Chapter 5
Sofia
She took her dinner in her quarters. She didn’t feel like sitting down at a long, fancy table with her perfect sister and brother-in-law dressed in those ornate and gorgeous dinner clothes they sometimes wore.
Throughout her decades of existence, Sofia had never been able to develop a poker face of any kind. Whatever she happened to be feeling at any given moment got automatically telegraphed through the lines of her forehead, the creases bordering her nose and mouth, and the lights of her eyes. They would notice something was wrong the instant she walked into the room, and the last thing she wanted right then was to answer more of their stupid questions.
Questions got me into this , she thought, glowering at her socked feet.
That wasn’t fair. Her family was just making polite conversation. They were getting to know someone new, someone she cared a lot about. Was it their fault the man they were talking to was nothing but a bunch of lies and secrets disguised as an attractive, intelligent, and interesting person?
“No,” she answered her mental question out loud and wiggled her toes angrily.
Swinging her legs off of the bed and leaving her dinner to get cold, and probably soggy, next to the spot where she’d been sitting, Sofia stood up and stomped to the balcony like a ticked-off toddler. She swung the doors open and stepped out into another beautiful Thryal night.
Leaning on the banister, she noticed it was one of those bright nights. Just like on Earth, the moon must have been a bit closer to the planet than usual, reflecting the baffling array of stars and other luminescent celestial bodies toward the surface of this alien planet that she was becoming more and more comfortable with calling home.
The sky was deep violet, casting the mountains bordering the capital in an indigo shade. Sofia huffed an annoyed sigh. The shade of the purple sky resembled Zaraq’s eyes perfectly. How could she be so mad at him but still miss him?
The lights of the many towers rising from the ground had a golden yellow glow, as if the interiors were lit by candles reflecting off of polished treasure. The engine trail of a transport pod left behind an ethereal lilac trail that evaporated like mist over the emerald lake. Sofia watched as the engines shrank in the distance and blinked out of existence, wondering if Zaraq was on board, exiting from her life as quickly as he’d arrived.
This would have been a perfect night to spend with him—a cozy night in, where they could continue to bond through dumb conversations young couples have when their guards are starting to come down and the embarrassing quirks they keep tucked away in fear of judgment begin leaking out.
In her experience, that was when a fling, or a “thing,” became something real. When you can show someone else what the mirror sees, that is when you know they are special.
Isn’t that what Zaraq did? Sofia wondered, tracking a satellite blinking through space. He took off his mask, and you threw him away.
She squeezed the railing until her palms burned.
“It’s not the same,” she said aloud.
Pushing herself back from the edge of the balcony, she went back inside, closing the doors behind her. Locked away from a stunning scene made it easier to let her anger out.
She gave herself permission to feel everything burning its way through her. All of the anger over being lied to, the shock over his violent past, the betrayal for being led to believe he was something he wasn’t, the guilt for not giving him a chance.
“No!” she said, slamming a fist on the dresser. “I have nothing to feel guilty about.”
He kept this from me. He lied to me. If anyone should be feeling guilty right now, it’s him.
So what if she didn’t give him a chance? Zaraq said it himself. Involving her could get her hurt. Not only did he lie to her, but he put her life in danger. If space gangsters work the same way Earth gangsters do in movies, his enemy was likely to go after anyone Zaraq had ever known.
How dare he jeopardize her like that?
How dare he let her get close to him?
How dare —
There was a knock at the door.
Sofia wasn’t aware that she’d been pacing, but the intrusion of the knock stopped her from burning a hole in the floor.
“Sof?” It was Carmen. She was using her gentle, motherly voice.
Sofia snarled. “What?” she yelled. Besides not having a poker face, she didn’t have a poker voice, either. She was pissed and didn’t care who knew it.
“Are you okay?” Carmen asked through the door.
“Yes!” Sofia lied. Her face felt hot. “Why do you ask?”
After a short beat, Carmen replied in that singsong, consoling tone parents use with fussy eaters. “Well, you didn’t come down for dinner, and you’re yelling at me right now.”
“I am not… yelling !” Sofia yelled.
Carmen dropped the matronly act. “Girl, you need to open this door before I have my husband order one of his guards to open it!”
