incomprehensible, to accept the unbelievable. She glanced at Erik, still staring grimly out to the horizon, his hands tense on his knees. Could all this possibly be true? Could these incredible things the man—no, the creature—she loved was telling her be true?
Allie cleared her throat. “I don’t understand,”
she said slowly. “Why did your grandfather marry Eva, when it was so obvious she couldn’t adjust?
Why not just bring her back to Earth?”
Erik shook his head. He turned to her, his gaze burning. “It was his destiny.”
“So? Why follow a prediction when it’s so wrong? Your grandfather can’t have been happy with the results, either.”
“You don’t understand,” Erik repeated grimly.
“It was his destiny. It’s not like here on Earth. On Zura, and particularly in my homeland of Zalia, destiny is everything. It always has been. Destiny and order. At the age of twelve all male members of the elite class to which I belong have their destiny foretold by the Zalian seers. After that, your life’s work is to fulfill your destiny. To not follow what was predicted, exactly, is to fail. And to fail is disaster.”
“What do you mean, disaster?” Allie’s voice rose sharply. “You mean you’ll be killed if you don’t fulfill your destiny?”
Erik grimaced. “Not exactly. But the end result is the same. First, I would lose the status and acceptance I, as a Zalian of mixed parentage, have struggled all my life to achieve. Next to go would be my privileges and rights as a member of the Zalian elite, and my work. No Zalian unable to fulfill his destiny can be entrusted with responsibility. I would be an outcast, banned from work, shunned by my family and co-workers, shuttled to the fringes of society and to the uncontrolled wild lands where chaos, hunger and violence reign. If the denizens of those lands didn’t destroy me, shame and starvation probably would.”
Allie frowned. “It sounds horrible. Why do you even want to go back there?”
With an infuriating, almost robotic response, Erik repeated. “Because it’s my destiny. It’s either fulfill my destiny or die.”
Allie felt colder still as she watched him retreat into the impassiveness that seemed to be the way of his world, whatever and wherever it was. A world she didn’t want to believe in, but which events were forcing her to confront and accept.
Suddenly her heart stopped as the import of what Erik had just said hit her. Her eyes widened and her mouth fell open.
She touched Erik’s arm. When he turned to look at her, she whispered, “And I’m
your
destiny, right? That means you want me to go back with you to your planet. Right?”
For a moment Erik stared at her. Then he turned his gaze back to the lake, and away from her.
“Yes.”
“And if I don’t want to go?”
“You will go. You have no choice. It is destiny, mine and yours.” His voice sounded cold and bleak, the voice of an uncaring stranger.
“No,” Allie pointed out. Her voice rose with the desperation growing inside her. “It’s your destiny.
Not mine. And what if I went? What if the same thing happened to me as to Eva? What if my mind snapped?”
“But it wouldn’t.” Erik turned to her. Despite his flat denial, fear flickered on his face. “Why do you think I spent so much time getting to know you and allowing you to know me? Don’t you think it would have been easier to kidnap you and have done with it? Even before I knew anything about you, I didn’t want to take a chance that you could be destroyed like my grandmother was. I couldn’t do that to a stranger, and once I knew you . . .”
His voice trailed off for a moment as his gaze held hers. “Once I came to love you, I could do it even less. That’s why I tried so hard to win your love. And now to convince you to come willingly to Zura.”
“And if I won’t?”
His face fell. For a moment he said nothing.
Then his lips tightened and he seemed to retreat into that hard, distant place where Allie could not reach him. “You will come anyway,” he said flatly.
“Do not fool yourself that there is anything you can do to prevent our departure together for Zura.
There is no force on Earth—natural or technological—capable of preventing me from achieving our destiny.”
Allie shut her eyes. She had trouble believing she was having this conversation. That she was bargaining with an . . . an alien for her life and her home. That the Erik she loved was fast receding into the stranger Barak, the stranger who fascinated and frightened her, but whom she believed with gut certainty. And to believe that he was dead serious.
She bit her lip, then opened her eyes and regarded him. He sat still as a rock, hard and unreachable. She swallowed and, despite the ache of loss within her, despite her fears, she stubbornly resisted him in the only way she could.
