Ava stared at things. The ceilings smooth slate metal. The changing of the sun as it fell and rose. The red roses as their petals withered to the coffee table. You’d think staring at those flowers would make her cry, but it didn’t. She felt numb. She waited for death.

Her phone buzzed on the nightstand, vibrating like an annoying cockroach skittering across the wood. She ignored it, wished it away. The buzzing stopped. Then started up again as if its whole purpose in life was to give her a rude wake-up call. Ava squirmed around in the comforter, detangling and tangling until one arm was free.

Slowly, she pressed the phone to her ear. Chatter and movement clouded the background. Life still went on in the outside world, no matter how broken Ava felt on the inside. There was a sigh before Josh’s snarky voice. “Stop being mopey.”

Ava mumbled into the pillow, “I’m not being mopey.”

“Are you kidding me? You’ve been in that bed since yesterday. Yesterday. You even skipped dinner. You never skip dinner.”

The mere mention of food had her stomach growling. “I’m regretting it now.”

“Just don’t go back to your old ways. Promise me,” Josh said. There was more movement in the background, shuffling and someone cursed about their back. It took Josh a moment to realize she hadn’t responded. “Ava.”

“Would it matter if I did? I can’t control my abilities. I can’t find my missing birth record. I’m a joke. A clown wearing the mask of a general who thought she had a chance with a crown prince.” She bitterly laughed. “What was I thinking?”

“I should’ve intervened when you were a kid.”

“It wouldn’t matter. I would have still fallen for him.”

Finally, silence—a rarity in their case. Josh and Ava were never quiet around each other. Heck, they used to drink together. She rolled onto her other side, untangling altogether from the safety of the cocoon. She basked in the cold and immediately missed Marc’s warmth. She’d cry from the thought, but her eyes dried up hours ago.

“Hey! Why are you punks just standing… You’re done? Already?” Josh said. “Ava, I gotta go. We’re moving everyone’s stuff over to the house, and you’re up next. So get up.”

He ended the call before she could protest. You can’t be serious. That’s a triple whammy to my already messed up life.

God, her head hurt—eyes were swollen and dry. It felt like the world beat her down. She meandered towards the bathroom. It took little to no effort to open the drawer. Little to no effort just to blink. Out of all the things she forgot back at home, the headache medicine had to be one of them. Today was not her day.

After slamming the drawer shut, she pulled on a robe and mentally prepared for the worst. Questions from the peanut gallery. An angered Gio, possibly threatening Marc, possibly turning into a fight. And Marc would win, he always did, leaving Gio with shame and another broken heart.

Ava took a deep breath and opened the bedroom door. A bowl of soup sat on a tray next to the threshold. She vaguely remembered a knock on the door last night. The broth looked delicious, an earthy yellow, smelling of chicken. I bet it tastes good warm.

Mika suddenly ran by the door from across the hall, carrying a box. He went back and forth with another new box in hand. So the brat moved in across from my room. Of course.

His door creaked when she pushed it wide open. Mika didn’t notice. He was too focused on moving boxes off the center of a giant flat star—the transporter.

There were dark clothes piled on his bed, crumbled and twisted from being haphazardly tossed aside. Kitchen utensils and pots and pans on the couch. They’ve only been here three weeks and he’d already accumulated so much stuff. Unfortunately, Ava didn’t spot the Koto scripts anywhere. Then Darious had them. Maybe he didn’t trust anyone with those books.

Mika stopped mid-step with a box in his hands and finally noticed Ava standing there. He pressed his lips together, held back his venomous tongue. She could tell he was thinking exactly how she felt—like crap.

“Do you have any headache medicine or pills I can borrow?” Ava asked, her voice scratchy and horrible.

“Yeah, hold on,” he said, quick to drop the box, quicker to walk into the bathroom.

A chill ran through Ava’s body. Fog let her mouth. She pressed her arms close to keep warm. It really was too cold in this basement. She needed blankets. Lots and lots of blankets.

He came back holding a small glass bottle full of pain relievers. The blue pills jingled when he tossed it over. “Will these work?”