She yanked the door to her quarters open to find both Carmen and Arccoo standing there. Her older sister had a hand on one hip and daggers poised to fly from her eyes. The prince looked frightened, as if he were about to witness Thryal’s first act of sororicide. Carmen held a bottle of wine, and Arccoo had three empty glasses. They were both wearing those robes Sofia was brooding about earlier.
“Both of you?” Sofia exclaimed. “Seriously?”
Giving up, she shambled over to her bed and threw herself down in defeat. “Can this night get any worse?”
“Perhaps I should leave,” Arccoo offered from the hall.
Charging through the door like she owned the place, Carmen answered. “No, you can stay. Isn’t that right, Sof?”
“Yeah. Sure. Whatevs and stuff,” Sofia answered from the confines of her comfortable bedspread. “Just pour me a lot of that booze.”
“What’s going on?” Carmen asked. “And why do you have a problem with my husband?”
“Really,” Arccoo said, “I can leave and let you two—”
She rolled over on her back to stare at the ceiling. “No. No,” she said with a huff. She rubbed her face hard enough to scrape away some skin and then sat up straight, ignoring the dizziness caused by the blood rushing from one end of the body to the other. “It’s just that you two are everything I don’t want to see right now.”
Arccoo set the glasses down on the table beside the dresser as Carmen handed him the wine bottle without turning away from her kid sister. “This is my third, and final, offer to leave,” he said, popping the cork.
“Just pour,” Sofia said.
“C’mon, girlie,” Carmen said. “Talk to us.”
When the first glass was filled to the brim, the prince brought it over. “Your medicine, first-sister-in-law.”
Sofia thanked him and downed half the glass. The alcohol started working its magic the instant it reached her stomach. “May the gods bless alien wine,” she said.
“Okay,” Carmen said, accepting her own drink from her husband. “What’s got you so worked up?”
It was Sofia’s turn for an info dump. She let the wine do the talking, providing as much detail about her time with Zaraq and the story he told her as she could muster. It was like speaking on autopilot. She didn’t censor herself or correct any slight inconsistencies. By the time she was done, Arccoo was pouring her a second drink.
“In conclusion,” Sofia said, a pleasant lightheadedness taking shape. “When you met a sexy alien—sorry, I called your husband sexy—the secret he kept from you was that he was a fucking prince. When I met a sexy alien, the secret he kept from me was that he used to hurt people for a living and was on the run from a bunch of space cops. Mazel tov,” she said, downing the remainder of her wine.
Carmen and Arccoo sat silently at the little table across from the bed, appearing to be mulling over the story. The prince twirled the maroon liquid in his slender glass. “Did he say who this boss was?”
“I didn’t ask,” Sofia answered, cringing at the memory of kicking Zaraq out without any follow-up questions. “What does it matter?”
Arccoo frowned at his drink. “I’ve met my fair share of dangerous businessmen while serving as an ambassador. From what I gather, some hold a tighter grip on their grudges than others.”
“Meaning?” Sofia asked.
“Meaning that he might have been right to keep this from you,” Arccoo told her.
Carmen visibly tensed as if noticing a snake hiding in the corner. She let go of her glass and folded her hands in the ornate lap of that royal wardrobe of hers. “Please let him elaborate before losing your temper,” she said carefully, the words sounding neutral and flat.
“You know I’m almost drunk. Right?” Sofia said. “That can mean bad things for someone who says the wrong thing.”
Arccoo cleared his throat. “Please do not misunderstand. He was wrong to get involved with you to such an extent. I am, by no means, defending his decision to bring you into—as your sister might say—his drama . But if this boss has a vendetta against him, simply knowing of his existence may make you a target of his wrath.”
Sofia understood what her brother-in-law was trying to say but wasn’t so sure she liked it. By his logic, she and Zaraq never should have gotten to know each other. She’d thought the same thing before they showed up, but hearing it reinforced like that annoyed her. Why couldn’t they be calling her out for not trying to find out more about the situation? Why were they confirming her worst fear?
“Then again,” Carmen began. Sofia turned to her sister with a quiet need to hear a counterpoint that didn’t make her feel quite so bad.
