“After I disable the tracking systems, we have to figure out where we’ll head next.”
“I have an idea where.”
He cocked his head to one side and peered at me inquisitively.
“Where?”
I wouldn’t tell him yet, no matter how much he begged.
And I intended on making him beg a great deal during the journey.
Kayal
Eventually, it became clear where we were heading.
Ava had secretly input the coordinates to Computer and the star systems zipped past on either side.
It came as a shock when I realized our destination.
“Qyah’an’ka?” I said. “But that’s where the empire will assume I’ll go first.”
“That doesn’t matter. We have to go there.”
“Why?”
Once again, she refused to tell me.
“You need to tell me.”
“No, I don’t. Not yet.”
“Then I’ll make you.”
I dragged her into bed—which didn’t take much dragging, it had to be said—and teased her, refusing to carry out all the things she loved most.
And still, she refused to tell me.
I had no choice but to rely on the trust I had for her.
She would only keep something from me if she thought it was for the best.
I fully disabled Computer and his tracking systems the moment we were out of the empire’s range.
Disabling it any sooner would have piqued their curiosity if our escape hadn’t done so already.
No need to alert them to our disappearance faster than necessary.
Finally, we came to Qyah’an’ka’s outer orbit and it was a real relief to see the solar storm wasn’t present.
No chance of traveling back in time today.
It was a beautiful clear day as we descended to my parents’ old farm.
The sight of it looking so dilapidated after twenty years of neglect brought sadness to my heart.
The tools sat left out in the open, blunted, and rusted beyond use.
Broken machine parts lay overturned from my parents’ frantic escape twenty years ago when the Shadow had attacked.
The inhabitants would have rushed for somewhere—anywhere—safe for their loved ones to hide.
But on this planet, nowhere was safe.
They were due to be assimilated into the Shadow’s purview.
Entering the old farmhouse was like entering a bad dream.
The walls had turned green where the moss had encroached, turning it thick with green carpet.
Fingers of purple moss battled the green for supremacy, leaving deep scars over the walls.
The empty rooms were good shelter and a dozen or more species had taken up residence.
A mother praetuk flapped her wings and squawked at us to leave her nestlings alone.
We proceeded upstairs, careful where we stepped for fear the vines might snag our feet.
Here too in the upstairs rooms lay evidence of my parents picking through the drawers and wardrobes and emptying them of valuable items needed for survival in the wild.
The drawers lay open, untouched since that fateful day.
I turned to Ava, my voice barely a whisper.
“Why did you bring me here?”
Ava shuffled from one foot to the other.
“I thought we would find something. I thought they would leave a message.”
“There are messages written all over this place. Of their desperation, their fear. Why did you make me return to this place when you knew their demise was my fault?”
She took a step toward me but I was in no mood to accept her advances.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you,” she said. “Something I did that you would have been angry about before…”
Even angrier than she made me by dragging me back to this place?
“We don’t have time for this,” I snapped. “We have to leave. We had a good head start. Every second we waste is another the Shadow will use to track us down. We have to go. Now!”
“No. We need to search for something!”
“What?” I snapped.
She stepped back from my harsh tone.
“The day we left and headed into the solar storm to return to our own time—”
“What about it?” I snarled.
“The night before that, while you were sleeping, I looked out the window and saw someone was still awake in your parents’ farmhouse. It had to be your mom. She knew something was up. She knew who you were but not the whole story of how we came to be there.”
“So what’s your point?”
“I wrote a letter explaining what was going to happen the moment we entered the solar storm. That the Shadow armada would descend and wipe out the entire planet. That morning when we left, I hugged her and asked if she was sure she didn’t want me to tell her what would happen—even if it cost their lives. She refused, so I took matters into my own hands.”
“What did you do?”
Ava licked her lips, unsure how I might respond.
“I… slipped the envelope into her pocket. If she wouldn’t listen to us tell her about the attack, then maybe she would see that note. By the time she realized what it said, it would be too late for her to avoid knowing it. Then she would have to decide whether or not to follow my instructions. Her future, and that of her family, was in her hands.”
I took a seat on the edge of the bed, the anger draining from me.
“I appreciate what you tried to do. But don’t you see? It makes no difference. I ended up in the Shadow military academy. They had to leave me behind for that to happen. They would never leave me behind like that.”
Ava took a seat beside me and took my hand.
“You might be surprised what a family would do if it meant they could be with you again in the future.”
I shook my head.
“If they even saw your letter and read it, they would have taken me with them.”
“Unless,” Ava said, raising a finger. “I explained to them that in order for you to be reunited, they had to leave you to the Shadow. They might not be happy about it, but after their experience with interacting with you over the past few days, they knew what was possible. There was a chance, no matter how small, that we would see them again. They could hide somewhere the Shadow wouldn’t find them, waiting for you to return to
