“That’s very kind of you to say, Starlight.”
“Despite what you think, I’m not saying it to be kind, Sian.” I hesitantly reached up to brush his silver-white hair out of his eyes. There was the discoloration of a burn along his hairline, and other remnants of old wounds—a ropy scar on the side of his neck, another on his ear, probably others all along his torso and arms, playing the same melody as the moon-kissed freckles across his cheeks. “My dad always told me, after Mom died, that you’re made of everyone you meet, and everything you go through. It all becomes a part of you. The bad things, the good ones, the ones you can’t remember…” My fingers gently brushed the ropy scar on the side of his neck. “You carry home wherever you go.”
He shivered under my touch, my words settling on him in a way that made him inhale a heavy breath. His jaw trembled, and then he grabbed my hand that had traced his scar and kissed my knuckles. “How do you do it?” he murmured to them.
I blinked. “Do what?”
“Say the exact thing I need to hear.”
I laughed, suddenly very self-conscious, and pulled my hand away. “Oh, I absolutely don’t. You’re just easy to talk to.”
He slid a sly look my way. “Because I’m so charming?”
“Well…”
His eyebrows jerked up. “I’mnotcharming?”
I huffed, rubbing the hand he had kissed, because it tingled where his lips had touched my skin, and my heart still fluttered from the contact. “Being charming hasnothingto do with it.”
“So Iamcharming.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re impossible.”
“You don’t mind it,” he admonished warmly as I forced myself to my feet again and returned to the pilot’s chair. I was glad, at least, that he couldn’t see how flustered I felt, my heart stuttering for the first time in—well…
Ever, really.
Because no—no, I didn’t mind it at all.
From her perch in the corner of the main hold, as she finished straightening the cards, Veebee said to her partner, “You’re right, thisisbetter than that holonet drama.”
“Bleep-boop.”
I threw them a murderous glare.
Wordlessly, Veebee turned her back to me, then asked Entoo if they’d fancy another game.
GEONOSIS
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The Ones Left Behind
Geonosis was a sight for sore eyes.
Floating in the distance, the size of a ripe fruit, was the red planet in question, spinning with a skirt of yellow and orange rings. And we’d arrived without running into a single pirate or mercenary or First Order ship, and right on time. Finally,somethinghad gone according to plan.
I had been half afraid I was cursed.
Behind me, in the engineering seat, I heard VB-35 make a noise of relief. “Oh, thank the stars. We did not get lost.”
Ofcoursewe hadn’t gotten lost. I was, in fact, good at a few things.
I pushed the lander faster, searching the rings for a glint of silver and blue, for a familiar shape among the debris. Where was theStarfarer? I looked at the radar, but none of the ships were mine.
“Dad, whereareyou?” I muttered, because I knew the itinerary.
The ship should’ve been here by now, halfway through its night cycle and well on its way to an early breakfast before touring the battlegrounds of Geonosis. It was one of Dad’s favorite spots because a famous battle of the Clone Wars had taken place there, and the Civil War Buffs, though it was before their favorite war, would’ve been loath to miss it.