“Then again, you live in the annex of the Thryal capital. You are now related to a prince—a highly regarded ambassador and a gifted keeper of the peace. If some interplanetary law enforcement comes sniffing around, you are in the position to defend Zaraq if he was framed. And if some petty crime lord shows up looking for revenge, you are protected by an entire military.”
Sofia stared at her sister. She had wanted the counterargument, but this was more than she had expected.
Carmen leaned forward, gazing at her sister somberly. “I guess what really matters is… Are you willing to forgive him and fight for him?”
The following morning, Sofia needed to destress. She woke up with the early tremors of a hangover and decided to get ahead of it. After being hit with such a bomb the night before, she was not about to let herself lie in bed feeling bad about herself. She showered, hydrated, and made her way to work out.
Walking through the doors of the recreational gym, she saw warriors sparring, runners dashing from side to side, and her super intelligent baby sister punching and kicking the crap out of a holographic pummel dummy. The hologram was designed to resemble a limbless dummy, similar to the ones found back on Earth, but with a polite smiling face that appeared to love the abuse it was taking.
“Great job!” it exclaimed after a roundhouse to the chin. “Were I a physical object rather than a complex prism system of energy or light, that certainly would have knocked me out. Keep going!”
“How can you stand that thing?” Sofia asked, setting her towel and water bottle beside Elena’s. “It’s so annoying.”
“That’s all part of the workout,” Elena answered, bouncing on the balls of her feet, preparing to strike. “You want to test yourself to see if you can hit it hard enough to shut it up.” She attacked the dummy’s ribs like a striking viper.
“Superb!” the hologram celebrated. “You used enough power to shatter a human ribcage! Keep it up!”
“Give it a go,” Elena said.
Sofia didn’t need to be told twice. She hit the hologram with everything she had, fueling all the angst and confusion she felt toward Zaraq. She found herself only getting more ticked off by having the object of her punishment cheering her on.
“Your punches are weakening,” the hologram informed her. “Perhaps you should take a breather!”
“I think it’s right,” Elena agreed.
The sisters took their towels to sit on a pair of benches along the far wall. Elena confessed that Carmen had given her all of the dirty details of Zaraq’s story. “I won’t lecture you,” she said.
“Thanks.”
“But I will say you’re acting a tad out of character.”
Sofia gulped down her water. “How so?”
“Being mad makes sense,” Elena said, wiping sweat from her brow. “But the Sofia Flores I’ve always known would rip into him for lying and then come up with a way to prove his innocence. You’re not the kind of woman who sits by and lets terrible things happen to good people. You were right there when Arccoo and Carmen needed us to help prevent a massive war his brother was fixing to start. Why are you giving up now?”
Sofia didn’t have an answer she felt like sharing. Since waking up with a pained, if slightly clearer, mind, she had suspected that the reason for her brashness was anger over not noticing the signs earlier. I let myself get close, she thought. I jumped in without really thinking things through, just to regret it later… like I always do.
Instead of answering Elena, Sofia suggested they return to kicking the shit out of that grinning idiot hologram. When the rest of her energy was spent and she imagined that she managed to sweat out all of the alcohol, Sofia decided to head back to her quarters and shower while she considered calling Zaraq.
The call wasn’t necessary. As the door to her quarters came into view, Sofia saw Zaraq crouching by her door. Walking up behind him, she couldn’t help her inappropriate comment. “Did you come by to kill me because I know too much?”
Zaraq stood and turned. He held a jade rock in his hand. “No,” he said, frowning a little. “I came by to drop this off. I meant to give it to you on the way back from the monastery but got distracted.”
“This was from the cave?” Sofia asked, accepting the gift. It shimmered in the bronze lights. Seeing it took her back to the incredible moment she saw the ruined holy place.
“Yes,” Zaraq answered. “Anyway. I have a transport taking me off-world soon. I just wanted you to have—”
“Knock it off,” Sofia said.
Zaraq was as still as the stone.
“One fight and you’re ready to run away?” Sofia asked, hoping the light bouncing off of the stone was catching the wickedness of her eyes. “You’re gonna have to be made of firmer stuff to date me.”
Zaraq’s eyes almost fell out of his face. “You want me to stay.”
Sofia smiled. “Yes,” she said, “but we have got a lot of talking to do.”