“What the hell is going on, Zhang?”
“The Guild isn’t going to allow you to be stationed on Earth anymore after what happened. Since you can’t go anywhere else in your state, they wanted you executed.”
“Executed?” I shrill. That’s excessive even for this. Maybe I am in a bit of danger.
“I was able to strike a deal with my father and he was able to strike a fragile one with the Guild. They were willing to let you live if you had a permanent minder.”
My stomach churns and a bunch of rocks sink to the bottom of it. My mouth moves with no sound as I put the pieces together.
He gets there faster. “You’re becoming a Centaurus.”
Then I’m lifted, flung over his boulder-sized shoulder, and for several long moments, I’m too dumbfounded to form a coherent thought.
* * *
That doesn’t last long. I get my voice back and pound on his back hard enough to make him wince. “Let me go. Put me down!”
“You’re lucky I don’t have a hand free.”
Atlanta and Uncle Ryan are at the bottom of the stairs. I reach for my brother. “Help me. He’s gone mad.”
Atlanta’s stunned. Uncle Ryan is immovable.
“Is it true?” Atlanta finally says. Uncle Ryan must have informed him.
“Yes,” Zhang says.
“Isn’t anyone going to remove the ogre from me?”
“If I let you down, are you going to come peacefully?” Zhang says, sounding so calm and so reasonable, the antithesis of me.
I want to get down but peacefully isn’t on the table. He’ll have to drag me out of here. “Fuck you, Zhang.”
“Have it your way. We’ll be at the motel until tomorrow morning. You should come, Atlanta.”
Atlanta grunts. Technically that counts as a response from him, but he usually jumps at any opportunity to see Gemini. Something happened between them.
“General Ryan, we’ll be in touch.”
Zhang strides toward the door like a maniac, hellbent on taking me out of here. “Hey!Wait.We don’t have all my stuff. Let me get something. One fucking thing.”
“You had your chance. Behave yourself on the way to the motel, and I’ll allow you to ask your brother to bring whatever it is you wanted.”
He unloads my hastily stuffed duffel into a basket on the back of his bike that wasn’t there last night. I’m next. He plunks me down on the seat. Guess I’m not trusted to ride my own bike, but to be fair, I’d definitely drive into oblivion. No one would ever fucking find me.
“Treyu?”
“My life is being turned upside down here. Literally and figuratively.”
I take in his form. It’s nothing short of imposing. There’s a good reason I don’t spend too much time under that glare.
“You’re in a lot of shit. You have no idea the acrobatics I’ve had to pull. Can you cooperate and not make my life difficult for one breath of your chaotic life?”
I cross my arms at him. Clearly, no. “I didn’t ask you to do anything for me.”
“It’s this or death, Treyu. Until I can … look, one problem at a time.”
“If we get married, that’s until death, which has the potential to be for a very long time. Stars aren’t given divorces like humans, Zhang, and you know why. I appreciate your weird-ass brand of heroism, but you’re going to be utterly miserable married to me.” This is such a him thing to do. It’s probably on his “I want to become an angel” to-do list: Save one angry fallen star from injustice.
