She noticed the gun straps first and the tech from her homeworld attached to it. There were guns holstered at his side and a rifle across his back, its barrel peeking out from behind his shoulder. His shoulder wasn’t just recovering from any wound, it was recovering from a bullet. And although his chest was covered in the same soft cotton as Quist’s pants, Galan’s was soaked in sweat.
He didn’t make a move toward her as she closed the distance, her breaths becoming harder to pass through her closing lungs. Every one of her nerve endings frayed. She was drawn to him nearly against her will and when she stood within his circle, his body towering over hers, she clasped her hands together to stop herself from touching him.
His nostrils flared and her hair went on end. She shifted on her feet and frowned as he sniffed her, wishing she had met him under better, less grueling circumstances.
I wish I had met all of them that way.
His amber gaze held her down, pinned her in place, and searched her own for something she didn’t want him to find. Galan demanded her secrets without saying a word. She bit down on her tongue and stiffened her back. The rest of Sonhadra, including Sundamar and Quist, fell into the shade under Galan’s spotlight.
He lifted his hand and she flinched away, stopping him abruptly. His eyes darkened into rust. Yahiro swallowed and glanced at what he held.
It was a faded manila folder.
“Let’s go for a walk,” he said more as a demand than a request. His fingers wrapped around her upper arm and he steered her toward the empty city streets. It occurred to her that she was about to wander a dead city, alone with an alien who looked possessed. An alien she wasn’t sure she’d be safe with. “Alone!” The footsteps behind her came to a stop and she could feel the worry and anger coming from her aliens. They shared a look between them and she assumed they spoke telepathically.
The connection they all felt grew worse again as Galan led her away. Yahiro withered under the pressure.
***
GALAN
He smelled the salty tang of her tears and before he could stop himself, he released his grip on her arm and wrapped his own around her shoulders, pulling her into his side. Yahiro sniffled and jerked awkwardly against him. It made him want to fake ignorance, made him wish he could turn back time, but he couldn’t. What he could do was get the truth from her own lips.
“You killed innocents,” he said low enough that even his brothers who stalked them in the distance wouldn’t be able to hear. He closed off his mind to them; he didn’t want them to know Yahiro’s secrets. His secrets. Because they shared them now and no matter how grim they were, he didn’t—wouldn’t—share them unless Yahiro asked him too.
“Yes,” she sniffled. It unnerved him how small she was, so slight and willowy, it made her look like she could blow away with a strong wind. His hold on her tightened.
“And your Creator.”
“Yes.”
Quist spoke about killing Lusheenn, hunting him down, finding him, and meting out his own sense of justice. There was something more ruinous about actually doing it versus simply talking about doing it. He never thought Quist would ever find Lusheenn to exact his vengeance so he never worried about the heresy of it.
“Why?” he asked, knowing what the file had said, but he wanted to hear it from her. He stopped them in front of a fountain that was in the shape of the sun and showed her the translator behind his ear. She wiped her eyes, her lips pursing before straightening into a hard line. She stared at the spot behind his ear for a long time.
“Anger,” she breathed in English. “Betrayal, but mostly guilt. There’s a lot of reasons why I killed him, why I gored him. I shot him until every bullet was gone from Snake’s gun, and then I stabbed him until I was certain no amount of money or miracle could bring him back to life.
“I didn’t want his face to remain so I ruined that too. I was as high as the stars when I did it, and when I was sure he was gone from my existence, I killed everything else he touched. You wouldn’t understand... but he took something from me and twisted it. I loved him, love him so much and hated him too.”
It was hard for him to swallow, hard for him to watch the nightmare of it flitter past her eyes as she thought back. “And your... family?” The wordfamilywasn’t from his world.
“I killed the guards next, there weren’t many. They were all half-gone in drugs themselves anyway. One happened to be another undercover cop like myself, but I didn’t know until afterward. The girls came after, the ones who worked for my father, not the products. I killed them quick and clean.” She laughed inwardly. “The products I left locked up, once again going back on my word. I had made an oath that I’d help them too, in some way. I guess I did, although it was by second hand. I’m not a good person.
“I poured water over the cases of drugs. I didn’t set them on fire. I wanted to be quiet and get away in the end, at least have the choice to, so I chose water. My mama didn’t know something was wrong until after I locked her in her room and left her. She wasn’t there for long. The authorities were already on their way before I had a chance to leave the building we lived in. We were rich you know? So rich that we even had a garden with trees and flowers, grass behind tall, solid walls and gates. We screamed wealth. We weren’t even part of the city. My family had land. Land! I was given everything growing up. I think my parents had a certain amount of guilt within them because of it.
“I wanted to wipe it all off the map. Everything. But my baby sister was still there, still innocent among the ruin, and so was Snake’s slowly dying soul. Snake was easy to take care of but I didn’t know what to do about Sophia. I planned on taking her with me in the end so I let her be, sleeping in bed. Getting lost on Earth was easy, so easy, and I knew all the ins and outs of the system, the criminal world, and law enforcement. The next step was just that, a step, and held no weight on my shoulders...” she trailed off.
Galan looked her up and down and knew she was telling the truth, but he couldn’t believe it. Yahiro didn’t look like a killer; she looked like a wisp.
She took the folder out of his hand and opened it, scanning the words like he had not long ago.
“They never told me what happened to them.”
“Who?”
“My mama and my sister. Even Snake. I never made it back to them before the place was raided.”
“Would you have liked to know?” he asked.