“Yeah.” Ava twisted the cap off and popped two pills in her mouth, dry. It was hard to swallow, slightly scraped the back of her throat as they went down. She needed water. Lots and lots of water.

When finished, she tossed the bottle back to him. The jar juggled between his hands before he had a hold of it. She'd laugh but that required energy she didn’t have. She couldn’t crack a smile. Instead, she went back towards her room before anyone noticed she left.

“Wait!” Mika called. He ran back into his room. Then popped out with a silver metal ball in his hand. “It’s your turn to move your stuff.”

He shoved the heavy object into Ava’s hands. She stumbled. “My bad.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Dick.”

Mika glared back, and for once he didn’t stay quiet. “Maniac.”

“Scaredy cat.”

“Crybaby,” he said, quickly squeezed his mouth shut like all those other times.

This really was getting annoying. “Stop doing that.”

Mika searched her eyes. “Stop doing what?”

“Stop holding yourself back. That’s the last thing I need right now—another person keeping secrets,” Ava snapped. “I prefer you being blunt and honest to whatever this is.”

A smug smile tugged at the corner of his lips as he took the ball from her hands. They stood so close it was hard to ignore the heat radiating off him. Tempting. Especially when it was so damn cold in this basement.

“You’re the first one who’s ever told me that. I hope you don’t regret it,” he said.

The only thing I regret is letting him get this close.

Mika came inside and set the sphere on the floor between the end of Ava’s bed and the couch. The ball rolled out into a star, pulsating blue until it connected with the other ball on Josh’s end. The moment it lit, a mound of fresh boxes appeared in the blink of an eye. With this, they’ve officially moved in.

Filled with venom, Ava glared at the piles. Just like the duffle bag on the coffee table, she refused to unpack these. They could sit there on the floor, piled for months for all she cared. Maybe this was childish. Maybe this was the wrong way to stand her ground, but she refused to give the Council the upperhand. This situation would only be temporary.

She swiped the phone off the nightstand and typed out a text.

Ava: Find all the information you can on Lily Capri and hide those tablets for me.

Harry: Already on it.

Whoever left that ID number knew Lily Capri was related to her, which meant someone on this planet knew where her birth record was. Maybe by researching this person, she’d find the culprit. And when she did, she’d make them squeal until they finally spilled their guts. Ava was done playing these games.

“These boxes won’t move themselves.” Mika looked at Ava like he expected her to move them. I guess I can’t exactly leave them on the transport.

Ava cocked an eyebrow. “Sounds like you’re volunteering.”

He narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking. It didn’t take long for him to give in and pick up a box. “Fine. Where do you want this?”

“Against the wall,” she said. When he didn’t believe her, she picked up a biodegradable box and dropped it on the wall below the window. “Right here.”

After she moved a second box, Mika stopped mentally questioning her every move. They each took one box after the other, and stacked them together on a pile. At this rate, they’d be done in no time. Then Ava could crawl back into bed and let the day pass without another thought.

She hasn’t seen her mom yet, and didn’t want to. Caterina was surely disappointed in Ava. She told Ava time and time again to never give her heart to a man who never deserved it. If only Ava listened to her mom. She wouldn’t be this heartbroken. Ava sighed, she was second guessing herself on everything now.

Maybe she shouldn’t have destroyed the laboratory. Maybe she shouldn’t provoke the Black Rabbit. All this rash decision making led her further down a hole of nothingness. God, the stress kept piling up like these boxes.

“Did you know, you get these horrible wrinkles across your forehead when you overthink?” Mika said. He was crouched on the floor, an elbow resting on a box as if he’d been watching her this whole time.

This guy creeped her out. “How do you know I was thinking?”

Mika laughed under his breath, and gave this bewildered expression as if the answer was so obvious. “You always stare off into space when you’re in deep thought.”

Ava took a box. “You’re more observant than I gave you credit for.”

“Were you thinking about Marc?” he said. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much. My grandfather can be strict, but he’s also known to be lenient.” He plopped another box down next to the others to start a new row. “You’re a human after all.”

