I thought about running. She could outrun me too. To survive, I either needed to play dead or appeal to her better nature.
“I should probably run,” I said. “If I ever came across someone of your size in the wild, I would run. No question about it.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“Because I came back to break your brother free,” I said.
“What?”
“Yes, I made a deal with the Changelings. They were supposed to take me and my friends home after I discovered who your brother was loyal to. But I never knew your brother then. I’d never even heard of Titans. Or aliens. Seriously. And ever since I met him, I knew there was something special about him. I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I knew he was the one for me.”
Despite her best efforts, Emana’s expression softened. She folded her arms.
“How could you do it to him?” she said. “I thought you… I thought you were our friend.”
“I was. I mean, I am. I came back.”
Emana turned away from me.
“You’re too late,” she said.
I gasped and my heart might have stopped.
“You mean he’s… dead?” I said.
I wrapped my arms around my stomach and rocked back and forth. I fought against hurling on the shuttlecraft earlier but now my stomach emptied and I didn’t even care.
He was gone. Taken from me.
And it was all my fault.
I knew then I wouldn’t run, wouldn’t put up a fight. I’d hand myself over to the Changelings and let them kill me, punish me any way they wanted. I deserved every last inch.
“He’s not dead, silly,” Emana said, rolling her eyes. “At least, not yet. But he will be if we just sit here, throwing up over ourselves.”
I wiped my mouth.
“Sorry,” I said. “When you said I was too late… I thought you meant… Really too late.”
“I meant he’s been captured. I don’t know what they’ve got planned for him on that stage but the moment he steps on it, he’s either dead or as good as.”
“Then we’d better rescue him,” I said.
“You betrayed him,” Emana said. “You worked with his enemies against him. As you got closer to him, you must have known you were falling for him. Why didn’t you tell him why you were there? Or tell me?”
“Oh yeah, right. Imagine the conversation: ‘Hey. Do you remember when we first met at the palace? Funny story. I was put there by your mortal enemy. The one who just conquered your entire species.’”
Emana rolled her eyes.
“Okay,” she said. “So maybe you don’t need to say it exactly like that…”
“I know. I just… I didn’t realize before now how much he meant to me.”
“But you still could have told him.”
“I was afraid! Okay? I was afraid I was in love with a big sexy alien man.”
Emana grimaced.
“Ew,” she said. “He’s my brother. You can’t talk about him like that with me around.”
“Sorry. But he is. I don’t ever want to be with someone else.”
Emana grinned.
“Aw,” she said. “That’s pretty cute. But look, if you betray a Titan, you have to at the very least get your arm broken.”
“Woah!” I said. “I’m not a Titan, remember? I don’t heal super-fast like you guys.”
“Not my problem.”
I whisked my arm away from her at the last moment.
“Then can we at least do this after we rescue your brother?” I said.
By now, I was desperate. How was I supposed to rescue anyone with a snapped arm flapping in the wind?
“Okay, fine,” Emana said. “But I get to be the one to snap it. Okay?”
“Sure, sure,” I said. “All arm snapping duties belong to you.”
I wiped the cold sweat that’d suddenly beaded on my forehead. Titans were nuts.
“That’s a relief,” I said. “The truth is, we’ll probably both be dead by the time we rescue Kal. Death sort of takes care of the whole broken arm thing, right?”
“I’ll try to snap it before death claims you,” Emana said. “I wouldn’t want to leave you dishonored.”
“Thanks,” I said flatly. “That’s… That’s really sweet.”
Above us, a shout rang out.
Emana shifted her weight to make a run for the trees. It would make her an easy target.
“No!” I said, grabbing her by the arm.
“Let me go!” she wailed.
“Hold on!” I said.
“Why? They’ll catch us!”
“Come with me!” I said. “Even if you make it to the wood and get in the shuttlecraft—”
“There’s a shuttlecraft?” she said.
Damn. I wish I hadn’t said that.
“Yes,” I said. “But you’ll never make it off this moon. Not with that huge Changeling ship perched over the town.”
Emana peered at the huge ship with its multiple turrets shifting from one target to the next. Then she lowered her eyes to mine.
“Fine,” she said. “I’ll follow you. But only until we break my brother free. Then I never want to see you again.”
It made me sad but I accepted.
“If that’s the way it had to be,” I said.
Heavy boots thumped on the wall above us as a contingent of a dozen or so guards marched in our direction.
I tugged Emana down to our knees. I scrambled through the ivy and ran my hands over the stones underneath.
“What are you doing?” Emana said.
“Looking for loose rocks,” I said. “See if you can find them. They should be here somewhere.”
Together we searched, coming up empty.
The guards marched closer and dirt rained on our heads.
“They’re going to see us,” Emana said.
“Can you slow them down?” I said.
“How long do you need?”
“A couple of minutes.”
Emana picked up the fallen bedsheets and tugged them over us. We continued scrambling for the displaced rocks.
They all looked the same! How could they all look the same?
Had I chosen the wrong section of wall? Had someone found the loose rocks and fixed them?
Above, the boots came to a stop and the Changeling guards peered over the side. We couldn’t make them out through the material.
But we knew they were there. Looking down at us.
“You’ve got until they start pulling these sheets off us,” Emana said.
“What happens then?” I said.
Emana whipped
