Chapter 27 Reese
REESE
Breaking News! Empress presses charges on brother! Who knew family could be so cold-hearted?
It's done. The physical albums we put up for preorder have all already sold out, and Mauve is ready and eager to deal with the release when it goes live.
There's nothing left for me to do on Earth, no more interviews, no more photoshoots, and no more trying to talk to my family, who have made it abundantly clear they have no interest in talking with me in any respectful way.
Probably doesn't help that my parents had to bail out Jeremy yesterday.
It's been a little over a week since the whole kidnapping fiasco, something I'm choosing not to let affect me any more than it already has.
Of course, willing that to be and it actually being the case aren't the same.
No, I still sometimes get flashes of panic when we're in crowds, and it feels like someone is watching me.
It's never anyone doing anything nefarious, and Zill is quick to find whoever it is and show me that the only thing they're thinking is if they recognize me from somewhere.
A few of them have been thinking about whether or not to come up and talk to me.
None of them had any ill will toward me, and that's what I keep reminding myself.
No matter what Leo and Jeremy did, the majority of people aren't creepy weirdos.
"What are you thinking about?" Kolos asks, leaning against the doorway to the private ship Zill and I now share.
It's my new home, and I've made quick work of getting everything I wanted moved in and redecorated.
The Sombran only had a few pictures hanging up on the wall, and his sheets and comforter were a dark grey that blended in too much with the chrome look of the entire ship.
Now there are more decorations, a nightstand we bolted to the floor, and a rug that's bright pink with little threads of glittered yarn throughout.
The bed has a handful of pillows that serve no purpose other than to look cute.
Zill wasn't sure about the cluttering of the bed.
He changed his mind shortly after flopping into bed, and his shadows went sprawling across the new stuff, all shrieking in joy.
"I was just thinking about how I'm not going to let the kidnapping affect me," I tell him, spinning around in the lone navigation chair that sits near the currently turned off comms that run the ship when it's not attached to the larger one. "Zill's in the shower if you need to talk to him."
"I was coming to annoy him," Kolos says.
"Well, now he knows, so…" I give him a shrug.
"Yes, yes, it ruins all of my plans." Kolos steps further in, letting the door slide closed behind him.
His shadows aren't tucked up underneath his shorts today, and he's without a shirt, which is apparently his natural state of being. The shadows are limp on the ground, pooled underneath him with what looks to be the minimal amount of movement to be considered alive.
"Want to see what bullshit is going on on Earth?" I ask. "It makes me feel even better about leaving."
"You mean leaving the leeches behind isn't already good enough?" he asks.
Tell him to leave if he's bothering you. Zill's voice comes in through my thoughts, this one a little louder than his constant stream of thoughts that I've gotten better about ignoring from him and his shadows.
He's feeling bad! I respond. I immediately know I've been too loud, so I apologize much too loudly as well. Sorry!
"You can't just call my family leeches," I say, turning my attention back to Kolos as I go to grab my comm off the nightstand.
"I still can't believe you gave them anything," Kolos says, flopping down on the bed, crossing his feet at the ankles. "You know that's the money your parents used to bail Jeremy out, right?"
He settles in, smirking even as I glare at him and the shoes he currently has on my bed. He sighs as if it's me who's being unreasonable and toes off his tennis shoes, letting them fall lazily to the ground.
"I gave them what I said I'd give them and wiped my hands of them," I say, sitting on the edge of the bed, pulling up a news station from Earth.
"It's the best way for me to feel good about cutting them off.
This way, they're taken care of, and I don't feel bad.
If they want to waste all of it on Jeremy, then whatever. "
"Shouldn't have felt bad leaving them with nothing," Kolos mutters, but doesn't push it any further than that.
We all know how he feels about my giving my family any money.
He said if anything, I should give them a single credit just as a fuck you to them for treating me so poorly, but I just couldn't do it.
Maybe it makes me weak, but it's done with now, and I don't ever have to worry about them again.
Unless Zill has a job here on Earth or we're visiting his family, I don't ever expect we'll be back on Earth.
