Chapter 24

Sarah

Lakeworth Forest was bathed in moonlight that made the enormous oak trees the perfect place to hide Sovereign . Jac had tucked the ship between a thick thatch of them before he opened the cargo bay for me. The warm Earth filled my lungs with the scent of rotted leaves in the autumn breeze. South Carolina, in all her glory.

“Goodbye, Jac,” I said, tears making my throat tight. “I’ll never forget you.”

He gave me a sad, gut-wrenching smile. “You are always in my heart, Sarah Hollinger.”

I stepped onto my home world and had never felt less at home. Once my feet were on earthly soil, the cargo bay door went up, stealing my view of Jac. Everything within me screamed to run back to him. To tell him I had made a huge mistake and to take me back to Orhon, and Deacon, too. But then flashes of Jac on his knees with Mother Portend’s hand on his shoulder came to mind, and I knew I couldn’t put him, or anyone else, in such a dangerous position again.

I forced myself to turn toward Ryan’s mansion and marched forward. A house full of safety and the protection his money had brought me, which is what I thought I’d wanted. What I needed. Now, it all just felt so wrong. Now that all the drugs that he’d insisted I take were out of my system, there was a clarity to my thoughts that hadn’t been there for the past year.

I smiled to myself. I hadn’t been crazy after all. I hadn’t been hallucinating. I was Volatile Bateen’s daughter, half-alien royalty, and seeing and communicating with ghosts is a part of my genetic make-up.

The mansion was bigger than I had remembered—ostentatious might have been a better word than merely bigger . Something about the overly manicured flowers and those decorative touches around the doors and windows, it all seemed out of place. Unnatural. It was nothing as sweet and pastoral as Deacon’s father’s home with the blue flowers that seemed to grow wherever they wanted and the simple silver roof.

As I came toward the front door, I noticed my sister’s cars were parked nearby. I wonder how long I’ve been gone, Earth time. I’m sure I’m about to find out. Taking a deep, fortifying breath for what lay ahead, I pressed my finger to the biometric lock, hoping I was still in the system.

An alarm sounded and startled, I jumped back. “What the fuck?”

The door swung open and a large man I didn’t recognize stood before me. His eyes widened in shock when he saw me, and he grabbed my arm and quickly ushered me inside.

I stood in the foyer, and he looked outside, his gaze scanning the mansion’s grounds. “Are they still here?” he demanded to know.

“Who?” I asked, completely confused.

He shut the door behind me, peeping out the window next to it, his brows furrowed together. “Your kidnappers. Are they still here?”

Did he mean Jac? “Uh, no, I’m fine—”

“Sarah?”

My sister Jenny’s excited voice rang out, and I turned toward the sound as she ran to me from the living area of the house with an excited squeal of happiness. I smiled at seeing her, and had the thought that the heavy streaks of blue in her hair would have been more appropriate on Halla than inside Ryan’s fancy, and oppressive, home.

“Oh, my God, you’re okay! We’ve all been so worried!” She wrapped me up in a hug and tried to squeeze the life out of me, while my other sister, Elizabeth, ran to join us. She clamped down on both of us, as we cried together.

When the nice moment was over, Elizabeth stepped back, concern in her eyes as she looked me over. “Where have you been? Who kidnapped you? Are you alright?”

“No one kidnapped me,” I fibbed until I could figure out how to explain everything. “I’m fine. It’s a long story—”

“You’re fine ?” Ryan barked irritably as he entered the foyer. “Do you know how much trouble you have caused me and you’re fucking fine ?”

I pursed my lips, annoyance swirling in my stomach. “Nice to see you too, Ryan,” I said flatly.

“Let me look at you.” He took my hands in his, spread them wide, and gave me a once over before his gaze narrowed on my face. “Are you hurt? You look…odd.”

God, it was still the same old shit with him. I jerked my hands from his grasp, refusing to let him make me feel inferior, like he used to. “I’m not hurt,” I said through gritted teeth.

Ryan braced his hands on his hips, looking completely put out as he glanced over at the man who’d answered the door. “Marshall, contact your boss and let him know we will no longer be needing his services. Sarah is fine, no thanks to you.”

The large man’s face colored in embarrassment, and with a curt nod he left the house, his cell phone to his ear. Ryan slammed the door shut after him.

“Who is he?” I asked.

Ryan scoffed. “I had to hire a company who deals with kidnap negotiations to—”

“You did what?”

Elizabeth stepped up to me and put a hand on my arm. “I insisted he hire them. After you were gone with no note, and no calls from the kidnappers, we didn’t know what was happening. The police could only do so much, and we needed experts to handle the situation.”