“Perhaps you are right. You probably can take me to Zura whether I wish it or not. But one thing you can’t control. And that’s my willingness. I will never willingly go to the horrible place you describe as Zura. You can make me go, but you cannot make me love you. Not now. Not ever.”
Dismay creased Erik’s handsome face, in stark contrast to the unfeeling distance there before.
The change fueled Allie’s hopes that she was wrong.
“Allie,” he said softly. “Don’t do this. I love you.
You love me. You said so yourself. We could have so much together. I . . . I don’t want to lose the happiness I’ve found with you. Accept your destiny, as I’ve had to accept mine. Your life in Zalia would be different from your life here on Earth, but it would not be so terrible.”
Allie bit back a sob. It was easier to confront the alien Barak than the man who showed distinct signs that he loved her. Her bravado crumbling, she lashed out in a different direction. “And what about Cody? What are you planning to do with him?”
Erik shrugged. “Cody is not important.”
“Not important!” Allie’s voice rose in a shriek.
“Maybe not to you or to anyone on your twisted planet,” she spit out. “But he is to his mother.
You saw how ripped apart she is by his disappearance. He’s important to Nate and everybody else in the newsroom. And to Tiffany and Jane. And he’s important to me.”
First incredulity, then hurt, breached Erik’s impassive expression. “To you?”
“Yes, to me!” Allie knew her words wounded Erik but she couldn’t stop. She had to use the only weapons she had. Because now she was negotiating for whatever shreds of humanity she could get, for herself, and for Cody. For whatever remained of the humanity that had blossomed within Erik, the humanity and love she didn’t want to live without. Too much hung on her success to hold back.
She took a deep breath and glared at Erik. “All right,” she said. “I will go with you to Zura. And I will go willingly. But on two conditions only.”
“Yes?”
Allie shivered at the new coldness she heard in Erik’s softly-spoken affirmative. She swallowed, and looked out at the lake. “The first condition is that I be allowed time to say goodbye to my family, and to my friends. And I need to make arrangements for a new home for Sharkey.”
Erik nodded. “That’s fine. You have the rest of the week. We must leave on Sunday night. But I suggest you be discreet in your farewells.”
“Yes.” A burning wave of sadness washed over Allie as she realized the gravity of what she had agreed. Goodbye for all time, to everyone and everything she cared about. Wanda, Connor, the twins. Kate. Forever.
She swallowed a sob and plunged on before she could dissolve into tears. “And Cody. I want you to release him. Here. Unharmed.”
Erik’s eyes narrowed. He paused, then nodded.
“Done. He will be released the night we leave. You will be able to ascertain his well-being before we leave.”
Allie bowed her head, suddenly drained of spirit, drained of fight. Even the faint hum that always accompanied Erik’s presence had disappeared, leaving an uneasy silence inside.
She had won the battle, only to lose the war. She bit her lip tightly and blinked her eyes to keep back the tears.
“Allie.” Erik’s voice, more gentle than she’d ever heard it, pierced the veil of misery enveloping her.
Through a curtain of tears she looked up at him.
Gravely, he reached out and took her hand, then helped her to her feet.
“Come on,” he said. “We should go back to work. The others will wonder where we are.”
“Is something wrong?”
Allie heard the note of concern in her sister’s voice. She shook her head and tried to smile.
“No, Wanda. Everything’s fine. I guess I’m just tired. It’s been a tough week.” She shut her eyes for a moment. The strain of pretending everything was normal was taking its toll. Especially when she knew everything wasn’t normal at all, and never would be again.
Wanda looked up from the sink full of dishes she was washing following their regular Friday night dinner together. She frowned. “Are you still a little shaky from Monday? A guy waving a loaded gun at me would have sent me to bed for a week.”
This time Allie did manage a smile as she regarded her sister. Her heart swelled with fondness. Wanda had always stood up for her, protected her, cared for her as no one but Mama and Tata had. She was going to miss her so much.
“You’re probably right,” she said, avoiding her sister’s gaze. The truth was, she’d forgotten about that incident. Ever since she’d learned who and what Erik really was—and what was in store for her—she hadn’t been able to think of anything else. Nothing he’d told her about his planet, his home, the people and topography of Zalia had reassured her.
