“No. Your mom really seemed to be looking forward to it.”
“She’ll get over it. I think this is a bad idea. You’re angry and I don’t feel like dealing with any kind of big blow up right now.”
“If he’s been hitting you—”
“Adam, please. This is all too much right now. I can’t deal with it all at once.” A tear slips from my eye, and I wipe it from my cheek. Great, now I’m crying. All I ever seem to do any more is cry.
Adam takes my hand into his and squeezes. “Okay,” he says. “I promise I won’t start anything.”
“This is a bad idea, Adam.”
“It’ll be fine.”
“No it won’t. You don’t know Mark. And why do you want to go so bad?”
“I told you,” he says. “I said yes to your mom, and she was so excited about it. I feel so helpless being in California when you’re stuck here dealing with this and I worry all the time. I thought maybe this would give me an ‘in’. A chance to find a way to help.”
I hesitate. Deep breath. Tell him I’m not going in there. I’m not going in there. His soft gaze bleeds into my heart. “You worry about me?”
His eyes soften. “Of course.”
“Promise you won’t call the cops.”
“I won’t.” He raises my hand to his lips and kisses my fingers. “Promise.”
“Okay. Let’s go in.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
“So Adam,” Mark says. “Tell me, what brings the son of the infamous Laris Knight to Star Harbor?” We’re in our kitchen, the table covered in dishes and plates and silverware. My mom buzzes nervously between the counter and table, bringing drinks and more food. She’s smiles and sunshine, and I can’t remember her serving dinner before. At least not since my dad died.
“My mom lives here. I spend the summers with her.” Adam answers and calmly takes the bowl of potatoes I pass him, spooning a pile onto his plate. I’m cutting into my chicken, taking two bites at a time.
“It’s not summer yet.” Mark rubs his hands together and rests his elbows on the table. His eyes dig into Adam, and I flash back to the morning we had pancakes, when he seemed to know so much about the lights on the lake. Tingles creep up my spine. Does Mark know something?
“I thought I’d come early this year.”
“Really? Star Harbor?”
“Yes. I love this area.”
“Compared to California?” Mark’s voice is gruff and challenging. My head buzzes with suspicion. I take another bite, hoping it will ease my growing nausea, and curl my fingers around the bottom of the chair.
“Actually, I prefer it here. It’s quieter and has better views.” Adam glances at me with an amused expression, and suddenly I forget Mark. My cheeks flame. Chew, chew, swallow.
“With a dad as famous as yours, I imagine you never get bored out there.”
“Nope.” Adam raises his eyebrows at me.
“What exactly does your dad do?” My mom asks. She joins us, taking the seat between Mark and I, and gingerly lays out a napkin on her lap.
“You’re kidding right?” Mark snorts. “What are you an idiot?” My mom’s face reddens.
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t—”
Mark waves a hand at her and turns back to Adam. “So did your mom see the UFO by your place?”
“UFO?” Adam asks.
“The blue light a few weeks ago. That was about the time you came back, wasn’t it?” Mark’s beady eyes stare at Adam. My heart sinks again. Mark does know something. He has to. Icy fear trickles through my veins. I need to get Adam out of here.
“No, I don’t think she did.” Adam takes a bite of chicken and chews slowly. I bite my lip. Chew faster, Adam.
“Really?” Mark oozes sarcasm.
“Maybe we should let our guest eat,” my mom says gently.
“Shut up, you stupid woman,” he says his voice abrupt. “Me and Adam are talking.” I smell the tension in the air. Adam’s muscles harden, and his face pinkens. I squeeze thoughts in my head and try to send them to Adam. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.
“Maybe you should apologize,” Adam says in a voice like cold concrete. He steeples his fingers, wrinkles his forehead, and levels his gaze at Mark.
“Oh, no, don’t worry about it. You guys talk.” My mom rushes to her feet, but not before I miss the tears tracking across her cheek. I glance at Adam and by the twitch in his jaw, I know he sees them too. Clutching the table edge to fight the nervous waves passing through me, I try to form a plan. Get Adam out of here without leaving my mom with an enraged Mark.