I nodded, remembering what Deacon had told me about sending his android, Lanai Dea, to Earth in human form as a police officer investigating my missing person case so that it would seem as though real law enforcement was pursuing the issue.

“Okay, that makes sense,” I mumbled, realizing just how much worry I’d put them through. My sisters at least.

Jenny, the more gregarious, happy-go-lucky of my two sisters, grinned and gave me another hug. “I’m just so relieved they let you go.”

“I…I wasn’t taken .” I didn’t like lying to her, but I didn’t know what else to say without any of them thinking I’d lost my mind and gone certifiably insane. How do I explain any of it?

“What do you mean you weren’t taken?” Ryan snapped.

Elizabeth, the caretaker sibling who avoided conflict at all costs, put her arm around Jenny and said, “Uh, we should get going. I’m sure you have a lot to talk about with Ryan, and this conversation sounds like you could use some privacy.”

Ryan’s hands fisted at his sides as he glared at me, ignoring my sister. “You go missing for over a month, and you weren’t even kidnapped?” he snarled furiously. “Do you know you missed the Founder’s Banquet for work? I needed you there and you left me high and dry. Where the fuck were you that was more important than supporting me at a work event?”

Anger shot through me, that he’d turned things around and make the situation all about him. Of course he would, the narcissistic asshole!

All the times I had told myself that Ryan loved me…all the times I had tried to make his mansion into our home because that’s what he’d expected of me. The time I had wasted on him, trying to do whatever it took to make him happy, including going on medications that had fogged my brain and dulled my senses, because he’d insisted I was not in the right mind when I told him about the ghosts I saw.

As that fury inside me built, I looked around and realized there wasn’t a trace of myself to be seen anywhere. His mansion was my address, but it had never been my home. I had been nothing more than a shell of myself during our entire relationship. Someone Ryan could control and mold into a perfect little Stepford wife.

Then, with clarity, I realized, I am fucking done with him.

I straightened my shoulders, and with my brain cleared of any drugs or depressants, I finally fought back. “How is your neck these days, Ryan?” I asked, narrowing my gaze on him. “Still not able to go down on a woman, because of your neck problems, right?” I asked, reminding him of the excuse he’d always given me , during sex.

He frowned, marring his perfectly handsome face, despite the Botox injections he received once a month. “What are you talking about? Of course I still have neck issues.”

“Really?” I laughed, then lowered my tone to mock the voice he’d used when I’d watched him on Deacon’s ship monitor as he’d fucked Lanai Dea. “ Mmm , you taste so fucking good…that’s what you told the cop you screwed in our bed when I went missing. I bet you don’t even remember. How many women ago was that for you, Ryan?”

Jenny removed Elizabeth’s hand from her arm, her eyes lighting up gleefully. “Oh, we are not going anywhere,” she told our sister.

Elizabeth seemed riveted by the conversation, too, and they stood and watched my confrontation with Ryan, instead of leaving.

Ryan’s face flushed. “You’re being ridiculous. Obviously, you’ve been off your meds for too long—”

“I saw you, Ryan,” I said, stepping toward him and jabbing him in the chest with my finger. “I saw everything . Including pictures of you and our dentist, you and our neighbor—”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, shaking his head as though he felt sorry for me. “Clearly, you are delusional and you need your pills.”

I laughed, but the sound lacked any humor. “I’ve never been more lucid and clear headed. I’m never taking those things again. They were how you kept me under your control and always doubting myself so I never asked questions, like why did you have so many late night meetings at hotels, and why did you come home smelling like perfume so many times? You stopped me from trusting myself and what I know is true, and you will never do that again.”

He glared at me and my sisters. “It’s a shame, you know? When I found you in that coffee shop, you seemed like the right girl to fit into my life to be the perfect fixer upper. Sweet and quiet and someone I could mold into a suitable wife and in return I’d give you all the things you’d never had. But I got bored quick, and I had to find real women to spend my time with. Can you blame me?”

I laughed again, unphased by his deliberately hurtful words and insults. “A real woman, huh? The cop you fucked was an android, Ryan. A fucking robot .”

He rolled his eyes and pointed to Jenny and Elizabeth. “You heard that, right? Androids? Your sister isn’t making any sense. This is why she needs her medications. You two gave me shit for her prescriptions when she disappeared and blamed me for her taking too many, saying I probably killed her with the pills, but this shit is why I had her on them,” he railed at my siblings. “This is the kind of shit I had to put up with on a daily basis. First ghosts, then some bald man stalking her, and fucking androids, now?” He shook his head in disgust. “She is unstable and a danger to herself. I told you so.”

