Lost Flyght – Chapter 28

I roll over and inhale as I snuggle up to Ken’s side. He shifts his arm and pulls me close, giving me a few more moments of quiet before we have to get up and get on with this crazy life.

“You know,” he whispers, bringing his lips to my cheek, “I thought my job was hard.”

“Mmhmm?”

“But, I think yours may be ten times worse.”

I keep silent.

“Like, the worst, Vivi.” He laughs, and it makes me giggle. “Maybe as bad as ‘teaching kindergarten-aged kids who just ate a vat of sugar’ worst.”

“Like, ‘warden of a prison’ worst?” I ask, rolling to my back.

“I’m thinking ‘politician’ worst.”

I hiss. “Oh yeah. That’s pretty bad.” I let the giggles die out as I stare at the ceiling of Ken’s room. “He’s right down the hall,” I whisper.

“I know. I checked on him at dinner time. He hates me too.”

“He hates everyone.”

“That may be so.” Ken rolls over on his side and looks at me. I keep my eyes on the ceiling. “Have you given it more thought about what you’re going to do?”

“I dreamt about him all night. I saw him as a kid when he was happy. With our cousins back when we all played together. Then he was sneering at us when he was invisible and destroying my ship.”

I grab the covers on the bed and hug them to my chest. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I think I need some time to figure it out.”

When I look over at Ken, he raises his eyebrows. “You won’t be able to hold on to him for long. He’s bound to try to escape. What happens if you’re boarded again by Customs?”

“They didn’t go into the crew quarters last time,” I point out.

“That doesn’t mean they won’t next time.”

“Okay, well, I thought of this. We’ll not take any Flyght clients for a bit. We’ll go to Sonoma via the tourist visas, meet this new man Marcelo recommends, and see if he wants to come back to Ossun with us.”

“Are you going to sign a contract with him so quickly?”

“The new guy? No.” I shake my head and return my gaze to the ceiling. “I mean, what if he hates me? If he does, he can stay where he is.”

“He won’t hate you.” Ken leans in to kiss my shoulder and wrap his body around mine. “He may just dislike you a bit, for, you know, jailing your own brother and keeping him like an animal in chains.”

“He fucking deserves it.”

“Without a doubt.”

I stew for a moment, imagining my brother caged and wishing I had such a thing to contain him.

“Anyway, if I hit it off with the new guy, he might be interested in coming to Ossun to meet my parents and see the Kawabata property if the bank lets me back on.”

Ken keeps quiet. He knows I’m dying inside, wondering why my brother decided to destroy us. All the money in the world won’t erase what he’s done. It may get the property back, and it may set us up to be comfortable forever, but it won’t negate the betrayal.

“I’m going to go check on him,” I say, throwing the covers aside and grabbing my jeans from the floor. I don’t sleep naked anymore, especially after the prescient berry dream incident.

Ken sits up. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He looks at the time. “It’s still kinda early.”

“I don’t care.” I tuck my shirt into my jeans and run my hand through my hair. “I need to see him, look him in the eyes.”

I barrel through the door, and Ken scrambles to get into clothes behind me. I should wake up more, drink some coffee, take my time, but I don’t want to delay. He’s only down the hall now when I’ve been searching for him for weeks.

The door to his room is open, light spilling out into the hall. I slow my approach, afraid of what I’ll find, but it’s Gus, doing his morning check-up.

“How are you feeling?” Gus’s voice is clinical

I pause on the other side of the door so no one inside can see me.

“Like death, thanks.” Tomu’s voice grates on one of my few remaining nerves.

“Your blood pressure is elevated. Resting heart rate is faster than I’d like.”

“What do you care? You’re as bad as my sister. Aren’t you banging her now?”

Gus doesn’t respond.

“What about the vomiting?” Tomu asks. “Can you give me anything for that?”

“I could, but you’d have to be a lesser asshole.”

I smile. Aw, Gus.

“You are fucking my sister. Come on. We men should stick together. You know, I took those prescient berries in the cargo bay. They showed us being the best of friends. You told me there was only one way to end this, that my sister has to go.”

I grip the wall next to me. Did he really eat the berries?

“That must be a delusional fantasy,” Gus replies. “I’ll be back with food in a little bit.”

I step forward into the door. “Thanks, Gus.” I reach out to squeeze his arm and look him in the eyes. He’s weary, sick of dealing with Tomu. “I’ll get him food. You don’t have to.”

He leans in and kisses me on the cheek.

Ken stands in the doorway as silent as a guard.

