“You’re the person I happened to run into,” Olena corrected. “That’s all.”
So, basically, it’d been a matter of coincidence that had gotten Delaney into this mess. Great. Somehow, hearing aloud that Olena hadn’t planned this all out, hadn’t selected Delaney and watched her or followed her or any of that, helped drive home what everyone had been telling her from the very start.
“You’re not very clever,” she asked rhetorically, “are you?”
“No, she isn’t.” Ruckus stepped forward, ignoring the reddening of Olena’s checks. “If she were, she would already know by now that saying anything about where she’s actually been—or about your having to take her place this whole time—would be suicide.”
“My parents would never—”
“But Trystan would.” Delaney watched the first shimmer of panic enter Olena’s dark eyes. “If Trystan ever found out that you deliberately tricked him, he’d be furious. If he ever found out that other people knew, meaning he’d basically embarrassed himself by believing it this whole time? He’d be murderous. You and I both know it’s true.”
“Mazus is going to take you back to Vakar, where you are going to pretend like none of this ever happened,” Ruckus said, drawing the attention back his way. “You were here the whole time. Someone will brief you on your way there so that your lies can hopefully be somewhat feasible. For once.”
“What do you mean, Mazus is bringing me?” Olena said, and huffed.
“I’m staying here.”
“You’re not coming with me?!” A panic settled in her high-pitched voice. Olena was clearly frantic now. “You can’t be serious! I need you!”
“That’s not what was implied when you sent a stranger in your place to trick me,” Ruckus responded in an almost bored tone.
Absently, Delaney shifted closer to him, stilling when Olena’s eyes homed in on the move and darkened even more. If she wasn’t mistaken, the girl’s bottom lip was quivering. Much of the earlier bravado the Lissa had been trying to give off was slipping away.
“You are my Ander,” Olena reminded him, poorly attempting to keep it together. “It’ll be suspicious if you’re not with me when I return to Xenith. You have to escort me back. You don’t have a choice.”
“Actually,” Delaney said, “he has to escort me back. To Earth, that is.” She turned to Ruckus. “You do have a choice, though. I mean, if you’d rather—”
“I told you I would get you home,” he interrupted. “That was always the plan.” Then to Mazus: “That’s definitely Olena. You can take her now.”
“You have got to be kidding me!” Olena yelled. The Tellers began dragging her back toward the doors, and her expression turned more frantic. “You can’t do this! Ruckus! Ruckus, I can’t go back there! Ru—”
“Lucky travels, Ander Ruckus,” Mazus said respectfully, though his voice was barely heard. The whooshing of the metal door opening mingled with Olena’s loud and vocal struggles as they headed back to the other spaceship.
Once the sounds finally stopped, Delaney let out a breath she hadn’t noticed she’d been holding. Beneath her, the floor vibrated, and she assumed that was a sign the other ship was detaching from theirs.
“We’ll be on our way in a moment,” Pettus told them. Then he asked her, “Do you need anything?”
She shook her head, still trying to sort through her feelings.
“I’ll be in the cockpit,” he informed Ruckus, waiting for the Ander to nod his agreement before moving off.
Once they were alone again, Ruckus took her hand and squeezed. “How are you doing?”
“I guess I just feel a little bad for her,” she said softly.
He quirked a dark brow. “Even after meeting her?”
She thought about it, then said, “Yes. She’s awful, don’t get me wrong, but I did spend some time with Trystan and Magnus, and they aren’t great, either. And now she won’t even have you there with her as a buffer.”
He frowned down at her. “Did you want me to go with her?”
“Absolutely not.” Her fingers tightened around his. Just the suggestion made her stomach twist painfully.
“Good.” He let out a relived sigh but seemed unsure all of a sudden. “As soon as we’re close to Earth, we’ll use the device to change you back. Then Fawna will drop us off. Pettus and Gibus will return to Xenith, and hopefully once they get there, it’ll be to find that Olena has successfully reintegrated.”
Delaney paused, thinking she must have misheard him. When he only stared back at her, waiting, she blinked.
“I don’t…?” She let her words trail off, not wanting to jump to conclusions. “Drop us off?”
“Unless, of course, you object?”
“I…” She shook her head, stopped, and inhaled before trying again. “You want to come with me, to Earth?”
“Yes.”
“Like, to make sure I make it home?” That sounded strange, even to her own ears. That couldn’t be it, not unless he was interested in wasting his time. The other option, however …
“No,” he said, and licked his lips, “to stay with you. Hopefully at your home, but I could always rent an apartment, if you’d rather.”
“You want to stay with me? On Earth?” The corner of his mouth twitched and she realized how ridiculous she sounded, practically repeating herself. “How? Don’t you need to go back to Xenith? Won’t you get in trouble?”
“Actually, no,” he said. “I never took my right of passage.”
A moment later it clicked, and her eyes widened. “You want to go on your denzeration.”
“I do,” he said, holding her gaze, “but only if you want me to. If you don’t, I’ll go back with Pettus and Gibus. And I’ll understand, Delaney. After everything you’ve been through, if you never want to see another alien again, including me, I’ll under—”
Her mouth smacked against his, cutting him off. He was so tall, she’d had to leap a little just to be able to kiss him, her arms locked around his neck to hold them close even as his circled her thin waist. She felt him smiling against her a second before he moaned as she deepened the kiss.
“You probably should have waited,” she said then, but she couldn’t get the right amount of seriousness in her tone. He was coming with her. She didn’t have to say good-bye.
“For what?”
“You know what.” She pulled back and gave him a blank look. “Is this a bad time to tell you I’m horribly disfigured?”
He chuckled. “You’re making jokes about it now. That’s good. Does this mean you finally believe I’m interested in the you you?”
With a huge wave of relief, she realized it did.
*
“READY?”
“Are you ready?” She took a deep breath. They were back in Ruckus’s room, the one she’d woken up in, just the two of them.