“Take me home.”
“I love you. More than you could ever know.”
She clenched her eyes shut. “Please.”
After a tense moment, the hovercraft hummed with life. She wiped her face and pressed her brow to the window, finding little relief in the cool glass. The vehicle shot into the sky, and she rolled down the window. It was the only control she had; she no longer wanted the smell of him, of their sex, to ever fill her head again.
22
They reached the building in silence, in the dead of night, but also the wildest time of day on Elyria. Janet pushed her hair into her face so any onlookers couldn’t see the tears in her eyes. She couldn’t look at Zeph—Hector—without feeling an enormous amount of confusion and pain.
All she wanted to do was tear off her dress, pull on one of her ratty shirts from back home, get on one of the waterships, and sail it out into the middle of the ocean. Where she’d be alone with nothing but her thoughts, where she could make sense of them on her own time.
He loves me.It made her want to scream and hit the walls. Even more so since she loved him back.
But she was on Elyria. And Lily needed her. She was surrounded by life, action, and noise—so very far from the quiet ocean she’d spent half her life on.How could I be so naive?
Hector led her through the robotic throng and passageways, past the weird human statues, and ornately alien architecture. Earlier that evening, it had all been so magical, and now all she wanted to do was go home.
She stopped him at the door of their stolen condo. “When you take us back to Kepler…” she stared at the cushioned floor, “I want to stay.”
He reached for her, and she shied away.
He didn’t give her an answer but that was fine with her. No answer was better than an emphaticNo. This wasn’t about proof of his love for her, or if he would allow her to stay, this was about her own needs, and if she’d learned anything in the last month, it was that she’d been living a life that brought her nothing but pain. Janet desperately wanted to apologize to Rylie. It had never been her sister’s fault.
They entered the apartment and stopped. Lily was in the center of the room with Mr. Heartface, holding a blanket around her shoulders.
Hector grasped her wrist when she tried to go to her little sister. “Wait.”
“What? Why? Lily, why are you up?”
“Mr. Heartface told me to get up,” Lily replied.
Hector stepped between them, blocking out her view of her sister. All thoughts of the last couple of hours fell from her head. Janet stiffened.
Hector’s voice filled the space. “Put the gun down.”
Janet looked beyond him to see the android holding a firearm pointed at her sister. Fear tore through her.
“Lily,” she gasped. “Don’t move.”
Hector stepped forward and repeated the order. “I command you to put the gun down.”
Her eyes widened when the android’s arm wavered. The air filled with static electricity.
“Please, put the gun down,” Janet begged, praying it would happen,willingit to happen. She felt something hard press into the back of her own head.
“Don’t move,” came a voice from behind her.
Hector spun around as an arm banded across her chest, lifting Janet off her feet.
“Lily!” she shrieked. “Save Lily!”
Hector hesitated, stopping midstep, his hands hovering at his sides, inches away from his weapon. She pleaded with him with her eyes.Please don’t risk it.He turned back to Lily, and she wanted to slump in relief, but was jostled forward a step when Mr. Heartface’s weapon fell to the ground with abangthat made her stomach flip. Lily cried out as Hector ran to her side and scooped her up into his arms.
Janet struggled forward, desperate to reach them, but the man holding her kept her locked against him. She was dragged the rest of the way into the apartment and positioned up against the corner next to the door. The android, without a heart now, walked stiffly to the wall beside her and stopped.
“Stay where you are if you don’t want to get hurt,” the man holding her said in her ear.
