He stared past her, down the dim corridor. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to you.”
Her voice was calm and determined. It brushed against the raw edges inside him.
“We should keep moving,” he bit out.
She didn’t argue, but she didn’t look away either. Her eyes lingered on him— curious, unbearably kind. He felt exposed under that gaze, as if she could see the ash and ruin he carried inside, in his dead place.
He walked on, and she followed, though the silence between them had changed. It wasn’t empty now. It was full... of questions, of things unsaid, of the truth he refused to let surface.
They reached her door. She paused with her hand on the panel.
“Darren,” she said softly, “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t.”
Another lie. She hadn’t upset him; she had unsettled him. There was a difference. Upset was anger. Unsettled was… dangerous.
She dithered. “If you ever want to talk about it—”
“I won’t.” He softened his tone, just barely. “Relax, get a good night’s sleep. The journey will be uneventful. Much like today. You’re safe on this ship.”
She nodded, though her eyes still held that quiet, aching question.
The door slid open.
He stepped back, giving her space. “Goodnight, Aelanna.”
“Goodnight,” she whispered.
The door shut between them.
Darren stood there for a long moment, staring at the blank metal panel. His chest felt tight, as if something inside him had shifted, let in light where there should be none.
He turned away sharply.
He would not think about Yithir, about Dhelta, about the flare that swallowed his world whole.
And he would not — absolutely would not — think about the way Aelanna had looked at him, as if she wanted to understand the pieces of him he’d buried in ash.
He strode down the corridor, each step measured, controlled.
He had survived the death of a planet.
He could survive this.
But stars help him…
He wasn’t sure which one hurt more.
Aelanna didn’t sleep.
She lay in the dim cabin, the soft hum of the ship vibrating through the mattress, her eyes fixed on the ceiling. Every time she closed them, she saw Darren’s face in the starlight — calm, controlled, and hiding something vast and painful behind his eyes.
My planet is gone.
The words echoed through her chest like a bruise.