She cries harder, and the tension floods the room like a leaky faucet and backed-up sink. It’s in Mark and Adam and me. I know what’s coming. I don’t want to be here.
“We should go.” I stand up, but neither Adam or Mark respond. They are locked on one another, only the loaded table between them. “Come on Adam.”
“Sit down,” Mark says without taking his eyes off Adam. “Now.”
“No.” I swallow back the fear rising up in me. “Adam, let’s go.” Mark slams his palms onto the table so hard that dishes clatter. He jumps to his feet and leans forward his nose nearly meeting mine.
“I said sit down.”
“Mark.” My mom tugs his arm. He whirls on her and thrusts his fist into her face. She’s pink and red and wailing, her hands covering her eyes as she crumples to the floor. Adam leaps to his feet and blocks Mark’s path.
“What? You think that because of who your father is, that makes you better than me or something.” Mark growls at Adam. My eyes dart between them and my mom. How can I stop this?
I go for my mom. “Are you okay?” I ask.
She shakes me off.
“Mom?”
“I’m fine.” But she’s not. She’s red and puffy and covered in tears and blood. Her eyes are like a stray puppy, so broken and lost. I focus on the bleeding, on the lip Mark’s fist had split.
“Ice, I’ll get—”
There is crashing from behind me. Mark is the color of raw meat, and he’s banging and breaking and lashing at Adam. He misses. He lunges again and misses again. Wild now, he punches the walls. He tears his fist through the air into the drywall over and over and over.
My mother cries louder. She holds my arm, her nails digging into my flesh.
“Adam,” I scream. “Adam, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” he says calmly without taking his eyes off Mark. He focuses, taking slow steps across the kitchen. His face is a fiery red and his fingers are curled, clutching what I know is the Nexus. No, Adam. I feel the energy bouncing off of him. I know what he’s doing, what he’s about to do. I’m on my feet, running to him.
“No.”
But I’m too late.
Sweat, shaking walls, gold light explodes all around us.
Mark’s eyes flash and his lips curl into a sadistic smile. And then his face goes blank. His eyes are empty, no more wild or rage. His muscles relax and his hands unclench. He falls like a limp doll with a plastic painted-on-smile. The thud of his body meeting the floor explodes through the room.
My mom rushes to Mark, screaming and crying. Blood still gushes from her face, mixing with her blond hair and turning it pink. She needs help—the first aid kit. But it’s Adam I go to and Adam I touch and Adam I worry about.
“Adam. Adam. Adam.” He doesn’t hear me or see me or feel me. He is pale and shaking and I shake with him. It’s draining him. The blue fades from his eyes. My stomach buckles and my heart crashes.
My phone. Slipping it from my pocket, my fingers push the numbers. It rings and rings and rings.
And then Stella picks up.
And I cry into the phone, while Adam begins to shimmer and shake. Like blue jello. He glows and then fades, disappearing into the patch of blue light on my mom’s kitchen floor.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Stella’s on the couch with my mom, holding an ice pack to her face while Adam helps his dad haul Mark into the b
edroom.
“He’ll think he drank too much and passed out,” Adam tells me. “He won’t remember this.” His eyes shift from me to his parents. He had reappeared and woken up only seconds before they arrived.
“I just used a little power,” he had told them. Their faces are drawn and their lips make straight lines. And my mom’s glaring at me. I’m not making friends tonight.
“I think I’m done here. Ready?” Laris looks at Stella.
“I think I’ll stay for a little while.”
Laris nods. “Adam?”
“Later.” Adam is looking at me.
Laris furrows his brows and sighs. “Very well,” he says, and disappears out the front door.
“I think your mom will be okay with my mom,” Adam says. “Can we take a walk?”
I nod and Adam takes my hand and we slip outside. There’s a cold breeze, and I’m glad I have my coat. We walk through the woods in silence, crossing the road, down the path, to our beach. It’s clear tonight, the sky is black and glitter and the lake is quiet.
