The Rapture

TWENTY-SEVEN

PEARL

No amount of focusing on my breathing, thinking happy thoughts, or looking out of the window to view space could stop my shaking. I messed up. Messed up big time.

I had always wanted to be in space, even as a child. The wonder of the unknown always followed me, even into my adult years.

Now that I was here, it mattered little. There was a permanent fist twisting my insides, knocking the breath out of my lungs every few seconds. There was also a knife in my heart, one that I put there myself.

I am so stupid. What was I thinking?

I knew I was causing a lot of trouble—not only for the man I was in love with, but for his brother. I was sure Shadrach hated me for manipulating him into this. Hated being too light of a word.

Osa had been unusually quiet. Ever since I had a plan to leave Lare, it stayed at the back of my mind, silently observing. It infuriated a part of me. It had yelled at me and demanded I do something, but the moment I did, it went chicken and refused to respond.

I ground my teeth together, fighting tears.

François sat beside me after it was safe for us to get out of the seats and harnesses. The ship we were in was huge; a cave of shiny metal and strange architecture that looked like melted blobs of rock.

In its own way, it was breathtaking.

The inside of the ship looked nothing like I pictured a spacecraft, even from space movies and internet speculation; everything adorning the front of the ship looked like symbols, glowing letters, and crazy-looking wires Shadrach yelled at me to stay away from.

The walls would move, too, like the blobs of rock were a living thing. They crept, a few inches every hour, because I'd been staring at them.

"He'll forgive you." François put a light hand on my shoulder. I was too busy biting my fingernails to acknowledge the tender act. I wasn't sure which alien she was talking about. "Ca ira."

"Doubt it." I bounced my knee, not even going to ask her to translate her French. "Finally let him have me–and let myself have him–then I take off. I told you about my life before the world ended. I was so terrified to let him in. And he didn't care about my faults. I feel like the worst person in the world."

"In ours or theirs? I think you are brave," she murmured, moving her hand away from me. Her white lab coat was smeared with purple dust from the planet we snuck away from. "I did not want Earth to die, either. That is my home, that is your home. Dumuzi has a good heart for saving both of us and for doing what he could. He is a good man. I cannot see him angry at you for long."

I sighed. Maybe.

"But Shadrach..."

"I'm sure he will forgive you, too."

Not likely. I had tricked his brother into getting us off Lare. It was harder than I thought to get François alone and talk to her without my mate—or any other weird alien technology—eavesdropping.

Even harder to rein in Shadrach.

The second I asked Shadrach to take me to Earth, he laughed like it was the most hilarious joke I ever cracked.

When I had François ask him to take me to Earth, he was torn, especially when she unloaded on him with a string of curse words in French after he said no. She made it a point that she would never help him with his projects again.