Selfishly, I want him to come with me. I’ve been on my own for so long now, I just want my dad to be there, to tell me what to do, to protect me, to be my rock, like he’s always been. I’ve come so far. So far.

I see my dad’s face. I’ve never seen such pain in his eyes before. They are wet and red and tired. I have to be strong for him.

I hug him again. “It’s okay, Dad,” I find myself saying. At first I think I am just trying to act tough again. Then I realize it isn’t an act. The last six months, though hard, have chiseled me into a different person. I am the same, but different. I am no longer reliant on my father to protect me. I am tough. A survivor. “I’ll be fine,” I say firmly.

My dad tilts my chin to look at me. His eyes are wet. “I know you will, Adele. You are an incredible young woman, courageous and strong. I’m so proud of you. Be safe.”

“Do you have any advice?” I ask, hoping for some of my dad’s usual pearls of wisdom.

“Do what’s in your heart. And please, come back to me.” He kisses my forehead, holds his lips to my skin for a moment, his dark and tangled beard blocking my vision.

After all the crying I’ve done lately, I expect to be bawling now. But I’m not. Other than the few tears I blinked away, I feel strong, resilient. The fighter my father raised me to be.

I release my dad and turn to Elsey. “Take care of Dad for me, will ya?”

Elsey’s eyes widen. “I will,” she says solemnly. “Thank you for rescuing me.” She rushes to me and throws her arms around me. She’s not being overly dramatic this time—the situation warrants it. I hold her fiercely.

“I will never forget you, Elsey,” I say, speaking her language.

“Nor I you,” she replies. I kiss both her cheeks and then turn to Tawni.

Although I desperately want to, I can’t ask her to come with me. She has done too much already, and the road ahead will be too dangerous. “Goodb—”

“I’m coming with you,” she says, interrupting my farewell speech before it ever really gets started. I burst into a huge smile, hug her. I don’t argue. Like before, I know she won’t take no for an answer, and I don’t want her to.

I go to shake Roc’s hand, but he gives me a hug instead. I don’t know him that well, but he seems like a good person. “Take care,” I say.

“Till we meet again,” he says.

Finally, I turn toward Tristan. He is still frowning, his lips still tight.

“But I just found you,” he says.

Oh, how his words make my heart ache. I don’t fully understand how I feel about him, but I know I care for him. I have to be strong, have to stand on my own two feet. My body shivering slightly, I put my arms around him, hug him.

Under any other circumstances I would be embarrassed to hug a guy in public—other than my dad, of course, and Roc, who seems so brotherly—but now I don’t care. I need to feel his heat against me, the warm buzzing of his amazing magnetism, just one more time. I need it to remember him by, to get me through whatever is coming.

I raise my chin and look up at him. A single tear creeps from his eye and meanders down his cheek. I wipe it away with the edge of my hand. Once more, I have the urge to kiss him. I grit my teeth and ignore the feeling, pull him close for a final squeeze. It isn’t out of embarrassment that I choose not to kiss him, nor because I am inexperienced, having never kissed a guy before; rather, it is because I don’t want our first kiss to be our last, too.

I release Tristan and immediately feel the electricity leave my body. I feel numb again, unfeeling. “Where will you go?” he says.

Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve never been to the Star Realm, have no idea how to get there. I look at Tawni. She shrugs. A good team we are going to be.

Roc chuckles as he unzips his pack. “Here, take these,” he says, handing me a packet of maps. “Your complete guide to the Star Realm. I recommend following the reservoir around the city to the north”—he points in the direction we should take—“and then hang a right through the inter-realm tunnel. Typically you’d need clearance to get through it, but I expect no one is manning it because of everything that’s happening.”

I nod. “Thank you. For everything.”

I can’t bear to drag out the goodbyes any longer. I’ve just brought three-quarters of my family back together, and yet I have to leave them to find my mom. The last quarter.

I will find her—of that I am certain.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Tristan

 

She is gone. I watch her long, black hair fade into obscurity, becoming one with the dark cavern walls. When I turn away, I find her father looking at me seriously.

“She’s my little girl,” he says. I sense a protective undercurrent to his words.

“I’m not like my father.”

“You already told me that,” he says. “Now you have to show me.”

“I will,” I promise. I stride to him, extend my hand. “I’m Tristan. Tristan Nailin.”

He takes my hand, squeezes hard, crushes my fingers. A test, maybe. Although it hurts like hell, I control my face, don’t cry out. “I’m Adele’s father,” he says sternly. I raise my eyebrows, intimidated by the serious man before me. My judge. My jury. Without his approval, I surely won’t get Adele’s.

He surprises me by breaking into a huge smile, chuckling under his beard. “Just kidding,” he says. “I’m not really that tough. Unless you do something to hurt my daughter, of course. Then I’m your worst nightmare. Name’s Ben. Ben Rose.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Rose,” I say.

“Just Ben is fine.”

“Thanks. And I won’t do anything to hurt your daughter—that’s a promise.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he says, leaving me and going to Roc and Elsey, who are dangling their feet in the reservoir.

I crouch down, put a hand on the stone. I imagine that I can feel small vibrations through the ground, the soft patter of her footsteps in the distance. I close my eyes and picture her green eyes looking up at me, her soft lips slightly parted. It had felt like she was about to kiss me—God knows I wanted her to—but then she didn’t.

I hope I will get the chance to ask her why.

I fear for her. The caverns are a dangerous place, and get more dangerous the deeper you go. Cannibals, marauding gangs of thieves, and now legions of star dweller troops roam the depths, preying on the weak. Adele is not weak—she’s proved that every step of the way with her fighting, with the slingshot—but she’s also not invincible. Like when I started this adventure, I hope I will see her again.

I still don’t know what our feelings are for each other, or why they feel so strong, but I want to find out. She is like no one I have ever met before. So strong and capable—but tender and compassionate, too. At least that is my first impression.

My only regret: I didn’t tell her what I know. It just never felt like the right time. I vow to tell her the next time I see her. Until then, she’ll live in my dreams, like my mom.

I kiss the tips of my fingers, touch them to the ground. “Farewell, Adele Rose,” I whisper.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Adele

 

My dad says that the purest love is that which is unlived. I am beginning to understand what he means by that. I don’t think I am in love with Tristan. At least, not yet. I mean, how can I be? We just met. But whatever we have, it is certainly pure, unscarred by the filth of the world we live in.

I hope I won’t regret having not kissed him.

The tunnel is right where Roc said it would be. He is wrong about there not being any guards, though, but they are both dead, lying awkwardly at the bottom of the stone staircase leading to the tunnel entrance. They’ve been shot and thrown down the stairs. I try not to look at their faces as we step over them.

We reach the top of the steps and I pause, looking back over the city. Thick smoke roils over the crumbling rooftops. A cheer rises up in the distance. The star dwellers have taken subchapter 26.