“There are so many of them…stars…planets,” I say. “How many other worlds are there…are Perseidians the only aliens or are there others?”
Adam laughs. “I don't really know. Everyone I've met is either Perseidian or human.”
“What’s Perseida like?”
“I don’t really know,” Adam says. “I’ve never left earth.”
“But your dad must've told you.”
“Not really. He's pretty much focused on one thing and that's the Nexus.”
“But if you go…if this doesn't work out. Don't you wonder what your life will be like on Perseida?” I think of Stella’s comment of how Adam will be a king. Will there be a queen? My heart burns at the thought of Adam with someone else. Someone beautiful. Someone like…like Brianna.
“I don’t know,” he says. “What’s with all the questions?”
“I was just thinking.” I cross my arms and kick a stone with my shoe.
“Thinking that my mom is right and there is no way out of this.” His voice shakes and he looks away from me. Towards the lake and the sky and the stars. The muscles along his jaw flex and his hands clench.
“I’m sorry.” I rub my hand along his arm, but he doesn’t turn to me. He’s quiet. Too quiet.
“Why can’t you believe me when I say I’m staying? Do you want me to go?” There is pain in his words. In his voice. In his eyes.
“No, I want you to stay,” I say in a small voice.
“Then trust me. I’ve got leads that they have no idea about.”
“I want to.”
“I promise you, I’m not going anywhere, ever. Believe that.”
“I’m trying. Really, really trying.” The words shake as they escape my mouth, but there is truth in them.
“Sage, I mean it when I say I want to stay. When I say I want to be with you. I love you, more than anything.”
“I love you too.”
He pulls me in his arms, tangling fingers in my hair, taking my lips into his. We’re flying and free and fearless. He tastes of fresh breezes and sunshine, and I’m drinking it in. And over the roar of my blood, I hear a twig snap. I shiver, but not from Adam. I pull away and look in the direction of the sound. It came from across the beach, from the woods.
A dark figure lurks in the trees. An arm raises, pointing an object towards me. My heart shudders, and I wobble. Adam’s arms encircle me, holding me up.
“What? What is it?” I point to the woods. But I can’t speak. The edges of my vision blur and I feel the pull. Pain explodes in my head. I’m being pulled apart, caught in the whirlwind, circling a drain. Falling to my knees, I cover my ears and scream. Adam squeezes me, his arms wrapped tight around me. He whispers in my ear, but all I can understand is the warmth in his breath. It drowns the pain and I dig my nails into his fist.
I suck in air, greedily at first and then slower.
Adam’s voice clears and the pain fades. “It’s okay, all okay.” His lips brush my forehead.
“Yeah, yeah.” The pain is gone. I am whole.
“What happened?” Adam releases his grip and takes my hands into his. I look towards the woods again. The figure is gone.
“I don't know. There was…there was….. Over there.” I point a shaky finger to where I saw the figure. “Gone now. But he—he was there.”
“There’s nobody there.”
“I felt it. I felt him. I felt like my body was being ripped apart. Like those guys in Kansas.”
“This doesn’t make sense. My dad says Star Harbor is safe from the Nexians.” He shakes his head.
“The Nexians?”
“Yeah, they're the ones who have enslaved Perseida. The Nexus was created by them, and they’re looking for it. But they can't come into Star Harbor, Sage. It's protected ground. If a Nexian steps foot over the city limits, it would kill them. That's why my mom moved here, why my dad lets me come here. This is just impossible. Are you sure you saw someone?”
“I’m not crazy. I felt it. You have to believe me.” I talk fast and my voice burns, and my blood burns, and my heart burns. Tears trickle across my cheeks and nose. “Trust me, like I’m trusting you.”
“I’m sorry.” He pulls me into his arms and I rest my head against his chest. I hear his heartbeat, and I close my eyes. “In Arizona, how did we get away? I keep trying to remember and put the events together in my head, but it’s all so hazy.”
“Zane, he’s the one that saved us at the truck stop.” I pull away and look up at his face.
