Their Fractured Light: A Starbound Novel (51 page)

Lilac glances down, though the aerial shots show she has no note cards. She’s quiet so long that I glance at Gideon, worried she’s forgotten the rest of her speech. I can no longer even hear the crowd through the ambient microphones, so complete is the silence. It’s as though all of Corinth—all of the galaxy, watching on the hyperspace feeds—is holding its breath.

But then she lifts her head, and the performer in me recognizes like skill in her. She’s an orator—and no one ever knew her poise could be so powerful.

“So now, here, today, we all have a choice.” Lilac’s voice rises, passion evident even through the distortion of the speakers. “The world is forever changed now that the rift is opened for good. We will never be alone in the vastness of this universe again. So we can choose to greet these new beings with suspicion and mistrust, with blame and anger. Or we can choose to show them why humanity is worth knowing, worth joining, worth saving.”

She pauses then, as if waiting for her audience—the hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the streets of Corinth, the billions watching on screens across the galaxy, and me, on this beat-up mattress with Gideon’s arm around me—to make that choice for themselves.

“I, for one, have made my choice.” Lilac tips her head up, eyes sweeping the scaffolding forming the framework of the Headquarters building being rebuilt around the rift. “Which is why my husband and I are taking over LaRoux Industries and dedicating its considerable resources to the rebuilding of our city, and to learning everything our new neighbors have to share with us. The new headquarters you see under construction now will be a place for anyone, human or not, to come and learn, and share stories and memories of what it is to be human. They want to know it all—the good, the bad, the darkness and the light. They want
you
to bring your stories.”

Lilac drops her eyes to the crowd again, her smile, that infectious, galactically famous smile, returns. “The
Icarus
was named in arrogance. Now, we turn that tradition of names to something good, something hopeful. This new project will be called Eos—named for the ancient goddess of the dawn, in honor of the new world we’ve found ourselves in. It’s my hope that as this new day arrives on planets everywhere across the galaxy, we can all see hope in the dawn.”

There’s a silence after she finishes, a brief moment that nonetheless stretches with a dozen possibilities. But then the crowd erupts, the sound levels on the feeds frantically adjusting themselves to compensate for the roar. I see Lilac’s lips moving, and though I can’t hear her over the crowd, I read the words easily enough:
Thank you.

The news announcers begin chattering breathlessly, ready to start dissecting the speech and analyzing the political ramifications, as the aerial camera shows Lilac stepping back away from the podium, returning to Tarver, who clasps her hand in both of his and raises it to his lips.

Gideon flicks his hands at the screen to mute the news anchors, then sticks his chopsticks into his noodles and leans back. He’s silent for a while, then lets his breath out in a low whistle. “Damn.”

“You mean she didn’t make stirring, epic speeches when you were kids?” I tease, leaning harder against his shoulder.

“She was more into reprogramming the house bots with my brother to say, ‘Giddy’s a loser who should stop trying to spy on us,’ really.”

I laugh, scrambling off the mattress so I can collect our leftovers and shove them in the fridge. As I rinse off the spoons in the sink, I find myself thinking about the Eos project, and what story I want to bring. I think of my father teaching me to dance. I think of Flynn’s sister, and the memory I have of her stopping a bully from rubbing mud in my hair. I think of the first con I ever pulled with Daniela, and the jug of wine we bought with part of the profits and drank together on the roof.

The truth is that I don’t know what story defines me. I’ve spent so long being someone else, anyone else other than Sofia, that I’m not sure I know who Sofia is. There’s no more Kristina, no more Lucy, no more Alexis or Alice. There’s no more Knave either, not unless and until Gideon decides to resurrect him. For now we’re just Gideon and Sofia—whoever they are.

Whoever we choose to become.

Gideon rises from the mattress, turning off the monitors and reaching for the pulleys that operate the shutters on the skylights so that they flood the little loft-size den with sunlight. “So what do you want to do now?”

I tilt my head back, letting the light warm my face. Perhaps I’ll bring them the story of a girl who lived a long time ago, in a country called Iran on Earth, who wrote the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. Music that changed my life.

When I open my eyes, I see a flicker of shadow in the skylight shaft above me. I blink just in time to see a butterfly silhouetted against the light before it’s gone in a flutter of wings.

I look down to find Gideon leaning against the wall, where the framed picture of my father rests on the shelf next to his battered copy of
Alice in Wonderland.
He’s watching me with a smile that only widens when I catch his eye.

I hold out my hand. “Come dance with me.”

AS WE WRAP UP OUR
first series together—though definitely not our last—we are both reflecting on the many people who have helped these books on their journeys from us to you. We are so very grateful to each and every one.

Our wonderful literary agents, Josh and Tracey Adams of Adams Literary, are quite simply incredible. Josh, Tracey, we couldn’t get by without your support, your cheerleading, your words of wisdom, and your advocacy. We couldn’t have done this without you there to back us up. To our film agent, Stephen Moore, and the awesome scouts and foreign agents who helped these books find homes in languages we can’t even read, thank you so much!

This series has been lucky enough to have three wonderful women editing it, and we want to thank Emily Meehan, Laura Schreiber, and Abby Ranger, who at different stages have taught us, supported us, and challenged us to tell the best stories we can. Thank you for your insight, your questions, and your well-timed and encouraging swoons! Beyond our editors, we have a team at Hyperion we adore, and we thank them for everything they do to get our books out into the world—you are all just wonderful! To Jamie Baker, who has endless patience and savvy, and Whitney Manger, who gave this series the covers we join the rest of the world in adoring, thank you! In Australia, we send a huge thank-you and plenty of baked goods to everyone at Allen & Unwin, whom we love more than cupcakes. And that’s saying something.

We have had wonderful readers and critique partners for these books, and for
Their Fractured Light
, we thank Olivia Davis, Michelle Dennis, Kate Irving, and Brendan Cousins for their speed, enthusiasm, and insight. You are all wonderful! We also thank Dr. Ailie Connell and Dr. Kate Irving for medical advice, and Michelle Dennis for her tech know-how—as always, any mistakes are our own.

We have had wonderful help and support from our friends inside and outside the publishing community. In particular, we would like to thank Beth Revis and Marie Lu, who have been advocates for this trilogy since the very beginning, Kim Nguyen, who is our design guru (and dear friend!), as well as Stephanie Perkins, Megan Shepherd, Leigh Bardugo, Jay Kristoff, and Nic Crowhurst, who are simply vital to our existence. To the many wonderful people in our circles of friends, we love you!

We dedicated each book in this series to our families, for more reasons than we can ever capture here. For your support, excitement, patience, and love, thank you to our parents and siblings, and to our extended families—the Cousins family, the Miskes, and Mr. Wolf. To Brendan, who has been in it with us both since the beginning—you are amazing.

And finally, we would like to say thank you to
you
. We would tell stories to each other even if no one else ever read them, but it increases the joy tenfold to know you have all shared Lilac, Tarver, Flynn, Jubilee, Gideon, and Sofia’s journey with us. Your letters and e-mails, artwork, music, and even recipes have surprised and amazed us! To the booksellers, librarians, reviewers, bloggers, and
readers
who have joined us on this journey, thank you! If you’d like to hear more about the books we have coming up next, or if you’re not quite ready to leave the Starbound books behind just yet, we hope you’ll sign up for our mailing list at
www.thesebrokenstars.com
—we want to stay in touch!