Chapter 26
Banjo
Tavryn is dead. Tavryn is dead. Tavryn is dead.
The thought repeats in my head, over and over, as the angel—Rouverace—pulls some sort of space gun on Tavryn and shoots him right in the stomach. There isn’t a bang, but my ears are still ringing. And someone is screaming.
Wait…I’m screaming. And thrashing. And lashing out in any way I can to get away from the being holding me and over to Tavryn. He’s okay. He has to be okay, right? There’s no way they’d go through the trouble of catching him just to kill him.
If I keep telling myself that, maybe I’ll believe it.
Rourverace turns back to me, frowning at the ruckus. Lavender colored ringlet curls fall perfectly around his round, cherubic face. Tiny white horns barely peek out of them, almost like they’re trying to hide. He’d be pretty if he hadn’t just hurt—murdered? Please, please not that—Tavryn.
“What did you do to him?!” I demand, my voice rough after all the hollering. Rourverace blinks, glancing over his shoulder to watch the guards as they drag Tavryn away. “Wait, where are they takin’ him? Take me too!”
Rourverace laughs and shakes his head. “No, human, you’re not going anywhere near him,” he says. “He’s done enough damage. You’ll be staying in my suite with me, as my honored guest.”
I definitely don’t like the sound of that, but he keeps talking before I can complain. “Oh, how impolite of me. I never introduced myself.” He smiles at me, though it looks anything but happy. “I’m Rourverace. But you, my dear, might know me better as Ace.”
My mind is running at about a thousand miles per hour. But when I hear his name, it’s as if my brain slams on the brakes. There’s a jolt, and then nothing. Everything stops. I stare at him as I wait for my thoughts to start moving again. They feel unusually sluggish.
Ace. Ace. Wait. Ace, as in Tavryn’s ex-boyfriend? The Aekzuk that pretended to be his other half, then epically screwed him over? The one that stood there and laughed as Tavryn went through the worst moment of his entire life?
Rourverace frowns as he looks up at me. I gape down at him in return.
“Wait, did he not tell you about me?!” he huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. His tone sounds less like a powerful spaceship captain and more like a bratty teen now that most everyone has left the room.
“Typical. Of course he didn’t even mention me. ”
Okay, his mood swings are giving me whiplash.
He’s really all over the place. First, he’s all scary, then he’s worried about being rude.
And now he’s annoyed? I’m not sure what he’s trying to do, so I’m also not sure what I should be doing.
Finding out more about Tavryn. I need to know he’s okay, and then I have to figure out how to get us out of here.
“He told me ‘bout you,” I say. Rourverace perks up immediately. “He told me exactly what you did to him.” My hands ball into fists. I’m not a violent sort of person. Heck, I’ve never even been in a fight. But this guy? Oh yeah. I’d totally punch him for hurting Tavryn.
“And you just believed him?” Rourverace asks, brow arched. That takes me by surprise. Of course I believed him. Why would Tavryn lie about something like that? It had clearly been something he’d held in and struggled with for a long time, so it had to be the truth…right?
“Judging by your blank stare, I’m going to assume the answer is yes.
” Rourverace lets out a disappointed sigh, and alright, now I can see the resemblance.
Maybe these two species have a whole language built on dramatic sighs.
“It appears we have a lot to discuss. Come. I’ll take you to my quarters, and you can hear what really happened between us on Vocarie. ”
The big guy who’s got me by the arm starts to follow Rourverace, but I dig my heels into the ground to stop him.
I have to put up some kind of fight, even if he could drag me wherever he wanted.
“Wait!” Rourverace pauses, looking at me over his shoulder.
“I’ll go with you, I swear, as long as you tell me if Tav is gonna be okay. ”
Rourverace scoffs and shakes his head. “Don’t worry. He’s fine.” That dark smile is back. “Or at least, he will be as long as you cooperate.” This time, when my guard pulls me by the arm, I go with him. I won’t risk them hurting Tavryn. I can’t.
The Vanquishing is far bigger than Tavryn’s ship, though it’s still way smaller than the Triumph. While the Triumph is an entire city, the Vanquishing is more like an apartment building. I still get so turned around I don’t realize we’ve reached Rourverace’s room until the door closes behind us.
