The Darkest Stars by Kristy Gardner

Author:Kristy Gardner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781648984013
Publisher: City Owl Press

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The door to her cabin fizzled open, and Calay plodded through. She glanced around. It was as she left it. Her single bed made with the corners tucked in tight. The glass of grapefruit juice on the small white table, stale and still. Nothing had changed, yet everything was different.

She peered through the window, yearning to somehow get out there among the Others, and yet, wanting nothing more than to make the pain from today disappear. She was finally going to take that nap. First though, she was going to get into her jammie-jams.

She’d been looking forward to slipping into something more comfortable. Something less…lived in. Something that didn’t smell so much like Ash. She’d left the gray sweatsuit half-folded on the end of her bed, beside her bag. She checked under the bed, inside her pack. It was gone. As she turned, surveying the small room for any dark corners she might have missed, Calay’s hand flew to her mouth, and she gasped.

Hanging on the back of the door that had reformed once she passed through it was a dark blue pantsuit. A black leather harness wrapped around the waist, adorned with gold clasps. A matching ribbon of gold fabric lined the cuffs. She ran her fingers over the starchy material. It was simple, elegant, and looked like it was cut to fit. She huffed, released a shaky breath. Calay was unsure if she was pleased to have graduated from the standard-issue sweats or disappointed.

This made her decision to join the coalition—the Others—real. Once she slipped this on, there would be no going back. She’d ached to belong—to have a place she could call home—longer than she could remember. Her fingers traced the leather, her mind fluttered to the straps on Elora’s outfit. Ash’s. Even Jacob had worn a similar one when they first arrived. This was it. The symbol that she was now officially one of Them. Calay grinned despite the lagging ache in her heart.

In the white and blue light shining from the glass towers outside, Calay peeled off her Earth clothes. As she starred down at them, a rumpled pile on the sparkling clean floor, she made a mental note to ask Jacob about showers—though she wasn’t sure that’d even be an option. Water was poison, after all. She shrugged and slipped into her new uniform. She gazed at her reflection in the window, gaped.

She was right—every cut, every angle, designed just for her.

Beyond her visage, the outside world she still hadn’t managed to explore buzzed with activity. It was the middle of the night; didn’t Téras ever sleep? She plopped down on the firm mattress. She sighed, threw herself back on the bed, and wrapped her arms around herself.

How did she get here?

She’d flown, of course. In an alien pod. With the Others. She’d spent the better part of over four years running from them and now she was not only on their home planet—by her choice, no less—she was fucking two of them. Oh, and she couldn’t forget the fact she’d agreed to partner with them.

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