Read Starfall: A Starstruck Novel Online
Authors: Brenda Hiatt
Tags: #teen fiction, #Science Fiction, #Romance
Starfall: A Starstruck Novel
20 - Minimum approach distance
Starfall
A Starstruck Novel
Book 4
BRENDA HIATT
Dolphin Star Press
STARFALL
A Starstruck Novel
Book 4
Copyright © 2015 Brenda Hiatt
Electronic edition
Cover art by Ravven Kitsune
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between the events or the characters in this story and actual events or persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental.
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Dolphin Star Press
ISBN-13:
978-1-940618-10-4
DEDICATION
For everyone who loves a happy ending
Sovereign Emileia
1
Automatic shutdown
“WE ARE COMING.”
The message resonated through my mind as I gripped the alien communication device. But what did it mean?
I’d thought my main job was done when I finally interfaced with the Grentl device and averted Nuath’s destruction in the nick of time…all of twenty minutes ago. But then the device had activated again, to send this frightening, baffling message.
I tried to focus my thoughts, to get more information.
Coming here, to Mars? When?
I thought frantically to them.
And why??
But instead of answering, they again pulled images, experiences, directly from my brain. Before, it had been like reliving all of my sixteen years in the space of a few minutes, but this time I re-experienced only the most emotionally intense moments of my life.
Not surprisingly, most had occurred over the past year—the last eight months, really—beginning with the first day of my sophomore year at Jewel High. The day I met Rigel.
With breathtaking rapidity, I again felt the astonishing jolt of our very first touch, the one that created our bond, followed by the successive gut punches of learning not only that Rigel was a Martian, but I was, too. Not just Martian, but their long-lost Princess!
I re-experienced the wonder of my first kiss, panic at learning the usurper Faxon’s forces wanted to kill me, grim determination when I decided to face them rather than flee. Tension, then triumph, when Rigel and I used our combined ability to create an electrical force to disable our attackers’ deadly weapon. A blissful pause, then the shock of learning Sean O’Gara, not Rigel, was my intended Consort, or life mate.
Exhilaration at running away with Rigel to keep the
Echtrans
from separating us forever gave way to crushing disappointment at our capture, then terror that they’d either wipe Rigel’s memory or kill him to solve the “problem” of our bond. Relief when the
Echtran
Council agreed to let Rigel return to Jewel unharmed if I pretended to date Sean for their political ends.
Now more recent emotions flooded me: the crushing weight of learning only I could save Nuath from the Grentl; the dizzying rush to get me to Mars in time; anger and despair when Rigel’s grandmother snatched him away because of the scandal we’d created with a stolen kiss; relief again when I was Acclaimed Sovereign after a hard-fought campaign, one step closer to saving Nuath…and happy anticipation that I’d finally get Rigel back.
Then, before I could brace myself, I was brutally shattered by reliving Rigel’s final message: he’d voluntarily had all memory of me erased and left for Earth without me. As the enormity crashed over me once more, I desperately wrenched my mind free of the communication device, releasing it with a cry of anguish to collapse on the floor beside it.
“No, no, no, no, no.” My arms around my knees, I rocked back and forth, back and forth, willing it to not be true, until a firm hand on my shoulder stilled my motion.
“M! M, snap out of it! Please.”
“Sean?” Completely disoriented, I blinked at him, crouched beside me. How did he get into my bedroom?
“Yes, M, it’s me. Are you hurt? What just happened?”
“Rigel,” I whispered. “He…he
left
me. He—”
Sean gave my shoulder a little shake. “I know. You told me already, remember? You let me watch his message. But what happened just now, with the Grentl? Can you tell me?” His voice was gentle but insistent.
Gradually, I became aware of my surroundings. I wasn’t in my luxurious Palace bedroom after all. I was huddled on a cold stone floor in a closet-sized room—the secret room containing the Grentl device. Shivering, I struggled to focus, to push my freshly-experienced pain away so I could remember. So I could answer.
“I…It worked, didn’t it? They didn’t cut the power?”
He nodded. “It worked. You saved us all. Saved Nuath. You were a champ. But then—”
“Eric died,” I blurted out, suddenly remembering. “I could never have done it without his help. Or yours.” I lifted my head to look Sean in the face. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” He gave me the ghost of a smile, but the concern didn’t leave his blue eyes.
I looked around the small room, empty except for the two of us. “Where’s your dad? And Eric?”
“Dad took Eric back to his room since people from the hospital would come looking for him once their monitors showed he’d died. Dad didn’t know how long you’d be, um, connected to the communication thing this time and was afraid to wait.”
I nodded slowly, trying to remember. To care. “How…how long was I—?” I glanced at the device.
“About half an hour this time. Not nearly as long as the first time. But it seemed to mess you up more.” There was a question in his expression, but answering it would shove me back into that yawning abyss of despair.