“Zane?” He repeats the words and I see question marks in his eyes. He didn’t know. He doesn’t know. “Are you sure that’s his name?”
“That’s what he said. And he was there, Adam. He did save us in Iowa. And I saw him in the rest stop. And at the restaurant in Arizona.” There are light bulbs exploding in my head. I forgot. How could I forget? “He helped me, helped us. When the Nexians came on the road. He brought us back here. He’s still here, you know. I saw him tonight. That means he can’t be a Nexian, right? And back in Arizona, he hinted at a way that he could help you. We need to find him.”
“No.” Adam is a bomb that has detonated. “No, no, no.” He’s on his feet backing away from me, pacing the beach. He runs fingers through his hair and he’s kicking sand and punching air.
“Adam?” It’s a breathless whisper. I dig my hands into the sand and press my lips together. “Adam?”
He stops. He doesn’t look at me. Doesn’t speak. He’s a statue staring at the water. I can’t see his breath. I can’t hear his heart. It’s just the lake and waves and wind.
“Adam, you’re scaring me.”
He finally moves and sighs and crouches in front of me, taking me into his arms. “I’m sorry,” he says. “So sorry. But we can’t look for him.”
“Why not?”
“Because I know Zane and he is a Nexian, Sage. He kills for them. Even worse, he kills humans.” He takes a deep breath, and his gaze meets mine. There is fear in his eyes. “He knows who you are, Sage. He knows what you mean to me. And if he’s here, in Star Harbor, this is bad.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Adam is quiet when he walks me home. His warnings ring in my ears, but they don’t feel right. Everything’s off somehow. I should trust Adam. This is his world.
“Why?” I ask when we reach my door. “Why didn’t he kill us when he had the chance? At the truck stop? In Arizona? Why did he save us?” Adam releases a slow noisy breath and faces me. He weaves his fingers through mine.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s all part of his big plan or some kind of trick.” Images flash through my head. The evil in the eyes of the Nexian, the softness in Zane’s.
“He’s not one of them.”
“He has to be. He's not Perseidian either. And that makes him very dangerous.”
“How can he not be Perseidian? He used the Nexus. That’s how we got home.”
“Perseidians can’t use the Nexus. It'
s poison to our blood. That's why I get sick.”
“But if he’s not a Nexian and he’s not a Perseidian, then what is he?”
Adam shakes his head. “I don’t know. I just know he’s not good.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s after my dad.” His face pales and he drops his voice. “People close to my dad, people he’s cared about, are dead because of Zane. Who knows…he may have even killed that girl at the truck stop.”
I gulp in the night air and think of the girl at the truck stop, of the blood and her lifeless eyes. “No.” I shake my head and whisper. “I saw Brian do it.”
“Zane’s very manipulative. Believe me. The Nexians love him. He’s not afraid to get blood on his hands.”
Zane flashes through my head. When he opened the van door. When Brian saw him. They were working together, but why did he help us get away? “Your mom? Would he hurt her?” I breathe the words and Adam squeezes my hands.
“Yes,” he says. “He could hurt her and you.” His hands shake. Or maybe it’s mine shaking. “You have to promise me if he shows up here, you’ll stay away. Get a hold of me right away. Promise me.”
My head swims with images that don’t connect. Zane who rescued us. Zane with the snark and cryptic words and the crooked smile.
Zane a killer.
“Yeah,” I say.
Adam hugs me, cradling the back of my head with his hand. “I love you. And believe me when I say I’m not going anywhere. Forget my mom. Forget my dad. I’m going to figure this out. We’re going to figure this out.” He presses his lips softly to mine. I want to hold on, to curl into him, to never let go. But he pulls away, unwraps himself from me, and says goodbye. I watch his car disappear into the night.
Stella waits inside on the couch, her arms folded across her chest, her face grim. “Your mom went to bed,” she says.
“Thanks for taking care of her.”
“I was waiting for you. Can we talk?” She pats the empty space next to her. I hesitate and she pats again. “Please.”
One Starry Knight: A Scifi Alien Love Story (The Starry Knight Saga Book 1) Page 17