Wanda continued to regard Allie, her gaze troubled. “Well, whatever it is, you seem . . .
different. Sort of strained and—and distracted.”
Allie smiled again. Her face felt as if it would crack. She’d never been able to put anything over on her sister. Never. But for her sister’s sake, she couldn’t give in to the urge to tell the truth. Her disappearance would hurt Wanda in ways she’d seen all too vividly in her interviews with the families of missing people. It would be worse if Wanda thought she was crazy. She sighed. “I’m just tired. That’s all. Tired. I’m sorry if I’m not good company.”
“I didn’t say that.” Wanda turned her attention back to the sink. She swiped at a plate, then handed it to Allie to dry. “I, just . . . well, I’m not used to you like this. So quiet. So subdued. You’re usually so cheerful.”
As if a new idea had just occurred to her, she turned to look at Allie. “Is something wrong between you and Erik?”
Allie froze. She bit hard on her lip to prevent the bitter words from escaping.
Yeah, Erik’s an
alien and he’s taking me back to his planet in two
days.
Instead, she cleared her throat and resumed drying the plate. “What makes you ask that?”
“Well, if anything, Erik seems even more preoccupied, more strained, than you. I had to ask him three times to pass the potatoes. Not only that, but he keeps looking at you—almost as if he’s expecting you to say or do something fearful.”
Allie shrugged. Yes, Erik had been different this week. Not only had he shadowed her constantly, she could see that he was trying hard, in his stilted alien way, to reach out to her, to show her that he cared. For the first time she’d known when he probed her mind, when he telepathically tried to tell her all the things he thought she should know.
But she had been too numb with shock over who and what he was to respond. Too horrified by what he was forcing her to do to even think about whether he loved her. Too upset by the fact she still loved a man who had never really existed.
She had pushed him away and retreated into herself, alternately battered by hope and fear, despair and agony over the pain she knew she would be inflicting on her family and friends. If not for the thought of Cody’s aging, heartbroken mother and what his unexplained disappearance was doing to her, she would have fought Erik tooth and nail, for herself and her own family.
Wanda cocked her head and studied Allie again.
“You both seem so tense—and so preoccupied—I thought maybe you were secretly planning to elope.”
The plate slipped from Allie’s hand and crashed to the floor, shattering into hundreds of tiny shards. How could Wanda have guessed so close to the truth? she wondered. Though this wasn’t like any elopement she could ever have imagined.
Allie dropped to the floor to pick up the bits of broken china. “I’m really sorry about the plate,”
she mumbled. “You just surprised me.”
“Don’t worry about the plate.” Wanda swept by to get the broom. “It’s a mismatched one anyway.”
She returned with the broom and stood by Allie, who was picking china shards from the floor.
“You’re not eloping, are you?”
Allie continued searching the floor for bits of china. “Elope? Why would I elope?” she asked in what she hoped was a light tone of voice.
Wanda started to sweep the floor around Allie.
“Well, you know. You always were impulsive. It would be just like you to do something like that.
Though I don’t know about Erik.”
No
, Allie thought.
You don’t know about Erik.
Erik wasn’t impulsive. As dispassionately and meticulously as a career criminal, he had planned his campaign to win her. Without emotion.
Without a quiver of concern for anything except his overwhelming desire to achieve his destiny.
She choked off the sob that rose in her throat.
Wanda stopped and looked down at Allie. “Not that I’d encourage it, of course. Especially if it meant you’d be moving away.”
“Well, I’m not eloping.” Allie kept her head down until Wanda resumed sweeping. Then she stood up, and dropped the bits of china she’d collected into the trash can.
A mixture of pain and fondness pierced her heart as she watched her sister sweep the floor.
She was going to miss Wanda so much. And Connor, and Jason and Randy. What would she ever do without them?
Allie blinked back the tears gathering in her eyes. She put her hands on her hips and smiled at her sister. “How do you do it?”
Wanda looked up from sweeping. “Do what?”
“Manage to know more about me than anyone else?”