Read Online Sea of Stars by Amy A. Bartol - Free Book Online Page A

you?”
    “No one you know.”
    “Fine,” I retort with growing hostility. “I’ll leave you to it then. I have to go.” I try to move from his lap, but his arms tighten around me.
    “You’re leaving with me,” comes his calm reply.
    “Yeah,” I say with a fake laugh, “that’s not happening.”
    “I wasn’t asking for your permission.”
    “Good, because I’m not giving it. I have to warn everyone—”
    “You’re not in charge,” he says with a snide twist of his lip.
    “I’m not leaving!”
    “Has anyone ever told you that you’re irritating?”
    “No. Everybody likes me,” I counter.
    The communicator on Giffen’s uniform makes a static noise. “Gif, there’s a problem,” the com-link voice relates in a stressed tone.
    “What is it?” Giffen asks.
    “They detected our trift.”
    “Are they moving on you?” he asks.
    “Affirmative. We need to move the ship.”
    “Leave us here. I’ll find a way off Skye.”
    “But, Gif—”
    “Go! Now!” Giffen orders.
    “Happy landings, Gif,” his com-link partner reluctantly says.
    “To you, as well,” Giffen replies.
    “Aww, your ride’s leaving. Looks like you’re toast,” I smirk. “So, let me go and you can save yourself.”
    “You are very strange. I don’t know what bread has to do with this,” Giffen says in confusion.
    “You’re moving things with your mind and I’m strange?” I counter.
    “Shh,” he hushes me as he sizes up the mess he’s in—we’re in. It’s a colossal debacle. The overup jerks abruptly. Giffen rises to his feet with me in his arms. The elevatorlike car begins to descend once more.
    “I think they just noticed us,” Giffen mutters. “This is going to sting a little.”
    My eyes narrow in suspicion. “What’s going to sting a little?”
    He closes his eyes, and his brow creases. I cringe as a shock charges through me the equivalent of touching an electrified fence. The overup trajectory shifts with a jerk and starts moving sideways, and then slantways.
    “Owah! That hurt!” I whine. “What was that?”
    “I redirected the overup.” He frowns at me, adding, “It didn’t hurt that bad.”
    “Yes it did! Put me down!” I demand.
    “You can hardly stand.”
    “I’m fine.” I wiggle in his arms. It’s feeble; I’m weak.
    With a heavy sigh, he sets me on my feet. I pull away from him.
    He reaches for my neck. I shy away from him. “What’re you doing?”
    “Hold still,” he orders, reaching for me again.
    I shy away again. “No!” I give him my severest scowl.
    “I’m going to take off your collar! Don’t move,” he says in frustration.
    “Oh.” I hold still. “Do you know the code?”
    “I don’t need the code,” he grumbles.
    I mock him silently, mouthing: I don’t need the code.
    A click of the metal latch sounds; the collar around my neck slips off me to fall to the floor. The sound of the hardened foam cracking is next. I glance over my shoulder at Giffen; he has his eyes focused on my wrists. Pieces of the foam shed off. The increased circulation in my hands causes my numb fingers to sting as I wiggle them, breaking the foam.
    I turn to face him. “What are you?” I demand as I rub my wrist with my free hand.
    He raises one eyebrow. “What are you?”
    I shake my head, glancing up at the ceiling for a second with a humorless laugh, before I look him in his eye again. “I’m not human, I’m not enough Rafe, and I’m too much Alameeda,” I reply.
    For a moment, he just stares at me, and then he says, “I’m too much Alameeda and not enough Wurthem.” The overup lurches again, making me hold the wall for support. We begin to plummet downward once more. Giffen grinds his teeth in frustration. “There’s too much going on; I can’t control it all. We have to get out.” Giffen puts his harbinger back into his shoulder holster. He summons a soldier’s harbinger by holding up one hand in the air; it flies to his palm.
    “You’re a bit of a oddball,” I