There was also the threat the M’rora was still out there and would be gunning for him with every moment that passed.
But there was something else that made me question what was going on.
This place felt slightly off-kilter.
Kayal’s ship was a technological marvel.
It could traverse space and time and travel at speeds I could hardly conceive.
It was hard to imagine the rest of the Qyah weren’t the same.
The farmhouse was definitely not kitted out the same.
But was that really such a surprise?
Not everywhere on Earth had the same level of technological prowess as Tokyo.
Still, that didn’t answer why the farmhouse felt so different, so… alien.
I was looking into a mirror and it was looking right back.
Like I was watching a TV show.
It played out and I wasn’t a part of it.
I checked the yard but didn’t see Kayal anywhere.
I headed into the barn and took the elevator to his room.
I heard the tap running when I approached the door.
I knocked but he didn’t hear me.
I knocked again and this time the door drifted open as it’d been left on the latch.
“Kayal?” I said, easing the door open.
When he didn’t reply again, I eased the door open further and entered the room.
The water sloshed and he turned the faucet off.
I found him bent over the sink scrubbing his mouth out with toothpaste, eyes fixed firmly on himself in the mirror.
“Kayal?” I said.
He leaped back in surprise and tripped over his feet.
He landed on the toilet seat.
When he saw it was me, he shook his head.
Yes, I thought. There was something very odd going on here.
“What’s wrong?” I said.
“Nothing,” he said, getting to his feet and spewing toothpaste foam into the sink.
He rinsed his mouth out and dumped his toothbrush in the specially-made crevice on the wall.
He marched into his room and I followed him.
“It’s obviously something. What is it?”
He shook his head and crossed to the other side of the room.
He opened a drawer and began rooting through it.
“Nothing,” he repeated. “Nothing.”
That was it.
I’d had enough of being left in the dark.
“Kayal!” I snapped.
I was surprised it made him bolt to attention.
“Look at me!”
He stopped rummaging in the drawer but didn’t turn to face me.
“I need you to tell me what’s going on,” I said, surprised at the hot wad forming at the back of my throat. “We fell from the sky and survived and you haven’t been the same since. Something’s wrong. I know it is. Please. Just tell me.”
His shoulders were slumped over like he’d been beaten, his honor stripped from him.
“I can’t.”
“Of course you can.”
But he still wouldn’t face me.
“Kayal…”
I placed a hand on his back and felt his muscles relax beneath my touch.
It was easy to forget such a big beast could have moments of weakness.
Ever since I’d met him, he’d been strong, as tough as a rock, and nothing shook him.
Nothing.
It scared me that something did shake him.
Something that made him react like this.
It was enough to terrify anybody.
“Please,” I said. “Tell me.”
I hated the pleading tone in my voice but I was desperate to know what it was.
My life hadn’t been my own for the past twenty-four hours.
If there was something that would affect it, would make my existence better or worse, I wanted to know what it was.
“Please,” I said again.
Kayal took a deep breath and let it out.
His shoulders dropped down again.
He turned around and his head hung so low his face was almost on par with mine.
He was shaken, broken.
I reached up and placed a hand on his cheek.
He opened his eyes and the touch seemed to give him confidence.
“Very well,” he said.
He didn’t move a muscle as he looked deep into my eyes and soul.
A shiver ran through me head to toe.
“It began with the storm,” he said slowly.
“The solar storm?”
He nodded.
“This is my homeworld. I was taken and forced to fight for the strength of the empire. I knew what happened to those who were too old to become soldiers. They got sent to the mines on distant moons and asteroids where they were worked to death. They’re more secure than any prison. There’s no chance of escape once you’re in the warden’s clutches.
“I remember the day they were taken from me. It happened right after the solar storm had faded. The ships came from the skies and descended on our cities and our towns and villages. We fought but we were no match for them. They defeated us easily.
“They say the solar storm comes every time there’s a dramatic shift in our culture’s history. Sometimes it’s for the better, sometimes for the worse. It happened the week of my birthday. I’d just turned five years old.
“The memories of my parents turned to poison in my veins. That’s how they teach us, how they educate us. That’s what happened to me and millions of others. I never thought I would see them again. But I did.”
I was listening, enrapt, still waiting to hear how this could have anything to do with this farmhouse or this family.
Then it hit me.
“They remind you of your family?”
My heart went out to him and all the emotions he must have been experiencing.
I thought I had a fairly normal upbringing and went through the same fears and worries and concerns as every other teenage American girl.
But to have my family ripped away from me at such a tender age…
I could only imagine how difficult that must have been.
He surprised me by shaking his head.
“No, you don’t understand. They don’t remind me of my family. They are my family.”
I froze, my hand no longer winding through his thick hair.
My eyes flicked from one golden iris to the other.
I must have heard him wrong.
“What?”
“They are my family. This forest, this farmhouse, this barn… everything. It’s all from my childhood.”
I rocked back on my heels.
“I don’t understand. Are you saying they’re ghosts?”
“No. They’re real. They’re here. And so are we.”
I thought he’d lost his mind.
It must have something to do with the bolt from the