If we are, it won't be to see my family, that's for sure.
I've already even gotten new contact information for my comm, so even if they wanted to reach me, they can't. It's a nice, clean break, and one I'm happy that's been done.
I transfer my comm screen to the large one on the wall.
It's showing some advert for a new reality show that I've already decided I'll be watching when all the episodes go live.
It follows some royal Straxion family as they prepare for a wedding.
Apparently, there were three earlier seasons where you followed along with the family.
I'll be watching those before I get to the wedding.
I'm already so excited for the newest season, and I haven't even started any of it yet.
"Has Isha told you about any jobs?" I ask, waiting for the adverts to finish so we can get back to watching the colossal dumpster fire that is Earth.
"Not yet, but I don't think she has one for me if that's what you're asking about," Kolos says, tucking his hands underneath his head.
I climb back into bed, moving some of the pillows around to make myself comfortable.
Since there's no gathering place on the big ship, Kolos has deemed it appropriate to commandeer Zill's side of the bed when we're watching the comm.
It has the added benefit of annoying my soulbond, much to Kolos's delight.
He's my reality show buddy though, and Zill's still making peace with that fact.
"I'm only asking because Zill wants to get away for a little while, and well, we just want to make sure that you're–"
"Shush," Kolos says, leaning forward on the bed, holding his hand out to silence me.
"You're not going to shush me in my own ship," I tell him, shooting him a glare that he doesn't even notice.
No, he's too focused on the news story that's just now showing up on the screen.
His shadows are moving around the most I've ever seen them move as his eyes flick back and forth across the screen.
The bathroom door slides open, steam billowing out behind Zill as he steps into the room, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist and a scowl on his face. "You can't come onto my ship and talk to my–"
"Shut it," Kolos says, jumping from the bed, grabbing his shoes, and stepping closer to the screen.
"Skye McCannan, heiress to the McCannan Weapons legacy, has been reported missing after a small transport carrying her and her fiancé lost contact over the western boreal forest. Authorities say the two left for a weekend trip, but the McCannans alerted authorities when the transport's tracking device died.
Authorities have initiated a search for the thirty-two-year-old heiress.
It is unclear at this time what the pair was doing so far north, but there's speculation… "
"I need to," Kolos says almost as a whisper, his eyes darting over to where Zill is still staring at the screen with his lips parted and eyes wide.
"Go," Zill says. "We can follow."
"No, I got this," Kolos says, hopping toward the door as he puts one shoe on. "If I need you."
"We'll be here until you send word you don't," I say, answering for Zill because I can hear his thoughts, worrying that I want to leave Earth but not wanting to abandon his friend.
Kolos is out the door, running into Isha as he stumbles through with only one shoe on.
"What's going on?" Isha asks, her hand still raised to knock on the door to our ship. She watches, with a concerned furrow in her brow, as Kolos runs past her, his other shoe still in his hand.
"Skye," Zill says, raising his hand and motioning toward Kolos as if that answers that. It must be enough for Isha because she takes in a deep breath, her cheeks puffing out for a moment as she shakes her head. With raised brows, she let out her breath.
"Well, at least we're already in panic mode," she says, pulling her comm out of her pocket as she steps into the ship and holds it out to Zill.
"What's going on?" he asks, his jaw clenching as he looks down at the comm, his eyes flashing as he reads through messages.
"Skia had a hiccup when he was leaving Earth," Isha says.
"A hiccup?" Zill repeats slowly.
He hands Isha her comm back, rubbing his temples with his free hand as his shadows try to snake their way to me, not really caring for the seriousness of the situation happening right now. Or rather, they know how serious it is and have decided that touching me is of more importance.
"How does a Rytharian even find her way onto his ship without him noticing?" Zill asks.
What's he talking about? I ask the shadows, letting them curl around my fingers.
Zill glances over at me and shakes his head. He knows how they get when I ask them questions directly. They all surge for me, their shrill voices all overlapping until they figure out how to speak so I can understand.
Rytharian snuck on ship. Skia takes to new job. Very messy. No protection for her.