It’s a small apartment that’s not decorated much, like he just moved in.
As I look around, I quickly realize we’re alone.
I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.
Good, since my arm was starting to ache from being jerked around.
Bad because I trust Rouverace about as far as I can throw him.
Rourverace plops down on one end of a white, curved couch.
It looks far too futuristic to be comfortable, unlike Tavryn’s plush, squishy loveseat.
“Sit,” Rourverace says as he motions to the seat next to him.
I sit in the chair across from him instead.
It’s kind of impolite, sure, but I figure keeping some distance between the two of us is probably in my best interest.
“Really?” Rourverace asks, letting out a little laugh before shaking his head.
“Wow. He really turned you against me, didn’t he?
” I frown, and his own smile drops. “Typical. Really typical. Of course he wouldn’t tell you the truth.
It’s just like Tavryn to make me out as the bad guy.
Anything to keep from having to admit the tragic things that happened were his fault. ”
“They weren’t his fault,” I reply, automatically jumping to Tavryn’s defense. Just hearing Rourverce talk about him like that has my hackles raising. “Those things happened because you took advantage of him.”
Rourverace doesn’t look upset. No. He looks at me like he’s sorry for me.
Like he thinks I’m an idiot who fell for some kind of scam or something.
“My poor, sweet dear,” he coos. His voice is fake nice, not real nice.
He thinks I’m too stupid to tell the difference.
“You should know better than to trust beings like him. The only thing Tavryn wants from you is money. Didn’t he tell you that? ”
I open my mouth to object before I realize okay, he’s kind of right. The first thing Tavryn asked after he rescued me was if I could pay him. But we’ve come a really long way since then! “Tavryn don’t want no money from me. It ain’t like that between us.”
“It wasn’t like that between us either.” Rourverace has this wistful look on his face that’s almost believable. I guess things weren’t always bad. There must have been some parts that were enjoyable for both of them. “At least, not at first.”
“It started small. A few credits here, a few credits there. He always had some next big thing he was trying to do, something that would finally get him ahead. That should have been the first red flag, honestly.” Rourverace shakes his head.
“Then before I knew it, he had tricked me into leveraging my status and connections to help him break into our largest financial institution and steal a ridiculous amount of money.”
Rourverace’s eyes are watery by this point in the story.
“I didn’t realize exactly what we were doing until we had the money.
When the authorities caught us, I tried to act like I didn’t know what was going on.
I mean, I didn’t know much, but I didn’t want to betray Tavryn.
He didn’t feel the same. He immediately tried to pin everything on me, so I was forced to tell them the truth.
I’m not proud of it, but what other choice did I have?
I was just an innocent bystander sucked up in his incessant battle for more.
I should have realized that I wasn’t enough. That I’d never be enough for him.”
It seems so genuine, but something is itching at the back of my mind, telling me this isn’t right.
It’s saying I should trust Tavryn, no matter what Rourverace says.
So instead of responding or reacting to his story, I just sit there.
Nothing I say is going to make this situation better, and I’m definitely not taking the chance of making it worse.
Rourverace stares back at me, and for several minutes we play chicken to see who’s going to look away first. He breaks, and I can’t help but feel a small surge of victory.
“I see he’s got you under his spell even more than I was,” Rourverace says with a sigh.
“We’ll see if some time apart can change your mind. ”
Days go by. It’s hard to know how many, since I’ve been trapped in Rourverace’s rooms since I got here. At first, I tried to keep track of the days by counting how many meals they gave me, but I lost count somewhere around the eighth or ninth day.
Rouverace ate with me a few times. Each time, he tried to get me to say something bad about Tavryn. What had Tavryn been doing for the last several years? Did he have any accomplices? Who are his contacts on Earth?
Luckily, if Tavryn ever told me any of that stuff, I didn’t remember, so I managed to avoid answering Rourverace’s questions without lying. He was equally unhelpful when I asked about Tavryn. All he would say is that Tavryn would be fine, as long as I cooperated.
Eventually, Rourverace must have given up, because he stopped making me eat with him so often.
It’s good. Great, even, because the longer I spend with him, the more I want to punch him.
No matter how much I cooperate, he refuses to tell me anything about where Tavryn is or how he’s doing.
I hope he’s okay. He needs to be okay. If he’s not…