“Android?” Elizabeth asked with a wince, while Jenny looked fascinated by the entire conversation and everything I’d revealed. “Sweetie, are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

“I am feeling great, actually. Better than ever.” My thumb probed the giant diamond on my left ring finger, and just touching it made me feel calmer, more centered. More sure of what I wanted in my life. “You see this?” I asked, lifting my hand and showing them the ring.

“Jesus,” Elizabeth gasped.

Jenny’s eyes widened, too. “I don’t even like diamonds, but that’s beautiful. Did Ryan upgrade your old stone before—”

“I didn’t buy that.” Ryan’s voice rose in anger. “Where is the ring I bought you?”

I smirked at him. “I think Allegiant probably ate it, considering how the place cleans up cum towels with a snap of the finger.”

He shot my sisters another incredulous look. “You’re hearing this, right?”

“This ring is going to take me to my real home.” I glanced at my sisters, making my choice, which was my happiness, for the first time ever. “Jenny, Elizabeth, I love you both more than damn near anything, but I have to do this. I will be back to explain everything one day, I promise, but I have to go now.”

Jenny nodded as if understanding, while Elizabeth frowned in that pragmatic way of hers. “What are you talking about? Who gave you that ring? Are you going back to him?”

“ Them . There are two alien men who love me, and I love them. They are where I belong.” Praying my sisters would forgive me, I turned the ring just as Deacon had instructed. In a flash of light, I vanished right before their eyes and appeared back on Allegiant , in the infirmary.

I smiled, already giddy with the knowledge that I’d soon be reunited with the two men I adored and loved. The two men I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, even if that meant embracing my powers as a conduit and facing all my fears. With the two of them by my side, I could do anything.

I’d never felt so alive as I did in that moment, and I quickly searched the ship for anyone, but no one was there. I glanced out the windows, seeing that Allegiant was still parked next to Valor’s home on Halla. Thank goodness .

I ran out of the cargo hold, searching for Deacon. The front yard was empty, as was the house. Where the hell is everyone? I didn’t have any other way to contact them.

Someone gasped behind me. I turned, expecting to see Deacon.

It was Omen.

She gushed with excitement, “Moons above, you came back!”

I grinned at her enthusiasm and nodded. “And I am eager to see everyone. Where are they?”

From overjoyed to seeing me, to nervous in a flash, her lips puckered as she stalled. “Uh, well—”

“What is it?” Now, worry trickled through me. “Is everyone okay?”

“Yes, everyone is fine, but…” She fidgeted where she stood. “I am not sure you should go see them. Not right now.”

All the anticipation of seeing Deacon and Jac deflated right out of me. “What are you talking about, Omen? What is going on?”

She frowned and huffed, before she gestured for me to follow her. “Come with me. You will find out eventually, so no sense stalling.”

I couldn’t be more confused as we walked around to the back of Valor’s home. The short blue flowers in front were nothing compared to the verdant, breath-taking garden in the back. Multicolored flower vines draped over the chest-high wooden fence. Well, chest-high for me, but hip-high for the Ladrians.

The middle of the yard was peppered with tall trees and big bushes, each one more colorful than the last. I smiled at the sight. They were like the trees from a Dr. Seuss book—fluffy rainbow pompoms of strands that could have been leaves or flowers dangled from the highest spots, while the many tight clusters of trunks were skinny, like bamboo.

People stood in the middle of them, but I couldn’t make out who they all were. The trees were clumped too tightly together to be able to see anyone unobscured.

Omen didn’t meet my eyes when I asked, “What’s going on?”

She merely said, “They’re over there.”

Wave’s familiar voice carried as I walked toward the copse of trees. “…day of Muraska, I unite Deacon Amroll-Bellket Ladrang to the Princess Silence Reticent Bateen. May you produce many heirs.”

Standing there, facing one another, were Deacon and Silence. I recognized those words from when I’d united with Deacon, and my blood ran cold at the realization of what was happening, while my eyes burned hot.

My heart felt as though it had stopped beating in my chest, and I mumbled my last hope. “This can’t be real. It has to be a…hallucination.”

But I knew it wasn’t. Deacon was no longer mine. Now, he belonged to Silence Bateen, and I had no one to blame for the union but myself since I’d been the one to leave him.

An awful, strangled sound rose up into my throat and escaped me at the crushing blow.

What was I going to do now?