Ava absently dropped the box on top of his. She didn’t want to talk about Marc, nor hear his name, but her curiosity got the better of her. “What are you talking about? Why would I need to worry about your grandfather?”

“The kiss,” Mika said. “You kissed our Crown Prince. On our planet that would be grounds for execution.”

Holy shit. That never crossed her mind. Ever. She never thought about this getting back to their grandparents, and Darious witnessed the entire thing. He’d tell them soon. If this got back to the Council, she’d be in deep shit.

She needed to do something. Anything. She needed to talk to Darious, convince him to soften the blow or to keep his mouth shut. While Mika kept moving the boxes, Ava searched her pants. If she was going to face Darious, she’d face him armed and ready.

When she couldn’t find her knife anywhere on the waist belt, she swiftly dug into the front pockets and found something peculiar instead—a strip of paper folded neatly inside. It was so pure and white. Black, typed out letters stared back at her:

THE GODS ARE HERE.

How did this get inside her pocket? More like, who put it there? Maybe at the Disco Club? It’d be easy for someone to slip in a trick or two there.

“Hey, is this yours?” Mika held up a small blue box with a white, luscious bow plumped on top. As if it were alive, the ribbon untied itself, one loop at a time.

Tick. Tick.

“Drop it!” Ava knocked the thing out of his hand, and tackled him to the ground. They landed with a hard thud, Ava on top of Mika. She pushed his head back down on the floor when he tried to get up.

Tick. Tick.

Tick. Tick.

Nothing happened.

They looked at each other, waited in complete silence. Ava’s hand left his face to rest beside his shoulder. “Do you hear that ticking sound?” he whispered. She nodded. “Do you think it’s a—”

Tick. Tock.

A loud pop exploded in the room. Mika covered Ava, smashed her nose on his chest. This wasn’t right. She was supposed to be protecting him, not the other way around. She tried pushing him off, but stopped dead in her tracks. More small pieces of paper floated around the room like falling confetti with bold, typed lettering:

THE GODS ARE HERE.

“What happened?” Marc frantically asked. “Is she okay?”

He met her side and searched her. His touch spread like wildfires across her skin and an ache in her heart. Tears threatened to spill. She thought she was done crying. Guess not.

There were dark bags under his eyes. Ava caused this. Marc was always stressing himself out and she hated it. Now she was the cause of it. Ava shouldn’t care but she did.

Mika’s grip tightened on her waist, and brought her back to her senses. “We found a blue box hidden within the moving boxes and when it exploded all these pieces of paper came flying out,” he said. “Do you think Junipea did this?”

Marc rubbed his chin as they stood. “It’s too planned out for him.”

“Then someone else is after her.”

Did she have a target on her back? Space pirates were one thing, Junipea was going too far, but this—this only pissed her off. If they wanted her attention, they had it. She stalked over to the sizzling box as the others ran into her room or bombarded Marc with question after question.

Dark soot lined the outer edges. Beneath the burned paper, a hint of sapphire drifted from the center, and as Ava got closer, she found an unexpected gift inside. A beautiful black petaled rose.

She picked it up and immediately pricked her finger. Tiny thorns covered the stem. Blood dripped onto an origami paper tied to the rose. After licking her finger clean, she unfolded it and read:

Teɪ su, Su teɪ

What the hell does this mean? The writing was neither Prim nor Ama. It was some new alien language, one Ava couldn’t decipher, but she couldn’t just let Marc have it. She slipped it in her jacket sleeve as he fast approached. He was at her side in seconds.

Marc snatched the black rose from her and thoroughly inspected it like he was searching for something. “We need to burn this and the papers, too. They might have trackers on them,” he said. “If we’re not quick, they might find our location soon.”

This present clearly showed they’ve already found them but she didn’t argue. Ava didn’t have the energy and her heart still ached. She needed to keep him at a distance. Distracted. This new threat couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.

Marc finally walked off to talk to Josh, and just when the tension eased out of her shoulders, Darious’ cool demeanor spiked it back up.

“Your room is not what I was expecting. I imagined sharp knives and pointy trinkets out on display. But this,” his hand ran down the bare wall, “is disappointing.”

