The Moon Dwellers (59 page)

“Wha…what?”

“
Adele…” my dad starts
slowly, his eyes tired and apologetic, “you’ve been through so much, I can’t even imagine…”

“What, D
ad?” I say
, urging him to get to the point.

“I need you to find your mother.”

“Mom?”
I have
n’t forgotten about her, not
really.
She i
s in the back
of my mind somewhere, but it is just that we don’t know where she is and I’ve
been so focused on rescuing my dad, and not dying, and T
ristan, and everything, that I’ve
kind of pushed
her to the back.
My dad nods
.
“Where is
she?” I say
.

“The Star Realm.”

“But how…?”

“They wanted to separate us,
so they took her below,” he says
, pointing down at the ground.
“There’s only one place they would’ve taken her.”

“The Max,” I say
, understanding now.
The maximum security prison in the Star Realm.
The same Max that I would’ve been transferred to on my eighteenth birthday had we not escaped.
Unbelievable to think how different things could have gone.
That I would have found my mom had I just left things alone.
But then my dad would still be in prison.
And Elsey still in that awful orphanage.

I am
so tired.
Emotionally, phy
sically, mentally.
All I want i
s to go with Tristan, to help him, to maybe get to know him, possibly hold his hand some more, maybe even kiss hi
m at some point.
And yet I say
, “I’ll do it.”

“Then I’
m coming with you,” Tristan says
immediately.

“No,” I say
, not wanting to say it.

“We’ll find your mother first, then we can talk to the moon dwellers.”

“There
isn’t time,” I say
.
“Plus, the star dwellers will kill you if they catch you down there.”

“They
’ll kill…you, too,” Tristan says
, his words catching i
n his throat slightly as he says
kill
.

“No
,
they won’t.
Not if I tell them I’m joining their rebellion.
That’s what they want, isn’t it?
For all
the moon dwellers to join them?
But they won’t accept that a sun dwel
ler wants to betray his own people
.
E
specially not you.”
My words a
re firm, my logic sound.
Inside
,
my stomach i
s in knots, my heart crumbling beneath the power of my brain’s logic.
Why are you saying this?
Let him come with you!
Someone else can talk to the moon dwellers.

Tristan i
s shaking his head, his mouth
tight and grim.
His eyes look misty.
When he looks away from me I feel
tears well up.
I barely kno
w him
, and yet…my feelings for him are so real.
My soul aches
.
I blink
away the tears.

My dad leans in close to me.
His voice is hoarse
,
merely a whisper.
“
I’m so sorry, honey.
I want to come with you, want to protect you, but I can’t…
I can’t co
me with you, Adele,” my dad says.
I already know he can’t.
Elsey needs
a father now mo
re than ever.
Plus
,
my dad can
help open up lines of communication between the moon dweller leaders and Tristan.

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, D
ad,” I fi
nd my
self saying.
At first I think I am
just trying to a
ct tough again.
Then I realize it i
sn’t an act.
The last six mon
ths, 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 s
urvivor.
“I’ll be fine,” I say
firmly.

My dad tilts
my chin to
look at me.
His eyes a
re wet
.
“I know you will, Adele.
Yo
u 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, re
silient.
The fighter my father
raised me to be.

I release
m
y dad and turn
to Elsey.
“Take care of
D
ad 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 ca
n’t a
sk her to come with me.
She has
done too much a
lready, and the road ahead will
be too dangerous.
“Goodb—”

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

I go to shake Roc’s hand, but he gi
ve
s me a hug instead.
I do
n’t k
now him that well, but he seems
like a g
ood person.
“Take care,” I say
.

“Till we meet again,” he says
.

Finally
,
I turn
toward Tristan.
He i
s still frowning, his lips st
ill 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, b
ut 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 an
y other circumstances I would be
embarrassed to hug a
gu
y 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 b
y, to get me through whatever i
s 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 c
lose for a final squeeze.
It i
sn’t out of embarrassment that I cho
o
se no
t to kiss him, nor because I am
inexperienced, having never kissed a guy
before; rather, it i
s because I do
n’t want our first kiss to be our last, too.

I release Tristan and immediately feel
the el
ectricity leave my body.
I feel
numb again, unfeelin
g.
“Where will you go?” he says
.

Honestly, I do
n’t know.
I’
ve
n
ever been to the Star Realm, have
no
idea how to get there.
I look at Tawni.
She shrugs.
A good team we a
re going to be.

Roc chuckles as he unzips
his pa
ck.
“Here, take these,” he says
, handing me a packet of maps.
“Your complete guide to the Star Realm.
I recommend following the reservoir around t
he 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 ca
n’t bear to drag ou
t the goodbyes any longer.
I’
ve
just brought three
-
quarters of my fam
ily 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

S
he is gone.
I watch
her long, black hair fade into obscurity, becoming one with the d
ark cavern walls.
When I turn away, I fi
nd 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.”

“Yo
u 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 ta
k
es my hand, squeezes hard, crushes
my fingers.
A test, maybe.
Although it hurt
s like hell, I control my face, do
n’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.
With
out his approval,
I surely
wo
n’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.”