ‘justice’ into their own hands.”

  What I don’t say is that I made things even harder for M and Rigel afterward with my campaign to convince M she should be with me for real. Kira doesn’t need to know just how hung up on M I used to be. Even so, she seems surprisingly upset now.

  “You…you really think your own uncle would have done that?”

  “I found it hard to believe at first, too, but the Council launched an investigation and all kinds of nasty stuff came to light about him. I mean, he was never exactly what I’d call likable. Loved to order people around, a complete stickler for all that Royal privilege crap, but…” I shake my head in disgust. “I’m ashamed now to admit he’s related to me.”