“Why would I do that when I could easily hide my knives all over this room,” she said.

Ava bluffed. The wary expression on his face was well worth the lie, but this was wrong. She shouldn't be pushing Darious away when she needed him on her side.

Stiff as a tree, he cleared his throat and watched the twins help Gio pick up the paper. Gio kept his distance, he hasn’t spoken one word to Ava since they left Harry’s. He knew. Maybe he knew he’d say the wrong thing—like I told you so.

No time for that. This was the perfect chance to talk to Darious while everyone was distracted. She fiddled with the robe’s belt. “About what happened last night—”

“I haven’t told their grandparents about the kiss,” Darious said. “But they will find out, eventually. So it’s best to prepare yourself.”

“You can’t just keep this one secret,” Ava pleaded, hating herself afterwards. But now was the time to beg for forgiveness, not to argue. “Please. I don’t want to ruin our relationship with Amaranthine due to my foolishness.”

Darious peered from the corner of his eyes. At least from what corners she could make out of his mask—a mask so intricately designed, it had to be made of pure gold. “There are no secrets with them. Such a thing does not exist.”

What did he mean? Was this an ability they had? If so, she couldn’t imagine having that much power, that much control. She stared at her hands. They shook in fear of this new knowledge. What have I gotten myself into?

▽ ▽ ▽

When they finished picking up the slips of paper, Marc left the house with the full box in tow. Curious, they all followed him, except for Caterina who was cooking dinner.

He placed the box on a piece of dry grass, drew blue lines in the air, and mapped out a symbol for the character burn. Red flames lit the box in a furry, torched it to a dying pulp. Burning ash floated about like snowflakes.

Marc tossed the black rose into the inferno. The petals shriveled into tiny particles of dust. It felt wrong, as if the rose was a symbol of Ava’s life and she let it burn away. She stayed the same. She chose to be normal, but she wasn’t sure if that was possible anymore.

Everyone circled the fire, watched the flames. Marc still stood by Ava. She wasn’t sure who made the move first. Habits were hard to kill.

“What do we do now?” Sam asked a little too eagerly.

There was a long silence before Marc spoke and it wasn’t the words everyone hoped for. “Nothing,” he said. “We do nothing for now.”

Sam clenched his fist, but it was Mika who blew up. “We can’t sit here and do nothing! Doing nothing is not working! And I’m sick of hiding out in this house and cooking for you ungrateful slobs and cleaning up your dishes—”

“No one asked you to cook.” Sam swiped a smudge of blue paint off his cheek.

“You know I need to cook. It helps relieve my stress.”

Sam tossed his hands up in the air. “Well, I don’t see you cooking right now!”

Mika was cooking this whole time? Maybe he helped her mom in the kitchen, but Ava never noticed. How much did she miss? What else was passing under her radar?

She glanced at Marc. He shifted with an uncomfortable posture. He appeared happy for the distraction. What’s he holding back?

As the twins kept arguing, Gio asked, “Something big is about to happen, isn’t it?”

Marc sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “I just received a call from Gregori. With the Black Rabbit and all these recent incidents… they moved the ceremony up.”

He paused as everyone grew quiet. “Tomorrow evening, Ava will officially accept you guys as her guardians in front of Earth and Amaranthine.”

And her world came crashing down. This was too much. She couldn’t take all this back and forth, tugging and pulling, from all sides. The Council was ripping her apart, dangling her by a set of strings. She was just a marionette.

They said a month. Ava expected a month. Not three weeks and a day.

“Whoever sent this little present will be there,” Josh said.

“So then what do we need to do to prepare for it?” Ava asked Marc.

He barely looked at her before fixing the specs on his nose. “We need to be aware of our surroundings and be on the lookout at all times,” he said. “When they show, we need to be ready to act swiftly and diligent.”

Darious chuckled and rubbed his hands over the fire. “What are you going to tell your grandparents? I've been keeping them entertained for too long. They will ask questions and my patience is growing thin.”

Marc gave him a quick glare. “I'll think of something.”