“Lon,” Lira whispered. “I’ve missed you. I think of you every day. I’ve wanted to visit, truly. It’s just that...”
That I became a criminal, she thought. That I was afraid of what you would think of me, of the person I have become.
“You stopped sending me updates,” he said. “You disappeared, Lira. All I had to keep up-to-date with you were the—” he swallowed hard, the scale flashing again on his cheek “—the updates about a certain crew of wanted girls, halfway across Mirabel. The crimes I won’t even begin to discuss.”
She closed her eyes. Looked away from the pained expression on his face, so much like her own. “Things changed out there. Situations got out of control. I...reacted.”
“There have been deaths,” Lon hissed. His voice was so low it was nearly lost in the wind.
“Not at my hand,” Lira promised. “I swear it, Lon. I swear it in this holy place.”
His jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth. “I know you aren’t a killer, Lira.”
Her heart relaxed, just slightly.
“But you left. You left me, and you chose to forget about home.”
“No.” Lira held up her hands. “I chose to protect you from who I have become, Lon.”
Silence fell between them. Somewhere down below, a bell clanged. The sound, deep and full, swept up the mountainside, trickled past Lira’s ears. It meant that Queen Alara was accepting petitions from the Adhiran people, young and old, rich and poor.
Alara was a wise leader, loving and attentive. She cared wholeheartedly for Adhira, giving her all to the care of her people.
It was something Lira could never do, could never even dream of doing.
So she’d fled. She’d made herself into someone unworthy.
She’d created demons to chase her, the kind she could never outrun.
“We don’t have much time alone together, so I’ll make this brief,” Lon said, drawing her attention back to him. “Whatever you think you’ve become...” He sighed, turning to face her. “You are still my sister. And I will always have room in my heart for you. The old you. The new you. The you that you have yet to become.” He pressed two fingers to her forehead. “I don’t have to agree with it all, Lira. But my loyalty is yours...until the mountain falls.”
Until the mountain falls.
They were the last words he’d said to her—before she ran away on a starship and took to life in the skies.
Her heart clenched again.
“It’s not all bad, what the girls and I do,” Lira said, trying to lighten the tone in her voice. She moved back toward the eyeglass and ran her fingertips across it. “You can’t even begin to imagine what’s happened in the past few days.”
“I can guess it’s quite a tale,” Lon said. “Seeing as you and your friends aren’t rotting in a cell in the belly of Rhymore right now for that crash landing. And just before Revalia, too.”
Lira winced. She’d forgotten all about the peace festival. It was a yearly occurrence on Adhira, a celebration of the end of the war against Xen Ptera.
“Let me tell you my side of the story, then,” Lira said. “Let me explain to you what’s gone on, so you can try to see it in a different light.”
Lon shook his head. “Lira...I can’t.”
“Just the good things?” Lira asked, her voice settling into that little pleading tone she’d used on him when they were younger. When she desperately wanted the last bite of his moss meringue, or to play with one of his toys. “I’m a starship pilot, Lon. Just like I always dreamed I’d be.” She placed her hand on his warm arm. “I’ve even taken up that nasty little habit you try to hide from the queen.”
His eyes flashed.
“You have your secrets, too,” she teased.
“Moon Chew, little bug?” He clicked his tongue and shook his head. But then he smiled, the warmth slowly spreading back into his features as he took the bait. “What in the Godstars led you to that?”
“You can’t even imagine,” Lira said, and turned to look up at the sky. “The things we see up there, Lon. It’s...”
“Not something the queen would approve of,” Lon finished for her. He held up a finger as Lira frowned. “But she tends to be a little uptight. Which is exactly why...if you hold back the things she doesn’t need to know...I will not tell her a single detail of what you’re about to tell me.”
She opened her mouth to share, but he stopped her with a raised brow.
“Only the good things. If it has anything to do with Adhira, anything that might threaten this planet, I cannot hear it.”
“I swear it,” Lira said. “You know I’d never do anything to harm this place, Lon.”
He bowed his head. “Then go ahead, little bug.” When he looked back up, his eyes were eager. “Just...go ahead.”
And so they stood there, brother and sister, two halves of one whole, the Adhiran wind whipping through the temple as Lira told her tales.
He shook his head in amusement when she described Gilly and her fiery spirit. He smiled when she spoke of Andi’s dancing and her red polished nails and the way her music spilled through the halls of the ship. He grumbled something about cocky Guardians as Lira talked about Dex and hummed in appreciation when she described Breck’s exquisitely cooked meals. He laughed when Lira told him some of the New Vedan’s jokes and the banter Breck shared with Gilly.
He gripped Lira’s arms when she spoke of their high-speed chases. The way she could fly a ship like a tireless bird. The planets they’d visited, the amazing atmospheres they’d entered, the glorious worlds beyond this one. Planets made of ice. Planets made of diamond. Planets that never saw the light of day, so cold that the air nearly froze the engines on their ship before they could soar away.
All along, he listened, occasionally biting his lower lip in thought.
Lon always knew that Lira harbored a darkness in her soul. A little tug, a tiny whisper at the back of her mind, that led her to go above and beyond the pranks that Lon had always pulled while they were growing up here.
She’d fallen, not for a lover, but for the skies. For adventure.
She’d found a ship full of girls with their own affinity for darkness to mirror her own.
When she was done, Lon stared at her for a time.
“You were never meant to stay here,” he said. “I’ve known it since the moment you tried to leap from this very temple with wings made of leaves tied to your arms.”
Lira laughed.
He put an arm around her and pulled her close.
“Welcome home, little bug.” She felt him inhale beside her. Exhale, deeply. “I hate to ruin your strange homecoming...but...”
“What is it?” Lira pulled away.
Lon shrugged, a lopsided smile on his face. “The queen has requested a private meeting with you. And, seeing as I’m to be your personal Sentinel for the time being...I’m here to escort you to her. And ensure that you don’t escape while she delivers whatever punishment she sees fit for the damage your ship did to the hrevan fields.”
“Of course you are,” Lira said with a groan. “And my crew? Will they be there, too?”