Duke chuckled. “You’re pretty lively for dead people.”
“This is nuts,” Polly exclaimed. “One minute, we’re in the park—the next, we’re in a space clinic getting hitched to aliens!”
Duke corrected her, “Not just hitched. We’re talking soulmates from across the stars.”
Polly’s mind reeled at the thought. Marrying aliens? This madness was beyond any soap opera plot she’d ever heard. She eyed Duke, who looked almost human. ‘Unless they’re green or have three heads, how bad could it be?’
“Well, I said I wanted to get away from Stefan,” Tori quipped.
Their laughs faded as Jana raised a sobering thought. “Will anyone even notice we’re gone?”
Polly scoffed. “Stefan will once he runs out of people to charm.”
“You don’t think highly of your cousin,” Jana said.
“I don’t think highly of cheaters.”
Jana’s face fell, and Polly immediately regretted her words. “I didn’t mean you,” she hastened to add.
Jana’s eyes were downcast as she murmured, almost to herself, “I feel like... I’m the one cheating.”
“Would you have done it if you’d known?” Tori asked.
Jana glanced at her. “No. I wouldn’t have done that to you.”
Tori, leaning in closer, offered a compassionate yet firm perspective. “Look at it this way. We’re like innocent prey that got caught in Stefan’s sneaky trap. He’s the predator here, not us.”
Polly nodded. “Exactly, Tori’s right. You’re just unwitting pieces in Stefan’s twisted little game. He’s the one playing everyone and blaming yourselves for his actions? That’s just what he wants. It’s not on you.”
“We could hate each other. Or we could understand that we didn’t make this happen. Someone else did,” Tori added.
Jana nodded.
Polly gave Tori a wry smile. “Look at you, being all wise and grown-up.”
Tori offered a half-smile, her eyes glinting with humor and self-awareness. “Sounds pretty enlightened, doesn’t it? Can’t claim I’m all the way there yet, but hey, it’s a start.”
Polly’s grin broadened. “I hear you.”
Duke looked at them with a hint of curiosity. “So, you guys are from Earth, right?”
Polly nodded, wary of where this was going.
He shot a questioning look at his fellow medic. “Hey, does Re-lee know about this?”
Polly’s eyebrows shot up. “Know what, exactly?”
Duke gave her a reassuring smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Oh, nothing major. Just an insignificant detail.”
Tori crossed her arms, her tone laced with skepticism. “That doesn’t sound too convincing. What’s the catch here?”
“Earth isn’t exactly on our regular radar. It’s still, you know, pre-hyper speed and all that,” Duke explained with an awkward shrug.
Jana’s confusion was obvious. “Wait, does that mean we’re not supposed to be here?”
Duke hesitated before admitting, “Well, technically... no, not really.”
“Kidnapped by aliens for a date,” Tori summed up, half in jest, half in disbelief.
