Sons of Lyra: Runaway Hearts (4 page)

He was surprised when she
grabbed his hand, her fingers closing tight enough around it that
it hurt. Her fingernails dug into his palm. He gritted his teeth
against the pain too.

The ship heaved and then a
deafening roar filled his ears. He was thrown to the side, into
Terea, as the engines kicked in and blasted them towards the
atmosphere. Terea’s grip on his hand tightened and her other hand
joined in. She made a small noise that sounded a lot like fear and
he placed his other hand over them, completing the tangle. He held
hers tightly, mostly to reassure her but partly to reassure himself
too. In all the times he’d watched the ships taking off from the
port, it had never looked so difficult. They had always eased up
into the air with a chugging noise and drifted effortlessly into
space. Perhaps it was just him romanticising what he saw. Maybe all
large ships took this much effort to get into the air. From a
distance it would be hard to tell.

He opened his eyes when
the juddering stopped and the rattling ceased. His stomach
continued to turn, flipping over and over. He took deep breaths to
settle it and looked at the shutter across the window. Were they
through the atmosphere yet? He wished he could see. He wanted to
see the stars as his brothers did. He wanted to see the moment they
left daylight behind and broke through into eternal
night.

Terea’s grip on him
loosened. He took one of his hands away but kept the other there,
allowing her to hold it. He’d never had a woman hold his hand
before. It was nice.

Everything felt
calm.

He imagined that they were
drifting out into space now, effortless and weightless.

A shudder rocked the ship
and the sound of the engines increased. Another lurch and he
noticed the rise in speed. The whole ship seemed to jolt up and
down, lunging all over the place.

“
I said it
could be rough,” Terea said, her face buried against his
arm.

They must be reaching full
speed as Terea had mentioned. He hoped it didn’t stay like this for
the whole journey. He’d definitely be sick if it did.

Her hand left his,
stealing all the warmth away. She looked at him.

“
It won’t be
long now. It will settle soon and then we can move around again.”
There was a look in her eyes that he didn’t like. Not quite
mischief but something close. It gave him the impression that if he
let her leave the room, he’d never see her again.

He couldn’t let that
happen. He needed her to get him passage from Dliaer to wherever
his next destination would be. He hadn’t paid attention to what
she’d said to the woman at the port on Lyra Prime and he didn’t
want to look like an idiot or wind up in the cargo class area of
the ship.

Besides, he was beginning
to grow used to her company. He would even go as far as saying he
liked having her around.

The ship levelled out and
he heard the click of her safety harness. She stood and stretched,
reaching her arms out above her head. She looked paler than she had
been before takeoff. He probably looked the same. He unclipped the
straps holding him in and stood on wobbly legs. He could still feel
the ship vibrating if he concentrated hard enough. Either that or
he was imagining it.

Terea went to the door. He
was about to tell her not to leave when she pressed a button on the
panel next to it and the shutters across the window opened,
revealing the darkness of space.

He stared out of the
window, watching Lyra Prime disappearing into the distance. The sun
peeked over the disc of it. It was breathtaking. He sensed Terea
come to stand next to him but didn’t look at her. He couldn’t take
his eyes off the scene outside. He could see cloud formations
hundreds of miles wide and the crystal blue oceans that lapped
golden and green continents. It looked nothing like it had done in
the books. It was so much more beautiful.

When it drifted into the
distance, becoming too small to be interesting, he looked around to
see what else space had to offer. Another planet blurred past and
then another. Lyra Five. Its oceans were darker than Lyra Prime’s
and the land was swathed with deep green. It was
stunning.

The next planet passed,
this one surrounded by space stations and crowded with ships coming
in and out of them. It was Lyra Six. A pleasure planet. His parents
had arranged for some of the planet’s foremost women to attend to
him once for his twenty-first birthday. It had been a night he’d
never forget.

His attention drifted
across to Terea. Something told him that he’d never forget a night
spent with her. It wasn’t something he’d been looking for on this
trip, but then he’d never expected to find himself with such a
beautiful woman. She was watching him and not the world outside. He
wondered what she was thinking.

Terea reached out with her
mind, touching his lightly enough that he wouldn’t notice the
intrusion. His mind felt red and warm, full of wicked thoughts that
she knew were about her. His eyes told her that. Whatever he was
thinking, it was dirty.

Other than his desire, his
feelings ran along lines of fascination and contentment, even
excitement. She’d already figured out that this was his first time
off-planet. For someone who had looked so worldly at first, he was
fast beginning to appear sheltered.

She glanced at the door
and then back at him. The lust in his eyes had been replaced by
intrigue. When she’d gone to the door to open the shutters across
the panoramic window, she’d sensed his tension and anxiety. He’d
been relieved when she’d returned to him.

He knew she wanted to
leave.

Something told her that
he’d stop her if she tried to.

She was going to have to
find a way to get away from him. He’d served his purpose and, now
that she had passage to another system, she had to cut ties with
him. She’d had it with men. Her father’s bringing her to Lyra Prime
when he’d said they were en route to Varka had been the last straw.
Now she’d felt the wind of freedom in her hair she didn’t want to
go back. She never wanted to go back.

“
You look as
though you need to relax,” she said and smiled sweetly to disarm
him. His feelings calmed again. “How about I order a few drinks and
then the galaxy will seem even more beautiful?”

He looked out of the
window. “It’s already beautiful.”

He was at that. Her eyes
traced the line of his profile—his smooth forehead, straight nose
and subtle curve of his lips, down to his defined jaw. The dirt
still covered him, but she no longer saw it. She cursed herself for
her female weakness and went to the panel on the wall.