“How about I take you upstairs?” Sean suggested when I didn’t respond. “Dad will want to hear about whatever you learned.”
When I made a feeble move to stand, Sean effortlessly lifted me to my feet, keeping hold of my hand to lead me toward the door. It didn’t occur to me to pull away. All my attention was focused on putting one foot in front of the other so I wouldn’t have to remember, wouldn’t have to think about the bleak future stretching in front of me.
A future without Rigel.
*
*
*
When Sean half-carried me from the secret elevator into my Royal apartment’s sumptuous living room a few minutes later, Mr. O’Gara leaped to his feet and Sean’s sister Molly rushed forward to hug me.
“You did it, M, you’re a hero! You saved Nuath!”
Her gushing forced a tiny smile from me. “With lots of help.” I glanced at Mr. O, then at Sean again.
Cormac, my normally impassive Bodyguard, bowed from his position near the doorway. “I would like to express my gratitude as well, Excellency. Thank you.”
Mr. O regarded me closely. “Are you all right? Nels Murdoch and Devyn Kane will be here in an hour, expecting the full report I promised them. What happened after I left? Why did the device reactivate?”
“No, Dad, she’s not all right.” Sean lowered me onto one of the couches, his arm still around me. “That second session took even more out of her than the first. You can question her later.”
Though he was clearly not happy at the delay, Mr. O gave a terse nod. “Very well. I suppose we can all learn the details at the same time.”
I sent Sean a grateful glance before turning apologetically to his father. “I…I’m not sure I’d make much sense now anyway. It’s all still a jumble.” In fact, the only thing I recalled clearly was that final, devastating memory. Grief swept over me again and I shuddered.
Sean squeezed my shoulders gently, sympathy flowing from his touch. “C’mon, let’s get some food into you. It’s way past lunchtime.”
What I really wanted was to be alone with my misery, but I didn’t argue when Molly started laying out an extensive meal on the long dining table. I even managed a few bites, mechanically chewing and swallowing.
“C’mon, M, have a bit more,” Sean urged. “You’ve barely eaten anything since breakfast yesterday.”
Breakfast yesterday—right before the bottom dropped out of my world.
I looked from Sean to his father and back. “Did…did you tell him? About—?”
“Yes, Sean told me yesterday. Though I’m sorry for the loss you must be feeling, it was a noble, selfless thing that Rigel chose to do.”
The sound of Rigel’s name was like rubbing alcohol on an open wound. It was all I could do not to gasp at the pain. Sean put a comforting hand over mine, where it lay on the table.
“Hey, it’ll be okay, M. It will, you’ll see. Just…give it some time. For now, try not to think about it.”
“Good advice.” Mr. O’s heartiness made me wince again. “Your schedule will be full enough to keep your mind occupied for some time, as things have stacked up during this delay.”
He started listing upcoming items on my agenda, but I’d already withdrawn into my thoughts again. While
he
could dismiss Rigel’s desertion as yesterday’s news, to
me
it felt like it had only happened an hour ago. I took an automatic bite of broccoli to avoid talking, then flinched, remembering broccoli was Rigel’s least favorite food.
At my shaky sigh, Mr. O regarded me narrowly. “You do look tired, and no wonder. You’ll be able to rest once this meeting is over. Would you prefer to have it here, or in one of the conference rooms?”
“A conference room.” A place without any painful memories might help me focus.
“I’ll message them. Molly, why don’t you pick her out something to wear?”
Molly nodded eagerly. She loved this part of her job as my Handmaid. “I know just the thing.”
As always, she did. When we left the apartment ten minutes later, I was arrayed in an emerald green tunic over a shimmery gold split skirt. Like everything in my closet here, it was both flattering and elegant—and light years nicer than anything I’d ever owned back in Jewel, Indiana. Not that it mattered now.
“Conference Room Six,” Mr. O said aloud.
As we followed the holographic blue line to our destination, I strove to recall details from my two recent sessions with the Grentl device.
Nels Murdoch and Devyn Kane stood when I entered the conference room, then bowed, right fists over hearts.
Devyn straightened first. “Excellency, you have performed a great service today. All of Nuath has cause to be extremely grateful to you.”
“Indeed,” Nels echoed. “It is a debt that can never be repaid. If the people knew what you’d done for them, you would be lauded as the greatest heroine of our time.”
I just smiled stiffly and took the chair Mr. O indicated, at the head of the oval table.
Once we were seated, Devyn cleared his throat and glanced at Mr. O’Gara. “We, ah, were promised a report?”
“Unfortunately, the experience was extremely draining for the Sovereign. Excellency, do you feel up to sharing with us whatever you learned?” Though Mr. O’s expression was sympathetic, I sensed lingering irritation that I hadn’t filled him in first.