I hold myself still as I see Tomu in the flesh for the first time. His invisibility ferns have worn off, and he looks gray, shattered. He’s lost a lot of weight, probably because of all the stomach troubles from the plant. Darmit Hoggard’s guys on Rio said Tomu bonded with the fern, that it followed him. Looks like pairing up with a plant won’t spare you the future health problems. The bones in his shoulders are sharp lines against the thin shirt we gave him, and the veins on his arms are pronounced, a lot more than usual.

Jinzo has fashioned a handcuff system. He picked up handcuffs and carbon nanowire and bolted them to the floor between the bed and the bathroom. Tomu can go about a meter and a half in each direction, and that’s about it.

He stares up at me through his long, stringy hair, and something about his expression bothers me. He looks… pleased. And he has no right to be. He was on death’s doorstep only twelve hours ago.

“Come to see me in the flesh?”

I sit down on the door’s threshold. “I’m not sure why I’m here.”

His lips jerk. “Of course. Pious to the last.”

I roll my eyes. “Cut the crap, Tomu. You, our parents, everyone knows I’m not pious. I’m not spoiled. I’m nothing but a woman who tried to carry on the family legacy despite her shit brother trying to impede everything.”

“I’m the shit brother?”

“Uh, yeah. Do you think great and wonderful brothers mortgage the family land, swindle their own parents, and then run like a coward into the stars?”

He shifts his eyes away to stare at the wall. “I did what I had to do to keep the land away from you. You don’t deserve it.”

“Why?” I draw up my legs and rest my arms on them.

He’s quiet and defiant as he stares at the wall.

“What? No real reason?” Bringing my chin down, I wait. Ken is still behind me, breathing steadily.

“Do you remember your sixteenth birthday?”

I swallow and think back to it. “Yeah, of course.”

He smirks, and I want to tear it off his sorry face. “Mom and Dad wanted to throw you this big party. They talked about it for weeks. It was all I heard about, day in, day out.” His hands stretch and curl into fists. “Then you came home from school one day and told them you didn’t want a party. Nope. No parties for you. You’d rather have dinner at home and go out with Skylar.” He rolls his eyes. “It was so planned, so sanctimonious. I laughed about it, but Mom and Dad thought you were responsible, unlike me, who wanted the big sixteenth birthday party with all my friends at the hot hotel.”

His sixteenth birthday set the family back a few grand. But my parents did it to make him happy. The day I came home and told my parents I didn’t want the party was the day Alipha invited everyone except me to her party. I realized I had no friends to ask, and I didn’t want to tell my parents how sad and lonely I was. At that point, I just wanted to get through school, graduate, and try to move on.

I didn’t want the pity then, and I don’t want it now either.

“I see.” Everything is manufactured in his head because he doesn’t care. He could’ve asked me why. He could’ve shown some love. But he never did.

“You know how I know you faked it? Your pitiful graduation party.” He laughs, and my skin prickles. “There you were in your fancy dress, soaking it in, kissing that man of yours.”

Oh shit. He was there. Someone knocked into me, and when I turned around, I didn’t see them! It had been him.

“You love parties and being the center of attention, just as much as me. You only say no to them when it suits your agenda better.” He sniffs, annoyed with me. “The farm should’ve gone to someone willing to take risks, willing to rub elbows with saints and sinners. That has never been and will never be you. It could’ve been me, but Mom and Dad didn’t understand risk.” He sits back, a satisfied smile on his face. “And that’s why I took it away from you.”

He took it away to teach us a lesson, a hard lesson about trust. And I can definitely say I learned that lesson. It doesn’t matter that his plan would never have worked. Land can’t be handed down to men on Ossun.

“Okay.” I stand up. “I’ll get you some rice porridge and tea. That should be enough to settle your stomach.”

His face falls. He was hoping to bait me, to fight me.

No. There’s no point.

“Wait. That’s it?” He jumps up, and the handcuffs rattle.

When I turn around, Jinzo and Gus are with Ken now.

“Yep, that’s it. Nothing about what you’ve just said changes anything. I thought maybe there might be something left of you to salvage, but there’s nothing.”

My look of resignation hits home to each of the guys, and they reach out to comfort me. I grasp a hand, I’m not sure whose, and stand strong. I can’t fall apart now.

“It’ll be all right,” I whisper to them.

“Wait! What are you going to do with me?” Tomu calls out. His voice cracks, and he laughs. “If you think I’m going to be your ally, then you’re mistaken. I will bury you.”

I turn back to the door control.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.” I look him in the eyes, and Devil Vivian rises to the surface with a wide smile. Tomu pales. “But I’m going to have a lot of fun figuring it out.”

I close the door and walk away.

Oh yes, a lot of fun.