Her fingers danced across
it, taking her deeper into the menu of food and drink available on
the ship. She smiled when she found what she was looking for and
didn’t hesitate before pressing the image to request it. A few
glasses of this and he’d be on his back and she could
escape.

She heard him walk across
the room and turned her head to see him disappear into the
bathroom. The door closed. She thought nothing of it and went to
the window. It had been a bumpy takeoff after all. There’d been
several moments when she’d been convinced she’d lose what little
food she had in her stomach. She frowned and then went back to the
panel, selecting some items from the food menu. If she was going to
get him to drink then she’d have to drink too. With an empty
stomach, she’d be drunk before he was.

Satisfied with her
selections, she returned to the window and looked out of
it.

He’d said it was
beautiful.

She traced patterns in the
bright stars, joining them together with her eyes. She couldn’t
recognise any of the constellations from this angle. They all
looked strange and it made her feel cold and alone, as though she
had gone to a completely different universe rather than system. She
never would’ve been happy on Lyra Prime. It was too different. The
people, the cities, even the air. Even the stars. What had her
father been thinking?

The man, Sebastian,
stepped out of the bathroom just as she sat down on the long padded
seat. His cloak was gone, revealing a crisp white shirt and tight
black trousers. Her eyes ran up the length of him, over a body that
she could tell was toned beneath his clothes. Whoever he was, he
took good care of himself. She’d noticed his hands weren’t rough
when she’d been holding them. If he worked, it wasn’t manual
labour. Her gaze reached his face. He’d washed the dirt off and
preened his black hair. The short tendrils of it were tangled and
pushed back, curling around each other. His eyes bore into hers,
dark and alluring. She hadn’t thought it possible for him to be
more handsome without the dirt, but he was.

The door panel buzzed and
a female voice came over it. They were speaking Lyran. She thanked
Arkus for the reminder that she was with a Lyran and went to the
door. For a moment, she’d been about to speak her native
tongue.

She opened the door and
smiled, bowing her head in greeting to the stewardess on the other
side. The stewardess pushed a large silver floating tray into the
room. She pressed a button on the wall and the floor opened to
allow a table to rise up. It hovered a foot above the ground,
perfectly still, as though it had legs. The stewardess placed the
bottle, glasses and food onto the table and then left with the
tray.

Terea closed the door and
looked at the man. He was staring at the table. He lowered himself
onto the long seat in front of the window and stretched his arms
out across the back of it, his legs crossing.

His eyes flicked to
her.

“
I thought we
could have a drink... it’s a wonderful spirit. It will settle both
our stomachs and help the time pass more quickly.” She gave him a
coy smile, fluttering her lashes a little to lure him in. She felt
like adding that she’d been trained well by her family. She knew
the best wines and spirits, and how to check the quality of most
foods in the galaxy.

He looked over his
shoulder, out of the window.

What had happened to the
man from earlier? He was different now. There was such confidence
about him, such power. His quiet reserve and air made her feel as
though she was nothing more than a servant girl, vying for his
attention. Why had he changed? The man in front of her now showed
no trace of the excitement and fear she’d sensed earlier. She
didn’t know which she preferred—the confident dashing man, or the
naive handsome one.

This one felt more
dangerous.

She felt as though she
couldn’t deceive him, no matter how much alcohol was
involved.

She felt attracted to
him.

She gathered her scattered
feelings and opened the dark blue bottle. She kneeled on the floor
while she poured the ruby red liquid into the two small glasses and
then rose to her feet with little effort and all the grace of her
training. He was watching her. She could sense his interest. He
wasn’t curious. He wasn’t intrigued by the drink. All that interest
was directed at her. She sat softly next to him at an angle with
her knees close to his. She placed her drink down on the table and
offered his to him, holding it by the rim with two fingers and
touching the bottom of it with two fingers of her other hand as she
presented it.

He stared at it and then
at her. She held her smile, extending the drink towards
him.

His fingers brushed hers
as he took it, sending a shiver through her that she couldn’t
ignore. She turned away to conceal her blush and picked up her own
glass.

Facing him again, she
raised her glass and knocked it against his.

“
To running
away,” she said and a flicker of surprise crossed his face and then
disappeared again.

It hadn’t been hard to
figure out. She was running away after all. It was easy to spot
someone doing the same.

He eyed the drink, sniffed
it as though checking to see whether it was poisoned, and then
knocked it back in one go. She watched him closely. He didn’t even
flinch. She drank hers, letting it ease down her throat and
enjoying the hot burning trail that followed it. Her head felt a
little lighter.

She picked up the plate of
food—small titbits of various meats and pastries. She offered it to
him. He declined so she helped herself. It was hard to eat
delicately when she was hungry and was trying to get enough food in
her stomach to stop the spirit from knocking her out.

Her eyes widened in
surprise when he leaned forwards, uncrossed his legs and shifted to
the edge of the seat. He refilled their glasses.

“
Minervan, I
presume. It tastes much like Koji.” He held the glass out to her.
She went to take it but he moved it out of her reach. His gaze
burned her as he raked it over her, from her eyes down to her knees
and back again. She swallowed and blinked slowly. He was more
universe-wise than she’d given him credit for. He knew it was Koji.
“They call it Koji for a reason. Do you know what that reason
is?”

She shook her head. She
did know, but she wasn’t about to make him suspicious by admitting
it.

“
Koji means
death in Minervan. They say it’s so strong that it has been the
death of men... and women.” He offered it to her again, and again
moved it out of her reach when she tried to take it. “Come, let me
serve it to you in a very Minervan way.”