Starcrossed

Chapter 10b: Nuath (part 2)

Chapter 10 (part 2)

Nuath (NOO-ath): the underground human colony on Mars

"Oh, I should have asked him to leave the omni," Molly said the moment he was gone. "I could have shown you more pictures of Glenamuir, our village."

"Not if it makes you sad. I can tell you—and Sean—miss it."

She shrugged. "But we really do like it here. And it's nice to know we have pictures of Elana, at least. It just caught me by surprise, is all."

"So, your whole family is redheads except for you, huh?" I asked, mainly to change the subject.

"Oh! I guess you wouldn't know. Um, I'm adopted." She shot me an uncertain look, like she wasn't sure how I'd react.

"Really? I had no idea." Then I smiled. "Something else we have in common."

She nodded, looking both pleased and relieved. "It seemed weird to just blurt it out earlier, like I was, I don't know, trying to make us seem the same or anything. Besides, I get the impression your aunt and uncle aren't as—I mean—" she broke off, looking embarrassed.

"Not as nice as your folks, no. But it's been fine. Mostly." I was ready to change the subject back to Mars. Now that I'd had a taste, I was burning with curiosity to learn more about the colony there and its people—even if that was the O'Garas' plan.

I was about to ask about the food when, out of the blue, Molly blurted out, "So, what's the deal with you and Rigel? How long have you two been together?"

I blinked, caught totally off guard. "Um, since the second or third week of school, I guess."

"Off and on," she amended, startling me even more.

"What? That's totally not true! Where did you hear that?" Even as I asked, I realized that must be the impression the whole school had.

"Trina," she admitted, a little sheepishly. "But the other cheerleaders backed her up. She said he'd gone back and forth between you and her since the beginning of school. That he's a real player and I should be careful. Not that that was why I was asking!" she added hastily.

"So, uh, why are you asking?"

Her gaze slid away from mine. "I was just curious. I mean, it makes total sense that you two would get together, since you were the only Echtrans in the school."

"It's not just—" I began, but she rushed on.

"And I totally should have asked you instead of Trina. But she . . . made it sound like things have been kind of rocky between you two?"

Despite her denial, I couldn't help wondering if she was asking because she was interested in Rigel herself. I mean, what girl wouldn't be? Especially a Martian girl? Or—it suddenly occurred to me—if Rigel's suspicion about Sean was right, was it possible he'd put her up to this, to test the waters? Either way, the absolute best thing I could do was to tell the truth.

"Other than that first week we met, things have never been rocky between Rigel and me—even if it looked that way from the outside."

"But Trina said—"

"I know. And it probably did look that way, but that's not how it really was. When we found out Faxon's people were after me and might be watching Rigel, he decided being together was putting me in danger. So we pretended to break up. And, yeah, Rigel even paid attention to Trina to throw them off the scent. It worked, too, when one of Faxon's spies pretended to be a teacher."

I explained how we'd figured out Faxon's forces were planning to invade and conquer Earth—and how when they couldn't find me, they'd decided they could safely go ahead with it. Which made me convince Rigel to get back together, to let them know I did exist, to force them to change their plans.

"So it was because they were watching Rigel they found you?" she asked. "Why would he risk you like that?"

"It was risk me or risk everybody on Earth. And it was my decision, not Rigel's." I spoke a little sharply, but I didn't like her criticizing Rigel.

She didn't look convinced. "Wouldn't it have been safer for you to just hide somewhere and let the Echtran Council and their people take care of Faxon's thugs?"

"You sound like your uncle. That's exactly what he wanted me to do. But that would have left my aunt and uncle—who don't know about any of this—plus Rigel and his family in danger. And . . . it would have meant me leaving Rigel." That last reason had been the most important to me, even if it didn't sound as noble.

Molly waved it aside. "You'd only known him for a few weeks. What was the big deal?"

I hesitated for a long moment. Then, tentatively, "Molly, have you heard of the graell?"

She shocked me by laughing. "Of course! Who hasn't? It's the basis of, like, every romantic Nuathan fairy tale that exists."

That sidetracked me. "There are Nuathan fairy tales?"

"Sure, lots of them. Let's see . . ." She turned around to rummage through a box of books waiting to be put on an empty set of shelves. "Ah, here. Hannahan's Fables. This copy is in Martian, not English, but it's got stories like "The Gardener's Daughter" and "Isobail's Last Chance" and "The Engineer Prince"—those are the rough translations, anyway. They're all about unlikely romances because of the graell, overcoming impossible odds to be together, stuff like that."

I stared at the leather-bound volume with unfamiliar lettering on the cover, fascinated. "Fairy tales," I repeated, shaking my head. Then, "I'm surprised they still use regular books on Mars!"

"Oh, we don't. We got these in Bailerealta. I'd never even seen a paper-bound book before we got there. But back to you and Rigel . . . You weren't really about to tell me you think you're bonded with the graell, were you?"

I felt my face reddening at her amused expression. "Well, uh, actually—"

"It's okay, I don't blame you. Just about every girl I know—well, knew, back in Nuath, plus a few in Ireland—wanted to believe she had the graell with some boy she had a crush on. We all go through that. Then there are the boys who go along with it, just so they can get a girl to have sex." She grimaced. "As smart as we're supposed to be, you wouldn't think any girls would be that gullible, but some are."

"No," I protested, "that's not at all what—"

Her eyes went wide with horror. "Oh! I wasn't implying that Rigel— That you— It's not like you'd know any better, anyway."

Again she seemed to be implying that Rigel was at fault and I couldn't let her think that.

"Rigel did tell me it's incredibly rare—so rare that most people don't even believe in it. It's not like he tried to convince me or anything. In fact, it really freaked him out when he first suspected it. He didn't want to tell me anything about it at all, but it was the weird connection between us that first made me think something strange was going on—before I'd ever heard of the graell or Martians or anything."

She still looked skeptical. "So no other boy has ever given you a zing? Because it's really not that uncommon with someone your own age. Though I guess he was the very first Echtran boy you ever met, huh?"

I shook my head, willing myself not to blush. No way was I going to admit to that jolt I sometimes got from Sean. Not now. Besides, it wasn't the same thing I felt with Rigel. Not at all.

**If you enjoyed this, please vote for it and share it with your friends--I'll be adding an update every weekend! :)

** If you just can't get enough Starstruck, all four books in the series plus a novella are now available at all major online retailers (and the first book is FREE!) For the most up-to-date news on upcoming books, special promotions and a FREE Starstruck short story (only available to my newsletters subscribers), sign up at http://brendahiatt.com/subscribe :)

Visit http://starstruckseries.com for lots of extra tidbits, news, bonus materials and more!